Doc Brown himself claims that hoverboards are real


We've all been burned by stories about "real hoverboards" for decades now — but this brand-new "demonstration" of the famed Back to the Future technology comes with a pretty heavy endorsement: Doc Brown himself.
"I'm Christopher Lloyd, and about 25 years ago, I played Doctor Emmett Brown in the film Back to the Future II — a landmark film that, among other things, introduced hoverboards to the world," says Lloyd. Now at the time — as much as we all wanted hoverboards to be real — it was, of course, an impossibility. But I'm proud to announce that thanks to the clever folks with HUVrTech, the technology has caught up with the concept."
Though the HUVrTech video has been available for less than a day, both SlashGear and TechCrunch have declared it a hoax, and it's kind of hard to argue with their conclusions; we've all been burned by stories about "real hoverboards" for decades now, and a real-life version of this technology would presumably be announced with a little more fanfare than a silly, star-studded attempt at a viral video. (It's worth noting that the HUVrTech website has a countdown timer that ends in December 2014, so we might not know what this video is really designed to promote until then.)
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
So yes, this purported demonstration of a "real hoverboard" is clearly fake — but if Tony Hawk, Moby, Terrell Owens, and Christopher Lloyd himself are all willing to pretend that hoverboards really exist for the sake of a clever video, maybe we should all fantasize for a little while too. --Scott Meslow
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
Scott Meslow is the entertainment editor for TheWeek.com. He has written about film and television at publications including The Atlantic, POLITICO Magazine, and Vulture.
-
Trump says he's firing Federal Reserve Governor Lisa Cook
Speed Read The move is likely part of Trump's push to get the central bank to cut interest rates
-
Broken brains: The social price of digital life
Feature A new study shows that smartphones and streaming services may be fueling a sharp decline in responsibility and reliability in adults
-
'Mankeeping': Why women are fed up
Feature Women no longer want to take on the full emotional and social needs of their partners
-
Florida erases rainbow crosswalk at Pulse nightclub
Speed Read The colorful crosswalk was outside the former LGBTQ nightclub where 49 people were killed in a 2016 shooting
-
Trump says Smithsonian too focused on slavery's ills
Speed Read The president would prefer the museum to highlight 'success,' 'brightness' and 'the future'
-
Trump to host Kennedy Honors for Kiss, Stallone
Speed Read Actor Sylvester Stallone and the glam-rock band Kiss were among those named as this year's inductees
-
White House seeks to bend Smithsonian to Trump's view
Speed Read The Smithsonian Institution's 21 museums are under review to ensure their content aligns with the president's interpretation of American history
-
Charlamagne Tha God irks Trump with Epstein talk
Speed Read The radio host said the Jeffrey Epstein scandal could help 'traditional conservatives' take back the Republican Party
-
CBS cancels Colbert's 'Late Show'
Speed Read 'The Late Show with Stephen Colbert' is ending next year
-
Shakespeare not an absent spouse, study proposes
speed read A letter fragment suggests that the Shakespeares lived together all along, says scholar Matthew Steggle
-
New Mexico to investigate death of Gene Hackman, wife
speed read The Oscar-winning actor and his wife Betsy Arakawa were found dead in their home with no signs of foul play