Beyond all the Internet-friendly nostalgic value afforded by those 1985 cultural markers, Robert Zemeckis’ blockbuster is one of those quintessentially ’80s movies that makes a super-cool hero out of a kinda dweeby underdog, sending him on an adventure that reveals the same things that make him a loser in school (like, say, hanging out with that creepy old inventor guy all the time) make him a winner in the grand scheme of things. Okay, that last statement may be the only one that even flirts with accuracy, but to deny Back To The Future’s pronounced 1985-ness is to deny a huge part of its charm.

Truly, Back To The Future could come out today and it would play just as well to modern audiences! Genevieve: Here we are, nearly 30 full years beyond Back To The Future’s release, and hardly anything’s changed: Huey Lewis is still a beloved and popular cultural icon, Pepsi Free has usurped all other soda to be named The King Of Soft Drinks, and time-travel movies come and go without anyone caring about or fact-checking the intricacies of their paradox-laden plots. Two Dissolvers keep the Back To The Future conversation going.

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