I am uncomfortable in the world of deepfakes, but here I am getting sucked into another movie deepfake, as if I learned nothing from that Sylvester Stallone in Terminator 2 experience. This time, Marvel Cinematic Universe and Dolittle co-stars Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland are transformed for a Back to the Future deepfake.
Once again, it's eerily believable. Once again, I love it but it gives me the creeps. In this case, it's downright alarming how PERFECT Tom Holland is as Michael J. Fox's Marty McFly. I don't know what the fantastic Mr. Fox is up to right now, but this makes me think he needs to play Tom Holland's dad in something.
For this Back to the Future deepfake, the scene's audio is the same -- with Christopher Lloyd voicing Doc Brown and Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly -- and the visuals are the same except for RDJ's face on Doc and Tom Holland's face on Marty.
The deepfake -- accurately labeled "This is heavy!" -- was posted on Valentine's Day and already has more than 1,279,973 views after just two days. Check out YouTuber EZRyderX47's video:
Great Scott, that's impressive! And alarming. I know I already used the word alarming -- and I sound like a hand-wringing "Think Of The Children" mom from The Simpsons -- but this deepfake technology is alarmingly easy for the spread of misinformation. It's harmless and fun when used for movie scenes like this, but if Terminator taught us anything, it's that fans don't want new Terminator films. But also that technology is too much like Miley Cyrus, it can't be tamed.
Still, some fans were so impressed with this Back to the Future deepfake, they were even willing to reconsider a remake to the classic:
I don't want them to remake Back to the Future but Tom Holland and Robert Downey Jr would be great choices for Marty and Doc.
That's just one comment on EZRyderX47's video, and the comment got more than 1.1K upvotes. So the real Robert Downey Jr. and Tom Holland may not have been enough to sell Dolittle tickets, but through no actions of their own they are selling fans on the idea of a Back to the Future remake. Peter Parker and Mr. Stark may not feel so good about that.
The real Doc Brown, Christopher Lloyd, recently talked about Back to the Future 4 not happening, despite the actor having an idea for what he'd like to see.
Back to the Future did have a tie to RDJ and Tom Holland's other recent collaboration, Avengers: Endgame, since there's a cool nod in the movie to Back to the Future 2. Plus, the Endgame directors talked about ignoring Back to the Future when it came to time travel, since that franchise really set the benchmark for how fans interpret the "rules" for that genre.
Back to the Future is just iconic like that. But now we know one small change to the two lead stars' faces could change everything, but still be fascinating to watch. Alarming!
