“Forced a Kicktail on It”: Tony Hawk Was Once Left Disappointed by Sparking Skateboards in an Iconic Film

Published 02/10/2023, 1:00 AM EST
Very few in the world would know about skateboarding as Tony Hawk does. With a 17-year-long professional career, Tony Hawk’s name and fame have gone beyond his core sport and seeped into other entertainment fields such as video games. So it is quite appropriate that he once did a breakdown of skateboarding scenes from movies and TV shows. However, an iconic scene from a popular movie, which was otherwise appreciated by Hawk, left him disappointed in its depiction of sparking skateboards.
While doing this breakdown video in 2019, Hawk came across this extremely popular sci-fi film from 1985, which he believes had an immense impact on driving the popularity of skateboarding in the 80s. But this one scene, as per him, fell flat in its realistic depiction.
Despite its impact, a Back to the Future scene left a bad taste in Tony Hawk’s mouth due to its error
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Back to the Future was an iconic movie in its depiction of time travel. It also had its fair share of skateboarding scenes. Marty McFly, the film’s protagonist, is seen with a skateboard entering Dr. Emmett Brown’s house in the first shot of the movie. However, the exemplary scene happens later when McFly escapes from Biff and his gang-pals on a makeshift skateboard while the goons chase him in a car.
On rewatching this scene with GQ Sports in 2019, Tony Hawk noticed the similarity in those skateboards to the real-life earlier versions of it. Reinstating the authenticity of the boards and the time period in the movie. However, the one thing that bothered him was when the makers of the film “forced a kicktail on it”. He said, “This is an eight-wheeler, but these guys managed to ride it. And you can tell how they sort of forced a kicktail on it. So there’s a little pad on the back there”.
Explaining why he was disappointed by it, he continued, “That is not something that would’ve been on a scooter, but they needed it for this effect, and also so they could put flints in it so they could do the sparking thing. Why do movies have to have sparking skateboards, I don’t know.”
The spark occurs due to friction when McFly taps the board against the road. Although not realistic, it was done for a better visual experience. Besides breaking down movie scenes, Hawk, who also has his own website in which he promotes his gaming franchise, is also associated with certain movies in a little more hands-on manner.
The time when Tony Hawk financially supported an inspirational film
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One such case was when Hawk once lent a helping hand to a film about survival as a skateboarder. This inspirational 16-minute short documentary film is titled ‘Joe Buffalo’. It is about how Joe Buffalo survived Canada’s genocidal residential school system and became a skateboarder. Hawk, who once slammed haters for questioning his upcoming appearance at the Oscars, was the executive producer of the movie.
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Tony Hawk has achieved a lot over his long career, but his love and passion for skateboarding remained the same. Besides breaking down movie scenes and doing podcasts, Hawk, at age 54, still enjoys the thrill of skateboarding. And even if injuries have marred him all his life, he keeps coming back.
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