Follow

Followed

More Action

Sign in now

Close

10 Harsh Realities Of Rewatching The Back To The Future Trilogy

By Abigail Stevens

Published May 4, 2024

Follow

Followed

Sign in to your ScreenRant

Custom Image by Yailin Chacon

This list contains mentions of sexual assault.

Summary

The Back to the Future trilogy has aged poorly in some ways due to plot holes, repetitive sequences, and uncomfortable interactions.
Many plot points are overlooked or rushed, and some character actions and relationships don't make sense under scrutiny.
Marty's pride, strange friendship with Doc, and repetitive storylines highlight flaws in the beloved time-travel movies.

Like with many movies that came out decades ago, there are some harsh realities of rewatching the Back to the Future trilogy. The adventures of Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) and Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) remain a beloved staple of the sci-fi and time travel genres, while many of the lines are still surprisingly quotable. However, other elements of the story haven't aged well, if they were ever well-received to begin with.

There are still things about the Back to the Future trilogy people don't know, leading to more and more rewatches to pick up on moments of trivia and inside jokes made by the filmmakers. However, this makes it even more likely that viewers will notice things that seemed fine before. Even today, the trilogy is considered a must-watch milestone of cinematic history, but when certain famous Back to the Future moments are held up to modern tastes and discourses, they instantly fall apart.

Custom image of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future Part III

Related

10 Things We'd Have Wanted To See In Back To The Future 4 If It'd Ever Happened

While it’s probably for the best that Back to the Future 4 seems unlikely, there are some interesting questions that a sequel could have explored.

Posts

10 The Back To The Future Trilogy Is Riddled With Plot Holes

The time travel in Back to the Future leads to a lot of continuity errors.

While the Back to the Future movies illustrate the potential ramifications of time travel, these plot points are still viewed through a comedic lens and the audience can probably deduce that everything will be resolved. Additionally, the series' comedic tone means that the writers aren't taking things too seriously, leading to some plot oversights. Back to the Future's plot holes and time travel paradoxes have only become more obvious as people have been given more time to analyze the movies.

Some plot points could have been resolved much faster if the characters took a less cinematic approach, while it is not clear when the altered past is supposed to take effect. Many of these things are pitfalls of time travel fiction in general and the Back to the Future movies' tone hopefully imparts to the audience that they should not look too closely at the story. However, as time goes by, people tend to point out more problems with the narrative.

9 Back To The Future Part II Is A Close Copy Of The First Movie

The Back to the Future movies recycle many plot beats.

However, for people who are not huge fans of these sequences synonymous with Back to the Future, their repetition becomes annoying.

There are certain things that happen in every Back to the Future movie — Marty waking up to his mother Lorraine (Lea Thompson) informing him of the year, Biff's (Tom Wilson) gang chases Marty through town — which was doubtlessly intentional. Back to the Future Part III manages to stand apart better due to the drastically different period setting and new elements, such as Doc's romance with Clara (Mary Steenburgen). However, the repetition in Back to the Future Part II emphasizes the fact that the plot is mostly the same, with the characters even revisiting certain events.

Essentially, Marty goes backward or forward in time to prevent a terrible future and is successful. Meanwhile, he gets into familiar fights with Biff and has repetitive conversations. These similarities establish Back to the Future as a kind of time travel-centric, cinematic sitcom, which some may still find charming. However, for people who are not huge fans of these sequences synonymous with Back to the Future, their repetition becomes annoying.

8 George McFly Is Creepy In Back To The Future

Marty's father isn't as great as the movies make him out to be.

The audience is supposed to root for George McFly (Crispin Glover), the scrappy underdog who is in love with Lorraine but just needs a push to become a braver man. Before he punches and knocks out Biff, Lorraine justifiably has no interest in George. Additionally, Marty accidentally disrupts his parents' meeting because he sees George perched in a tree watching a woman undress through a window — which the story swiftly moves past.

However, aside from the fact that this scene of George is completely creepy, he is generally not a likable character. Marty is put off by how his father lets Biff push him around and worries that he could end up like his George. George's confrontation with Biff somehow leads to him being a "cool" husband and dad, but all his other scenes suggest that he is a stalker and a pushover.

7 It Doesn't Make Sense That Marty And Doc Are Friends

Marty and Doc are not as likely of a pairing as the movies make it seem.

John Mulaney has a diatribe about Back to the Future in The Comeback Kid where he highlights that it makes no sense for a teenage boy to be friends with a disgraced nuclear physicist. Indeed, Marty is an ordinary high schooler who likes rock music and skateboarding and has friends in his band. He doesn’t seem like the type to seek out odd friends outside his peers. Meanwhile, Doc is framed as the quirky, timeless scientist instead of someone with a shady past who hangs out with teenagers.

Presumably, Doc did something against the rules to fall from grace in the first place and people would think it’s dangerous for Marty to be around him. The easiest way to explain Marty and Doc’s friendship is that they met because they are neighbors, which might be possible. After all, Marty can go to Doc’s house before school at the beginning of the first movie. However, it is still strange that Lorraine can find time to criticize Jennifer (Claudia Wells/Elisabeth Shue) but not asking why Marty can’t find regular friends.

6 Back To The Future Part II's 1985 Is Completely Ridiculous

Back to the Future Part II takes the butterfly effect to the extreme.

The problems with Marty's children in 2015 are resolved remarkably fast in Part II, leaving time in the second half of the movie for another conflict. Old Biff goes back in time to give the sports almanac to his younger self, ensuring a future that he is happy with. This leads to a 1985 where things are blown completely out of proportion and simply don't make sense. Apparently, all law and civilization break down because of Biff's reign of tyranny.

