Time is a most pervasive aspect of Robert Zemeckis’ films, which are often structured around temporal problems, be it memory, history or even the very fabric of film narrative. The two main characters of What Lies Beneath are literally haunted by their past, whereas the hero of Marwen cannot remember his, and is stuck in the trauma which marks its beginning. When lost on his island, the hero of Cast Away, whose entire life and career are structured around the careful management of time, finds himself locked in an eternal present (which is not even marked by the variations of seasons), in which time has no meaning. History is an important aspect of Zemeckis' work, but that does not mean he's fascinated by the world's great events. Personal, cultural and popular history have an equal or greater hold on our lives than social or political history. Zemeckis reminds us that what we retain from history are not the facts and figures, but the stories we are told. The Back to the Future Series works around what would normally be the back-story of its main character, Marty McFly. I Wanna Hold your Hand explores Beatlemania fifteen years later and eight years after the band broke up. Who Framed Roger Rabbit? explores the legendary Hollywood past, with the added twist that animated characters are as real as any live action star. There are two types of historical films: those stories that are set in the past, such as Allied or Beowulf, and those that reinvent the past, such as the Back to the Future series. Roger Rabbit or Forrest Gump in different ways straddle the two. Forrest Gump goes through life oblivious of the impact he has. Yet, in the film, he is the one who triggered Watergate by alerting the reception desk, and he is the one to inspire Lennon's Imagine. These film jokes point to an important aspect in Zemeckis' outlook: individuals are essential to the unfurling of events. The mere fact that Marty McFly returns to the past in the Back to the Future series causes unexpected ripples that inevitably alter subsequent history, and there is nothing Marty can do to prevent that. All he can do is reset the key events that insure his existence. Our past makes us. But we also make our past, and it is as uncertain as is our future. The stories become more real than the realities, as is the case of Forrest Gump. What, then, is our past?