If Not For Eddie Van Halen, Marty McFly Wouldn't Have Existed At All

Back to the Future Day lands on our calendars every October 21, inviting fans to celebrate the beloved sci-fi franchise that took us on a wild ride through time.

Eddie Van Halen even appeared in the original 1985 film. In one unforgettable scene, Marty McFly blasts Eddie’s otherworldly guitar sounds into George McFly’s headphones, giving him a little out-of-this-world motivation. Forget the DeLorean. Ditch the flux capacitor. Without Eddie Van Halen, Marty McFly would never have stood a chance.

Watch the classic clip:

Syfy writer Adam Pockross found a very clever way to connect his tribute to the greatest guitarist of all time with the greatest sci-fi film of all time: 1985’s “Back To The Future”. He posted an opinion piece on Syfy’s website titled “If Not For Eddie Van Halen, Marty McFly Wouldn’t Have Existed At All”.

Pockross points to a specific moment in the film when Eddie’s music plays a pivotal role in Marty’s very existence.

He writes:

If you’ll recall around the halfway point of the first film, George is far from convinced that he should be courting Marty’s future mom (Lea Thompson). First off, he probably couldn’t take that kind of rejection. And not for nothing, she’s showing serious Florence Nightingale Effects for her dreamboat future son, Calvin. And Bully Biff thinks he’s in the running too (much to Lorraine’s dismay). So as far as George is concerned, he’d just as soon hang out solo watching his favorite show, Science Fiction Theatre.

But if Marty and his siblings are going to exist… or is it, cease to exist? Or never have existed at all? Anywho, if they’re going to survive, they need George to step up and win the love of his future wife, aka their future mom. But how do you motivate a man who so easily already talked himself out of the fight of his life?

With rock ‘n’ effing aliens, man.

Preying on his father’s geeky predilections, Marty takes advantage of the 1985 tools that made the DeLorean trip to the past with him. With a handy Edward Van Halen tape, a Walkman, and a radiation suit, Marty guitar solos his would-be pa into submission, and turns George from a boy seeking shelter in his own imagination to a man hoping to make his mark on the world. Or at least Lorraine’s world.

You can read Pockross’s entire opinion piece on Syfy’s website HERE.

Also, who could forget the “Enchantment Under the Sea Dance,” where Marty, in a fit of ecstasy after seeing the images of him and his siblings restored in their family photo, fires off an EVH-inspired tapping frenzy before a crowd that was clearly unprepared for the fretboard pyrotechnics that the rest of us would begin to experience in 1978.

If you’d like to dig deeper into Eddie’s “Back To The Future” appearance, check out this recent video posted by Grunge, which includes a VHND mention.