Question: Can anyone explain why Crispin Glover was almost completely edited out of this film? True, his character wasn't that important, but even in 2015 (when he was hanging upside down after throwing out his back), his character was played by another actor.
Answer: To be honest Glover didn't like the end of part I because the McFlys were rich and love was a better reward, however he complained about not getting as much money as Christopher Lloyd and the others, even Fox. He then sued Universal for using unlicensed footage of him.
His lawsuit was for violating his right of publicity, not for using footage of him. Prosthetics were applied to Jeffery Weissman using an old mold of Crispin Glover to make Weissman look like Glover.
Question: In the alternate 1985, there is an alternate Biff, Lorraine etc. Shouldn't there also be an alternate Marty and Doc?
Answer: Yep, and there is, but they're both elsewhere. Doc's been committed to an asylum somewhere. When Marty first meets the alternate Biff, Biff tells him that he's supposed to be in Switzerland at boarding school - that's where the alternate Marty is.
Wouldn't someone probably see Doc and report that he escaped from the asylum?
Maybe, but no way to be sure, and they're not around long enough for that to be an issue anyway.
Answer: Doc would most likely not have been seen by anyone, as the time he spent in the alternate 1985 was primarily inside the DeLorean, at a boarded-up library, graveyard, and his lab (and all at night too) so most likely not spotted by the public.
Even if someone had seen Doc, it could've been dismissed as someone who looks like him. Even if they did report his escape, someone would either call or go to the asylum and verify Doc was still there.
Question: When Marty suggests (in 1985A) that they go back to 2015 to stop Old Biff from taking the almanac in the first place, Doc says no because it'll be 2015A instead. When Old Biff went from 2015 to 1955 to give himself the almanac, when he came back to 2015 again, it was still the same one he left because Marty and Doc are just getting Jennifer out of the new McFly house when he returns. So what's the difference? If Biff can go from 1955 to 2015, without it becoming 2015A, then why can't Marty and Doc do it from 1985A?
Answer: There is a deleted scene on the DVD that answers this. You will notice that when Biff returns to 2015 it appears as if he is dying, on the deleted scene when Marty and Doc leave 2015 you see Biff vanish which suggests the "ripple effect" of Biff giving the Almanac to his younger self places everyone in an Alternate 2015 which Biff is no alive to see so is erased from existence. I have seen somewhere a suggestion Biff was shot in 1996, chances are with Biff gone by 2015 Hill Valley may have been a more peaceful city again. Hilldale was a run down suburb in the original 2015 and could have been the same in an Alternate 2015, we never saw inside any houses at that point to answer where Marty may have lived in an Alternative 2015 but perhaps in Switzerland.
Answer: The implication is that Biff returned to 2015 before the consequences of his younger self's actions took effect. Biff would have returned to 2015 immediately, as he wouldn't want to risk Marty and Doc discovering that he had stolen the DeLorean. By the time Marty and Doc travel back to 1985, the consequences of Biff's actions have solidified.
Answer: The reason Biff arrives like that is because Lorraine found out that he murdered George and shot him.
Where did you get that from please?
That info is reported to be from the audio commentary to a deleted scene, published on the official DVD. Since the scene has been filmed, it might even be considered canonical (as opposed to ideas from the drafting stage of the script which, ultimately, were abandoned).
Are those tidbits of information, such as this DVD commentary track, considered canonical?
Corrected entry: In the scene where Biff gets the sports almanac from "Gramps" Biff in his garage, Gramps gives Biff the sports almanac. Biff looks at it, makes a dumb comment and then gets slapped for it, then tosses it in the backseat. But you'll notice Gramps still has the almanac in his hands and uses the book to show the results of the UCLA game. When Biff is given the book for the second time, it is tossed in the backseat again. (01:08:35)
Correction: Not a mistake. After Biff tosses the book back the first time, it is shown landing on Marty, and we see Gramp's hand as he says "You fool.", signalling that he has reached back for it.
If that's the case then why was it edited with CGI in later releases so the almanac's trajectory appears to land in Old Biff's lap?
