Back to the future presented a Stanley Kubrick Easter egg that you have probably missed

In 2025, most moviegoers were used to the concept of Easter eggs and other fun hidden references in films with other media. Most of these references are used in a way beyond the simple tribute, especially since their presence becomes more common. It is rare to see an Easter egg in a 40 -year -old film which contains several layers of meaning. But “Back to the future” is not an ordinary film.

The film is always of all these years later as one of the greatest time travel films ever made, and one of the reasons is that the co-writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis (who also made) crossed their script with a fine tooth comb for each last configuration and payment possible. They were simply responsible for their genres of science fiction and comedy that time travel stories work better when they focus on a symmetry between different periods, and each joke needs a punchline. In addition to that, Zemeckis also worked with his career theme to look at American history through a biased lens, and the two men, alumni of the USC film school, were not above tribute to their influences.

This is why all these layers contribute to an Easter egg in the film, which occurs so early and so quickly that you may have missed it. During the title opening sequence, when Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) sneaks into the house and laboratory of Doctor Emmett L. Brown (Christopher Lloyd) when the latter is not there, the teenager branch his guitar in an amplifier that Doc Brown made. To turn on the amplifier, Marty must use a key. Just below the lock hole is a label that reads “CRM 114”, and it is on the screen for just a second before Fox’s hand covers it. If you have had the chance to catch it, you may have discovered that it is a reference to one of the best films of Stanley Kubrick, and not only is it rather ingenious, but it works on several levels.

The name “CRM 114” appeared for the first time in Kubrick’s political satire in 1964 “Dr. Strangelove or: how I learned to stop worrying and like the bomb”. This film concerns the fallout (literal and figurative) which occurs after a crazy general brigadier sets in motion a nuclear attack against the Soviet Union that no one may seem to stop. One of the reasons for this concerns a fictitious device called the CRM 114 discriminator, which the army uses during red alert periods to communicate with their secretly and safe bombing planes. Not only is the crazy general the only person with the code to allow communications, but there is a CRM 114 which works poorly on board one of the bombers, which means that even a successful recall code will not prevent them from carrying out his destructive mission.

This satialization of the way in which various controls, counterweights and worried security systems set up by the real American army during the Cold War could easily be reversed or otherwise poorly used is at the heart of “Dr Strangelove”, but the idea of ​​control systems is also a central theme of Kubrick’s work. This is why the director continued to make references to the CRM 114 on several of his following films, transforming him into a Easter racing gag. In “2001: A Space Odyssey” is the register number of the discovery space vessel, the same ship managed by the HAL 9000 computer finally defective. In “A Clockwork Orange”, the formula given to the ultra-violent delinquent protagonist in the film is labeled “114”, which means that it is “Serum 114”, which is Kubrick’s little word game on the reference. In the author’s latest film, “Eyes Wide Shut”, the morgue where the besieged doctor of Tom Cruise becomes further in what can be a plot is located at the level “Level / Wing C, Salle 114.” That is to say: “C room 114.” Kubrick used the term several times not only to be self-referential, but to draw attention to these other cases of technology and / or breakdown of the company.

With all this in mind, the CRM 114 cry in “Back to the future” is intelligently multilayer. At the film level, it is the tip of the hat of Zemeckis and Gale in Kubrick, similar to something like the filmmakers who continue the “Thx 1138” references by George Lucas, or Brad Bird and the Pixar crew keeping the reference “A113”. In terms of comedy, it is a (in short) configuration for the GAG ​​that follows immediately: CRM 114 refers to a defective technology element, and indeed, DOC doctorates spectacularly when Marty transforms all the dials to the maximum. At the script level, this is part of our introduction to the characters of Doc and Marty. Doc is a well -intentioned but eccentric scientist whose irresponsible nature is obvious everywhere in his house (including the point of the intrigue of stolen plutonium sitting just under his bed), and the reference CRM 114 draws attention to this. This also indicates how Marty, in combination with DOC technology, can worsen a bad situation. The amplifier would probably not have exploded if Marty had not lowered it, just like later, it would not have returned over time in 1955 if it had been more prudent.

What is the most intriguing is how the reference also helps to establish the themes of the film. “Back to the future” is a satire as well as a pure and simple science fiction adventure. This element is often neglected by occasional viewers of the film, who believe that elements such as Marty’s mother, Lorraine (Lea Thompson), falling in love with her future son is supposed to be taken at his nominal value. The film is very intentionally a waterproof look at American morality, values ​​and history, and Zemeckis and Gale approach these aspects with a loving and critical eye. America is a country that promises beautiful things like freedom and prosperity, but which is much less grumpy than the image it wishes to project; Ronald Reagan’s idea as president may seem laughable by the 1955 doc, but 1985 Marty does not laugh. Doc can invent a car traveling in time, partly because of a ladle agreement which he concluded with terrorists (which he has doubled). However, the car is not an example of an engineering sterling, but the Delorean, a vehicle famous for not understanding.

The CRM 114 does not only recall Kubrick on a surface, but at a deeply thematic level. Whether it is the discriminator or the Delorean causing the problems, the two indicate how much the United States is screwed up.