Back to the Future

Last night I was going to write another post, since there are a few things going through my mind at the moment and I want to tick through some of them.

However, I also kind of wanted to take a break, and so I ultimately decided to just veg out and watch something.

I started scanning options on Netflix, and almost pulled the trigger on watching one of the Lord of the Rings films since I haven't seen them in awhile.  But I thought that was a bit much, and not really a break from any of this, so I kept looking (though LOTR will make a cameo, as you will see).

There was a section of films on the menu called "80's nostalgia" and I scrolled through those until coming to the Back to the Future films.  I have a pretty good memory of what happened in the first one, but found that I didn't remember too much about what happened in the second and third films.  I looked up reviews for the second film, saw that it wasn't bad, and decided to watch it. 

The first indication that I might have some symbols popping out at me in the movie was the appearance of Elizabeth Shue.  I did not remember her being in the movie, and I later went back to confirm that in the first movie it was a different actress.  Shue came up on this blog recently in relation to the Karate Kid, which also had some interesting symbolism relative to the Ithil Stone and Sawtooth Stone, if you remember, as well as just the reference to a woman wearing a single shoe, per William Tychonievich's poem on 'Shoon'.

Specifically, Shue (and the character Ali Mills in Karate Kid) I explored as being symbolic of Eowyn (and the Ithil Stone) in that earlier post I linked above.  Here, in Back to the Future II, she goes by the name Jennifer.  In looking up that name quickly, it means "Fair One" or "White Enchantress".  I remembered I had actually explored this name back in my Dark Crystal post as well (or the shorter name Jen) but it was interesting to see it here as well in conjunction with actress whose name had been used before to symbolize Eowyn.  Recall that in the LOTR, for whatever reason, it is Eowyn that Tolkien has his characters refer to as fair in multiple instances, with Aragorn saying that she is "fair maiden, fairest lady of a house of queens".  And Faramir calls her the White Lady.

OK, so in the movie Jennifer-Shue is dating Michael J. Fox, whose character is Marty McFly.  Marty is short for Martin, which means "Dedicated to Mars".  Mars, of course, is the Red Planet, and I specifically used Red symbolism back in that Karate Kid post to talk about Elizabeth Shue's love interest in that movie:  Daniel LaRusso.  Why?  Because LaRusso, Daniel's last name, specifically means "The Red".  So, I came up with the Red Judge of God, or something like that, in that post, which seemed to work really well, and linked that character name to Faramir-Eonwe.  I also linked it the character name from Joseph Smith's Grammar and Alphabet of the Egyptian Language (GAEL for short... remember that) which was Ja-ho-e-oop or Jah ni hah.

Other name elements should stand out to you if you have read earlier posts on these characters, and specifically Faramir.  I have him "flying" or going on a moonwalk, space travel, or whatever, and here we have Marty's last name very much involved with flying.  Further, almost to reinforce these GAEL-ic references that have come up here and on William's blog, the 'fly' begins with the "Mc..." prefix, which is short for the Gaelic word "Mac".

I have also associated Faramir with the Being of Michael, at least a future iteration of Michael, maybe, and here we have the actor playing Marty as having that very name.  As an interesting bit of trivia which I just learned, Fox's real middle initial isn't J but A, but he chose J for his stage name, I guess.  Given that both of those GAEL names that I attribute to Faramir-Eonwe start with J, I'll just assume it is those names the J really stands for.  Sure.

I am going to leave Fox alone right now so we can move on, but this name itself is a fairly mixed symbol as it has come up here, though I have mostly used it for Satanic representation.  However, it can also be used as a good symbol, and may be so here.  But, not important right now.

OK, so we basically have Eowyn and Faramir represented here in this story, a reuniting of Ali Mills and Daniel LaRusso from Karate Kid now in the form of Jennifer and Marty McFly.

Chickens

One other thing I thought was interesting about the Marty McFly character was that he could take quite a lot, but one thing he could not take was being called "Chicken".  It was a major aspect of the character.  I found this interesting for a few reasons, given the "Unhenned" references, the gathering of chickens, but also potentially for actions in the long-forgotten past.  There may be actions that Faramir-Eonwe (by whatever name he had at that time) and others took, which in one context might be assumed to be 'cowardly' (what calling someone chicken is slang for), but which will be shown to not be so.  The very reason we are all here in this situation may well be because those who had the ability to fight against an overwhelming evil, chose rather to retreat and be cast into this Void, and to ultimately win in a far-future day.

Back to the movie...

The premise of the story is that Jennifer and Marty's family - their kids - are in trouble.  The particular story element tracks with what we have been working through here.  My story is about the Family of Light, who I have assumed are the children of the Beings who would come to be known as Eowyn and Faramir, as well as Asenath and Joseph.  It is their family that is 'in trouble' and needs to be gathered in and rescued.

Frodo's Cameo

Doc, Jennifer, and Marty actually travel to the future this time around, and Marty goes into an 80's cafe, with all sorts of 80's memorabilia (Remember the 80's....).  This is when we get our LOTR cameo, because who else but Frodo shows up!  Did anyone else know that Elijah Wood is in this movie?  Marty goes over to a video game, and one of the two young boys is none other than Mr. Wood.

Mayor Goldie Wilson, Peter-Pharazon, and the Hill Valley of Tirion Adam-ondi-Ahman

It was either in this scene or just before, the name Goldie Wilson is re-introduced.  Goldie Wilson in the first Back to the Future became the first Black mayor of Hill Valley, which is the town where all of this happens (more on Hill Valley in a second).  This apparently is his son, Goldie II.

If you think about it, Goldie is a strange name for a man.  I looked it up, and yes, it is typically a female name that means, as you would suspect, "golden, gilded, made of gold".  So the name kind of jumps out at you as given to this particularly character.

