Back to the Future Part II was never planned until the first film became a hit
The original ended with Jennifer climbing into the DeLorean, a gag that later boxed in its creators. When box office success demanded a sequel, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale had to write her into a trip to 2015. They later regretted that final scene, since it ruled out a completely fresh adventure.
Zemeckis agreed to return only if Michael J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd did too. Gale drafted most of the script alone while his partner was making Who Framed Roger Rabbit. An early idea set the third act in 1967, with Lorraine as a flower child and George teaching at Berkeley, but the pair chose instead to revisit 1955 and replay the first film's events from a new angle. When talks with Crispin Glover over his fee failed, the story was rewritten so that George is dead in the alternate timeline.
Designing the future proved hardest. Production designer Rick Carter wanted to avoid the smoky, chrome-heavy look of Blade Runner, and his effects team started with almost nothing beyond a setting 30 years ahead and something called hoverboards. Gale aimed for a pleasant future whose problems came from its people rather than its gadgets, while Zemeckis worried about making badly wrong predictions.
Two years of set building and writing preceded filming, which began on February 20, 1989, and ran back-to-back with Part III on a 40 million dollar budget. Fox was simultaneously finishing the last season of Family Ties, and his ageing make-up took over four hours. Industrial Light & Magic used its new VistaGlide camera system so Fox could play Marty, his son and his daughter in one moving shot, a first for such scenes.
Released by Universal on November 22, 1989, the film drew mostly positive reviews, though critics rated it below the original. It still took 333 million dollars worldwide, third among that year's releases, and a trailer for Part III tacked onto the end promised audiences the story would continue in May 1990.
Source: Back to the Future Part II
