Back to the Future and Mercury Retrograde

The Astrology Podcast

Chris Brennan

Religion & Spirituality, Spirituality, Religion

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 18 July 2025

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In episode 498 I discuss how the filming of the movie Back to the Future started during a Mercury retrograde period, and the production experienced notorious delays, including firing the lead actor after 6 weeks of filming. By examining the challenges and ultimate success of the film, we can gain a deeper understanding of what Mercury retrograde truly means in astrology. The story begins with the filmmakers, Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis, who, after years of developing the script, had their hearts set on Michael J. Fox for the lead role of Marty McFly. When Fox was unavailable, they moved forward with another actor, Eric Stoltz. Filming commenced in late November 1984, precisely as Mercury was slowing down to station retrograde. Mercury retrogrades are often associated with delays, revisions, and the need to redo things. The initial weeks of filming with Stoltz proved to be a prime example of these themes, as his more serious interpretation of the role clashed with the comedic vision of the filmmakers. This led to the difficult and highly unusual decision to recast the lead role in the middle of production. The story of Back to the Future's creation, with its delays and necessary do-overs, serves as a powerful real-world example of Mercury retrograde in action, teaching us that sometimes we must go back to the past to correct our course in order to create a better future. Join me as I break down the astrological timeline of these events and discuss the broader lessons we can learn about navigating our own Mercury retrograde periods. Watch the Video Version of This Episode https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_mXmW1AhfEg – Listen to the Audio Version of This Episode Listen to the audio version of this episode or download it as an MP3:

Transcript

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0:00.0	This month marks the 40th anniversary of the release of the movie Back to the Future.
0:05.0	And I wanted to share a story with you about how the filming of Back to the Future is this legendary example of a Mercury retrograde story
0:15.0	and how we can actually learn a lot about what Mercury retrograde means by learning about the filming of Back to the Future.
0:24.3	So I'm going to talk a little bit about that history in this video.
0:28.2	All right.
0:28.8	So in astrology, Mercury Retrogrades are associated with delays, with things not going quite
0:34.9	according to plan, with having to revisit the past, and often having to do something over again after doing it a first time.
0:45.3	So let me tell this story about Back to the Future to give the setup for why this is a good Mercury retrograde story.
0:51.9	So Back to the Future was created by Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis,
0:57.1	and they had wanted to do a time travel story or movie for a while for several years,
1:03.7	but they had a hard time coming up with like an angle on the story until during the summer of
1:09.8	1980, Bob Gale visited his family home and he was flipping
1:14.2	through an old yearbook and he found out that his father used to be class president.
1:20.3	And he was kind of surprised by this.
1:22.2	And he came up with this question of if he went back in time, would he be friends with his father,
1:29.3	or what their relationship would be like?
1:31.3	So that was the genesis of coming up with the idea for Back to the Future,
1:36.3	and then the pair ended up putting together a script based on that.
1:41.3	And they shopped the movie around Hollywood for several years, but weren't able to find
1:47.4	anybody that would take it or any studio that would produce the movie. So there's this long
1:52.9	sort of set up. And eventually Robert Zemeckis directed a successful film, romancing the Stone in early 1985, and it was so successful that
2:03.5	then the studios were more willing to work with him, so they ended up circling back to that
	...

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