Why Is ‘Mr. Robot’ So Obsessed With 'Back to the Future'? (2024)

Mr. Robot is one of the strongest examples of how the “auteur theory” of filmmaking can relate to television. While television shows are typically the result of multiple artists’ creative involvement, Mr. Robot retains the sharp stylistic impulses of its creator, Sam Esmail. Esmail certainly feels inspired by many classic films, as Mr. Robot shares a lot in common with classic conspiracy thrillers, science fiction action films, and political dramas. Although the first season includes a twist that is reminiscent of the shocking ending of Fight Club, Mr. Robot drops many references to Back to the Future throughout its four seasons.

Mr. Robot centers on the computer coder Elliot Alderson (Rami Malek), who has a secret life as a hacker who exposes corrupt and powerful individuals and corporations. Elliot’s activities attract the attention of the hacktivist group “fosciety” and their enigmatic leader, Mr. Robot (Christian Slater), who wants to lead an attack that will erase the world’s debt. In a shocking twist, Elliot learns that Mr. Robot is actually one of his different personalities, serving as a fictional version of his dead father, Edward. Mr. Robot uses the themes of the Back to the Future trilogy to examine Elliot’s deteriorating mental state and revelations about his past.

Mr. Robot

TV-MA

Crime

Drama

Thriller

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Release Date

June 24, 2015

Cast

Rami Malek , Christian Slater , Carly Chaikin , B.D. Wong , Grace Gummer , Portia Doubleday

Main Genre

Drama

Seasons

4

‘Mr. Robot’ Deals With Time Travel and Alternate Universes

Although it concluded its fourth and final season in 2019, the entirety of Mr. Robot takes place in an alternate version of 2015, the same year Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) visit in Back to the Future: Part II. Ironically, Marty and Elliot have very similar intentions. Marty is determined to change the future so that his son will not become a “loser” and that his family legacy is preserved; this ends up backfiring when his family rival, Biff Tanen (Thomas F. Wilson), takes over and turns the future into a dark, totalitarian nightmare. Similarly, Elliot is forced to deal with the consequences of his actions after erasing the world’s debt. His goal may have been to stabilize the world’s financial institutions by giving people their livelihoods back, but Elliot accidentally played into the hands of the evil hacker group Dark Army and their malevolent leader, Whiterose (BD Wong).

Elliot mentions several times that Back to the Future: Part II is his favorite movie, and Esmail inserts some visual parallels to Marty’s adventures. In the episode “eps3.7_dont-delete-me.ko,” Elliot copes with the death of his friend Trenton (Sunita Mani) by taking care of her younger brother Sandesh (Dileep Rao). While he is initially hesitant about taking responsibility for a child, Elliot realizes that it is October 21, the day that Marty and Doc travel back to. He celebrates this by taking Sandesh to a screening of Back to the Future: Part II, and Mr. Robot’s opening credits are transformed into the same stylized logo. Given that Elliot is a very isolated character who suffers from severe bouts of depression, the fact that he genuinely enjoys a piece of mainstream popular culture is a significant moment in his character arc.

The Back to the Future references begin to make sense in the show’s third season, as Mr. Robot plays with the idea of an alternate universe. After Dark Army orchestrates the destruction of an E Corp facility that results in many casualties, Elliot’s childhood friend Angela Moss (Portia Doubleday) becomes obsessed with the idea of “turning back time” in order to keep everyone alive. Sadly, Mr. Robot confirms in its finale that this is not possible; Elliot is forced to live with the consequences of his actions and, like Marty, learns to live with his tragic past.

‘Back to the Future’ Nostalgia Is a Coping Method for Elliot in ‘Mr. Robot'

It’s initially unclear why Elliot takes so much solace in nostalgia, but Mr. Robot reveals that he is trying to make up for a happy childhood that he never had. The show’s fourth season reveals that Elliot had been sexually abused by his father and that Mr. Robot was created to help him cope with his trauma. Since he is still in denial about what happened to him, Elliot retreats into a familiar piece of popular culture media as a sense of escapism. Conflating his own reality with that of Back to the Future offers Elliot a healthier form of catharsis than his drug addiction and social anxiety.

Both Mr. Robot and Back to the Future deal with nuanced relationships between fathers and sons. In Back to the Future, Marty is shocked to learn that his father (Crispin Glover) was not the same man in his adolescence and attempts to give him the confidence that he needs. Similarly, Elliot must reckon with the truth about his father by distinguishing him from Mr. Robot; as much as Elliot wants to believe that Mr. Robot is there to protect him, he knows that he is modeled after an abuser who had no love for him.

‘Mr. Robot’ Is Packed With Movie References

It’s evident that Esmail is a Back to the Future fan, but Mr. Robot is filled with references to classic movies. The third season, which deals with the concept of time travel, features the song “In Time” from the soundtrack of Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure, and the show’s depiction of New York City as a sprawling visual metroplex sparks comparison with the neo-noir style of Ridley Scott’s Blade Runner. While Mr. Robot doesn’t necessitate knowledge of these properties to be enjoyed, they do serve as fun Easter Eggs for cinephiles.

Mr. Robot is a stronger show because of its cinematic influences. Many viewers may have been surprised that a drama on the USA Network was so ambitious, but Mr. Robot defied expectations throughout its entire run. Unsurprisingly, Esmail later turned his sights to cinema and directed the highly successful Netflix thriller Leave the World Behind.

Mr. Robot is streaming on Amazon Prime Video in the U.S.

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