Question: When Marty comes back to a "new" 1985, his family has money, his siblings are now successful, they treat Marty like he never left (except to go to the lake). But before he supposedly went to the lake, didn't Marty act normal? Didn't Marty grow up with this new and improved family and have different experiences that didn't happen when they were poor? If so, why does he have no memory of this? If Marty grows up with money, has a successful father, a sister that's popular, what happens to "this" Marty? The one that grew up differently now that he was born into a richer family? (This can't be the same Marty that goes back in in time that we see at the end of the movie, because if that Marty will do everything we saw in the movie, he's the same Marty before anything changed. Like when he said his dad never stood to to Biff in his life).
Question: I have a question and this has bothered me for years. How did Doc know the exact date and time to wear a bulletproof vest by reading Marty's letter? We see what Marty wrote and it says "The night I go back in time" before he puts it in Doc's pocket but it never said the exact date or time of when the terrorists would attack Doc after Marty came back in 1985?
Answer: The answer is right in your question. The letter states "The night I go back in time." Doc helped Marty get back to 1985 at the exact date and time that he left. He set this date and time in the Delorean. We know that Doc has a penchant for remembering dates as one of the ways Marty proves he's from the future is that Doc told him the exact date and events of when he got the idea for the flux capacitor.
Answer: Doc sees the video tape recording of the first part or the test so would know it was after that time, so he took precautions to protect himself from that point forward. Knowing it could be at any time from the test till later, he wore the vest to the test, and presumably would have continued wearing it after the test if that wasn't when it happened.
Question: When Marty arrives back in 1985 in the first movie, he leaves the DeLorean behind near the clocktower to chase after the Libyans because it stalls on him. There are now two DeLoreans in 1985; the one at Lone Pines Mall that gets used for the rest of the series until its eventual destruction, and the one near the clocktower. What happens to the latter?
Answer: The Lone Pine Mall DeLorean goes to 1955, then returns to 1985 with Marty, and he leaves it at the clock tower, runs back to the mall and sees the point in time when he first went back to 1955. The "clocktower" DeLorean is then the one Doc takes to the future and gets converted to hover. So the DeLorean goes 1985 > 1955 > 1985 > 2015, in this movie. (And then in the subsequent films the "wrong" 1985, back to 1955, then to 1885, and returns to the "right" 1985 when it's destroyed by the train).
Question: Just wondering out loud. Since Marty showed Doc the drawing of a flux capacitor in 1955, I think this would have caused some infinite loop in the universe. I'll explain it better. Wouldn't Marty have destroyed the universe because he showed Doc the time machine in 1955, meaning Doc wouldn't have had the machine tested out in 1985 because the design was already "completed" in 1955? Meaning Marty never would have gone back in time in the first place to show Doc the time machine, meaning that Doc would test it out in 1985. Meaning that Marty would have gone back to 1955 and showed Doc the time machine, meaning Doc wouldn't have tested it out in 1985, meaning Marty wouldn't have gone back in time and showed Doc the time machine, etc.
Answer: Jeez, take a deep breath already. Yes, as a result of Marty's jaunt back in time, Doc now knows more about the design of the time machine, but that doesn't mean that he has the capability to build it in 1955. He needs all sorts of high-tech equipment, plus, let's not forget, some plutonium from somewhere. Regardless of his additional knowledge of the systems, it may simply be impossible to build until 1985. You also have to consider that Doc's not stupid - he knows that he completes the time machine in 1985, starting the whole thing off. He's not going to risk a temporal disruption by completing it early.
Question: What did the cafe server mean when he said to Marty "I can't give you a tab unless you buy something"? I know that Marty was referring to the Tab soda (which didn't exist then), but what was the other guy talking about?
Chosen answer: A tab is the same as a bill. The server guy thinks Marty wants a bill for whatever he's ordered, although because Marty hasn't eaten or drunk anything yet, he can't give him one. Even though a bill for a restaurant meal can be referred to as a "tab", this term is more commonly used in bars. When someone "runs a tab," it means they pay the total cost as they're about to leave, rather than pay for each drink separately.
Question: In the bar scene, after Marty asks for a Pepsi Free, the barman tells him that "You want a Pepsi, pal, you're going to pay for it". I know there is a reason for it, but isn't it obvious that if Marty wants a Pepsi he must pay for it?
Chosen answer: The counterman had never heard of Pepsi Free as it didn't exist yet. He therefore assumed that Marty was asking for a Pepsi Cola free of charge. Also, Biff and his cronies frequent this bar. The counterman might have assumed that Marty was some snot nosed punk that thought he could bluff his way into free drinks.
Question: What's the Van Halen song Marty plays to his dad when he tells George he's Darth Vader?
Answer: The song is called "Out the Window," not much longer than what you hear in BTTF. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zmc6f2kCyLU.
