Marty McFrey grabbed the guitar in Back to the Future, rocked out with the band in high school dances in the 1950s, avoiding blinking to be present before returning to the 1980s.
Guitars weren't that lucky in real life.
The filmmaker went looking for an instrument while making a 1989 sequel to the film, but still can't find it anywhere. Forty years after the blockbuster film debuted, guitar creators began searching for the iconic Cherry Red Gibson ES-345.
Michael J Fox flies around in the air with his guitar in the scene from the 1985 film Back to the Future.
Universal/Getty Image
Nashville-based Gibson is urging the film to be 40 years old and to help it track it as the company searches and produces new documentaries on the film Lost to the Future.
In Gibson's video, the film's theme song is played in the background, with future stars such as Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lee Thompson and Harry Waters Jr. making film pleas. There is also the surprising appearance of Huey Lewis, who played the soundtrack headliner song “The Power of Love.”
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Lloyd states in the video in Doc Brown's Cadence that the guitar was “lost to the future.”
“It's a lost place in a space-time continuum,” says Fox, who played McFly. “Or it's in Teamster's garage.”
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In the film, McFly joins the injured band members at the 1955 school dance, performing “Sea Under the Sea of Enchantment,” with students slowly running the dance to the Angels of Earth. He then led Marvin Barry and the Starwriters in Johnny B. Good directing, calling him Oldie, who came from his hometown, despite the 1958 song not yet existed for the audience.
Fox said he wanted McFly to riff on the distinctive style of his favorite guitarist, Jimi Hendrix at the back of his head, Pete Townshendo's windmill and Jimi Hendrix at the back of Eddie Van Halen Hammer. After digging and dancing Johnny B. Good, the dance student falls into an awkward silence as McFly's riffs become more and more wilder.
“I don't think you're ready yet,” says McFrey. “But your kids are going to love it.”
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