Back to the Future: Hill Valley in Los Angeles

Back to the Future opens in a mall car park, where Doc Brown unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean, powered by plutonium swindled from Libyan terrorists. The terrorists arrive and shoot Doc; Marty flees in the car and time-travels as he reaches 88 miles per hour. The car park is the Puente Hills Mall in City of Industry. It later becomes the Lone Pine Mall, after Marty flattens one of the twin pines at the ranch, a moment filmed at Golden Oak Ranch in Newhall.

Visitor guidance: The mall is still a working shopping centre in City of Industry.

In 1955 Marty meets his teenage father and discovers that Biff is already bullying George. The high-school scenes were shot at Whittier High School, standing in for Hill Valley High. The school, at 12417 Philadelphia Street, is also the alma mater of President Richard Nixon.

While spying on Lorraine, George steps into the path of an oncoming car. Marty shoves him clear and is knocked out himself; he wakes with Lorraine looking after him and her infatuation begins. The 1955 homes of George, Lorraine and Biff were all filmed in South Pasadena on Bushnell Avenue: George's house is number 1711, and Lorraine's is 1727, outside which Marty is hit by the car.

Location precision: 1727 Bushnell Avenue is a private home; the pin marks the house on its street, seen from the pavement only.

Marty tracks down the younger Doc and convinces him that he is from the future. Doc's 1955 house is the Gamble House in Pasadena, built in 1908–1909 and designed by Greene and Greene; it is a National Historic Landmark open for tours. The film's interiors were shot inside the nearby Robert R. Blacker House at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue, Oak Knoll, while the exterior and front door come from the Gamble House at 4 Westmoreland Place.

Visitor guidance: The Gamble House is open for regular tours; the Blacker House at 1177 Hillcrest Avenue is a private home.

After Biff hurts Lorraine, an enraged George knocks him out and walks her to the school dance — the Enchantment Under The Sea night where the band's guitarist injures his hand, Marty takes over on guitar, and George and Lorraine share their first kiss. The dance was filmed in the basement of the Hollywood United Methodist Church in Hollywood, at 6817 Franklin Avenue. The church has appeared in many other films.

Visitor guidance: The church is a working congregation at 6817 Franklin Avenue in Hollywood.

Before the lightning strike, Marty drives through Griffith Park, passing a lamp post outside the Greek Theatre on his way to the courthouse. The park sits at the eastern end of the Santa Monica Mountains and holds the Los Angeles Zoo, the Autry Museum of the American West, Griffith Observatory and the Hollywood Sign. The Greek Theatre is an amphitheatre that has hosted performances since the early 1930s.

Visitor guidance: Griffith Park is open daily and free; the Greek Theatre sits inside it.

Doc needs 1.21 gigawatts to send the DeLorean home, and the only source in 1955 is the lightning bolt that Marty's flyer says will strike the courthouse clock tower at 10:04 on 12 November 1955. Marty recalibrates the car to arrive ten minutes early; the bolt hits, freezing the clock, and sends him back to 1985. The town square and clock tower are the Courthouse Square set on the Universal Studios Lot in Universal City — a standing town square built for the 1948 film An Act of Murder and known as Mockingbird Square before Back to the Future.

Visitor guidance: Courthouse Square is a working backlot, seen on the Universal Studios Hollywood studio tour.

Back in 1985, Marty wakes to find his father a confident science-fiction author, his mother fit and happy, his siblings successful, and Biff a servile valet. The McFly home and the surrounding Lyon Estates were filmed in Arleta, in the San Fernando Valley, at 9303 Roslyndale Avenue, a quiet side street off Sunburst Street.

Location precision: 9303 Roslyndale Avenue is a private home; the pin marks the street, seen from the pavement only.