The summer of 1985 was a landmark season for Amblin Entertainment and movie audiences, with the release of such classics as The Goonies in June and only a month later, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s Back to the Future. In what would prove to be the first exciting adventure of time-traveling teenager Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and his oddball inventor friend Doctor Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd), Marty is accidentally sent back to 1955, where he encounters his parents as teenagers, disrupting the time continuum to potentially fatal effect. It’s a race against the clock to set things right so Marty can get back to the “future” of 1985.

Co-starring Lea Thompson as Marty’s mom Lorraine, Crispin Glover as his nebbish and put-upon father George, and Thomas F. Wilson as bully (“butthead!”) Biff Tannen, the retro comedy sci-fi adventure was instantly embraced by audiences, making the surprise hit the top-grossing film for all of 1985. And although Zemeckis and Gale had only planned for Marty and Doc to have this one adventure, the team reassembled to create the doubly inspired sequels Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), filmed back-to-back in what was then an unprecedented production plan.

Along with its box-office success and its ready reputation as an instant classic, Back to the Future was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Screenplay, Best Sound, and Best Song (“The Power of Love”), with a win for Best Sound Effects Editing.