In 2025, most Moviegoers are accustomed to the concept of Easter eggs and other entertaining hidden references to the films in other media. Most of these references are used in ways out of ordinary respect, especially since their presence becomes more common. It is rare to see Easter egg in 40-year-old movie that contains multiple layers of meaning. But "Returning to the Future" is not an ordinary movie.
The film still stands all these years later as One of the biggest movies during the trip everAnd one of the reasons is that co-writers Bob Gale and Robert Krequis (who also directed) went through their script with fine teeth comb for every last possible setting and payment. They were simply responsible for the chosen genres of science and comedy: Time travel stories work best when focusing on symmetry between different times, and every joke needs a toy. Besides this, Wabekis also worked with his career for a long time looking at American history through distorted lensesBoth, alumni at the USC film school, were not overwhelmed by their influences.
That is why all these layers contribute to the Easter egg in the film, which happens so early and so fast that you may have missed it. During the sequence of the title in the initial, when Marty McFley (Michael J. Fox) enters the home and lab of Doctor Emmet L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) When he is not there, the teenager joins his guitar in an amplifier made by Doc Brown. To turn on the amplifier, Marty must use a key. Only under the key is the label "CRM 114", and is on the screen for barely second before Fox's hand cover. If you were lucky enough to catch it, you may have discovered that it is a reference to one of Stanley Kubrick's best films, and not only is quite ingenious, but also works on several levels.
'Dr -R -Strangelove' and the birth of CRM 114 as running in Kubrick's movies
The name "CRM 114" first appeared in Kubrick's political satire in 1964 "Dr. Strigelove or: How I learned to stop worrying and love the bomb." That film is about the consequences (literal and figurative) that appears after the crazy brigade General Air Force, on the go, a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union, which no one may seem to stop. One of the reasons for this refers to the fictional device called Discriminator CRM 114, which is something the military uses during the red warning period to communicate with their bombardment planes secret and safe. Not only is the crazy general the only person with code to allow communication through, but there is CRM 114 which is one of the bombers, which means that even the successfully transferred recall code will not prevent them from carrying out their destructive mission.
This satirizing the way different checks, equilibrium and secure systems that are established by the true US military during the Cold War can easily be undermined or otherwise abusing lies in the heart of Dr. Strigelove, but the idea of āācollapse. That's why the director continued to refer to CRM 114 Some of his successive filmsturning it into an Easter egg that works with an egg. In "2001: Space Odyssey", that is the number of the spacecraft registry, the same ship driven by the final defective computer Hal 9000. In "Clock Orange", the formula given to the ultra-violent protagonist of the film is marked "114", which is "114". In the author's latest film, "Eyes Widely Closed", "Mortor", where Tom Cruise's doctor is further attracted to what or may not be a plot is at "Level/Wing C, Room 114". What is to say, "C room 114." Kubrick used the term many times not only to be self-reference, but to attract the attention of these other cases of technology and/or decay society decaying.
As "Back to the Future" burdens CRM 114 with multiple layers of meaning
Given all this, the CRM 114 Scout in "Returning to the Future" is smart multilayer. At the gake movie level, it's Kubrick's Kubrick's hat, similar to something like directors who go on George Lucas's "Thx 1138" referencesor Brad Bird and keeping the crew Pixar The "A113" reference goes. At the comedy level, it is (short) setting up for the fungus that follows: CRM 114 refers to a technology malfunction, and indeed defects of dock super amplifiers in spectacular fashion when Marty turns all dialing to the maximum. At the level of the script, it is part of our acquaintance with the characters of Doc and Marty. Doc is a well -intentioned but eccentric scientist whose irresponsible nature is obvious throughout the home (including the plot of the stolen plutonium sitting just below his bed), and the reference CRM 114 draws attention to it. It also points out how Marty, combined with DOC technology, can worsen the bad condition. The amplifier would probably not explode if Marty had not abused it, just like later, he would not have traveled in 1955, if he were more careful.
What is most intriguing is how the reference helps to establish film themes. "Back to the Future" is a satire, as well as a complete adventure for a comedy science. This element often overlooks ordinary film viewers, who believe that such elements as Marty's mother, Leah (Leah Thompson), should be ingredients in her future son, should be taken at nominal value. The film is a very deliberate consideration of American morality, values āāand history, and Kabis and Gale approach those aspects with both an oversee and critical eye. America is a country that promises such beautiful things as freedom and prosperity, but it is much less squeezed pure than the image it wants to project; The idea for Ronald Reagan as president may look funny to Doc since 1955, but Marty in 1985 did not laugh. Doc can invent a time traveling through time, partly because of the gray deal he made with terrorists (whom he doubled). However, the car is not an example of engineering, but Delorean, a vehicle known for failing to catch.
CRM 114 not only invokes Kubrick at the surface level, but on deeply thematic. Whether it is a discriminator or deficit that causes trouble, both are indicative of how nicely the United States is.
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