"Slide"

5 August 2015

2 mins 12s

Back to the Past's Idea of the Future!

As fans of the 'Back to the Future' series of films will know, there's a special significance to this year when it comes to the invention of the hoverboard. The fantasy plaything appeared when Marty McFly is sent thirty years into the future in the second film... landing him squarely in 2015. The day itself will prompt an outbreak of nostalgia for the film and Lexus have got ahead of the game to cleverly hijack some of the attention.

The hoverboard may not be all that Robert Zemeckis imagined in his 1989 film but it's a hell of a lot better than many people might anticipate and Henry-Alex Rubin's film sensibly does nothing to deviate our attention from the star attraction.

The two skilled skateboarders trying it out have clearly had to make a considerable adjustment to use a piece of kit with no wheels but once they get the hang of it, you start to see its potential. A making of film reveals the real viability of this object and you may not be shocked to discover you're unlikely to see anyone beating a tube strike aboard one of these any time soon.

Was it worth for Lexus to invent something so obviously designed to remain a drawing board oddity? Only if it generates an awful lot of positive publicity and - as things stand - it's doing rather well on that front.

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