Aug 14, 2026 · 1 hr 43 min · 14 segments
For our 55th episode we put this beloved sci-fi classic on the slab.
Pete SwanHostJeff HolmesHost
This podcast contains spoilers galore, and unlike its PG subject matter, plenty of words end in uck and unt, and also plot lines of incest, terrorism, and some pretty daft science.
Hollywood had tried it before our specimen, of course, but it had never been so funny, accessible, or commercially irresistible.
A sports car, a flux capacitor, and a s- a suspiciously pr- precise 88 miles an hour, but we lapped it up without question.
A teenage boy accidentally threatens his own existence by interfering with his parents' romance.
Paradoxes, butterfly effects, altered timelines, and tick, tick, ticking clocks, cinema has borrowed its vocabulary ever since.
It became a household name of its era and spawned sequels, games, and a musical, yes, really, and countless imitations.
So did it merely entertain us, or did it fundamentally change how cinema tells stories about time? With a runtime of 116 minutes, the reel on the cold marble slab tonight introduced time travel sci-fi to a whole generation.
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