Back to the Future Filming Locations

Part 3

Actual Southern California locations where "Back to the Future" was filmed.
.[ Click here for an interactive MAP of all B.T.T.F. locations!].

Back in 1955, Marty seeks out (the younger) 'Doc Brown'.

First, he goes back to his garage/lab (above) and then discovers
the Doc's house is still standing in 1955 (below).

And it turns out to be (in real life) a very well-known Pasadena landmark:
The Gamble House, a 1908 Craftsman home designed by famed architects
Greene & Greene.

It's located at 4 Westmoreland Place,
in Pasadena, CA, and offers tours.

(The tours emphasize the architectural history of the house, not the movie.)

The Gamble House is located in the 300 block of N. Orange Grove Boulevard,
three blocks north of Colorado Boulevard (the street made famous by the Rose Parade).

(You'll find the Gamble House's official website at http://www.gamblehouse.org.)

Here is a matching StreetView of the house.

The movie revisits the school (Whittier High), in 1955 Hill Valley
(the Universal Studios set), then gives us a new location.

It's for the "Enchantment Under the Sea" school dance,
where Marty hopes to reunite his parents, by staging a mock fight
and a 'rescue' by his nerd dad of his young Mom (Lea Thompson).

But the school dance scene wasn't filmed at Whittier High or any other school.

It was filmed in the basement of a church just north of Hollywood Boulevard.

It's the Hollywood United Methodist Church, to be exact,

located at 6817 Franklin Avenue (at Highland Avenue,
north of the Hollywood & Highland center), in Hollywood.

Here is a Google StreetView of the church.

So, Marty tries to get fresh with his young mom in a car in the school parking lot,
so that his young dad can then 'rescue' her and play the hero.

But his plan doesn't work out that well.

His mom turns out to be far less naive than Marty had thought, and the bully
Biff ends up locking Marty in the trunk of a car. Fortunately, his dad shows
up and actually rescues his mom from Biff, insuring their future union.

These scenes were also shot at Whittier High (12417 E. Philadelphia Street, in Whittier),
but not in the parking lot. They were filmed at a part of the school we haven't seen before.

it's actually a grassy quad behind the main building, on the east side of the campus. In the movie,
they just parked the cars on the grass and the wide sidewalks to give the illusion of a parking lot.

Here is a Google 360 Panorama of that side of the school.

And here are two photos (from Steve Mynott)
of that side of the school, as seen in 2009:

Back inside the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance, Marty watches as his parents
cement their budding relationship on the dance floor, then launches into a wild
version of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode" that shocks the dancers (and,
in a bit of a paradox, inspires Chuck Berry's original 1958 hit).

This performance takes place upon the stage at the same
Hollywood United Methodist Church in Hollywood,
(which, in real life, is about 27 miles away from Whittier High School).

Finally, 'Doc Brown' figures out a way to send Marty "back to the future".

Because the clock atop the Courthouse stopped when it was hit by lightning in 1955,
they know exactly the moment when it will be struck.

So Doc devises a plan to use the electricity from the lightning bolt to power
the time-traveling DeLorean back into 1985.

This scene was shot, of course, back at 'Courthouse Square', which
is a large outdoor set you can see on the backlot tram tour at
Universal Studios Hollywood.

Before the movie ends, we return to the Twin Pines Mall (for a reenactment of the original
shootout with the terrorists), then we end up back at Marty's house in 1985 (where Marty
discovers the favorable changes he has accidentally brought about by tinkering with time travel),
and the time-traveling DeLorean roars off for the future over Marty's Street (in Arleta).

[ Click here for an interactive MAP of all B.T.T.F. locations,
including aerial photos of all of the locations!]

That's All Folks!

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The photos on this page are stills from the DVD of "Back to the Future"
(which you can buy by clicking here) and are copyright Universal Pictures.