Elijah Wood's Movie Debut Involved Insulting A Major Sci-fi Franchise's Hero

Universal

The first act of Robert Zemeckis' 1989 film "Back to the Future Part II" takes place in the far-flung future of 2015. The film's protagonist, the fresh-faced would-be rocker Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), has traveled 30 years into the future from his home year of 1985, specifically to check in on his future kids, who, in 2015, are already teenagers. It seems that they will (as seen by fellow time traveler Doc Brown) potentially get in trouble with the law. 

Because Marty looks exactly like his future son (Fox plays both roles), he steps into his son's place to prevent a disaster involving the future bully Griff (Thomas F. Wilson) and a hoverboard incident (which also injured a stuntwoman on set). 

Marty, a denizen of the 20th century, is kept off-balance by the future world of 2015. Movies are now holographic (he can go see "Jaws 19"), and the cars all fly. He is comforted, however, to find a local retro-style diner called Cafe '80s, decorated to look like his home. Keep in mind that "Back to the Future Part II" was made in the '80s, so the idea of a "Cafe '80s" was novel and whimsical, and not something that, y'know, actually exists.

Inside the Cafe '80s is a vintage arcade cabinet of "Wild Gunman," a game Marty loves. Two young kids, maybe eight, wonder what the arcade cabinet is; they are unfamiliar with coin-op arcade games. Marty shows them by activating the game, grabbing the attached plastic gun, and expertly gunning down two digital gunslingers. The boys are bored. You have to use your hands?, they ask incredulously. "That's like a baby's toy." 

One of the two bored, unimpressed kids is none other than Elijah Wood in his feature film debut. 

Universal

To offer a brief aside: some video game purists may point out that the version of "Wild Gunman" that Marty plays was actually made for the home Nintendo Entertainment System console and wasn't built into arcade cabinets in the 1980s. What's more, the gun Marty uses is a black revolver-like device, whereas the Nintendo gun, the Zapper, was gray and futuristic. There was a "Wild Gunman" arcade game in 1974, originally called "Gun Fight," but it looked very different from the NES version because it incorporated live-action film footage. 

But then, maybe we should just relax about that kind of thing. There's every reason to believe that, by the future of 2015, Nintendo manufactured a retro-style cabinet with "Wild Gunman" installed. 

But back to Elijah Wood. As a child, he worked as a model, and some might remember his appearance in Paula Abdul's music videos for "Forever Your Girl" and "Straight Up," both in 1989. Wood possessed some sort of "It" quality for a child actor, though, and his career took off in due course. In 1990, he appeared in Mike Figgis' "Internal Affairs," the TV movie "Child in the Night," and Barry Levinson's "Avalon." He went on to get many jobs working with high-profile actors and directors. He worked with Richard Donner in "Radio Flyer," with Mel Gibson in "Forever Young," and with Melanie Griffith in "Paradise." 1993 was a banner year for the young actor, as he played the lead character in both "The Adventures of Huck Finn" and the horror movie "The Good Son." He was only 12 by then. 

Lionsgate Premiere

Wood's career has never slowed down. In the early 2000s, he experienced a huge wave of success thanks to his performance as Frodo Baggins in Peter Jackson's highly celebrated "The Lord of the Rings" movies. Through all of this, he has continued to work with interesting directors, including Robert Rodriguez (in "Sin City"), Michel Gondry (in "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind"), Lexi Alexander (in "Green Street Hooligans"), and George Miller (in "Happy Feet"). 

But Wood, although a presence in blockbuster entertainments, has often expressed off-kilter interests, interests that have led to the productions of many marvelously bizarre movies. In 2010, Wood formed a production company initially called the Woodshed, which later became SpectreVision. He serves as the creative director of that company, which is devoted largely to horror movies. The company oversaw the child-zombie film "Cooties," Ana Lily Amirpour's "A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night," the very bizarre "The Greasy Strangler," and the Panos Cosmatos feakout "Mandy." That's a damn fine track record for any production company. 

And, as an actor, Wood has gravitated toward some very weird, very good horror projects. He was most recently in the 2026 human-hunting film "Ready or Not 2: Here I Come," and also appeared in "The Monkey" and the remake of "The Toxic Avenger." He also played a bonkers parallel version of himself in "I Love L.A." Wood, once a star of blockbusters like "Back to the Future Part II," has become one of cinema's preeminent Weird Little Guys. It was a great turn for him, and it proves that he has always been thoughtful and interesting.