Description: Viral image / Hoax
Circulating since: June 2012
Status: Fake (see details below)
Text example:
As posted on Facebook, June 27, 2012:
REMEMBER IN BACK TO THE FUTURE WHEN DOC SETS THE DATE??? TODAY IS THAT DAY! HOW EPIC!
Analysis: This is the work of a prankster. The actual future date setting of Doc Brown's time-traveling DeLorean in the 1989 Michael J. Fox film Back to the Future II was October 21, 2015 (see clip), not June 27, 2012.
A similar online hoax made the rounds two years earlier in the form of a purported screen capture showing the future time-travel date as July 10, 2010.
The premise of Back to the Future (1985) and its two sequels was the invention of a time-traveling automobile by mad scientist Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), enabling protagonist Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) to go backward and forward in time to alter past and future events. It's widely regarded as one of the best science fiction series ever made, and was certainly among the most popular.
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Sources and further reading:
Back to the Future Hoax Hits... Again
The Telegraph, 28 June 2012Back to the Future Hoax
Chicago Tribune, 27 June 2012Back to the Future Fans Fooled by Twitter Hoax
The Telegraph, 7 July 2010
Last updated 06/28/12
