Today, October 21 2015 marks the date which Back to the Future’s Marty McFly arrived from 1985

FIRE up the flux capacity, fuel up the DeLorean and take a trip back 30 years to the wonderful world of 1985 because it’s Back to the Future Day.

RAIL-based transit systems, controversial super-developments and Mad Max in cinemas.

It sounds like this year’s top stories but to live these events you would need fire up the flux capacity, fuel up the DeLorean and take a trip back 30 years to the wonderful world of 1985.

Duran Duran were in the charts, Miami Vice was getting record-breaking TV ratings and a movie called Back to the Future arrived in cinemas, electrifying a generation and inspiring two sequels.

Paradise Centre, Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Circa 1985 Credit Gold Coast Local Studies Library Picture: Supplied

The adventures of Michael J Fox’s Marty McFly and his friend Doctor Emmett “Doc” Brown across time have been a big part of pop culture.

Today is the day the future becomes the present for fans of the trilogy, with October 21, 2015 the day Marty and the Doc arrive in the future.

The future as seen in 1989’s Back to the Future Part II was a marvel to audiences and the characters alike, with flying cars, flying drone newspaper reporters, hoverboards and Princess Diana had become Queen.

The bad kids from Back to the Future II.

But while plenty of what was predicted as come to pass, is the real 2015 all that different from the 1980s?

And would a time traveller from the year 1985 be as stunned by the real-life today as Marty was by the fictional version?

Lifelong Gold Coast resident Denis O’Connell was mayor in 1985 and said that when it came to the city, the more things changed, the more it stayed the same

“The city was changing a lot at the time and we were focused on building the arts centre at Evandale,” he said.

“At the time we had 89 per cent of the all the cranes in Australia working on the Gold Coast which was an impressive statistic.

“The Q1 is the tallest tower these days but back then the Peninsula was the only big one we had, and it was only 46 levels”

A scene from the 1989 film Back To The Future II. (screengrab from DVD)

The Glitter Strip of 30 years ago was a very different place to today.

Just 130,000 people lived in the Gold Coast region which was only just beginning to boom economically as a wave of Japanese investment and development began pouring into the city.

Videoglasses in a scene from the 1989 film Back To The Future II. (screengrab from DVD)

Central Surfers Paradise was yet to become the party precinct of today. The Mark complex, now known for its nightclubs, was a shopping centre with everything from fruit and vegetables for sale as well as VHS tapes.

The residents of 1985 still came into Surfers Paradise to let their hair down at popular nightspots such as Twains, the Bombay Rock and the Penthouse.

Gold Coast Bulletin: 125 Years of Breaking News — No 93. Conrad Jupiters is still as much a part of the Gold Coast social scene as it was when it opened in 1985.

The pages of the Gold Coast Bulletin brought news of the State Government investigating the idea of a monorail transit system that would service much of the Gold Coast.

And developers were eyeing off Surfers Paradise locations in the hopes of building record-breaking towers.

This year ratepayers saw the $1.2 billion, 88-storey Iluka development approved for beachfront Surfers Paradise but back in 1985 people were stunned at Pat Zarro’s plans to build the world’s tallest tower.

The 445m Zarro’s Arrow was never built.

But while the Gold Coast of 1985 and 2015 have similarities, there were plenty of differences.

Building and development on a smaller scale was booming, with house and land packages at prices which now appear dirt cheap.

Holomax Jaws and Michael J Fox in a scene from the 1989 film Back To The Future II. (screengrab from DVD)

A house on Southport’s Tony Ave was being offered up for $44,000.

Plenty of Back to the Future fans will look to the sky at 4.29pm this afternoon to see if a flying DeLorean appears midair.

But if it was carrying a Gold Coaster from 1985 they would probably be amazed at what they saw, even without the hoverboards.