"The first thing we decided on when we were planning the future sequences," says Bob Zemeckis, "was that our future wasn't going to be Orwellian. We didn't want a totalitarian state where people dress in uniforms and have their heads shaved, which is actually a very easy way to depict the future in movies."
"We also knew," adds Bob Gale, "that we would fail if we tried to offer real predictions of the future. We decided the only way to deal with it was to make it optimistic, and have a good time with it."
"Although it plays a small part, our idea was not to belabor the hardware and technology. We wanted 2015 to be fun from a pop culture standpoint," says Zemeckis. "We went back into the past to see how far certain things had evolved into the present--which, if you think about it, is the future of the past. What we present in our future are devices and situations that are extensions of our culture."
"It had to have a sense of reality for the audience," continues Gale, "because you can't identify with something that doesn't exist. We just modified ordinary, everyday conveniences. There are still TVs, only now you can watch six channels. There are still cars, only they can fly. Movies are still around."