HUVr Tech hoverboard
Skateboarding star Tony Hawk appears alongside Christopher Lloyd and others in a video promoting HUVr Tech -- a "real" hoverboard as seen in the "Back to the Future" movies.
(YouTube video still)
In "Back to the Future: Part II," Marty McFly and Doc Brown time-travel to October 21, 2015. The 1989 movie's famous glimpse into the "future" promised fans we'd all have flying cars, Nike shoes with power laces, auto-drying jackets and holographic films like "Jaws 19."
But a new viral video promoting "HUVr Tech" promises hoverboards are real -- just like the ones used by Michael J. Fox in the Robert Zemeckis film.
Christopher Lloyd steps out of a DeLorean and shares the floating, wheel-less skateboard with celebrities like Tony Hawk, Moby, Terrell Owens, rapper Schoolboy Q and Best Coast singer Bethany Consantino. Heck, even Billy Zane, who played Biff Tannen's thug buddy Match in the first two "BTTF" movies, is in on it.
Of course, it's all a hoax.
Some may have been fooled by the official HUVr Tech website, which claims an MIT-based research team has solved "the key to antigravity." It also says pre-orders will be available within the month and the hoverboard will be ship by this Christmas.
But The AV Club points out that the fake company's site includes legal terms pointing out that there may be "inaccuracies" (i.e. real hoverboards) and "The inclusion of any products or services on this website at a particular time does not imply or warrant that these products or services will be available at any time."
Skeptics also noticed the video features an actor (Nelson Chang) playing the product "engineer," and all the celebrities who try the hoverboard clearly had harnesses on their shoulders that were digitally removed in post-production.
Finally, Gizmodo confirmed the project was a prank created by Funny Or Die. An Internet listing by a stylist and costume designer described the humor video site's video as a "commercial" filmed in November 2013.
In other words, the whole stunt was just to promote Funny Or Die -- and play with the hearts of "Back to the Future" fans everywhere.
October 2015 is still 18 months away, though, so there's a chance we could still get some of that futuristic technology. Nike designer Tinker Hatfield said last month the company would release sneakers with self-tying "power laces" next year, but don't hold your breath on the hoverboard -- or most of the other cool stuff.
Next year marks the 30th anniversary of the trilogy's first film about traveling through time to try and "fix" events in the past and future. Zemeckis and composer Alan Silvestri are working on a "Back to the Future" musical set to hit London's West End in 2015.