Question: When Doc is writing on the chalkboard he says the alternate 1985 is alternate to him, Marty, and Einstein, but reality to everyone else. What about Jennifer? Wouldn't it be alternate to her as well? That probably wasn't even her porch they left her on.
Carl Missouri
1st Dec 2020
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Answer: As response to the porch, that was the only known house to Marty that Jennifer lived at. If it was no longer her house, the people living there may not have looked outside to see her there. However, odds are that the same family lived there (as probably most cases there). Remember, the only reason for the different family living in Marty's house is because of the connection to Biff (he married Lorraine and shot George) so that house would have a different owner.
6th Oct 2013
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Question: When Marty and Doc arrive in the bad 1985, they learn that 1985 has changed and are told that alternate versions of themselves exist. Alternate Doc has been committed and alternate Marty is at a boarding school in Switzerland. Nice movie trick to keep them from running into their alternate selves. Question though, isn't the 1985 at the start of this movie also an alternate 1985? This too has been altered from the original 1985 as seen at the beginning of the first movie. So, where are the alternate Marty and Doc in the timeline when Marty's family is actually upper middle class? Since this is an alternate 1985 as well, where is "rich" Marty? Why didn't he bump into his other self, the Marty that owns the black pickup truck?
9th May 2009
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
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.
20th Aug 2008
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Question: One thing I never got is why Marty is so shocked that the Cubs won the World Series in 2015. He was then going to say something like "It's just that Miami..." but stops and asks another question. Was it ever said anywhere what he was going to say about Miami? That always perplexed me.
Chosen answer: The Cubs aren't exactly known as World Series contenders. Put it down to bad luck, but over 100 years, they only have one World Series championship. The last time they won the Series was in 1908, and the last time they were even IN the Series was in 1945. Being a Cubs fan myself, Marty's reaction isn't that much of a stretch. The Miami reference is because they didn't have a baseball team in 1985, which is all Marty knows of course. Since the movie was made, however, Miami has acquired an MLB team called the Miami Marlins (formerly the Florida Marlins).
27th Oct 2007
Back to the Future Part II (1989)
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Answer: Yes, if she had woken up before they fixed everything, she would have been in the same position as Marty and Doc. In the heat of the moment, Doc just neglects to mention Jennifer...although Marty does ask about her just before they travel back to 1955, Doc insists that when they fix the past and re-establish the original 1985 timeline, it will transform around her and when she wakes up she won't notice anything amiss.