So we have a Black man whose name means that he is made of gold or gilded.  In Back to the Future I, Goldie proclaims " I will be mayor; I'll be the most powerful man in Hill Valley and I'm gonna clean up this town!" Pharazon-Peter vibes anybody?  I think obviously yes.  I have called Pharazon the Raven King or the Black King, even recently writing that he is represented by Balthazar, one of the Three Kings of the Nativity, in my post "King Balta Sheave and Peter", who tradition always portrays as Black.

And he is and/or will be Mayor of Hill Valley.  Mayor is the chief magistrate of a city of municipality, and it also means great and mighty.  These terms have come up before in describing Peter-Pharazon.

It is Hill Valley that he is mayor of.  That is another strange name for a place.  How can something be both a Hill and a Valley?

I recently wrote about this with respect to Adam-ondi-Ahman.  This place is specifically referred to as both a Hill (Spring Hill, and also generally "Mountains" in one D&C reference) but also as a Valley, with this Valley being where many great Beings gathered in the Beginning and apparently will be doing so again (or are already in the process of doing so).  Adam-ondi-Ahman I have also places as being in or in the immediate vicinity of Tirion.

So, it is Tirion that I believe is represented by the name Hill Valley - quite on the nose, actually.  And so it would make sense that the Black King - Peter who was once known as Pharazon the Golden ("The Golden" was literally what he was called - which would be the same thing as Goldie) will be mayor there.  In fact, as mentioned, Gim Githil, who is the Being I believe has played both roles as Pharazon and Peter, has always been considered the High King of the all the Elves.  Tirion is their capital city, so the fact that he would be the 'Chief' in that city shouldn't be a surprise to us here.

This is fun.

Three more and then I promise to give it a rest, though there are lots of little nuggets that are interesting to note.

Biff Tannen = Melkor, he who "Strikes the Trees"

The antagonist that is most responsible for the misery of Marty's family, in both Back to the Future 1 and 2, is Biff Tannen.  Let's look at that name.

Biff means "to hit or strike".  Tannen has a couple meanings.  It can refer to turning skins into leather (remember that predators who make trophies of men and use their skins has come up before).  It can mean to turn things brown or dark (to 'tan' something).  These two both work, but I like the third option the best, which uses the German word for "Evergreen Tree" (as in the Christmas carol "O Tannenbaum").

In that last option, the name Biff Tannen means "To strike evergreen trees".  Who struck and killed the Trees in Valinor?  Melkor.  Ultimately, the evil that was introduced in our world, and the light that was taken away even in Heaven, is the result of Melkor.  He is the primary antagonist in our story, and for the Family of Light, just as he was in the Back to the Future movies.

The DeLorean or DeLorien

Remember that I have compared Stones with Cars in my dream, in that the Stones in some way facilitate or enable travel, or at least that is how I see or think of them.  This specific idea first came from my dreams, but also was alluded to in my words, with the Anor Stone (Liahona), for example, being referred to as an essential piece in Lehi's own interstellar travel.

In Back to the Future, the primary source of travel across Time is in a car.  Specifically, the model of that car is called a DeLorean.  This is funny.  The major "Car" or Stone that has come up in our story here is the Sawtooth Stone.  That Stone I have stated has a story, from the beginning of the world (actually going back well before that) all the way to its 'end', and it is Joseph who authored or 'saw' the story that is there.

Another name for Joseph is Lorien, which just so happens to match up pretty well with the car model from the movie.  DeLorien.  "De" means "Of or from".  So this Stone-Car in Back to Future could be symbolic of the Stone that is 'from Lorien".  I thought it worked out neatly, at least.

Last one to call out.

Great Scott!  (Great Gael!) and Dr. Brown as Thingol, the Grey Haired Bearer of Christ

Dr. Emmett Brown, played by Christopher Lloyd, is in this one as well, of course.  His signature phrase in this movie, just as it was in the first, is "Great Scott!".  The exclamation was so apparent, or stood out to me fairly sharply in terms of this signature saying, that I had to look up Scott as well.  Here is a compilation someone did of how many times the phrase is said across all 3 Back to the Future movies:

Scott, I guess it should have figured out from the name, has to do with Scotland, but the word itself comes from the Latin Scoti.  As a related tangent, We see a "Scotty" in Star Trek also, just to note, whose job also has to do with propulsion and travel.  Dr. Brown is responsible for the Flux Capacitor, which is what causes the DeLorean to go, while Scotty in Star Trek is responsible for the Warp Drive.

In any case, Scoti means "Gael".  So we have yet another reference to GAEL.

My own guess is that this character symbolizes Thingol-John, very directly given a few things.  Christopher Lloyd, or more accurately, his name is my favorite indication of this, so let's look at that.

Lloyd means "Grey Haired".  The name Thingol means "Grey Mantle", with mantle being a type of cloak or covering that might also be synonymous with a covering of hair.  In fact, Hair is likely influenced by the English haire (per Etymonline), which means "Haircloth".  To be Grey Haired is also consistent with being old, or Ancient of Days, which is a term that has been used to describe Thingol.

Christopher means "Bearing Christ".  That was the role of John the Baptist, who I have as Thingol.  To Bear witness of Jesus, and potentially to 'Bear' both him and his family (home, perhaps), as it seems in at least some of the stories we seem him doing.

So, with that name you have something like (rearranging the names):  The Grey Haired Bearing Christ.

Works pretty well in my book.

Anyway, just a few things I saw in the movie.  Just goes to show, even when I try to take a break and not think about things, it doesn't always seem to work out that way.  Too many things on my mind, and too many symbols floating around to tie those thoughts to, maybe.