Back to the Future: The Plot Hole That Should Have Destroyed the Universe

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.

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Contributor
Contributor

Stuart believes that the pen is mightier than the sword, but still he insists on using a keyboard.