Originally, there was no lightning, no clock tower, no weather testing equipment. Marty was meant to get blown back into 1985 using the radiation and energy unleashed during a nuclear test, originally in a fridge, and then later on in the Delorean. Then, much later on, Marty became Indiana Jones, the Delorean became a fridge again, and a beloved franchise became a bit of a laughing stock. Let's not dwell on that though. The thing with this one is that its not just the ending which wouldve been ruined; its the entirety of the last two thirds of the film. How, pray tell, is Marty meant to invent rock n roll when hes stuck in the middle of the Nevada desert? With a different antagonist in the shape of a non-specific military guy called Lanza (who looks a bit like an evil version of Jay from Modern Family in the storyboards), where would Biff fit in? Would Marty not just have been incinerated by the bombs heat-flash before he got to 88mph anyway? Thatd be a pretty downbeat way to leave things, and would have nobbled the idea of having a trilogy pretty comprehensively. All the iconography of Back To The Future would have been completely different, and probably a lot less charming; after all, atomic bombs are quite scary, and in 1985 people were still fairly worried about them. Frankie Goes To Hollywoods Two Tribes had been number one for nine straight weeks the previous year; nuclear war was high up on everyones list of terrors. However, the whole point of 1955 in Back To The Future is that nothing that bad happens there except Marty's impending erasure from existence. Its a conservative, kitschy, chocolate box interpretation of the past; youll notice that none of the radical, turbulent bits of the 60s and 70s (womens liberation, Vietnam, Watergate, the Cuban missile crisis, etc) are foreshadowed or referenced. Its a safe time and place, and throwing an atomic bomb in there would have made everything just a bit too real. Which other terrible original endings do you think belong on this list? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread.