Question: Given that the entire McFly family's circumstances have changed at the end of the movie due to Marty altering the past, shouldn't Marty's whole life have gone down a completely different path from childhood on? What are the odds that he even still knows Doc and Jennifer in the revised 1985 (let alone has the exact same date planned with Jennifer for the very same evening), given that everything else has changed?
Answer: The suggestion is given that he was the only "normal" person in the family and when he changed the past his parents and siblings became more "normal" people as well whilst he stayed as he was, despitegrowingup with different parents and siblings, since he was "normal" anyway. This totally ignores the linear timeline idea given during the entire movie, but it's obvious that was the idea.
You're absolutely right about Marty being the only "normal" one in the family, but that doesn't ignore the linear timeline idea. There are two different Marty McFly's by the end of this movie. There's the one we follow, who grew up with unhappy parents, and then there's the other Marty McFly who grew up with cool parents. We see the 2nd Marty go back to 1955 when Marty gets back to the Twin Pines mall. The idea isn't to ignore the linear timeline idea, but rather to imply that unhappy parents or not Marty will still always be Marty.
Except for the fact Marty kept being in danger of disappearing if his parents wouldn't get together. If his old self would disappear from his parents not getting together then so he should if his entire life is different and he would be a different Marty just like his siblings. Even if it's only memories rather than an entire personality.
Answer: It's definitely a paradox. Marty actually goes back to the life of 2nd Marty, but if that's the case then original Marty should have still faded away since he created a new timeline when he gave George confidence. Original Marty shouldn't exist anymore at all, he should have faded completely away on the stage. I've said it before and I'll say it again: time travel movies are a mess.
The new Marty isn't a different person entirely; he's just the same guy who was raised in a slightly different environment to the original timeline. Marty's actions in 1955 have ensured that his parents will have three children, and he will be one of them. His existence is completely secured in the timeline.
Question: Shouldn't Doc have been severely electrocuted because he touched the lighting bolt when he connected the wires?
Answer: He probably got a good shock, but there have been recorded instances of people being struck by lighting and lived with little or no injuries.
Answer: Electricity always travels the path of least resistance. The wire cable is a perfect conductor and you can even see the electricity arch between the two cables while Doc is connecting the plugs, so most of the "1.21 gigawatts" passed by him and his gloves might have also protected him. In reality, a much smaller electric shock across the chest could have stopped his heart and, with no-one around to save him, would've left him dead.
Answer: He wasn't really shocked because he's wearing gloves when reattaching the wire after removing it from the fallen tree.
Question: I'm really confused, and need help with this. I saw the second BTTF, so I saw the scene when Doc explains the two timelines and changing the future, but I'm still confused. If what Doc said was true, when Marty got hit by the car, he would have changed the future by preventing his parents from marrying. Therefore, there are now several timelines in the movie all going off at the same time. According to the movie, the first one is a timeline where Marty goes into the time machine back to 1955, and he has a loser for a father. There is also a timeline just like the first one, but George punched Biff, making him cool in the future. Another, alternate timeline is also present where Marty's parents haven't married, Marty doesn't exist, and none of the events from the first two timelines happen in this timeline. However, if this were true, all three timelines would have to be there, as Marty jumps from timeline to timeline in the movie and then in the end, watched himself do it again. First he would be in the regular timeline, then as he prevents his parents from meeting, he is in the other timeline. As he puts his parents back together and goes to 1985, he is now in the "cool father timeline". That is how I see the movie. Can somebody help shed some light on the subject for me?
Answer: To be honest, it sounds like you've got a reasonably good handle on the situation. Initially Marty's in a 1955 where his parents will marry after George is hit by the car, but his father will be the loser we see in Marty's original 1985. The moment that Marty gets hit by the car, the future is changed and he's now in a timeline where his parents will never get married and thus he will not be born. The timeline begins to slowly alter (time is shown to have a resistance to change in the series), giving Marty enough time to reengineer his parents' meeting before he's erased from existence as the new timeline exerts itself. The way he handles it creates a third timeline where his parents do get married and go on to be cool and thus when he returns to 1985 at the end of the first film, that's the timeline he's in. The other Marty that he sees there is one who grew up in that third timeline, with the cool parents, and thus may be a bit different, but who still met Doc at some point, rendezvoused with him at the mall and ultimately went back in time after encountering the terrorists, where he'll encounter the young loser version of his father and will have to turn him into the cool, confident man that he grew up with. In the second film, old Biff goes back in time and gives his younger self the sports almanac, which changes the timeline again, now creating a fourth timeline where George and Lorraine still marry and are cool, but George will subsequently be murdered by this timeline's rich and powerful version of Biff, leading to the 1985 we see in the middle section of the second film. When Marty and Doc go back to 1955 from there, they arrive in the same timeline, the one where Biff will go on to be rich and powerful. As a result of their actions there, stealing the almanac from young Biff and destroying it, they technically create a fifth timeline, one where events in 1955 played out slightly differently but which is otherwise effectively identical to the third timeline, where Marty's parents are cool and successful in the present day. It is quite a complicated situation, with several different timelines involved, and I have no idea how well I explained it, but hopefully that helped a little bit, at least.
