Fandom, Back to the Future styleby Heather Caliendo
The Journal RecordTULSA—Mike Smith assumed that when the three
Back to the Future movies were released on DVD he'd have to fend off other die-hard fans for a copy. As folks do for midnight DVD release, he arrived at the Ponca City Wal-Mart early to secure his place at the front of the line
Suggesting that perhaps
Back to the Future mania isn't rampant in Ponca City, the line behind him consisted of just one other person.
"But I did get the first copy in Ponca City," he said with a laugh.
When explaining his fascination with
Back to the Future, the theme song plays in the background, causing Smith, an interactive programmer for Littlefield, to suddenly pause mid-sentence.
"Sorry, I kind of got pulled into the song there," said Smith, an interactive programmer for Littlefield.
In his office at Littlefield, it's not hard to see that Smith is a
Back to the Future fan, with a poster on one wall and old Nintendo and Genesis games based on the movie stacked proudly against another. What has kept him such a fanatic all these years is the concept of time travel, he said.
He clearly remembers the first time he saw the movie at age 6. As a fifth-grader, Smith got inspired to translate the movie into books, not knowing such books already existed.
"That is what got me into memorizing it," he said. "I would pause the movie and write down what they said. I watched it so much I was to the point where I know their pauses and fluctuations."
When Smith reached middle school his fandom didn't stop – it grew.
"I would come home from school and watch it every day to the point where I have part one pretty much memorized," he said. "I started to understand time travel a little more and wanted to get into anything I could to study it."
Smith researched time travel theories. He said that while the movies are not a guideline to time travel, it was encouraging to see if any such thing could be possible. Eventually his research proved disappointing.
"The research got to the point where it took the fun out of it because now I'm like, 'Oh that can't happen,'" he said. "When I was a kid I was like, "Oh I can't wait for that to happen."
Though Smith has come to the conclusion he will not travel through time like Marty McFly, his goal is to buy the car used in the movies: a DeLorean. The car was made for only three years in the United States and currently has about three dealers. Smith said a DeLorean in perfect condition can cost up to $40,000, but they've also sold on eBay for as little as $20,000.
"Oh, I would not drive it to work—but I would definitely drive it," he said. "It's realistic, it could happen."
After quoting the movies time and again to his wife, Smith said she refused to watch the films anymore. But Smith's children are being indoctrinated.
"The 5-year-old is a little younger then I was when I first saw it," he said. "He gets it, he knows the characters. He doesn't understand the past-future type of thing, but watch it enough and he'll get it."
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