For our latest mission we brought the movie Back To The Future to life in a public plaza near the Met Life Clock Tower in Manhattan. A time traveling Delorean suddenly appeared, and Doctor Emmett Brown leaped from the vehicle to warn Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker that they were about to see themselves from ten minutes in the future, the consequences of which could be disastrous. Moments later a second Marty and Jennifer (played by identical twin actors) arrived on the scene.

This project is part of our new series, Movies in Real Life. Every Tuesday, we’re releasing a new video that brings an iconic movie moment to life in the real world.

Here’s a behind-the-scenes video that shows how we actually created a real time loop by doing the prank several times in a row:

Enjoy the videos first and then go behind the scenes with our mission report and photos below.

The Brown and Tarpey TwinsBack in 2008 we staged our Human Mirror mission with fifteen pairs of identical twins on a subway car. For this project, I got back in touch with two of those pairs, the Brown and Tarpey twins.

Agent Ilya Smelansky goes over the plan for the day
RehearsalThe mission started with Marty and Jennifer sitting casually at a table together near the clock tower.

Agent Cody Lindquist played the Clock Tower Lady. She walked around the plaza asking strangers for donations to Clock Tower Fund and handed out flyers. Surprisingly she got a few donations from random people.

Agent Terry Withers played Doc Brown and had the difficult job of driving the Delorean into a public plaza. We found Delorean owner Bob Collick on Craigslist. He had the car up for sale and we hired him to bring it in to the city from Long Island for the afternoon.

A crowd started forming as soon as the Delorean arrived.

Doc warns Marty and Jennifer that they are about to see themselves from ten minutes in the future!

The second set of Marty and Jennifer twins were hiding behind the Flatiron building, waiting for their cue to enter the scene. The crowd gasped when the twins appeared.

Doc convinced the original Marty and Jennifer to hop in the Delorean and told the “future” Marty and Jennifer to “forget this ever happened.” Doc and the original pair then quickly drove off.

This left the future Marty and Jennifer by themselves at the same table where their siblings started the mission. A few random people sat down with them, trying find out what was going on, but Marty and Jennifer wouldn’t break character. We staged the mission three consecutive times, with about 20 minutes in between each performance. Fittingly, we created an actual time loop where the same thing kept happening!

Come back next Tuesday for the next installment of Movies in Real Life. Sign up for our email list or subscribe on YouTube to be notified when the next one is posted!

Mission Accomplished.

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OTHER RESOURCES:

Watch the full series– all 10 episodes in one playlist:

– Episode 1: Rocky In Real Life
– Episode 2: Indiana Jones In Real Life
– Episode 3: Lord of the Rings In Real Life
– Episode 4: The Matrix In Real Life
– Episode 5: Back to the Future In Real Life
– Episode 6: Jurassic Park In Real Life
– Episode 7: When Harry Met Sally In Real Life
– Episode 8: Harry Potter In Real Life
– Episode 9: Spartacus In Real Life
– Episode 10: A Christmas Story In Real Life

Photos:

Full set of photos from photographer Arin Sang-urai

Music:

Listen to the track by Tyler Walker: