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Eric Stoltz made me understand the tragedy of the ending of Back to the Future and the inhumanity of the American Dream

I think that we have to really bend the whole Butterfly Effect rule, where BTTF is concerned. After all, given how profoundly Marty's actions changed the trajectory of George McFly's life, what are the odds that his romance with Lorraine took the exact same course, and they had relations on the exact same night on three occasions, over five years? The Marty we know "should have" ceased to exist, resulting in a major grandfather paradox.

Basucslly, BTTF, like Star Trek, follows a "durable timeline". It's kind of like in "First. Contact", when all of Cochrane's support crew are killed by the Borg... but somehow the future is not affected.

Probably like the Farscape idea, where time is "elastic" and "can be stretched" to an extent without snapping as long as you try to get things as close to the original circumstances as you can.
 
I'll take "predestination paradox" for a thousand, Alex.
Probably like the Farscape idea, where time is "elastic" and "can be stretched" to an extent without snapping as long as you try to get things as close to the original circumstances as you can.
And the latter theory allows Marty's family to be essentially the same, while the former theory kind of requires it. Especially since Marty's "status indicator" was a photo of himself and his siblings.
 
As far as the photo goes, while I can't remember whether this actually occurred in the film, I always liked the idea that the photo at the end of the film wouldn't quite be the same as the photo at the beginning. Indeed, given how intently Doc Brown stares at the photo at one point, I wondered whether he was seeing that while Marty's siblings had returned they weren't the same as they had been.

I still wonder just how badly things will go for Marty as it becomes clear that his memories are out of alignment with the timeline he finds himself in.
 
There is a theory. There could be some logic to the belief that time is fluid, like a river, with currents, eddies, backwash.
I see what you did there. ;)

But there is also something that is NOT a theory: There's no evidence of any other timeline than what we saw in FC. Meaning: You cannot prove that any such timeline ever existed. For all we know it IS a predestination paradox, and Riker and Geordi were always Cochrane's pilots on that flight. Hell, they returned to the same future they left, didn't they?

We did see other timelines in the BTTF films. Not here.
 
I see what you did there. ;)

But there is also something that is NOT a theory: There's no evidence of any other timeline than what we saw in FC. Meaning: You cannot prove that any such timeline ever existed. For all we know it IS a predestination paradox, and Riker and Geordi were always Cochrane's pilots on that flight. Hell, they returned to the same future they left, didn't they?

We did see other timelines in the BTTF films. Not here.
We don't know that they returned to the same future they left. It's a reasonable assumption, but the timeline they return to has a crashed Borg sphere on Earth. Was that there before they left?
 
I still wonder just how badly things will go for Marty as it becomes clear that his memories are out of alignment with the timeline he finds himself in.
Depends on how out of alignment things are. What we know is that George is a confident author, Lorraine takes much better care of himself, and his older brother (don't recall the name) has a better job. If it's just that and other trivialities, Marty should be able to adjust. If there are major differences, his family might wonder about him.
 
Depends on how out of alignment things are. What we know is that George is a confident author, Lorraine takes much better care of himself, and his older brother (don't recall the name) has a better job. If it's just that and other trivialities, Marty should be able to adjust. If there are major differences, his family might wonder about him.
"I haven't had this much fun since we took that trip to Wally World when I was ten!"
"...we never went to Wally World..."
 
"Hey Marty, do you remember that time we took that vacation to Paris?" "Uh, sure, Dad!"

He will live a life of pretense and lies, but now he has a nice new car!
 
If it helps, Marty didn't spend the movie trying to demolish his old past. He destroyed it in a moment of thoughtless human kindness, saving George from being hit by the car. At that moment, his old life was mortally wounded. All he could do was just make sure he and his siblings existed.

And remember also... whatever he might have lost or had to deal with, he made things better for the rest of his family.
 
If it helps, Marty didn't spend the movie trying to demolish his old past. He destroyed it in a moment of thoughtless human kindness, saving George from being hit by the car. At that moment, his old life was mortally wounded. All he could do was just make sure he and his siblings existed.

And remember also... whatever he might have lost or had to deal with, he made things better for the rest of his family.
But is it his family? Are they the same people who gave birth to him and raised him? Or are they just people with the same name who lived a completely different life?
 
But is it his family? Are they the same people who gave birth to him and raised him? Or are they just people with the same name who lived a completely different life?
Fundamentally, George and Lorraine would have been. Their appearance, personalities, and first 17 years of history would have been unchanged. Just their adult lives were different.

Realistically, all three McFly siblings should have been obliterated, replaced with three very different people. But, due to the Durable Timeline Principle seen in most time travel movies, they seem to be more or less the same. And it's best that we try not to worry too much about it.
 
Fundamentally, George and Lorraine would have been. Their appearance, personalities, and first 17 years of history would have been unchanged. Just their adult lives were different.

Realistically, all three McFly siblings should have been obliterated, replaced with three very different people. But, due to the Durable Timeline Principle seen in most time travel movies, they seem to be more or less the same. And it's best that we try not to worry too much about it.
So, he virtually killed his brothers so that two strangers could have a better life (at least financially)?
 
This is heavy.
200.webp
 
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