How ‘Back to the Future’s Most Famous Car Ended Up in Zooey Deschanel and Caleb Hearon’s New Movie

• Collider's Steve Weintraub talks with Caleb Hearon, Zooey Deschanel, and Kris Rey for Trash Mountain at TIFF 2026.
• The trio discusses the film's exploration of grief, combining drama and comedy, family dynamics, and the meaning behind that surprise Back to the Future Easter egg.
• They also share how they each relate to their movie personally.

At this year’s Toronto International Film Festival, comedian, writer, and actor Caleb Hearon (The Devil Wears Prada 2) celebrated his feature screenplay debut, Trash Mountain, co-written with Ruby Caster (Bleeding Love), where he stars in a leading role opposite Zooey Deschanel (New Girl), who plays his sister in the film. While there, Hearon, Deschanel, and director Kris Rey (I Used to Go Here) spoke with Collider’s Steve Weintraub about the making of the dramedy.

Trash Mountain follows Gavin’s (Hearon) return to his small-town Missouri roots after his sister, Abbi (Deschanel), calls to let him know their reclusive father has passed. Upon his arrival, ready to help sort his hoarder father’s heaps of belongings, Gavin and Abbi discover that their father’s paperwork can’t be processed without his Social Security card — lost to the mountain of trash and personal items throughout the house. All the while, Gavin is confronted by his grandmother’s (Jackie Weaver) grief he can’t seem to process on his own, and his recent hookup in town (Jaboukie Young-White).

In this interview, the trio stops by the Collider Media Studio, presented by Campari and The Cayman Islands, to discuss how Trash Mountain explores grief, family dynamics, and blends comedy with tragedy. The trio also discuss how they relate to the film on personal levels, the surprise DeLorean cameo and its deeper meaning, and more that you can check out in the video above, with time codes provided below.

• 00:35 - The Trash Mountain team share their favorite movie theater spots.
• 01:58 - The stars and director answer questions like their favorite sci-fi movies, and which movies they’ve seen over 25 times!
• 04:45 - What is Trash Mountain about?
• 05:40 - Zooey Deschanel discusses everything that drew her to the script.
• 06:58 - Caleb Hearon explains the deeper meaning behind the title.
• 07:58 - Kris Rey discusses adding realism through conflicts beyond the central plot.
• 09:14 - Deschanel and Hearon discuss the film’s natural humor, personal details, and real family dynamics.
• 10:49 - Rey and Hearon reveal the DeLorean’s surprising origin and joke about a connection to the film’s ending.
• 11:59 - Production designer Matt Hyland made the hoarded house feel like a character.
• 13:18 - Deschanel reflects on losing her childhood home and how the film changed her perspective.
• 14:46 - Hearon discusses his complicated relationship with possessions after growing up with a hoarder parent.
• 15:17 - Rey explains how returning home forces Gavin to reconcile the person he left behind with the person he became.
• 16:55 - Hearon reflects on reverting to past versions of ourselves when returning home and reckoning with where we come from.

Trash Mountain premiered at TIFF 2026. It does not yet have a release date.