Actually the original entry is correct. He throws the book twice: first, he's angry and tosses it, and as stated CGI has been obviously used to make it look as though the book lands in Old Biff's lap, when originally it went in the back seat. The second time he says to old Biff that he'll take a look and casually tosses it into the back seat. That's when it lands next to Marty.
Question: In Biff's casino Marty is escaping Biff and his goons - he goes into the stairwell and jumps from one stair to another. What I don't understand is how this stairwell works as it seems to be double, with 2 sets of stairs ending up on the same floor parallel to each other, one on one end and one at another but on the same floor. Does this even make sense? Can anyone tell me why a big building would have 2 sets of stairs in 1 stairwell going parallel and end up on the same floors? Any special name for this type of stairwell perhaps? I can't find anything on it.
Chosen answer: Your assumption is pretty much correct. There are 2 staircases spiralling around each other like a double helix. It is a fairly common way of constructing fire evacuation staircases as it allows a greater number of people to use them at the same time.
I see, so it's purely for fire escape reasons or more to handle overflow capacity in general?
Corrected entry: When Marty and Doc successfully save Marty's son from going to prison in 2015, the USA Today headline spontaneously changes while Marty holds it. If this is possible, then, when Biff steals the DeLorean to deliver the almanac to his younger self, Marty and Doc's memories would be instantly replaced by those of the alternate 1985 - which would mean that Marty would not be baffled by bars on his windows or locks on his gate when he arrives back home there. In fact, they wouldn't have returned to that house at all.
Correction: Throughout the course of the three films physical objects change but Doc and Marty retain the bulk of their memories from alternate time lines, apparently protected from time line changes. Since it's all science fiction we'll have to assume it works the way it is shown in the film.
I would add that there seems to be a proportional relation between the historical event being altered and when the change takes root. Thirty years between alteration and changed result seems to take nearly a week. The event of the arrest and trial is only a day (two at most) in the future. Thus, presto-changeo.
The newspaper regarding George McFly changes after less than a minute as well, and that paper was published in 1973, so some doubt about the proportionality idea there.
Trivia: When Marty discovers that he is in an alternate Hill Valley, there was going to be a scene with him discovering that his sister Linda was a prostitute and his brother Dave a homeless drunk living on the streets. These scenes were scrapped as Wendie Jo Sperber, who played Linda, was pregnant at the time.
Suggested correction: Very unlikely for a family film, and needs to be supported by some evidence such as a published interview with a film principal. This is a ridiculous entry and should be removed.
There was, in fact, a deleted scene in which Marty comes across Dave, who has since become an alcoholic, in the town square. While it is true that Wendie Jo Sperber was pregnant and thus unavailable at the time the film was made, I've never heard of anything scripted about Linda having turned to prostitution.
If you have the DVD or the Blu-Ray, watch the movie with the Trivia Track on. It will confirm that Wendie was originally supposed to appear as her character Linda who had become a prostitute.
Question: We see Biff groan in pain as he returns to 2015 with the stolen DeLorean. In a deleted scene we actually see Biff fade away as he is erased from existence by his actions. I assume this is because an alternate Biff now exists (or could have been killed) and so he is erased from time. If this happens to Biff, why doesn't this happen to Marty, Doc, and Jennifer? They too are replaced by alternate versions of themselves when they return and even before they return to 1985a. 1985a Biff even says in the film that Marty was in school in Switzerland, and Doc has been committed, so they too should fade away as Biff did, shouldn't they? I would say "time" was giving them time enough to correct things like in the 1st movie, but Biff faded away almost a soon as he arrived back in 2015a.
Answer: I read somewhere the reason Biff faded away was Lorraine shot him in the alternate timeline for murdering her husband, George.
I hadn't heard that one, could be in a novelization or something. This is entirely my own speculation with nothing official to support it; however, it could be that because Doc and Marty are trying to correct the timeline, he and his siblings' removal from history happens gradually, as they get closer or further from the act of their trying to set things right. Biff doesn't know or care and is actively trying to change history, so the moment he returns to 2015, he vanishes all at once.
