Lord Of The Rings Star Elijah Wood Is Unrecognizable In A Classic Sci-Fi Movie

Long before Elijah Wood starred as the beloved ring-carrying hobbit Frodo in the "Lord of the Rings" trilogy, he featured in another major film, but you might not recognize him in it. In 1989, Wood was credited as Video Game Boy in "Back to the Future Part II". In the scene, Wood's character and his friend, children in the then-far-off future of 2015, are trying to get an old Wild Gunman arcade cabinet working. Marty McFly shows the boys how to work the cabinet, demonstrating his crack-shot skills and shooting all the baddies on screen, but the boys are not impressed. Seeing as they're from the future, they don't like the idea of using your hands to play the game, dismissing it as "like a baby's toy".

The whole scene is about 27 seconds long, but it's that many seconds of unadulterated joy. Wood was accompanied by actor John Thornton in the scene, and it's easy to blink and miss the early appearance. They're decked out in glittery clothes and weird hats, because apparently that's what our future was supposed to look like. It's also kind of a punch in the gut for Millennials and Gen X who grew up playing these kinds of arcade cabinets — they still exist today and sell like hot cakes at Costco. 

If you want to watch the scene, unfortunately, "Back to the Future Part II" isn't streaming for free on any platforms at this time, but you can rent or buy it from services such as Apple TV and Prime Video. 

Video Game Boy was actually one of the first roles anyone would ever see Elijah Wood play, according to IMDB, besides a small role in Paula Abdul's "Forever Your Girl" music video. From there, it was nothing but up for the actor who eventually showed up in "Radio Flyer", the historic "Forever Young" alongside Mel Gibson, "The Adventures of Huck Finn", and "The Good Son", before shooting off to stardom. He also later plays a big role in one of the best alien invasion movies of all time, "The Faculty." I don't know about you, but I still watch that one every so often when I'm feeling the itch for a body-snatchers-style invasion movie.

Looking over Wood's credits on IMDB, one can notice a lot of small roles from this prolific actor that might have gone unrecognized at the time. With parts in video games like "The Legend of Spyro: The Eternal Night", or "God of War III", to "Family Guy", Beastie Boys music videos, and "Wilfred". The latter was coincidentally available to stream on YouTube with ads at one time, but now, like "Back to the Future", you'll have to rent or buy it. The good news is there are a ton of other movies, shows and games you can see Elijah Wood in, and it all dates back to his original bit part as Video Game Boy.