Shark hologram

Marty about to get 'swallowed' by a hologram shark created by the exterior of the Holomax Theater.

"Shark still looks fake." —Marty McFly

The Holomax Theater was a building in downtown Hill Valley surrounding the Courthouse Mall. It showed holofilms, where holographic technology made the viewer feel as if they were in the movie. When it played in October 2015, the exterior of the building would create a hologram of a shark from the movie and 'swallow' unsuspecting bystanders — as it did with Marty McFly, who thought the shark still looked fake. The Holomax Theater took on the former site of the Essex Theater.

A thumbnail of the Holomax Theater appeared in the Newsline column of the October 22, 2015 issue of, with the accompanying caption "Hill Valley Theater will close Tuesday". (As October 22, 2015 was a Thursday, this meant the theater would close on Tuesday, October 27.) However, it was never revealed exactly why the theater was closing.

Actuality

• As of 2015, the holographic billboards and hologram theaters don't exist. Currently at movie theaters, people have to wear 3D glasses in order to see 3D movies. While some devices use stereoscopic 3D techniques to display three-dimensional effects without the need for glasses – such as the Nintendo 3DS, which uses parallax barrier autostereoscopy – these techniques are unable to produce the holographic effects witnessed by Marty at the Holomax Theater.