If you have the DVD or Blu-ray, watch the deleted scene of Biff vanishing and turn on the commentary. It will confirm that Biff was murdered, which is why he was erased from existence.
Chosen answer: Biff faded away because he completely changed his own past. When Marty, Doc, and Jennifer return to 1985, they're returning to the alternate timeline that Biff created. They still exist and remember their own history because without it, Biff's timeline couldn't exist and a paradox would be created.
Answer: The comics answer this question. In 1986 in the alternate timeline, Biff forced the committed Doc Brown to send him forward in time to get more sports results, but Doc tricked him and sent him back to 1884 instead, where he was shot by his own great-grandfather Buford. When he reappeared in his current time (that's how the time machine worked in this timeline), he was dead. Old Biff faded from existence because Biff never grew up to become Old Biff (because he was dead), so Old Biff no longer existed.
Corrected entry: At the end of BTTF, Doc, Marty and Jennifer take off for the future. In BTTF2, they arrive 30 years later and see themselves. Impossible! They would have been inside the time machine (as far as those left behind are concerned) for 30 years. Marty and Jennifer were gone from 1985 to 2015 as far as he and everyone else knows. I can prove this by using the first movie. When Einstein goes into the future one minute, he was gone for a minute as far as Doc and Marty were concerned, even though the trip was instantaneous to Einstein.
Correction: Wrong - the reason Einstein is completely gone for that minute is because he never goes back to the time he left. While Marty, etc. go 30 years into the future, they will eventually go back to 1985 and live the rest of their lives, therefore he can exist in the future.
The whole point and premise of BTTF is that Time is very surely linear, such that altering the past changes the future in such a way that time travellers can even erase themselves from existence. The BTTF story is not about alternate timelines, it's about the pitfalls of travelling in linear Time.
The way time travel works in the BTTF trilogy is that time jumps don't happen until we actually see them happen. Marty and Jennifer have not yet returned to 1985, so they obviously could not yet have lived out their lives to 2015. Also, the Marty we see in 2015 had his accident with the Rolls Royce, and when Marty finally does return to 1985 he avoids that accident, meaning that the Marty we see in 2015 can't possibly be from the timeline where Marty returned to 1985.
The original correction is correct. Everything happens simultaneously, for the time machine time doesn't matter whether it's the past of future. So the fact that Marty and Jen go back is important. Because going back makes it likes the travel to the future never happened. Because, and I want to make this absolutely clear, them returning means they travelled back in time again and that has more impact than only going to the future (which is what we are all doing all the time).
Question: How does old Biff know how to operate the time machine?
Answer: Old-Biff first comments on the flying DeLorean "I have not seen one of those in 30 years", then he sees what he believes to be two McFly Jr.'s and gets even more suspicious, next he spies on Doc and Marty having an argument about the almanach and how Doc is opposed to time travelling for personal gain! What else does he need to know? And lastly: We're talking about a time machine here! Old-Biff could have stolen it, kept it for how ever long it took him to figure out how it works and returned it at leisure. We don't even have any proof for the days he picked to departed from 2015 or to arrive in 1955. The only verified date is his return from Nov 12 1955 06:38 pm.
Chosen answer: He doesn't, but it's hardly difficult to work out - the date setting readout is pretty obvious. Biff presumably set the date, then just accelerated the car until the time circuits kicked in.
Answer: It's a plot hole. Biff couldn't have known or suspected the DeLorean's time-travel procedure, which necessarily included Biff setting the precise 1955 destination with no previous instruction. Biff just suddenly "knew" how to operate a time machine. He also changed the timeline by going back to 1955, so there's no way he could have returned to the "normal" 2015. But he does.
It's not totally impossible that Biff knew how to the time dial worked. He wasn't suspecting what it was, he knew it was a time travel machine and thus knew what the dial was for and possibly being technically educated knew how to use the time dial.
