INT: Room 40.
Around forty students sit in pairs or alone around the class
ME
Could you get into groups. Who wants to speak English? Hands up
Many of the hands go up.
ME
Nihongo hanashitai kata. Te wo agete kudasai.
Around a dozen hands go up.
ME
Right. If you want to speak English, please move over to this side of the class. If you want to speak Japanese, move over to this side. Try to make groups with mixed nationalities, different majors, different genders.
Groups form.
ME
So today we're going to watch Back to the Future. Have you seen back to the future?
Over half of the hands go up.
ME
Have you seen Back to the Future II?
A few less hands go up. The next slide appears on the screen: "2015"
ME
What does that say? Please discuss in your group.
SOMEONE FROM ONE GROUP
Twenty Fifteen
SOMEONE FROM ANOTHER GROUP
Two thousand and fiteen
ME
Interesting. Next I'd like you to discuss these questions: What happened in 2015? What technology did we have? What fashion did we have?
STUDENTS
Blah blah blah ... Rhubarb Rhubarb ... Nantoka Nantoka Nantoka
ME
Here's the plot of Back to the Future II: In 1985 Jennifer is Marty's Girlfriend. Doc has a time machine. In 2015, Jennifer and Marty are married. Their son, Marty Jr. is in trouble! Doc brings Jennifer and Marty to 2015.
Here are some questions for you: What is an alpha-rhythm? Why is Jennifer there?
INT: DVD PLAYER, ABOVE HILL VALLEY: OCTOBER 21, 2015. Ch 3: 4'15
Movie plays until they land.
INT: ROOM 40
ME
Any ideas? In fact the reason Jennifer is in this shot is because she got into the time machine at the end of the first Back to the Future movie, at which point they had no plans to film a sequel. Since the second movie follows straight on, the screenwriters had to find some way of disabling Jennifer, who incidentally is played by a different actor. As Doc says, "she is not essential to my plan", which hints at a running theme in this movie, and most others, of subjugating women. More on that later though.
I'm going to show some more of the movie, and I'd like you to make a list of predictions the movie make about 2015.
ONE STUDENT
Right, they have hoverboards... self-tying shoes...
ME
I'll just repeat that. I'd like you to watch the movie, and make a list of what you see. I don't think we're going to have time to watch the hoverboards.
INT: DVD PLAYER CONTINUES HILL VALLEY. ALLEY CONTINUES
...
DOC uses the digital binoculars to look at cute girls
ME
I don't remember that bit. How embarrassing! So Jennifer is not essential to DOC's plan, but looking at girls is?
CUT TO
INT: DVD PLAYER CONTINUES HILL VALLEY CITY TOWN SQUARE. 10'45"
MARTY McFLY
The Future.
Movie plays until the kids call the video game a baby's toy.
INT: ROOM 40
ME
How much does a Pepsi cost? What does abolish mean? (aside) Why didn't I prepare the vocabulary better.
STUDENTS discuss these questions.
INT: DVD PLAYER: HILL VALLEY ALLEY. Ch 7. 25' into the movie
Cops find Jennifer and decide to take her home. Keep playing until they reach Hilldale.
INT: ROOM 40
ME
What could happen if Jennifer meets her future self? What happens when Jennifer says "lights on"? Where does Doc park? How should she open the door?
INT: DVD PLAYER: CONTINUES IN HILLDALE
Jennifer gets into her future house, daughter comes downstairs, grandparents arrive, Marty junior gets home, Marty senior gets home. Jennifer 1985 tries to leave as Jennifer 2015 gets back home.
INT: ROOM 40.
SCREEN OF POWERPOINT
What happens when Jennifer meets herself?
a) She goes into shock and passes out
b) There is a time paradox
c) A chain reaction unravels the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroys the entire universe
d) The destruction is limited to merely our own galaxy
ME
Could you discuss what you've seen, and how it is different to the real 2015, or how it is the same.
STUDENTS discuss.
ME
You may not have noticed these things.
Fashion: People didn't wear athletic clothes all day in 1980s, they do now.
Suburban poverty: in the 1980s poverty was mostly urban or rural.
Laser disks in the garbage: In 1980s this was new technology!
I'd like to mention visible and invisible culture here. When we here about culture we often just think of visible things. Sometimes it's stereotyped into the five F's: food, fashion, famous people, festivals, and flags. We need to also think about beliefs, values, assumptions.
Here are some things they had in this movie: Flying cars
Dog-walking drones, Thumb-print technology, Dehydrated pizza, Power laces, Voice-activated lights, A Japanese boss, Accurate weather forecasts
No lawyers, Hanging fruit thing, Goggles, Video calls
Call monitoring, Fax machines, Big flat screen TV.
How good were the prediction? How many predictions were in the movie?
How many are correct? (give half marks for partly correct) What percentage did this movie score?
Groups discuss.
Here's a quote from the director, Robert Zemeckis "rather than trying to make a scientifically sound prediction that we were probably going to get wrong anyway, we figured, let's just make it funny."
I think they did a pretty good job predicting the future, considering they weren't even trying to be accurate. Here's another quote from screenwriter Bob Gale, the"We knew we weren't going to have flying cars by the year 2015, but God we had to have those in our movie."
That's all! See you next week!
INT: COMPUTER SCREENS AS STUDENTS DO THEIR HOMEWORK.
Question 1.
What do they each call the year 2015?
Doc (from 2015)
Marty (from 1985)
Jennifer (from 1985)
=
=
"two thousand and fifteen"
"twenty-fifteen"
"two-oh-one-five"
These words were made for this movie. What do they mean? Please match with their meanings:
Tranq
Skyway
Alpha-rhythm generator
Holomax
=
A theatre for three-dimensional movies
A lane for flying cars
A person who takes drugs to become relaxed
Which of these things did we see in the movie? (Choose one or more answers)
-A dog-walking drone
-Laptop computers
-Smartphones
-Thumb-print recognition
-Voice-activated lights
Which of these predictions were accurate?
-Dehydrated Pizza
-Flat screen TV
-Fax machines in every room
-Suburban poverty
-Video calls
Some culture is visible and some culture is invisible. What are these?
-Assumptions
-Behaviour
-Beliefs
-Manners
-Thoughts
-Technology
-Values
=
Visible
Invisible
Visible
Invisible
What were Robert Zemeckis and Bob Grant trying to do when they made the movie?
-Follow science and make an accurate prediction of the future
-Think about society and paint a dystopian vision as a warning
-Make it funny and keep sponsors happy
When you mention the means to move, what kind of vehicle do you think of? Vehicles powered by electric power are environmentally friendly, typically electric moped scooter.
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