Back to the Future...again

QUEUE: Heidi Holbrook, Kokomai Creative Festival Wairarapa director, centre, and Brent Goodwin of Regent 3 Cinemas. PHOTO/LYNDA FERINGA

A Masterton man who attended the 1985 Back to the Future premiere said he has been long awaiting the opportunity to "nerd out" for Marty McFly's return yesterday.

AJ Hunter, originally from Palmerston North, was working in nightclub sound and lighting system and electronic special effects in Los Angeles when his friend Scott Mabbutt who worked for Universal Studios scored third row tickets to the event.

"Everybody knew Back to the Future was going to be enormous," he said. "It was at the Hollywood Egyptian which seats about 600 people and that meant it was a big deal.

"Bob Zemeckis was actually at the premiere and I remember him being up on the stage introducing the movie and then at the very end everybody clapped him back on the stage again.

"Nobody had ever seen anything quite like it before and of course, the idea of a time travelling DeLorean was insane."

Mr Hunter said he was "completely blown away" by the movie and met actor Thomas Wilson, who played the part of Biff Tannen.

"After the premiere we went to the afterparty at a place called P.I. McFly's in the San Fernando Valley.

"My mind is a blur because it happened so long ago, but I remember it being such a blast and shaking hands with Biff Tannen, well the actor that plays his part.

"He's actually such a nice bloke in the real world."

As well as attending the Back to the Future premiere, Mr Hunter and his friends went on the Back to the Future ride opening day staff party at Universal Studios, the day before it was open to the public.

"So I was living in a bit of a nerd paradise," he said.

Mr Hunter attended Masterton's welcome party for Marty McFly yesterday at Regent 3 Cinemas and said he felt like Sheldon Cooper, a physicist and science fiction fan from the Big Bang Theory television series.

"If those guys from the Big Bang Theory were real, they'd be at the 2015 party too," he said.

"I think everybody from the start thought it would be a brilliant idea to come back to 2015. Even back then there was a lot of speculation about what the world would be like in 2015.

"I remember Bob Zemeckis saying he was initially reluctant about making the movies because he didn't like speculating about what the future would look like.

"Some parts of it actually did come true though, putting GoPro cameras on drones and flying them around, you know, that's in the movie, and happens today.

"Hoverboards and flying cars -- everyone thought that would be a great idea at the time, and shoes with powerlaces.

"It should be noted that although the Regent is showing Back to the Future, Marty McFly didn't time travel to October 21, 2015 until the sequel, Back to the Future 2, released in 1989.

"That movie had all the sci-fi elements I spoke about.

"Oh it was all just such a dream come true for me."

Back to the Future screened at Masterton's Regent 3 Cinemas at 4.29pm yesterday, October 21, the date and time Marty McFly arrived in 2015 in the second movie.