In what can only be described as an elaborate hoax, Tony Hawk, Back to the Future’s Christopher Lloyd, and a crop of athletes and celebrities introduced the world to a real-life hoverboard. The company, , claims to have Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban as a backer. In the company’s launch video, Christopher Lloyd delivers a hoverboard to Tony Hawk who says that Marty McFly’s board from the movie is what prompted many young people in the eighties to start skating.
The thing about the video is that everyone in it claims, seriously, that the board is real. The parking lot where the promo was filmed was blocked off with black plastic to prevent onlookers from seeing into the lot. In several shots, actors show obvious signs—shirts bulging and rising—of being lifted by wires. Most of the shots are of peoples’ lower bodies. And one particular shot, at 3:31, shows a rider who’s more pasted on than the original Marty McFly.
The video raises several questions: Why are these people doing this hoax now? And will there be a price to pay for tricking people into clicking on their fake ad? And now that they’ve got our attention, what do they hope to gain by it? If only we had a time machine, we could find out.
Also, if this is real, I’ll let a UFC fighter punch me in the face.