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Where Was the Back to the Future Movie Trilogy Filmed?
The real-life locations where Marty McFly went back in time.
Fun fact: Friday, November 22 marks the 35th anniversary for Back to the Future Part II (streaming on Peacock here), which returned Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) to theaters in 1989 for his second time-skipping movie fling with the flux capacitor.
In the decades since Fox and costar Christopher Lloyd (“Doc” Emmett Brown) teamed up across the Back to the Future film trilogy as one of science fiction’s most epic time-travelling duos, fan love for the BTTF franchise has launched a rather specific strain of tourism — one that’s inspired road-trip pilgrimages to the series’ most memorable shooting locations (bonus points for doing it in a DeLorean).
While Universal Studios provided the backbone for much of the trilogy’s establishing scenes (including the iconic Courthouse Square backlot that served as the heart of Marty’s hometown of Hill Valley), the BTTF trilogy ranged far and wide to capture the rest of the action. From the breezy Pacific coast all the way to the Utah-Arizona border, let’s take a peek at some the key sites that director Robert Zemeckis and writer Bob Gale staked out as essential to the McFly family saga.
The Key Shooting Locations in the Back to the Future Trilogy
Puente Hills Mall (aka Twin Pines Mall)
Famous as the place where Marty vanished straight into the past as the DeLorean hit 88 miles per hour, Back to the Future’s Twin Pines Mall provided the backdrop to the original film’s (streaming on Peacock here) most dramatic early scenes. As an isolated late-night space with plenty of pavement, the mall parking lot offered Doc and Marty plenty of space to test the flux capacitor’s time-jumping powers before the arrival of terrorists put their plans on an accelerated schedule. In real life, the mall is known as the Puente Hills Mall, and it’s located in City of Industry, California.
Courthouse Square Back Lot (aka The Hill Valley Courthouse)
Along with a handful of other Hill Valley locations, the small-town courthouse where Back to the Future’s fateful bolt of 1955 lightning changed history serves as the centerpiece facade structure in the Courthouse Square backlot, one of the outdoor studio sets at the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City, California. The original Back to the Future boosted Courthouse Square’s profile as an iconic filming location, but it’s by no means the only time the outdoor prop setting has appeared on the big screen. First constructed as a backdrop for the 1948 noir movie An Act of Murder, Courthouse Square has since appeared in dozens of screen productions, including two vintage Twilight Zone episodes, To Kill a Mockingbird, Gremlins, Escape from L.A., Buffy the Vampire Slayer (the series), and Maxxine — to name only a few.
Whittier High School (aka Hill Valley High School)
In real life, it’s known as Whittier High School (go Cardinals!) in Whittier, California. But in Back to the Future, it’s Hill Valley High School — the place where Marty couldn’t catch a break with the stereotypically stern Principal Strickland (James Tolkan). Featured in both the original film as well as Back to the Future Part II, the school’s main facade and ample front lawn offered just the kind of picturesque small-town vibes to lend visual charm to a small-town spot like Hill Valley. Bonus fact: Marty’s not the only star to skate off campus with a diploma and on to bigger things. The real Whittier High School has produced some famous graduates of its own, including former President Richard Nixon (class of 1930) and Pixar founder John Lasseter (class of 1975).
The Tunnel Chase (aka Griffith Park)
Los Angeles’ sprawling Griffith Park and its eye-catching structures have always supplied arresting movie backdrops, whether it’s the famous Hollywood Sign at its western edge or the striking Art Deco silhouette of the Griffith Observatory farther to the south. But Back to the Future Part II found a different way to highlight portions of the park’s 4,300-acre campus, staging the movie’s thrilling car-hoverboard chase between Marty and Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) — all to lay hands on the movie’s fabled sports almanac — inside the narrow two-lane tunnel that runs toward the observatory. The drawn-out chase scene makes the tunnel seem far lengthier than it really is: In real life, the drive from end to end takes only a few seconds.
Sierra Railway (Railtown 1897 State Historic Park)
Even in the 1800s, there were ways to get a DeLorean to hit 88 mph — even if it meant pushing a steam locomotive way past its breaking point. Appearing in Back to the Future Part III (streaming on Peacock here), the Railtown 1897 State Historic Park (aka the Sierra Railway) is located in Jamestown, California, and provided the on-location backdrop setting for many of the movie’s Old West scenes set in the wild and wooly post-frontier days of 1885 — including the scene where Locomotive 131 fell to pieces as it chugged Marty all the way back to 1985.
Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park
Like Griffith Park, Monument Valley and its unmistakable red rock desert landforms have been scenic filmmaking magnets for decades, featuring prominently in early Westerns like John Ford’s Stagecoach and The Searchers, as well as in later films like 1994’s Forrest Gump (another Zemeckis-directed hit). A signature feature of the American west, Monument Valley is located within the Navajo Nation along the Utah-Arizona border, offering Doc the perfect open space to sneak Marty back in time to the 1880s — where he dropped in right in the thick of an old fashioned horseback chase.
Stream all three movies in the Back to the Future trilogy now on Peacock, including the original movie here, BTTF Part II here, and BTTF Part III here.
