Politically Correct TV Censors Edit Out References To Terrorism In ‘Back To The Future’

Full disclosure: The Back to the Future movies are my all-time favorite films, bar none. They are pure, unadulterated classics and I will fight anyone over this. If anyone wanted me to go completely nuclear (in a figurative sense), they would suggest remaking the trilogy for a “modern audience.” You thought people were upset about the Ghostbusters remake? Oh boy, you haven’t seen ANYTHING.

Thankfully, director Robert Zemeckis has said in no uncertain terms that they could remake those movies over his dead body (Dear God – If it’s not too much trouble, could you make Bob Zemeckis live forever? Please and thank you.)

I’m sure you know the premise of the first film – Marty McFly travels back in time in a DeLorean time machine that his mentor, Doc Brown, invented and meets his parents when they were in high school and shenanigans ensue. Right before Marty goes back to 1955, Libyan terrorists come looking for Doc Brown because he conned them out of the plutonium that he needed to make the time machine work. The terrorists shoot (and seemingly kill) Doc. Marty jumps into the DeLorean, the terrorists chase him around the mall parking lot, Marty hits 88 mph in the car, and accidentally travels back to 1955.

While in 1955, Marty constantly tries to tell the Doc Brown of that time what happens to him in 1985 – that he gets shot – and he wants his friend to take precautions to prevent his own death. Doc refuses to let Marty tell him the details of that night, because it’s not good to know too much about your own future.

Towards the end of the movie, Marty decides to leave a letter for Doc to open thirty years in the future. In the original version, Marty tells Doc that he will be “shot by terrorists” on the night Marty goes back in time –

However, the edited-for-TV version of Back to the Future (which aired on TBS a few days ago) thinks that two words in Marty’s letter weren’t suitable for public viewing. Take a wild guess which two words those were –

See that? “By terrorists” has been whited-out from the letter.

So… what? Doc Brown got shot by unicorns? Or maybe some rogue NRA members? White Christian dudes? Was a gun wandering by the Twin Pines Mall on its own and just randomly decided to shoot the wild-eyed scientist for kicks and giggles?

TBS edits out “by terrorists” from letter text in Back to the Future also. So weird. I’m fascinated by this decision https://t.co/3RykoSdSAK pic.twitter.com/r5RmRoEulo

— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) June 4, 2017

The edit where Marty is reading the letter out loud isn’t even done very well –

And here’s the awkward Back to the Future edit. First clip is movie in original form on Spike, then TBS version excising “by terrorists” pic.twitter.com/yHEVonF8P7

— David Rutz (@DavidRutz) June 4, 2017

Now it’s true, this TV edit of the film has been around for several years – it started sometime after 9/11 (I’ve rarely noticed it because I’ve always had my own copy of the movie and I’d rather watch it without commercials or edits. Like I said, favorite movie EVER). But this kind of thing makes me LIVID. It’s one thing to edit vulgar language or whatever. But to edit out the word “terrorist”? To ignore the fact that terrorists are A Thing? And that they’ve been coming from areas in the Middle East for DECADES?

What are you guys trying to do? Protect some special terrorist snowflakes delicate FEEEEEEELINGS??

(Side Note: See, this is why an “updated” remake of Back to the Future would totally suck. The politically incorrect references and humor are what make the movie work as both an intentional and an unintentional period piece. I could go on and on about why I love this movie so much, but that’s for another time and place.)

I may be getting worked up over a relatively small thing, but it’s the build-up of all these relatively small things that tick me off. Whether it’s editing out references to terrorists in movies, or rushing to hashtag #NotAllMuslims two seconds after we find out that a Muslim terrorist blew up a crowd of people, or the refusal to say “Radical Islamic Terrorism” because that might hurt some Muslims’ feelings or whatever – all of it is flat-out stupid.

If you can’t acknowledge the reality of terrorism in a thirty-plus-year-old movie, how are you going to acknowledge the reality of terrorism in the real world?