The original Back to the Future is loaded with Easter eggs and pop culture references. For example, when Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) starts playing the Huey Lewis and the News song “The Power of Love” during the Battle of the Bands scene, it’s Huey Lewis himself who stops Marty and tells him he’s “too darn loud.” Later on (or should that be earlier on?), after traveling back to 1955, Marty plays Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” as Marvin Berry and the Starlighters call up his cousin Chuck to let him hear the song. Perhaps the strangest easter egg hiding in plain sight, however, is a reference to an adult film from the 1970s.
At the beginning of Back to the Future, as Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer gets picked up by her father, you’ll notice that the marquee on the movie theater behind Marty displays the name of an X-rated film called Orgy American Style. This isn’t something that was just made up as a gag; it’s the title of an actual porn movie that was released in 1973. It also wasn’t an accident that it ended up in the shot. In fact, the marquee shows up again toward the end of the movie, and there’s a little bit more significance to its inclusion the second time around.
Following Marty’s return to 1985, he crashes the DeLorean into the Assembly of Christ church in downtown Hill Valley, California. This attracts the attention of a homeless man, who refers to Marty as a “Crazy drunk driver.” Upon exiting the car, Marty notices that the movie theater’s marquee still bears the name of Orgy American Style. He then turns to the homeless guy and says, “Red, you look great!”
Funny thing about ol’ Red: The character (known simply as “Bum” in the credits) was played by a former adult film actor by the name of George “Buck” Flower. As you might’ve been able to guess from that last sentence, Flower was one of the stars of Orgy American Style. Flower made a name for himself in the ‘70s, appearing in such films as Satan’s Lust, Suckula, and Mother Knows Best. He was eventually hired by John Carpenter for his 1980 film The Fog and started making more mainstream movies from there.
Flower went on to have a long career as a character actor, before dying in 2004, during which he landed many roles as a homeless person, interestingly enough. He even reprised his role as Red for Back to the Future Part II, who once again has a single line of dialogue, calling Marty a “crazy drunk pedestrian”:
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