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Biff Tannen was based on Donald Trump, says Back to the Future writer
A loudmouth bully with a huge casino empire? “Think, McFly! Think!”
IN YET ANOTHER present day “Back to the Future” tie-in, it turns out Republican presidential frontrunner Donald Trump was the inspiration for Biff Tannen, the film’s bullying villain.
“We thought about it when we made the movie! Are you kidding?” Back to the Future screenwriter Bob Gale told news website The Daily Beast.
In “Back to the Future Part II,” Tannen – Marty McFly’s arch nemesis – reappears as the owner of a 27-story casino who takes over fictional Hill Valley, California.
This storyline occurs after Marty and Doc Brown fly in the Dolorean time machine, to 21 October 2015 – prompting a wave of nostalgia yesterday.
Gale, who wrote or co-wrote the screenplay for all three Back to the Future movies, with director Robert Zemeckis, added:
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.
Tannen’s towering casino bears a striking resemblance to the Trump Plaza Hotel in Atlantic City, completed five years before the film’s release in 1989.
“Yeah,” Gale told the Daily Beast when asked about the resemblance.
That’s what we were thinking about.
Decide for yourself:
Contains reporting by AFP.
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