In what may be considered a drought of originality on the part of Hollywood, remakes are a happening trend. Remakes aren’t necessarily a bad thing as long as care is taken and heart and soul injected into the work. Examples include The Mummy (1999), The Thing (1982), The Fly (1986), and so on. Some 1980s classics should not be remade; there are, however, exceptions if you open your mind and if Hollywood wouldn’t mind crafting instead of manufacturing art. These are the top two 80s classic movies which could be remade.
(1.) Back to the Future (1985)
Marty McFly and the ride of a lifetime! Picture credit to screenrant.com
Oh yes… Even Back to the Future could be remade! Here’s how you do it:
Consider that we are past 2015; the original “future” of the BTTF trilogy. While we don’t have hologram marquees or hovercars/boards, there’s been some advancement and some setback. Remake Marty goes back in time — say from 2025 to 1985 which makes the story come full circle in a BTTF way since ’85 is where it all began! We could also have our little fun as movies and shows always do every few decades and nod and say “yeah, this was the 80s!” Marty, a very modern teen, would be stuck in a time of practically non-existent internet, no smart phones, and no social media!
MARTY: “Jeez, Doc! How do you know what’s goin’ on in the world without it?”
DOC: [offscreen; tosses a newspaper at MARTY]
Fueling the DeLorean! Pictures credit to itrolls.wordpress.com and sandstoneproductions.co.uk
As far as the plutonium situation, what if this version of Doc was the one who invented “Mr. Fusion”? Not only does it nod to the original trilogy, but it sets up how our new Marty gets stuck back in time. Say Mr. Fusion is one of Doc’s inventions which solved his power problem for the time machine (“1.21 gigawatts!?“) but when Marty travels back and finds that the past Doc hasn’t come up with that invention yet it allows for us to keep the whole plan of the clock tower struck by lightning!
I’m thinking of the hard-core traditionalists who will say otherwise, but here’s the thing: there’s absolutely nothing which says Doc Brown has to be man. Nothing says Doc has to be a woman, either; basically people need to calm down if this were to be gender-swapped because what matters more is if this version’s Doc has that manic energy and depth a la Christopher Lloyd which made the character endearing at all.
What a pair-o-docs! Pictures credit to top10films.co.uk and ghostbusters.fandom.com
You’d need someone with a comedic edge; not a “they’re funny because they bludgeon the joke into my head” or a “they rip on people they don’t expect to fight back; just like a proper bully” comedian/comedienne. I say this could easily be done by Kate McKinnon who is funny and electric in her comedy when she wants to be; she could be as goofy and semi-slapstick as Lloyd’s Doc! Beyond McKinnon, I can’t picture anyone else… Well, short of David Tennant, but don’t we give him enough time-travel to do?
My last thought is that Marty McFly should still be a teenage boy; after all, part of what made the original version good was the father/son story where Marty — kinda ashamed of his well-meaning but pushover father George — gets to help him become a better man. What I would change is the “how” of it considering Marty’s final plan was to have George play the hero who saves Lorraine (Marty’s mother) from Marty’s “advances”. While things ultimately worked out and the original George indeed rescued Lorraine from being assaulted by Biff, I think we as a society can do better than setting up such a scenario. The cringe factor isn’t solely the fact that it’s Marty’s mother.
(2.) The Breakfast Club (1984)
(left to right) Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Ally Sheedy, Molly Ringwald, and Anthony Michael Hall! Picture credit to irishnews.com
Believe me, I originally was firmly set in my belief that you cannot, must not remake this movie. While set in the mid 1980s, the story and its over all message is timeless: What it’s like being teenagers dealing with the pressures of their peers and the adults who oversee them. It deals with abuse, bullying, attempted suicide, and more.
So to remake it, you’d have to touch upon this same thing…but tell it from a modern teenage perspective which includes three sadly commonplace teenage problems of today: cyber-bullying, gun violence in schools, and the struggle for any LGBTQ+ teens to simply survive at school and at home.
Like it or not, they are very real issues for our kids, and it may inspire or encourage to find that older generations see and acknowledge their struggles here. Even Ally Sheedy, star of the original movie, offers her take on how the movie would be different if made with today’s considerations.
Cast of a play version of The Breakfast Club put on by Matt Byrne Media in Australia! Picture credit to theclothesline.com.au
However, if you do remake The Breakfast Club, it means pulling ZERO punches when it comes to the raw feelings and words of the teenager left among four-or-so other teens; all of whom have hardships of their own. They will say colorful, angry things sometimes; words that offend and hurt, and for the right reason: because they remind us what it’s like to survive the jungles of teenage life.
Final Thought
Try as I did, I could only see these two 80s classics getting the remake treatment. To be fair, most of the movies from the 80s were very original concepts or made so well the first time that telling it over again is almost pointless; *almost*! The original versions of Back to the Future and The Breakfast Club are already solid, but there is room to tell a new angle to these familiar stories today; provided care and effort are put into the final craft.
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