Michael J. Fox’s iconic Back to the Future turns 40 in 2025. The trilogy of films are all about time – the future, the past and the present. As Marty McFly says repeatedly in the Future trilogy, “That’s heavy.” 

So how does time relate to Parkinson’s disease (PD)? It can have an inspiring effect, leading one to think “I have to go, do or be now, while there’s still time!” That was how my dad, who was diagnosed in 2001, and I approached our Boys of Summer journey in 2004. We knew very little about PD – only that it might limit our ability to do things the way we wanted to at some point. So we went to all 30 Major League Baseball parks together in the course of one summer – while we had time. 

We reflected on time, too – not just in that first film, but in the two follow ups made in 2014 and 2020 (you can see all three of them for free via our website).

In the first Boys of Summer, we stopped at a rest stop in Arizona and saw a sundial with a quote from astronomer Rene RJ Rohr: “A sundial is a living object. It needs no winding and is driven by no weight. It has something to say, and it says it. It speaks about time, never ceasing to recall the flight of time, its tragedy and irreversibility for men. The thoughts arise of the earth, of the end of everything, of eternity, of the world beyond.”

In the second film (Second Base) we reflected on the speed of time and how ten years had passed since our first film.

Dan: “Ten years is a long time.”

Robert: “It’s longer than you think. But it goes by faster than you think.”

Dan: “Oh boy…in retrospect, I’m just amazed at how fast it’s gone by.”

In the third film (Short Stop), we reflected in the song Snapshot of my Dreams:

I always thought there’d be more time

I always thought the perfect time would come

I always thought I’d be in the snapshot of my dreams…

It’s often said that PD doesn’t kill you. That’s sort of true – especially if you only look at death in binary terms of A causing B. The leading causes of death for people with PD are pneumonia (related to swallowing issues associated with PD) and falls. Heart disease, infections and cancers – all things that track with mortality for people who do not have PD – rank high, too. The point being that, while PD, itself, may not lead directly to death – and some people live long and happy lives with PD – the time you live with it is deeply affected by it. 

While PD can inspire some to do more, it can also have a crushing effect, making one think, the time I have to do anything I want to is over. This can lead to apathy, Depression and isolation. Make no mistake about it: isolation is a killer. We need to continue to explore this rebranding of PD as more than a movement disorder. The stories of the emotional, psychosocial and cognitive elements of PD need to be told. 

Back to the Future Director Robert Zemeckis said: “We don’t function well as human beings when we’re in isolation.” And so we are back to the discussion of time and PD. We’d love to discuss more of it with you in our Jan. 10 online presentation, Taking Parkinson’s disease Back to the Future. We’ll look at 12 clips from different films in Michael J. Fox’s movie career, including all three Back to the Future films.

Everyone, regardless of having PD directly in their lives or not, is welcome to join us. The answers are “out there” – and as Doc Brown, Marty McFly and then George McFly all said, “If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything.”

Originally Published on https://www.yesandexercise.org/

Robert Cochrane, PhD Yes, And...eXercise!

Dr. Robert Cochrane is a graduate of UNLV's Integrated Health Sciences department. He's researching the effect of improvisation and storytelling on Parkinson’s disease. He received grants from the Parkinson's Foundation and support from the Davis Phinney Foundation along the way. He is a popular, unique and high energy Keynote speaker, bringing joy, optimism and practical tools for people in the PD community to thrive today.

He has a background in filmmaking, with the Artisan Entertainment release, The Playaz Court, and two Stephen King-based short films among his credits. His father, Dan, was diagnosed with PD in 2001, which shifted Robert’s artistic lens to health. He made his first documentary, the award-winning Boys of Summer in 2004. There are two follow up films in the series with the fourth film coming in 2023.

He moved his family back to Walnut Creek, CA, where he grew up. He lives there with his beautiful wife, two teenagers who are, indeed, "all that" and is a proud care partner for his amazing parents.