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Back to the Future fans fooled by Twitter hoax
Thousands of Back to the Future fans mistakenly celebrated July 5, 2010 as a crucial date in the hit film trilogy after a hoax circulated on Twitter.
An online frenzy began after Total Film magazine declared the date “Future Day”, erroneously claiming it was a day in the future visited by lead character Marty McFly in the second movie.
For a generation of 80s cinemagoers, the news revived memories of a futuristic world of flying cars, “hoverboards” and Nike trainers with self-fastening “power laces”.
Online discussions immediately began about how far off the mark the film’s portrayal of 2010 had proved to be, and “Back to the Future” started to trend on Twitter and Google.
However, the celebrations were muted after the claim was unmasked as a hoax and aficionados pointed out that they had got the wrong date.
In the 1989 sequel Back to the Future Part II, McFly – played by Michael J Fox – travels forward in time in the hope of altering events to save his son from being jailed.
With his friend Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) at the wheel of their DeLorean time machine, they set the vehicle’s time circuits to October 21, 2015.
It was this detail that Total Film got confused. “Great Scott! It’s Future Day! Back To The Future, Doc Brown sets the time circuits for 25yrs in the future … that day is today!” the magazine’s online team tweeted on Monday.
After diehard fans among their 30,000 followers began replying that they had got their dates muddled, Total Film then jokingly posted a photoshopped still from the film showing July 5, 2010 on the time machine dashboard.
As arguments raged online, this in turn was then seized upon by thousands, who missed the joke, as evidence that July 5 was the real date.
It was not until Total Film spelt out that it has been a hoax that the excitement subsided.
“We got it wrong,” they eventually tweeted. “Apparently 5th July isn’t mentioned in Back to the Future. So we went back and changed it …”
An item on Total Film’s website later admitted: “What was meant as a tongue in cheek apology just stoked the fire massively and became a Twitter version of Chinese whispers.”
However, amid all the commotion, another important date in the history of Back to the Future has been overlooked – July 3, 2010 was the 25th anniversary of the original film’s release.