Back To The Future’s Darth Vader Song Was Written For A Totally Different Movie

The moment in Back to the Future when Michael J. Fox’s Marty McFly masquerades as “Darth Vader, from the planet Vulcan,” is soundtracked by a song that had already appeared in a movie the year before, and starred the actor who was originally cast as Marty. Often heralded not only as one of the best time travel movies of all time but also one of the best movie trilogies ever, Back to the Future remains as popular as ever. That being said, it went through quite a process to end up in its original form.

Back to the Future began production with Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, but he was let go weeks into shooting after it was determined he wasn’t right for the role. Thankfully, Fox was brought in to fill the void and was just what the 1985 movie needed, as well as the two sequels that followed. After the reshoots, Back to the Future was well on its way to what it was intended to be, but the dismissal of Stolz avoided what would have been an interesting musical recurrence.

Back To The Future’s Darth Vader Song Originally Appeared In The Wild Life

1984’s The Wild Life had its score composed by Eddie Van Halen

The music that Marty blasts into his father’s ears in Back to the Future while wearing a hazmat suit was written by Eddie Van Halen, but it wasn’t a genuine Van Halen song. Instead, it had appeared as part of the score for 1984’s The Wild Life Life in which Eric Stoltz appeared as Bill Conrad. The music on Marty’s cassette was part of Eddie Van Halen’s score for The Wild Life, which Universal had the rights to use.

Stolz appeared in several projects between The Wild Life and Back to the Future‘s release date, so although they wouldn’t have been back-to-back projects for the actor, there would still have been a strong connection between both movies. Lea Thompson, who played Lorraine Baines (Marty’s mom) in Back to the Future, also played Anita in The Wild Life. Thankfully, Bill and Anita had a much more healthy romantic arc in The Wild Life than Marty ended up enduring with Lorraine.

Why Marty McFly’s Tape Says “Edward Van Halen,” Not “Van Halen”

Eddie’s band objected to being credited with writing the track

Van Halen is eponymously named after the band’s frontman, Eddie Van Halen. With Marty’s Darth Vader moment implying that the song on his tape is by the band, it’s a little unusual that the name “Edward” is included in small letters before the title of the band. The reason behind this, according to the movie’s DVD commentary, was that while Eddie signed off on having his composition credited to him, the band didn’t authorize the song being attributed to them – even in Back to the Future‘s fictional setting.

Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown. In 1955, he meets his parents when they were his age, and must step in to make sure they wind up together before he gets back to 1985.

Director

Robert Zemeckis

Release Date

July 3, 1985

Studio(s)

Universal Pictures

Writers

Robert Zemeckis , Bob Gale

Cast

Claudia Wells , Christopher Lloyd , James Tolkan , Thomas F. Wilson , Michael J. Fox , Wendie Jo Sperber , Crispin Glover , Marc McClure , Lea Thompson

Runtime

116 minutes

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