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Despite all its shortcomings, Steven Spielberg’sKingdom of the Crystal Skullgave fans one of the most iconic moments in the entire franchise, which sees Indy taking shelter from a nuclear blast in a refrigerator. Interestingly, the seeds for this scene were sown decades back during the scripting of one of the most influential films of all time.
Like the film itself, the opening and ending ofBack to the Futureare iconic, and it’s hard to imagine them otherwise. But this was almost the case until Universal cut the budget for the film.
The Budget Cut forBack to the FutureBecame a Blessing in Disguise
While in most cases, a reduced budget often impacts a project negatively, inBack to the Future‘s case, it was certainly a blessing in disguise. Opposed to the iconic watch tower ending that we got,Robert ZemeckisandBob Galeoriginally penned an entirely different conclusion to the film. Inspired by the 1954 flick,The Atomic Kid, the duo initially planned to build one of the towns from that film and blow it up in an atomic explosion.
“That can’t happen until…”: Robert Zemeckis Has One Condition for Back to the Future Part 4 – Hopefully it Never Happens
They furtherintendedto incorporate the time machine into a refrigerator, and once Marty entered it, the town would’ve blown up.
We were obsessed with the idea of ‘Hey wouldn’t it be cool if we could recreate one of these towns and blow it up?’ And you know, hey, okay yeah you’re a writer, you can write anything in the script that you want. So we wrote this elaborate sequence in and in the original version, the time machine was built into a refrigerator which was a time chamber. And that was where Marty was gonna be when the nuclear blast went off.
However, due to budget cuts, they had to revamp the entire ending, but fortunately, the idea was reused years later.
Steven Spielberg Held on to That Idea for Decades
Before ending up at Universal, the film’s script was rejected by many notable studios, and when the film was eventually greenlit, Gale and Zemeckis were asked to trim down the budget by $1M.
When it came time to cut the budget – and this was before we cast Eric Stoltz – the studio said, ‘Hey you guys can make the movie, but cut $1 million out.’ Bob and I looked long and hard at the script and said, ‘What do we cut? How do we save $1 million?’
Considering that their initial planned ending would’ve cost the most, they eventually resorted to trimming it down from the film. Moreover, after Eric Stoltz,who was initially hired to play the lead, was fired, Universal demanded further budget cuts, which pushed the duo to cut the original opening for the film, resulting in the “great long tracking shot that we see in Doc Brown’s laboratory“.
“Now they can’t afford me”: Steven Spielberg Had the Last Laugh After James Bond Producers Rejected Him Twice After Making a Hollywood Record
Decades after the film’s success,Steven Spielberg, who served as a producer onBack to the Future, finally brought the idea to the big screen withKingdom of the Crystal Skull.
Back to the Futuretrilogy is available to rent on Apple TV.
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skullis available to stream on Disney Plus.
Santanu Roy
Senior Writer
Articles Published :2539
Santanu Roy is a Senior Entertainment Writer at FandomWire, majorly focusing on movies, with over 2,000 articles under his belt. He has been pursuing a degree in Animation and possesses a deep love for the medium of animation. Having spent the better part of the last two years pumping out articles for FW, Santanu excels at covering movie analysis and news surrounding Pixar, DCU, DreamWorks, and Batman’s cinematic legacy.With psychological thrillers and intimate slice-of-life dramas ranking among his favorite genres, Santanu is a big admirer of Luca Guadagnino, Shane Black, Park Chan-wook, and Brad Bird.
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Bob GaleRobert ZemeckisSteven Speilberg
