On 3 July 1985 Back to the Future was released.

The film tells the story of Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, played by Michael J Fox, who is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-travelling DeLorean car invented by his friend, Doc Brown.

The screenplay for the genre-bending story was rejected 40 times, but it became a Hollywood blockbuster, dominating contemporary culture and bringing its leading actor worldwide fame.

The film’s co-writer and producer, Bob Gale takes Josephine McDermott back to 1985, reflecting on how in the first draft of the script the time machine was a refrigerator and Einstein the dog was a chimp.

With movie excerpts from the 1985 Universal Pictures, Amblin Entertainment and U-Drive productions film, directed by Robert Zemeckis.

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(Photo: Michael J Fox in Back to the Future. Credit: Sunset Boulevard/Corbis via Getty Images)

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Back to the Future