Hill Valley Clock Tower
E699370
The Hill Valley Clock Tower is the iconic courthouse clock featured prominently in the "Back to the Future" film series, symbolizing the town’s history and pivotal time-travel events.
All labels observed (2)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Hill Valley Clock Tower canonical | 1 |
| Hill Valley Courthouse Clock | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T7940332 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hill Valley Clock Tower Context triple: [Hill Valley, hasLandmark, Hill Valley Clock Tower]
-
A.
Clock Tower Precinct
Clock Tower Precinct is a historic waterfront district in Cape Town centered around the iconic red clock tower, featuring mixed-use commercial, cultural, and leisure spaces.
-
B.
California Tower
California Tower is a historic Spanish-Colonial Revival bell tower and prominent architectural landmark located in Balboa Park, San Diego.
-
C.
Clock Tower Square
Clock Tower Square is a historic public plaza in Jaffa, Israel, centered around the iconic Ottoman-era clock tower and serving as a major local landmark and gathering place.
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D.
Clock Tower Square
Clock Tower Square is a central public plaza and popular gathering spot in Thimphu, Bhutan, known for its traditional Bhutanese-style clock tower and surrounding shops and cafes.
-
E.
Pullman Clock Tower
The Pullman Clock Tower is a historic landmark in Chicago’s Pullman district that once served as the iconic centerpiece of the Pullman Company’s model industrial town and factory complex.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Hill Valley Clock Tower Target entity description: The Hill Valley Clock Tower is the iconic courthouse clock featured prominently in the "Back to the Future" film series, symbolizing the town’s history and pivotal time-travel events.
-
A.
Clock Tower Precinct
Clock Tower Precinct is a historic waterfront district in Cape Town centered around the iconic red clock tower, featuring mixed-use commercial, cultural, and leisure spaces.
-
B.
California Tower
California Tower is a historic Spanish-Colonial Revival bell tower and prominent architectural landmark located in Balboa Park, San Diego.
-
C.
Clock Tower Square
Clock Tower Square is a historic public plaza in Jaffa, Israel, centered around the iconic Ottoman-era clock tower and serving as a major local landmark and gathering place.
-
D.
Clock Tower Square
Clock Tower Square is a central public plaza and popular gathering spot in Thimphu, Bhutan, known for its traditional Bhutanese-style clock tower and surrounding shops and cafes.
-
E.
Pullman Clock Tower
The Pullman Clock Tower is a historic landmark in Chicago’s Pullman district that once served as the iconic centerpiece of the Pullman Company’s model industrial town and factory complex.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
fictional building
ⓘ
film location ⓘ |
| appearsIn |
Back to the Future
ⓘ
Back to the Future Part II ⓘ Back to the Future Part III ⓘ |
| associatedWithCharacter |
Biff Tannen
ⓘ
Doc Brown ⓘ
linked to:
Dr. Emmett Brown
Dr. Emmett Brown ⓘ Jennifer Parker ⓘ Marty McFly ⓘ |
| associatedWithOrganization | Hill Valley Preservation Society ⓘ |
| countryOfOriginWork |
United States
ⓘ
linked to:
United States of America
|
| createdBy |
Bob Gale
ⓘ
Robert Zemeckis ⓘ |
| featuredScene |
1885 courthouse construction in Back to the Future Part III
ⓘ
alternate 1985 depictions in Back to the Future Part II ⓘ climactic clock tower sequence in 1955 during storm ⓘ fundraising campaign to save the clock tower in 1985 ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceWork | Back to the Future ⓘ |
| firstAppearanceYear | 1985 ⓘ |
| genreOfWorkAppearedIn |
science fiction film
ⓘ
time travel film ⓘ |
| hasFandom | Back to the Future fandom ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseCompletionYear | 1885 ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseConstructionYear | 1885 ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseFeature |
bell tower
ⓘ
courthouse steps ⓘ large clock face ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseLightningStrikeDate | November 12, 1955 ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseLightningStrikeTime | 10:04 p.m. ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseMaterial | stone ⓘ |
| hasInUniverseStatus |
historic landmark in Hill Valley
ⓘ
stopped clock after 1955 lightning strike ⓘ |
| hasMerchandise |
collectible replicas
ⓘ
posters ⓘ scale models ⓘ |
| locatedInFictionalPlace |
California
ⓘ
linked to:
California, United States
Hill Valley ⓘ |
| medium | film ⓘ |
| narrativeFunction |
plot device to synchronize DeLorean time travel
ⓘ
visual anchor for different Hill Valley timelines ⓘ |
| notableEvent | struck by lightning on November 12, 1955 at 10:04 p.m. in the story ⓘ |
| partOf | Hill Valley Courthouse ⓘ |
| realWorldFilmingLocation | Courthouse Square set at Universal Studios Hollywood ⓘ |
| realWorldStudio | Universal Pictures ⓘ |
| symbolizes |
Hill Valley history
ⓘ
fate and destiny in the Back to the Future series ⓘ time travel ⓘ |
| usedFor | time-travel experiment to send Marty McFly back to 1985 ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Hill Valley Clock Tower Description of subject: The Hill Valley Clock Tower is the iconic courthouse clock featured prominently in the "Back to the Future" film series, symbolizing the town’s history and pivotal time-travel events.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
linked to: Hill Valley Clock Tower