One person swoons over world star Taylor Swift, the other screams hoarse when Willem II scores the winning goal. And then you have John Naalden (56) and his daughter Samantha (28) from Breda. They both lost their hearts to the film Back to the Future. The love is so great that they got a tattoo as an ode to the classic.
Forty years ago, Back to the Future attracted full cinemas. Millions of people took a seat on the red plush with a bowl of popcorn on their lap for two hours of entertainment in the dark.
Just a little refresher. In the film, 17-year-old Marty McFly, played by Michael J. Fox, travels to the past with a special time machine on four wheels. There he meets his bumbling father and charming mother in their younger years. He must know how to link them, otherwise he will never be born.
John and Samantha saw it endlessly, and they can effortlessly recite quotes from the film. ‘Time to change that oil, dad’, and ‘Bullit proof vest, great play!’ are regularly shouted across the dining table.
“I’ve seen the movie at least three hundred times.”
What about that absolute adoration for this film? John says: “People will probably think, where did you get that? But when I first saw the film in 1986, I was so blown away that I’ve seen it at least three hundred times since. And all three parts , right? If there was nothing on TV, we’d just put Back to the Future back on.”
The story, the special effects, the acting and the mistakes in it, he finds everything immensely enjoyable. “And I got swept up in it,” Samantha adds, laughing. “Since I was a child, I would sit next to him on the couch and we would watch endlessly.”
“I thought it was a great idea to get a tattoo with my daughter,” says John. “It didn’t matter to me how or what, as long as it was exactly the same, and in the style of Back to the Future. Because that is something that belongs to us together.” Samantha then gave the tattoo as a gift for his 52nd birthday. He got it on his shoulder, she on her ankle.
Waiting for privacy settings…
In any case, the comic classic runs like a common thread through the lives of father and daughter. Two years earlier, when John turned 50, his wife organized a surprise Back to the Future party for him. “With a real DeLorean, and everyone dressed up in the style of the fifties,” he beams.
A few years ago, Samantha took her father to Commic Con (an event where you can find everything in the field of films, series, comics, superheroes and games, ed.) “The real time travel car was then flown in from the Hollywood studios , and there were also some actors from the film. Of course we had to see that.”
“It could have been a squirrel, but this is something special.”
Then about the tattoo. What exactly does it represent? “The tattoo itself is not really a work of art, but we both like it. It could have been a squirrel, or a church tower, but this is something special. We share this.”
The DVD is now somewhere in the attic. “The movie was on Netflix for a long time, but I’m kind of kicking the habit,” says John.
Samantha has recently started getting tattoos herself. She immortalized the dogs of the house in her father’s arms. “It had to happen,” she says. “My last name is Naalden, so it was kind of inevitable that I would become a tattoo artist.”