BTTF.

I've wondered what the nerds do all year between Comic-Con Conventions. This is it. This what they're doing. The nerds were in full force at the Back to the Future screening yesterday. One guy dressed as Doc. Another wearing a life preserver/vest. Many wearing BTTF t-shirts. All of us asking when we get our free commemorative poster. During the pre-show trivia game, I was stumped--and I rewatch this movie fairly often(!)--while the real superfans competed fiercely for a BTTF card game set.

There was a theater during my childhood in the 1980s; there were actually two separate AMC buildings that made a total of 10 screens next to the Puente Hills Mall. Those 2 were eventually demolished and replaced with a 20-screen cineplex inside the Mall proper. So in a sense, I felt like I was going to the same theater I saw BTTF as a kid, though that's not technically true. And I started to think about all the years I've been coming to these theaters and this Mall. Trick or treating inside the mall on Halloween. Eating a free sample at See's. My dad having a smoke as my mother and I looked for my school clothes. It was once a very busy place for retail and a hub of social activity. You wouldn't know it to look at it now. The clientele demographic is completely different. The property changed hands and stores have all come and gone again and again. Imagine, a mall without a GAP. It's weird, right? Yet I've never stopped coming by here, though it's become less of a place to shop and more of a place to walk around, buy a bus pass, and see a film.

The Puente Hills Mall's claim to fame is that it is where the Delorean scenes of BTTF were film. Puente Hills Mall is the Twin Pines Mall/Lone Pine Mall. I could hardly believe I had a legitimate reason to invite friends to come here. The infrastructure of the Mall itself is largely unchanged (though extensive renovations have been made to another wing--where the cineplex is). The side you see in the film is still familiar; JC Penney is now a Burlington Coat Factory and the Robbinsons (due to department store mergers over the years) is predictably, a Macy's. Empirical friend aipohaku whispered during the movie, "Look, you can see it says Puente Hills Mall right there on the building." She was right. The sign has since been removed and you can't see it on DVD, but on the big screen it was clear. The restaurant no longer in existence anywhere near here, kinije whispered, "Is that the Fuddruckers across the street?" Awesome.

I remembered being in the theater and my mother whispering, "Look Cari, that's this Mall. That's outside." At 6 years old, I didn't believe her. I thought Hill Valley was a real place even when I knew Michael J. Fox was an actor on "Family Ties."

Hearing the applause and cheers yesterday for Michael J. Fox over the opening credits was great, but the bigger response to Marty's first late-night arrival at Twin Pines Mall was even better.

"Save the Clock Tower" flyers in the theater lobby were a nice touch.

I'd heard other theaters around Southern California that were having screenings yesterday did not have 3 Deloreans [and inexplicably, 2 KITT Knight Rider cars] in the parking lot. These appearances were not sponsored and were simply the respective car owners' nerdiness. It was funny hearing one of the KITTs talking over the BTTF soundtrack coming from the speakers of this "most accurate to the movie" sequel Delorean. BTTF/Knight Rider mashups.