Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd reunited this weekend in the flesh, and Back to the Future fans are reeling. The two actors were together at Awesome Con in Washington D.C., where Fox posted a picture of them sitting together in a golf cart. With a little imagination, fans could pretend the golf cart was a modified DeLorean.
Fox captioned his photo “Back to back,” with the hashtag “Back to the Future.” It was the only photo from Awesome Con to make his Instagram feed, but Lloyd posted a different one at the same time. It showed the two actors sitting on high barstool-style chairs in front of a cloth backdrop — likely an area where fans could gather for photo ops with the convention’s famous guests. Both dressed casually in jeans and sneakers, and Fox wore a Misfits graphic t-shirt while Lloyd wore a baffled sweatshirt.
“Caption this,” Lloyd challenged his followers. Many celebrities took up the challenge, leaving comments on both posts. Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane wrote: “My Next Guest Needs No Introduction,” teasingly comparing Lloyd’s long white beard to that of David Letterman.
“Roads? Where we’re golfing, we don’t need… roads,” actor Justin Long wrote under Fox’s post. Other comments included: “GREAT SCOTT,” “This is heavy,” and “Are you telling me you made a time machine… Out of a golf cart?”
All this fan excitement was well-deserved. Back to the Future has one of the most powerful legacies in all of American pop culture. The first movie was released in 1985 and two sequels followed in 1989 and 1990. The movies were critical and commercial successes, and have fueled fan culture for decades now.
The original movie was written by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, and directed by Zemeckis. It centered around the unlikely friendship between a California teenager named Marty McFly (Fox) and an eccentric scientist named Emmett “Doc” Brown (Lloyd). While Marty grapples with growing up, coming of age and suburban ennui, Doc realizes his lifelong dream of constructing a working time machine in the form of a car.
Both Fox and Lloyd have other beloved movies and TV shows on their resumes, but it’s no surprise to see them in high demand at fan conventions as well. For some science fiction fans, this was the most high-profile production within the genre when they were growing up. Back to the future is available to rent or purchase on digital stores, but it is not currently included with any subscription-based streaming services.