Back to the Future 4 is the long-awaited continuation of the beloved time-travel franchise, this time starring Tom Holland as Marty McFly’s son, Sam McFly. Directed by Universal Pictures, the film picks up several decades after the events of Back to the Future Part III and introduces a new generation to the iconic time-traveling DeLorean.
The movie opens with Sam McFly (Tom Holland), a typical college student living in Hill Valley, 2025. He knows little about his father Marty’s (Michael J. Fox) wild adventures in the past, as the McFly family has worked hard to keep the truth about the time machine secret. Marty, now older and more cautious, has long since retired the DeLorean, dismantling it to prevent any further time travel disasters.
But when a series of strange disturbances begin to affect the present, with people mysteriously disappearing and history seeming to “glitch,” Marty realizes that something has gone terribly wrong. It turns out that Dr. Emmett Brown’s (Christopher Lloyd) descendants have built a new time machine, one even more powerful than the original. However, an evil corporation, run by a distant relative of Biff Tannen (who is now a tech mogul), has stolen the technology and is using it to rewrite history for personal gain.
Desperate to stop this, Marty and Doc Brown recruit Sam, knowing that only a McFly can operate the DeLorean and fix the timeline. The trio must track down the new time machine, which has been disguised as a sleek, futuristic vehicle. Armed with the rebuilt DeLorean, Sam goes on his first time-traveling adventure, visiting key moments in the past—including the 1980s, where he meets his younger parents and learns more about his family’s legacy.
In a thrilling twist, Sam realizes that the timeline disturbances are connected to an event in 1885, just after the original trilogy’s conclusion. The evil corporation has tampered with Doc Brown’s family history, causing a ripple effect throughout time. Sam must travel back to the Old West, team up with a younger version of Doc, and face off against the new, tech-enhanced Tannen villain.
The film’s climax is an exhilarating race through time, with multiple DeLoreans in play, a showdown in the Wild West, and a return to 2025 where Sam faces a critical choice about the future of time travel.
The movie ends with a teaser for future adventures, leaving the door open for more time-traveling escapades.
The tagline reads: “The future is now.”