Question: At the end of the film when Marty sees Doc get shot at the mall the second time why is he crying when he runs over to check Doc? Couldn't he have just grabbed the plutonium that was sitting next to Doc's van, run back to the Delorean with it and travelled back much earlier to warn Doc?
Answer: Technically he could have done so, but that doesn't make it any less distressing to see his friend murdered.
Next to that he doesn't know how the DeLorean works, he doesn't know how to put the plutonium in (or doesn't want to risk using it wrongly, having only seen it loaded once) and he and Doc from 1955 have tampered with it to have it be powered by lightning so it probably wouldn't work properly anyway.
Question: If Marty and his brother and sister are fading from the photograph because they are being erased from existence, wouldn't that mean that the moment when the photograph was taken would also be erased from existence? If so, why doesn't the photograph itself disappear instead of just the people in it?
Chosen answer: The photo itself didn't disappear while the people were fading because the people in the photo were still in the picture. First, Marty's brother was erased, followed by Marty's sister, followed by Marty himself. Since, Marty's brother was erased, his sister and himself would have remained in the photo until they were erased. So really, the photo wouldn't have disappeared until all the people had been erased, since no-one would have been in the picture.
Completely agree with this answer. However, as far as the photo itself is concerned, I don't think it would have disappeared, strictly because of what we have seen in the series. Two examples I can think of: the picture of the gravestone, and the fax that Marty got saying he was fired (both instances in BTTF3). When time was altered, the things on them disappeared (the gravestone, and the "you're fired!" printing), but neither the photograph nor the fax paper itself disappeared.
Question: This shouldn't be bothering me as much as it is, but somewhere within the first twenty minutes of Back to the Future when Doc wakes Marty up by calling & ask him to pick up his camera, what does Marty begin to eat?
Question: What is George's working status with Biff at the end of the film? George mentions in the beginning that Biff is his supervisor so I assume Biff is George's boss but at the end of the film it is implied that Biff seems to be working for George or is George still working for Biff, but Biff is no longer bullying George?
Answer: At the end of the film, Biff owns his own auto detailing company (probably a nod to the fact his car kept getting filled with manure and needed cleaning) and George is his customer. Although it seems Biff will still try to con people, but George stood up for himself to make sure Biff did the job correctly. Before the present changed, Biff was his supervisor that still bullied George into doing his work for him for an unspecified company.
Question: I was watching the documentary on the trilogy. What exactly does Robert Zemeckis mean by "the ending with them going to the future was a joke?" What exactly is so funny about Marty and Jennifer going to the future and helping out their future kids from getting into trouble?
Answer: The original film was not written with sequels in mind. The sequels were only created after the overwhelming box office success and popularity of the first film. The ending is a "joke" because of how much more absurd the story has become, and the fact the audience doesn't actually see the future. Of course the joke is ruined somewhat because sequels were eventually produced and we did actually see the future, Marty and Jennifer as older adults, and their kids. When viewed in the context of a stand-alone film (and in the four years audiences had to wait until the sequel was released) this ending was indeed quite funny at the time.
Question: When Eric Stoltz was in this film, did he dye his hair black? It looks black in behind the scenes footage.
Chosen answer: Eric Stoltz's hair was actually more red than Michael J. Fox's; but Stoltz's original "Marty" was overall a visually darker character with a 1980s punk-rock or teen-idol look, wearing a full-sleeved black jacket, black pants and black sneakers. His hair was also dyed black for the part. Director Robert Zemeckis decided, after his 5-week ordeal with the dark and humor-challenged Stoltz, that the Marty character needed to be brighter, more colorful, and a lot funnier. So, Marty's appearance was changed to a more casual teen look, with a faded Levi's jacket, sleeveless orange vest, bluejeans and white sneakers. Michael J. Fox's hair was darkened slightly for the role, but it was still a noticeably lighter color than Stoltz's.
Chosen answer: Yup, that's what happens in time travel movies. All sorts of paradoxes pop up. You could sit and ponder this for the rest of your life. Or you could just enjoy the goofiness of it all. If you get a chance, look up an old article called "Back to the Future with the Other Marty McFly." It theorizes that there are, in fact, two Marty McFlys whose lives intersect with the competing timelines. But if you're seriously trying to figure out the complexities of all this, take the advice given in Austin Powers II and just enjoy the movie.
K.C. Sierra