Today is Back to the Future Day, the annual October 21 celebration inspired by the date Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to in Back to the Future Part II. The occasion offers a timely reminder of one of the original 1985 film’s enduring mysteries: the whereabouts of the cherry-red Gibson ES-345 that Michael J. Fox played as Marty McFly.
The guitar hasn’t been seen in more than four decades, but Fox has a theory about what happened to it.
The instrument was loaned to the production by Norman’s Rare Guitars, after the film’s props team changed course at the last minute from an original plan to use a Strat or a Gretsch with a Bigsby. The decision also led to an onscreen faux pas that has irked guitar enthusiasts ever since.
That didn’t stop the scene from inspiring generations of players. John Mayer and Coldplay’s Chris Martin are among the musicians who have cited Marty’s performance of Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B. Goode” as an influence on their decision to take up guitar. The ES-345 has since become one of the most recognizable guitars in movie history.
In June 2025, ahead of the film’s 40th anniversary, Gibson launched a global search to track down the missing electric guitar. The company also enlisted the team behind the Lost Bass Project, which helped locate Paul McCartney’s stolen Höfner 500/1 violin bass after it had been missing for 51 years.
Gibson’s search successfully tracked down the secondary guitar used in the sequel, Back to the Future Part II. But the main mystery — the whereabouts of the cherry-red ES-345 played during Marty McFly’s iconic “Johnny B. Goode” performance in the 1985 original — remains unsolved.
One potentially important clue is the guitar’s unusual block parallelogram inlay at the 12th fret, rather than the more familiar split parallelogram. That detail could help investigators distinguish the original instrument from similar guitars and rule out false leads.
Fox, who played Marty, has offered his own theory about where the guitar went after filming wrapped. In his memoir, Future Boy: Back to the Future and My Journey Through the Space-Time Continuum, the actor looks back on his career-defining role, which he prepared for at night after long days on the set of Family Ties.
“I wish I could claim to possess it, but I didn’t have the foresight to know how valuable it would become,” he writes (via Parade).
“Unfortunately, somebody did anticipate that and snagged it for themselves,” he continues. “Whether it’s in their active collection or stashed in their attic or home studio, they’re not speaking up.”
Gibson’s search generated headlines around the world and attracted numerous leads and tip-offs, but the original guitar remains missing. Fox suspects someone knows exactly where it is and is choosing to keep quiet.
“Perhaps,” he adds, “they’re waiting for the statute of limitations on vintage guitar theft to expire.”
The “Johnny B. Goode” sequence was particularly meaningful to Fox because it gave him the chance to pay tribute to some of his earliest guitar heroes.
“Guitar has always been a big part of my life,” Fox said. “When we talked about the ‘Enchantment Under the Sea’ scene, I sat down with the cinematographer and choreographer and said, ‘I want to riff through all of my favorite guitarists, like doing Jimi Hendrix behind the head, Pete Townshend doing a windmill, and the Eddie Van Halen hammer thing.’ It was so cool that they were open to that, and we laid it all out there.”
Gibson has also begun work on a documentary, Lost to the Future, chronicling the search for the guitar. Fox, however, is skeptical that the film will be released anytime soon.
“Apparently, the release of the documentary will come after the guitar is found,” he says, “if that ever happens.”
Meanwhile, Guitar Player reviewer Dave Hunter has revisited the ES-345’s place in Gibson’s history. Introduced as a more feature-rich alternative to the better-known ES-335, the semi-hollow model occupied a middle ground between the 335 and the flagship ES-355.
“It remains an underrated gem worth your time,” Hunter writes.
