One of Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War's new maps is a Back to the Future tribute

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The Twin Pines Mall is now the Mall at the Pines.

Call of Duty's The Pines map's entrance.
(Image credit: Activision)

A new multiplayer map called The Pines has been added in the Season One update for Call of Duty: Black Ops - Cold War, and it's a tribute to one of the key locations in Back to the Future. The map is set around a building called the Mall at the Pines, with an M-like logo formed from two abstract representations of pine trees. In Back to the Future, the first time Doc shows his time-travelling DeLorean to Marty is at Twin Pines Mall, which has a logo formed from two pine trees.

The Pines map is a six-vs-six environment, and mainly focused on the mall's interior, which includes a pretty awesome arcade. Head outside, however, and you'll find several nods to its inspiration in the car park, like this numberplate issued in December 1985, the movie's original release date.

The Pines map in Black Ops-Cold War.

(Image credit: Activision.)

The Twin Pines Mall features several times in the film, and there's a great gag about Marty running over a sapling in the past and it becoming the Lone Pine Mall. In the DeLorean scene, the car's first shown emerging from Doc Brown's grey GMC value van, which has the lettering "DR. E. BROWN ENTERPRISES — 24 HR. SCIENTIFIC SERVICES." So this vehicle kinda jumped out at me.

The Pines map in Black Ops-Cold War.

(Image credit: Activision.)

I'm sure there's a joke I'm not getting about 'Courtney's Courier Service', but the resemblance to Doc's van seems pretty marked. It's worth saying that all of this stuff cannot resemble the movie too closely, or Treyarch would be tempting legal troubles.

Of course, there's one way to make sure Marty McFly doesn't skate up to your unofficial tribute the way he does to Twin Pines. Just ban skateboarding.

No skateboarding sign in Call of Duty.

(Image credit: Activision.)
Rich Stanton
Rich Stanton
Senior Editor

Rich is a games journalist with 15 years' experience, beginning his career on Edge magazine before working for a wide range of outlets, including Ars Technica, Eurogamer, GamesRadar+, Gamespot, the Guardian, IGN, the New Statesman, Polygon, and Vice. He was the editor of Kotaku UK, the UK arm of Kotaku, for three years before joining PC Gamer. He is the author of a Brief History of Video Games, a full history of the medium, which the Midwest Book Review described as "[a] must-read for serious minded game historians and curious video game connoisseurs alike."