Darth Vader
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- George: "Who...are you?"
- Marty: "Silence, Earthling! My name is Darth Vader. I am an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan!"
- — }
- Marty: "What made you change your mind, George?"
- George: "Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan, and he told me that if I didn't take Lorraine to the dance, he'd melt my brain."
- Marty: "Yeah, well, let's keep this brain melting stuff to ourselves, okay?"
- George: "Oh, yeah. Yeah."
- —
"Darth Vader" was the alias Marty McFly used when portraying an alien being in order to convince his father, George McFly, to ask Lorraine Baines to the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance. To portray "Darth Vader," McFly wore a radiation suit used for the handling of 1985 Doc Brown's stolen plutonium, and employed a Sony Walkman playing the music of Eddie Van Halen as a torture device to ensure George's consent. In addition, Marty carried a hair dryer as a ray gun, threatening to "melt his brain" if he didn't ask Lorraine out. After delivering the instructions, Marty put George out with chloroform, and George slept until afternoon.
Darth Vader, as portrayed in the film, was a pastiche of science fiction sources that were well-known by 1985, but yet-to-be heard of in 1955. The name of the character would originate with the 1977 motion picture Star Wars, while the alleged homeworld of the alien, Planet Vulcan, would become known starting in 1966 from the television series Star Trek.
Darth was not unlike an alien on the cover of the Fantastic Story magazine at the side of George's bed. The unnerving experience not only led George McFly to choose to make the effort to pursue Lorraine, but also provided inspiration for his first novel, A Match Made in Space, published in 1985.
[edit] Behind the scenes
- The "Darth Vader" scene was originally much longer, and can be seen in its entirety as a feature on the DVD. The scene was skillfully edited to less than a minute. Footage of Marty turning on a hair dryer, telling George to take out Lorraine, chloroforming George, and climbing out the window to Doc's waiting car, was all cut from the film. In commentary, Bob Gale explained that "Darth's" commands, followed in the next scene by George's summary of the experience, was redundant.
- The scene in the film ends with Marty making a Vulcan-like sign after announcing that he is Darth Vader. George's agitated explanation of what made him change his mind summarizes most of Darth's speech, in comic fashion. The deleted footage explains such mysteries as why George wasn't in school that day, why a hair dryer seems to appear and vanish from Marty's belt between shots, and why George thought that "Darth" might be able to "melt" him.
[edit] Appearances
[edit] See also
- Darth Vader on Wookieepedia
