Spookily, 1989 cult classic Back to the Future II — which is set in 2015 — forecast not only hipster fashion, but the end of lawyers…
“Back to the Future II” — the sequel to director Robert Zemeckis’s earlier blockbuster — is consummately of the eighties. Released in the last year of that decade, it had all the fashion sense one might expect of the love child of Madonna and Lionel Richie if such an offspring had ever been created.
The critics panned the film — it bags a woeful 45% rating of leading reviewers on film website Rotten Tomatoes — but that didn’t prevent box office success, as it became the third biggest earning release worldwide that year.
So no accounting for taste. But the reason Legal Cheek is dredging up this otherwise artistically forgettable film is its reference to the legal profession.
Midway through the action, mad scientist character Doc Brown — who was also one of the world’s few DeLorean motor car enthusiasts — explains to his charge, Marty McFly, that in 2015 all lawyers have been done away with.
Considering the recent success of Secret Cinema’s ‘Back to the Future’ extravaganza at London’s Olympic park — which arguably owes something to the fact that Zemecki’s vision of 2015 looks a lot like Dalston today sans hoverboards — should the legal profession be slightly worried?
Watch the clip here: