(Robert Zemeckis, US 1990, 118 min., 35mm)
Following the events of the previous film, Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) has been thrown in the nineteenth century, forcing Marty (Michael J. Fox) to mount a rescue operation. While he manages to retrieve the DeLorean and travel back to 1885, the car crashes and severs the fuel line, leaving everyone stranded without a way to get the machine up to 88 miles per hour. What Marty doesn’t realize is that Doc is perfectly happy and doesn’t want to return to the modern day, having fallen in love with Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen). Doc devises a dangerous plan to send Marty home, but they need to implement it in secret while avoiding both Marty’s and Biff’s ancestors. An excuse for director Robert Zemeckis to make his long-yearned-for western, the film nonetheless rounds out the trilogy in a thrilling, satisfying way.