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TURN BACK TIME

‘Back to the Future’ Star Shares One Regret About Final Film

“I still feel that pang in my heart,” Christopher Lloyd writes in his memoir.

NEW YORK, NEW YORK - OCTOBER 08: Actors Christopher Lloyd (L) and Michael J. Fox attend a "Back To The Future Reunion" at New York Comic Con on October 08, 2022 in New York City. (Photo by Mike Coppola/Getty Images)

Mike Coppola/Getty Images

Star of the time-bending Back to the Future movie franchise Christopher Lloyd has revealed the one do-over he wishes he could have.

Writing in his memoir, In My Own Time, Lloyd says his favorite Back to the Future installment is the third and final, where Marty and Doc end up in the Wild West in 1885.

Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox in 'Back to the Future Part III.'

Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox in 'Back to the Future Part III.'

Paramount Pictures

Lloyd said he wishes he’d gone against the film crew’s advice and performed a major stunt himself.

“There’s a sequence in Part III where Doc is riding on horseback and chasing after the speeding steam-engine train that he hopes will once again bring Marty and the DeLorean back to the present day,” Lloyd writes in the memoir, per People.

“The scene called for me to ride my horse right up next to the rear of the train, until I was close enough to grab a handle on the car. However, I was plainly told not to actually grab that handle—in no way should I try to do that, or pull myself off the horse and onto the train.”

But he nearly risked it all in the moment, the temptation to give the stunt a try almost too strong.

Doc hangs onto the side of the steam train in  'Back to the Future Part III.'

Doc hangs onto the side of the steam train in 'Back to the Future Part III.'

Paramount Pictures

“I mean, it was right there. The train is hurtling along at some fantastic speed, and I’m so close I can feel it going whooooosh as it rattled alongside me,” he said.

“I was within reach. And I just felt, I can do this. It’s there. I almost put everything in jeopardy. But I didn’t, and that was a close call.”

Back to the Future Part III was released in 1990, continuing the time-traveling saga of Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox.

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The film was made on a budget of $40 million and grossed a little under $88 million domestically, significantly less than Part II, which had the same budget but grossed $118 million domestically.

Neither sequel had the box office power of the 1985 original, which was made for under $20 million and grossed more than $221 million domestically.

Lloyd writes in his memoir that it was extremely tempting to attempt the stunt, and that part of him still wishes he had.

“Who knows what would have happened next?...Whenever I watch the movie and see that scene, I still feel that pang in my heart: I should have done it.”

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