We know from the first movie that Biff, by age 48, was waxing cars for a living in 1985. He hardly had a "technical education" and it's doubtful he acquired a technical education by age 78 in the year 2015. It was established in the first movie that he had become a timid underachiever.
Alright I agree, he's not the sharpest tool in the shed. But he has lived for 78 years by then, till 2015. Even though he has no clue on how the flux capacitor works, he doesn't need to, all he needs to do is work the time circuits, a simple keypad system which even shows which display shows which time. For someone from 2015, it's not so hard to figure out.
Answer: He could have taken however long he wanted to figure it out, as long as he returned it to the exact time he took it from. We don't actually see him time travel with it when he takes it, so, for all we know, he could have taken it to his house and taken the few hours/days he needed to figure out how to use it.
Plot hole: If Old Biff changed his past and went back to 2015, he goes back to HIS future, not the bad future, but Doc later tells Marty that if he were to go to the future to stop Biff from taking the almanac, he'd go to the bad future, so Old Biff technically shouldn't have been able to return to "his" future at all.
Suggested correction: The effects of the past being altered may not have happened immediately. It is possible that it took time for the timelines to adjust to the changes of events, meaning enough time would have passed to change 1985 when they return, but not enough time could have passed to change 2015. By the time Doc says if they went back to 2015 they would be going to an alternate future, some time has passed, so the effects of the past being altered and taking ahold in 2015 and altering it are more likely to have occurred by then.
Here is what you say: "perhaps it took time for the time lines to adjust." What kind of time would timelines take? Time is time, it doesn't take time to change the timeline. That doesn't make any sense. Some people claim it was the DeLorean itself that came back to its own original timeline and only then reset itself in the new one, but then the new timelines being erased later on wouldn't have happened either. So its a genuine plot hole.
It's established in the first film that it takes time for the changes to take effect. Marty and his siblings slowly disappear from the photo, rather than instantly. Although the scene in BTTF2 was deleted, it was filmed showing Biff dying and slowly fading away after his return to his present.
Yet they were restored instantly without any outside influence at the end of the movie. There are a lot of things wrong with this movie and the first one. Old Biff disappearing should mean that Marty and Doc should slowely disappear as well, even the DeLorean. But they didn't, that doesn't make any sense. The point is there is a plot hole, somewhere. To know where all you can do is look at it logically and then you automatically come up with Old Biff going back to the future but not the alternate future. If he did there wouldn't have been a movie, but that's the plot hole.
The timeline didn't change until he made his first bet which was some years I think after receiving it. He immediately travelled forward after giving the act, meaning he will still jump forward to the original future.
The timelines would instantly change, and Old Biff couldn't possibly have returned to "normal" 2015. It's just a poorly-thought-out time travel plot hole (or a deliberate error to expedite the storyline).
Suggested correction: In context, Doc was saying that they couldn't return to 2015 to stop Biff from stealing the time machine, because Biff didn't steal the time machine in the alternate 2015, he only stole it in the original 2015. Marty and Doc didn't stay long enough in 2015 after Biff returned, and that's why they didn't see any differences. Also, though they were unaware of it, Biff was dead in the alternate 2015, so the disasters he caused might have reverted back after his death.
Plot hole: When Old Biff goes back to 1955 to give himself the almanac, he comes back in the Delorean to the version of 2015 that he left, not the other, skewed version in which he is rich. Everything in 1955 should have changed around the Doc and Marty, as the Doc tells Marty everything will change around Jennifer and Einstein later on in 1985, when Marty and the Doc go back to restore normalcy. George is alive in this future, so we know the skewed version hasn't taken hold.
Suggested correction: It is established in the movies that the effects of the timeline being changed are not immediate. For example, in the first movie, in the photo of Marty and his siblings, it takes some time for them to vanish from it. When Doc tells Marty everything will change around Jennifer and Einstein when the timeline is restored, I don't think he meant the future will be restored to normalcy right that second, but more after an ample amount of time has passed for everything to be right. After Old Biff gave the almanac to young Biff, there was ample time for him to return to the original 2015 before it changed into the alternate 2015.
