What mall did they film The Call?

As Twin Pines Mall.

As Lone Pine Mall.

Twin Pines Mall, later known as Lone Pine Mall, was a shopping mall where Dr. Emmett Brown chose to show Marty McFly the new DeLorean time machine he had invented.

History

At 1:21 a.m. on October 26, 1985, Doc's dog, Einstein, becomes the world's first time traveler leaving behind a pair of fire trails after the DeLorean accelerated to the necessary 88 miles per hour.

During the experiment, Doc showed Marty how the keypad and display works, inputting famous dates of the birth of Jesus Christ, the signing of the Declaration of Independence, or 1955, when the concept for the flux capacitor was discovered. Doc then became nostalgic and imagined how much land could change in 30 years, recalling a time when the mall was nothing but open fields. He remembered how Old Man Peabody used to own the land on which the mall sat in 1985, as well as noting that Peabody bred pine trees as a hobby.

When Marty traveled to 1955, he accidentally ran over one of a pair of pine trees in Mr. Peabody's front yard when the shotgun-toting farmer opened fire on him, thinking the yellow-suited figure which had crashed into his barn was an alien disguised as a human. Subsequently, when Marty returned to 1985, there was only one pine tree on the illuminated sign at the mall entrance and, as a result, the mall's name had changed to Lone Pine Mall.

This was also an important location because it was where Doc was shot by Libyan terrorists until Marty wrote the letter forewarning of it in 1955. Although Doc tore up the letter on discovering it, he later stuck it back together with scotch tape, read it, and subsequently wore a bulletproof vest on the night of October 26.

A Fox Photo stand was located in the mall's parking lot — that is, until it unfortunately got in the way of the the Libyans' Volkswagen Station Wagon.

In the altered 1985, the mall was owned by BiffCo.

In the 1986A timeline, the mall was again owned by the Tannens and named Tannenville Mall. According to the sign, the following services were present:

• six casinos
• fifteen bars
• eight gentlemen's clubs[1]

Sometime in 1992, Walter Wisdom made a public appearance at Lone Pine Mall, which Marty and Verne Brown attended.

In an alternate timelime during October 26, 1985, Decepticons members Rumble and Ravage observe the chase between the Libyans and Marty, entertained by humans trying to do away with each other. They are taken by surprise by the disappearance of the DeLorean time machine and wonder if the secrets behind the vehicle can be used to their advantage.

Behind the scenes

• The filming location for the mall was the south-east side of the Puente Hills Mall in the City of Industry, California in eastern Los Angeles County next to the current Macy's anchor. The May store featured in the movie became Robinson's May in 1993 when JW Robinson's was acquired by May Corporation. The Robinson's May store in Puente Hills Mall later became Macy's in 2006 when Macy's acquired Robinson's May.
• Colima Road, which is to the south of the Twin Pines Mall sign entrance, is recognizable and the Puente Hills Town Center in unincorporated Rowland Heights is also recognizable as well (though the stores featured at the center are no longer there).
• Puente Hills Mall has had major renovation in recent years and consequently, is unrecognizable from how it looked in the movie. However, the parking lot remained largely intact. There is still black tape of some sort left on the parking lot, seeming to mark the fire trails and where Doc and Marty stood upon the first experiment. Three new anchors, Burlington Coat Factory, 24 Hour Fitness and Wells Fargo, were non-existent in the Puente Hills Mall when Back to the Future was filmed in 1984. The JCPenney store in the movie closed and was replaced by a Burlington Coat Factory store.
• At the beginning of the mall scene, a train can be heard in the distance, which indicates that the mall is next to the eastern spur of the railroad that leads to the Eastwood Ravine bridge in the third film. However, in real life, Puente Hills Mall is actually located next to a train track nearby across SR 60, which carries Union Pacific freight trains and the Metrolink transportation train.

Trivia

Appearances

Futurepedia has a collection of images and media related to Twin Pines Mall.

References

1. ↑ Back to the Future: Citizen Brown #2