One of the writers of “Back to the Future: Part II” confirmed Wednesday that the character arc of Biff Tannen was based on none other than Donald Trump.
Bob Gale, who wrote the “Back to the Future” sequel, told the Daily Beast that he had today’s Republican presidential front-runner in mind while writing Biff, who transformed from a bully in the original film to a rich, politically powerful pseudo-dictator of Hill Valley, Calif., in the sequel.
“We thought about it when we made the movie! Are you kidding?” he said when asked if the parallels between Biff and Trump were lost on him or not. “You watch ‘Part II’ again and there’s a scene where Marty confronts Biff in his office and there’s a huge portrait of Biff on the wall behind Biff, and there’s one moment where Biff kind of stands up and he takes exactly the same pose as the portrait? Yeah.”
The Biff of “Part II” owned a 27-story casino, which pales in comparison to Trump’s 37-story Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, N.J. He ended up using his vast wealth and influence to basically rule Hill Valley despite never running for political office.
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Biff even encouraged the residents of Hill Valley to call him “America’s greatest living folk hero,” which is vaguely reminiscent of Trump’s campaign slogan, “Make America Great Again.”
“Yeah,” reiterated Gale. “[Trump is] what we were thinking about.”
Despite penning a version of 2015 that included a Trump-like figure with almost unlimited political power, Gale said he is optimistic for the country’s future if it heads in the right direction, whatever that is.
“That’s what [director] Bob Zemeckis and I believe: These movies are about personal responsibility. You need to be responsible for your own future, and if you do the right thing now, it’ll have positive results in the future.”
Wednesday, Oct. 21, 2015, is the day that Doc Brown and Marty McFly traveled to in the sequel, which is why the film and its 1989 view of 2015 are a trending topic again.