That would mean when they restored the timelines it would have taken time for it to adjust again, but it didn't. The new timeline was created but the old one remained because Marty and Doc were still in the original future. However, even though they are not in their original timeline it doesn't make sense for them to still be there, the timeline should have been erased or else old Biff wouldn't be erased either. Again though, a copy of another plot hole, which one is the oldest and original?
Question: Two questions: something I have never understood about Marty traveling into the future to stop his kid from going to jail. In the first movie when Doc. puts his dog into the time machine and sends him 1 min into the future the car disappears for 1 min and arrives back with the dog in the car. Doc explains that as far as the dog is concerned the trip was instantaneous but to Marty and Doc the dog disappears for 1 min. The question is when Marty travels into the future shouldn't he have "disappeared" for 30 years and not had an older self. The second question is, why is it so important for them to travel 30 years into the future to stop his kid from getting arrested, couldn't he have just as easily told Marty "hey on this day and year, don't let your kid leave the house. You have 30 years to figure out a reason or break his leg."
Answer: In the film, that one event sets off a chain reaction that destroys Marty's family, so it's paramount that they stop it from ever happening. Too many things could go wrong just trying to prevent it. Since Marty Jr. looks like 1985 Marty, the plan is to have Marty Sr. Take his place, rather than try to get 2015 Marty Sr. To ground his son or something. Plus, Doc says it's important they don't know too much about their future, so that's why he can't just tell them what to do in 30 years because he could reveal too much. Of course, if you overthink it too much, you can make it all fall apart, or come up with different ways to accomplish the same thing.
Chosen answer: To answer the first question, it's because Marty ultimately returns to the past and therefore does live his normal life for the next 30 years. Had Einstein traveled back that one minute, he would be there as well. As to the second question, Doc needs to be sure Marty's son doesn't go and can't leave it to chance that Marty will take take care of it after 30 years.
Question: I LOVE these movies and have seen them over 100 times. But one thing I never understood was when Doc was struck by lightening in 1955 and got sent back 1885 wouldn't the Delorean be there with him?
Chosen answer: Of course it did. You're not thinking fourth dimensionally :-) Doc and the DeLorean were sent back to 1885. Doc then placed the DeLorean in the abandoned mine for Marty to retrieve in 1955. Marty then used the repaired DeLorean to travel back to 1885. So technically, during Marty's time in 1885, there are TWO DeLoreans, the one in the abandoned mine (that Doc brought back with him) and the one in Doc's workshop (the same Delorean, just older, which Marty travelled in).
Corrected entry: This is the part in the very beginning when Doc takes Marty and Jennifer to the future. Wouldn't the future be without Marty and Jennifer because they left in 1985 and must have been missing all that time. From 1985-2015. Thus, there would be no way in heck that they would have existed in 2015, and no way that the 1985 Jennifer would have seen herself or her house, family etc.
Correction: This seems quite a simple point to me, but people keep submitting it. Given the non-linear nature of time, Marty and the others go into the future, but they will eventually go back to the exact moment they left and continue with their lives. Therefore when they see themselves in the future, their future selves have already gone forward, seen themselves, then returned to the past. The only error relating to this situation is that if they've already seen themselves, why are they surprised, as the future selves are the same ones that travel forward in time, but that's a whole different error...
This "they will eventually go back" stuff is making me really mad. I heard it a lot, but it is nonsense! Yes, maybe they will eventually go back (and they do as we know). But we also know that Marty (with the new wisdom of BTTF2) denies to make that car race in the end of the movie and future changes, so his hand will never get destroyed and so this special loser-2015-future they are seeing at the beginning of the movie is definitely not that future they could ever see. They would see a future with a Marty in 2015 with a "good hand" when you assume "they will eventually go back"
Answer: Crispin Glover is not in the BTTF sequels (except where footage from the first film was recycled). There are some contradictions as to the whys depending on who you talk to (salary dispute, Glover uninterested in reprising the role, Zemeckis uninterested in working with Glover again, etc.).
JC Fernandez