Back to the Future
Just to reiterate, the main principal at work here is that every time one of the characters in BTTF travels in time, they create a copy of themselves which theoretically is then part of that particular period in time forever.
When we join Marty he has no ability to time-travel. He’s at a fixed point in time where no one has yet conquered time. We’ll refer to this Marty as Marty Prime as during the adventure, he is the only version of the character that sees events occur in the correct order.
However, the moment Marty Prime travels back to 1955 at the end of the first act, the Marty left behind in time becomes Marty I; he existed from birth, right up until that very moment and could theoretically be revisited and observed by Marty Prime at any time. Hence technically there are now two Marty’s in existence.
And don’t forget the Doc! Emmet Brown is killed by Libyan terrorists just as Marty escapes through time but he’ll soon factor in to the equation thanks to Marty Prime’s wanton time-meddling. Throughout the first Back to the Future though the Doc remains largely in the timeline he’s supposed to although it’s certainly not for lack of trying.
After he has successfully pre-united his parents prior to his own bung up in causing them to never meet in the first place, Marty Prime teams up with Doc. Prime in order to repair the DeLorian which if you remember won’t power up.
After the nail biting Hill Valley Clock scene, Marty Prime is able to travel back to 1985. By the laws of the franchise, this leaves a version of Marty forever reliving his time spent in 1955. That’s three Marty’s in total: Marty Prime of course; Marty I who’s presumable still recreating the video to Blur’s ‘Song 2’ in 1985 with the giant amp at the Doc’s house and a new copy, Marty III, who now lives forever in 1955.
This already seems like too many Marty’s for one simple timeline to sustain, no matter how infinite it may or may not be.
You could argue that because of events that occurred in the past with Marty and his youthful parents which ended up shaping Marty Prime’s version of 1985 for the better, that Marty I has been erased from the timelines all together. But that doesn’t quite reconcile with the movie’s prescribed logic.
If the rest of the McFly children had been born and existed in this new 1985 then it stands to reason that Marty I would have also still have been born. He’d have been wildly different than our Marty Prime sure, but he’d exist nonetheless.
Meaning that for a moment at the end of Pt. 1 there are two Marty Mcfly’s existing in the same time simultaneously and if they were to ever meet each other (which they surely would, what with living at the same address and such) then it’s the end of all things I’m afraid.
Back to the Future Totals: 3 Marty’s.
Click “next” below for Back to the Future Part II…
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11 Comments
I think you’re over looking a much simpler explanation for what happens whenever someone travels through time in the series, which is that it creates a new timeline/universe.
If that’s the case then why did Marty run into another version of himself in 1955 in BTTF Pt. 2?
I surely enjoy most of WC posts. This BTTF article makes 0 sense. A version of Marty does not remain in the past. He travels back to the future. So there would be only 2 Marty’s for the first movie revolving infinitely in the space time continuum.
I think you’re leaving something out though. Nothing is left behind when they travel through time. At the point in which they travel, they cease to exist from that point forward. They still exist in the past, but not the future.
The fisrt example of multiple personalities in the same time period is probably the easiest to explain. Marty returns from 1955 to 1985. At that point, there are indeed two Martys. But.. that only lasts until one goes back to 1955 (again). At that point, there is only one Marty in 1985 to continue going forward.
The same applies to the sequence in BTTF II. One Marty exists (messing up and then bringing together his parents), and then there are two, but only until the lightening bolt hits the clock and one goes back to 1985. Now there is only one Marty in 1955 – not two. The only way there would be more would be for Marty to travel back to the exact same time period in 1955. Even then, you would have three Martys only up to the point that they begin to leave.
Since they are constantly coming and going in time, the instances of multiple personalities occupying the same time period are never longer than the longest overlapping visits.
The biggest plot hole is when Marty and Jennifer go to the future. In order for the older versions to exist, they would have had to return to the past again at some point. And in doing so, know that their younger selves would arrive in the future when they got older.
This is yet another shining example of the decline in quality on this site. I don’t know what happened, but after the change from OWF to this something did. How many ’5 Reasons…’, ’10 Things…’ can you come up with? A format helps, but damn. This article was not thought through, why print it? Is it really just a matter of quantity over quality with you guys? Or in some cases, a faux controversial opinion to hook the readers? I used to come here for fun, now for laughs. And not in the good way. I wanted to contribute reviews and such to this site, but….
5 Reasons Why Whatculture.com Isn’t What It Used To Be
1 That infernal ‘Next” button. Stop it. Just stop it. We all know why it’s there, but it really is annoying.
2 Articles aren’t thought through (anymore).
3 Some ‘opinions’ and features are oddly similar to those of other sites.
4 Stop trying to hook readers with an overtly construed controversial heading, when in the same article the controversial point can’t be substantiated, explained or even hinted at.
5 Seriously, two articles (review and explanation) on Prometheus is enough. Quality over quantity guys, just saying.
Venting is a beautiful thing.
That said, you guys are still better than most of the sites I visit over here (Netherlands) so all is not lost.
Thanks, I guess?
Considering you claim to love these films and say you have watched the countless time, you really do not understand them at all. There is only ever 1 Marty and he exists in different timelines.
Seriously, you think when he leaves 1955 he stays there???
What the hell is wrong with you?
there would be a version of himself to avoid in each time period he/they travelled to yes, but that wouldn’t end the universe …
… but there IS a MASSIVE plot hole in BBTF2 ….. Biff uses the car to go back to 1955 and tell himself to make the betsin the book … SO, when he comes back to 1985 he SHOULD have landed int the futeure Marty and the Doc travel to next, LEAVING them with no car and probably a scrambled memory of where ther are any why.
It’s the only plot hole, but it’s HUGE!
Reading this through made me notice something that I’d not thought about before.
In BTTF 2, Jennifer meets her future self and they both faint. This after Doc has waffled on about paradoxes.
Later in the film Marty goes through great effort to avoid meeting his past self.
And yet Biff can get the almanac, travel back in time and hand it to himself following a prolonged conversation, and there are no consequences.
Why is that?
Everything was bang on in continuities & consistencies except for 1 obvious part when the future Biff goes back to 1955 & gives his past counterpart the almanac then arrives back in the same future? wouldn’t the future have been altered otherwise?
Yeah, as some other commenters have pointed out, this article is total nonsense. You clearly don’t understand the films.
Yes, Marty does exist in 1955, but only for 1 week. He vanishes from 1955 and appears in 1988 as the same person, just in the same way in which he originally disappeared from 1985 in order to travel back to 1955. There is no copy left behind when he moves from period to period, just like there’s no copy of you left behind as you naturally move forward in time. I understand what you mean about him existing in two different periods, but thinking of those periods as existing simultaneously doesn’t make sense. You also exist in two time periods simultaneously: you exist in 2012 and you exist in 2002 (for example). You weren’t left in the past though, you moved into the future.
The same applies for all the other characters you claim are duplicated throughout time. You say they’re trapped in endless loops in whichever time period they found themselves. I can see why you say this: at the end of film 1, we see Marty watch his past self (relatively, that is) speed off into 1955, starting the loop again. This is not exceptional though. Everyone else in 1955 is ‘trapped’ in that loop. And so is everyone in every other conceivable period of time.
It’s a shame you misinterpret the continuity so badly, because there are actually very few plot holes in these films that it’s astounding! They stand up so well even now as great films.