Part II rushes through why, after Biff became incredibly wealthy, kids can't go to school anymore and the police just don't do their jobs. It also appears that Biff only wanted to take over Hill Valley, creating a very localized terrible future and prompting the question of why people don't just leave. Part II's version of 1985 is unrealistically terrible to be caused by one person from a small town having a successful betting streak.

Back to the Future jokes Easter Eggs

Related

15 Best Back To The Future Hidden Jokes (In All 3 Movies)

The classic adventure Back to the Future elevates its rock and roll, Western, and time-travel adventure themes with various hidden jokes and nods.

Posts

5 Marty's Pride Almost Ruins Everything Several Times In Back To The Future

Marty almost ruins several lives because someone calls him "chicken."

The recurring beat of Marty being prompted to fight someone because they call him "chicken" is an absurd plot point that almost destroys Marty's life several times. It surprisingly works out in Part II because it leads to the hoverboard chase scene and prevents Marty's son from being arrested. However, Marty almost dies in Part III because he gets in a fight with Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Wilson).

In Part II, Lorraine explains to her grandchildren that Marty's overreaction to this insult basically ruined his life, causing him to get in a car wreck, give up music, and eventually end up in a dull office job. Marty then loses his job because he is pushed into a bad business decision. This quirk of Marty's is a slapstick way to advance the plot — but in retrospect, it is a major and childish flaw. Marty is only able to solve the future when he finally gets over it when the opinions of random, objectively awful people should never have mattered.

4 Everyone Marries Their High School Sweetheart In Back To The Future

George ends up with Lorraine and Marty ends up with Jennifer.

A large amount of Back to the Future's plot revolves around people always marrying whomever they were in love with in high school. In the original timeline, Lorraine says she knew at the dance she would be with George for the rest of her life; she apparently never considered leaving him in her early 20s despite clearly being unhappy with him. Marty is motivated to get his parents back together to preserve his own existence, and it proves to be a difficult task because Lorraine would only be attracted to George out of pity.

Meanwhile, Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer also get married as adults, despite Marty's pride causing a lot of problems for them. Back to the Future makes high school romances permanent because it creates tidy jumps between the settings of 1955, 1985, and 2015. However, it would make more sense for these characters to have broken up and dated other people in their 20s, especially when there are some fundamental issues with both relationships.

3 Back To The Future Glosses Over Biff's Scenes With Lorraine

Biff's treatment of Lorraine is much more serious than Back to the Future makes it.

In many ways, Back to the Future treats Biff as a comedic villain without acknowledging how serious he is. The timeline where he kills Marty’s father is so outrageous and obviously temporary that even murder isn’t a huge deal. However, the movies completely gloss over Biff's threatening interactions with Lorraine. Biff assaults Lorraine in the car after his friends drag Marty off, but she is so enamored with George after he knocks out Biff that she is fine to go along to the dance as if nothing happened.

Presumably, if Lorraine had gone to the dance with George to begin with, they would have walked straight inside without incident. However, Biff then spends years harassing their family and Lorraine is in proximity to a man who would sexually assault her. Additionally, in the scene when Lorraine gets her dress in Part II, Biff casually walks up and tries to lift her skirt, before forcefully telling her that she is "his girl." The movies have Biff always around Lorraine when he believes he is entitled to her, yet he is still framed as a joke in the story.

2 Back To The Future's "Johnny B. Goode" Implications

Marty's performance at the Back to the Future dance has only become more controversial.

Back to the Future plays the controversial "Johnny B. Goode" moment as a joke; an amusing time travel anecdote.

The famous Back to the Future scene of Marty copying several guitarists while playing "Johnny B. Goode" at a high school dance several years before the song's release has a great energy that works well with the movie, but it is ruined by the tasteless joke. A phone call made during the performance seems to imply that Chuck Berry, at best, was inspired to write the exact same song, or at worst, copied it and sold it as his own. This is more accurately a paradox because Marty didn't write the song either but is playing it from memory.

However, despite the time travel technicalities surrounding the moment, it is still problematic because of the implications of intellectual theft of artistic works. Back to the Future plays the controversial "Johnny B. Goode" moment as a joke; an amusing time travel anecdote. However, disputing the origin of one of the most iconic songs in rock and roll written by one of the most influential Black musical artists ever undermines his legacy and is a harmful addition.

Marty McFly, George McFly, and Lorraine McFly

Related

Could A Back To The Future Reboot Actually Fix The Original Movies?

Back to the Future hasn't aged well, but would a Back to the Future remake be able to fix the originals? It's actually a complicated answer.

Posts

1 Marty's Storyline With His Mother Has Only Aged Worse Since Back To The Future Released

Marty and Lorraine's interactions were still uncomfortable at the time of release.

Then there are the uncomfortable interactions between Marty and Lorraine, also played for laughs in Back to the Future. ittedly, Marty is completely appalled by Lorraine's behavior and even Lorraine realizes that there is something completely wrong with the two of them. However, the barrage of scenes with Lorraine flirting and Marty begrudgingly agreeing to take Lorraine to the dance and "take advantage" of her to set his plan in motion are among the movie's worst scenes.

It raises the question of whether this should have been used as a joke; if the writers wanted their movie to age well, then no. Many moments from Back to the Future are now obviously tasteless or don't hold up under scrutiny. Despite this, the adventures of these wacky time travelers have stood the test of time and are still considered worthwhile classics.

Movies