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Status | fictional city |
Year of foundation | 1865 |
State | California |
Hill Valley is a fictional small American town in California from the 1980s film trilogy " Back to the Future ", which describes alternative realities of this city and several families living there. In the trilogy, the city is shown at different periods of its development - 1885, 1955, 1985 and 2015, as well as several alternative versions in these dates. The name of the city is similar to the name of the real town of Mill Valley in California . Also, several other organizations and institutions important for the plot are first mentioned in the game " Back to the Future: The Game ", which takes place in 1986, 1931 and 1876.
Content
History
The name of the city is a joke, an oxymoron ( English hill - “hill”, English valley - “valley”). The initial version of the second part of the trilogy mentioned that Hill Valley is named after its founder, William "Bill" Hill.
Hill Valley was founded in 1850 and officially registered in 1865 . In 1871, the city newspaper Hill Valley Telegraph was founded. In 1880, Hill Valley was connected to San Francisco by rail. In 1885, a watch was launched in honor of this event. The construction of the bridge over the Shonash Gorge was completed in the summer of 1886 - in the same year the gorge was renamed the Eastwood Gorge after Doc and Marty saved Clara Clayton from death - otherwise, the gorge would be named Clayton. In 1891, a police station was opened in the city.
City Places
Courthouse
The courthouse is the key building throughout the trilogy because the clock is set on the courthouse. It is not known exactly when the construction began, but in 1885 it was at a late stage. In the same year, before the eyes of Marty and Doc, during the festival, a watch was launched that would later be transferred under the roof of the city hall.
At the beginning of the first part, in 1985, this watch stands. They have been standing already 30 years after lightning hit them. They stopped when they showed 22:04. Marty receives a leaflet asking to save the watch from replacement, the date and time of the lightning strike are indicated on the leaflet. This leaflet accidentally gets along with Marty in 1955 . And it was she who gave Marty the idea of where to get energy for the time machine to return back to the future. The dock attaches a wire to the flagpole above the clock, stretches it over the street so that Marty, having accelerated to a speed of 88 miles per hour, travels under this wire exactly at 22:04, at the moment when lightning strikes, and the current collector will direct energy to the stream storage device. At the end of the film, their idea was a success. In an alternative reality of 1985, on the site of the city hall, the hotel-casino " Pleasure Paradise " was built by the suddenly wealthy Biff Tannen.
In the second part of the trilogy in 2015, the city hall building was glazed and given a more modern look. The clock still stands under the roof, frozen 60 years ago at around 22:04. During the pursuit of Marty, whom Griff Tannen mistook for Marty Jr., Griff and his friends fly on the flying boards into the glass of the city hall building, for which they are arrested, and thus the future of Marty Jr. is changing.
Lyon Estates
Lyon Estates is the area where the Marty family resides. In the alternative reality of 1985, the area is in ruin. Residents sleep with weapons at hand, armed gangs are operating in the area. In 1955, the district was just starting to be built. Columns with stone lions and the name of the district were built. Nearby is a large banner ad, behind which Marty hides the De Lorean DMC-12 .
Hildale
In 2015, the Marty and Jennifer family live in the Hilldale area. For 1985, the area was considered prestigious, as Marty, looking to see his family prosperous in the future, was delighted to be living in Hildale. However, police in 2015 speak unflattering about the area, according to them, it has long been subject to demolition.
Two Pines Shopping Center (later Lone Pine)
In the parking lot in front of this Twin Pines Mall , the first test of a time machine is undergoing. After the test, Doc tells Marty that thirty years ago there was only the farm of old Peabody, who planted pine trees. Marty was transported to 1955 and crashes into a stable. Escaping from the furious farmer Peabody, Marty knocks down one of the two young pines in front of the farm machine. At the end of the first part, when Marty runs to warn Doc about the terrorists in 1985, the sign already reads “Lone Pine” ( English Lone Pine Mall ).
For the shooting of the shopping center, they used the Puente Hills Mall , located in the Industrial City in California . Now the store does not exist - in its place is a fitness center.
Hill Valley High School
Hill Valley High School is a high school that taught many of the characters in the trilogy: George, Lorraine, Biff, Marty, Jennifer and others. In 1985, the post of director was taken by Gerald Strickland, who worked at the school back in 1955. The mascot of the school basketball team is the Bulldog [1] . The colors of the team are red and white, later - dark crimson and white.
Scenery
Studio Fires
In the entire history of the existence of Universal Studios, several large fires have occurred on its territory. The scenery of the city was completely destroyed by the fire that occurred on June 1, 2008 on the set [2] [3] .
In California, on Sunday, June 1, 2008, there was a major fire in one of the pavilions of Universal Pictures Studios in Los Angeles . It began in the morning - at 4:45 local time - and quickly spread to the amusement park, completely destroying entire blocks of wooden houses in an hour: layouts of New York and New England streets, as well as the King Kong attraction and the scenery for the famous trilogy “ Back to the Future". It is reported that on the site where the fire occurred, films such as Jurassic Park and Aliens by Stephen Spielberg were shot.
Also, according to the president of the studio, Ron Mayer, a cinema library perished on fire, in which the original films of 1930-1940 were stored - from 40 to 50 thousand units of film and video recordings. However, Mayer noted that the studio has duplicates.
More than 100 firefighters and helicopters put out the fire . According to witnesses, before the start of the fire, an explosion occurred in the studio, the cause of which was the burning of the roof tile at the time when the shooting was in progress. During the fight against fire, 10 firefighters were injured. One of the firefighters was hospitalized with injuries, with which it was not specified. There is no information about other victims.
As noted on the studio’s website , there have been six serious fires in its history. And the damage from this fire, according to preliminary estimates, amounted to several tens of millions of dollars . “There are no irreparable losses. The situation is deplorable, but it could be much worse, ”Mayer commented on the situation.
However, the fact remains: the famous square and the city court building, on the tower of which were the very clocks with which Marty could return home in 1985, were completely destroyed (the scenery photos - frames from all three films - are presented in the section “Venue "). This news upset many loyal fans of the trilogy, as this decoration was one of the main characters of the series. However, since 2010 the town has been restored, and to this day people visit it.
Appearances in other projects
- The main square of the city of Springfield from the animated series " The Simpsons " is copied from these scenery.
- The scenery is also the main square of the city in which the action of the Christmas horror story " Gremlins " (1985) takes place - another production project by Stephen Spielberg.
- Hill Valley scenery was used in the video of the American punk rock band The Offspring for the song “Why Don't You Get A Job?”
- Also, the courthouse decorations were used in the series " Sliders " ( Eng. Sliders ) in series 8 of the fifth season.
- The scenery, namely the city hall building with a clock, can be seen during the riot in the city and at the end of the film " Bruce Almighty " (2003).
- In the 18th episode of the 9th season of the television series Supernatural , Hill City was mentioned.
- The courthouse scenery was also used in the TV series “ Knight of the Roads ” of the 17th episode of the first season.
- The city is also mentioned in Series 10 of Season 3 and Series 15 of Season 5 in the series Teen Wolf
Notes
- ↑ As it is written on the school poster hanging in the corridor in 1955.
- ↑ Sergey Semenov. The fire at Universal destroyed 40,000 videos . YTPO.ru (June 2, 2008). Date of treatment January 13, 2012. Archived March 11, 2012.
- ↑ Fire at Universal destroyed the scenery for famous films . Moskovsky Komsomolets (June 2, 2008). Date of treatment January 13, 2012. Archived June 6, 2012.