MSO's 'Back to the Future' Concert Screenings with a Live Orchestral Score Will Get You Exclaiming "Great Scott!"

For its latest celebration of both movies and music, Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is going back ... to one of the best films of the 80s and one of the best time travel films in general. Hop on your skateboard or in your DeLorean, then head to Hamer Hall (at less than 88 miles per hour, of course). For three days in October, the venue is hosting another classic flick brought back to the big screen while the feature's score gets MSO's live orchestral treatment: Back to the Future.

It's enough to make you exclaim "great Scott!", which is actually something you'll probably be doing once you're there — especially given that the 1985 film's original score by Alan Silvestri (Pinocchio) is gaining some extra music. Around 20 minutes of new tunes by Silvestri himself have been added to the lineup only for these shows. So, no matter how many puffy vest and self-lacing shoes you own (or wish you did), you'll be experience something that you haven't while previously watching the Michael J Fox (The Good Fight)-starring hit.

MSO is busting out the flux capacitor for three gigs across Wednesday, October 23–Friday, October 25, 2024, each starting at 7.30pm, with Benjamin Northey conducting. The Back to the Future in Concert screenings join the orchestra's lineup alongside already-announced sessions of The Man From Snowy River in August, Home Alone in December and Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens in May 2025.

If you've been living in 1955 or 1855 and are somehow new to all things Back to the Future, the Oscar-winning film — for Best Sound Effects Editing — follows high-schooler Marty McFly (Fox) when he hops back 30 years from the mid-80s to the mid-50s. His journey into the past comes courtesy of a time-travelling version of the most-famous gull-winged vehicle that now exists in pop culture, which is the creation of scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd, Hacks). But returning home to his own time, and doing so without causing chaos with the space-time continuum — including with younger versions of his parents — isn't straightforward.

Fox was already a star when the OG Back to the Future initially hit cinemas thanks to Family Ties but, as 2023 documentary Still: A Michael J Fox Movie stepped through, the Robert Zemeckis (The Witches)-directed movie took his fame up a level. Then 1989's Back to the Future Part II and 1990's Back to the Future Part III swiftly followed.

Silvestri mightn't have nabbed an Academy Award nomination or win for his Back to the Future score; however, he picked up two for a couple of other Zemeckis-helmed features: Forrest Gump and The Polar Express.

Check out the trailer for Back to the Future below:

Back to the Future in Concert will take place between Wednesday, October 23–Friday, October 25, 2024 at Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, 100 St Kilda Road, Southbank. Tickets are on sale from 10am on Thursday, July 4 — head to the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra website for more details.