The Back To The Future franchise has been beloved by audiences for decades now, and it is easy to see why. While🦄 it may be looked at as a science fiction type film, it never only attracted that genre's fans. It also attracted movie-goers who enjoy action and adventure and just generally enjoy a fun fil꧙m that allows you to escape for an hour and a half.
And even though I, myself, am a major fan of the trilogy and have m🔯any fond memories🐓 of watching the films with my family growing up, there were always things about the films that made me question if everything was making logical sense...especially when plot holes started to arise the more and more I watched them.
Don't get me wrong, I still am utterly enthralled every time I watch Back To The Future and it 🧜is one of my favorite trilogies, but it doesn't necessarily mean that the movies always made perfect sense when you really look atℱ them.
So when you start to see that maybe the questions about how the space-time continuum actually works is actually a valid question to have, it makes you think that there may be even more 🅠you missed about the franchise that doesn't make sense either.
That's where I come in. We may love these movies, but that doesn't mean we can't discuss the very real plotholes and paradoxes of the Back To The Future universe. So here is a list of the 40 Things About Back To The Future That Shows It Makes No Sense.
40 Why Don't They Reco𝓰gnize Me?ജ
One of the greatest questions, and inconsistencies, in the first Back To The Future film, is the fact that ♑Marty’s parents never recognize him as looking an awful lot like their friend Calvin ౠKlein from 1955.
When Marty first arrives in 1955 and ends up in his mom, Lorraine's, childhood home, he actuall⛦y ends up meeting her in less than ideal circumstances. She seems to ꧙have a crush on him and calls him Calvin Klein due to her assumption that was his name because it was written on his underwear band.
In the end, though, he not only got his future mom to have her crush on him fin🌳ally fade away but he also made sure to have his parents get together and ultimately fall in love...again.
It was quite the journey he we🐟n𝓡t on over the span of a few days, but he succeeded, nonetheless.
But in the new altered 1985, they never once start to look at Marty funny or question that he happens to look exactly lܫike ‘Calvin Klein’ who helped G🥂eorge and Lorraine get together in the first place.
It is hard to wrap our heads around that because even if they had only known him for a short period oꦗf time, he definitely played a pivotal role in them ending up to𓄧gether in the first place. So what gives?
39 🌜 Marty Is Erased So Quickly ꦐ
There's an element to Back To The Future that almost gives you It's A Wonderful Life vibes. This is because of the constant talk about erasing someone from existence and that it could liter🐽ally change everything - past, present, and future.
So when Marty goes back in time to 1955 to🥂 just before his parents met and subsequently fell in love, his presence seemed to immediately alter the present, which at the time, was 1985.
This also meant that his older siblings were slowly being erased, as evidenced by the photograph he had on hand of his family.
In the photo, each sibling would gradually start to be erased. Yet, when Marty is performing at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, during his shocking and fun performance of "Johnny B. Goodeꦬ," his image in the photo seems to be suddenly erasing at an alarming rate.
Why would he be er🤡ased from the present so much faster than his siblin𒈔gs?
His siblings seemed to have a lot longer in the photo than Marty did once the erasing s🌼tarted, but it was never actually explained as to why he wo𒅌uld be singled out in such a way. Realistically, it was probably the writer's way of furthering the plot, but it still isn't completely logical, unfortunately.
38 Marty And Doc Might N🍎ever Be Friends
At the start of Back To The Future, we see that Marty is friends with the eccentric Doc, and together, they have been conducting scienti𒊎fic experiments, which ultimately leaꦓds to their time travel adventure later.
But the whole reason Marty is hanging out with him is that he seems to be unhapp🐼y with his life and is a somewhat troubled teen looking for his true purpose.
So when he returns from 1955 and sees tha🌊t his whole life has changed for the better thanks to his time traveling, it doesn’t make complete sense that he would still be friends with Doc in this altered timeline…which begs the question of how he went on the time travel excursion in the first place?
The main premise of the film is that if you change one thing about the past, it can alter everything in the future. But then,🐈 if the future is altered significantly, then how could the original timeline have happened in 🦄the first place?
I know, it gets ꦛvery confusing. But it is a good question to ask. In the new timeline, Marty probably would have never hung out with Doc in the first place, which means that he would have never gone on the time-traveling journey to the past, and none of the events we saw would have ever happened.
This quest🅘ion about the rules of the space-time continuum needs answers.
37 Why Not Live In A Mansion?꧟
You would think if you had gone back in time and nearly completely altered everyone’s lives, including your own, in thಌe present day that it would mean everything changed. Especially when in your case, it wa𒅌s for the better.
But not everything changed for Marty. He may have gotten the truck he had been lusting after for a long time, but despitꦿe the fact that his parents were now successful and seemiꦍngly rich, they still resided in the same home. And in turn, the same neighborhood.
It is illogical to think that with the success they turned out to have in their lives that they would still be in an average home in an average neighborhood.
Especially since it is clearlಌy evidenced not only by their clothing but by the fact they were able to afford the expensive truck for Marty that they are well-off in this new timeline.
So why is it🐓 that they decided to stay in the same hom𒀰e in the same neighborhood when they could have been in a much nicer place, in a possibly exclusive neighborhood?
Maybe they preferred to keep things a little low-key in terms of outlandish homes and exclusivity i🍰n the♑ neighborhood. But even that doesn't fully explain it.
36 Everyone Was Too Trusting Of Biff 🅺
Everybody knows that Biff in Back To The Future w𓄧as the proverbial thorn in the side of Marty, as well as his parents. He was loud, obnoxious, mean, and an all-around bad dude.
So even though Biff was the main antagonist for both Marty’s parents and Marty himself in Back To The Future, he was also a predator in Lorraine’s case.
He all but attacked her in his car before the Enchantment Under The Sea dance before George punched him and effectively knocked him ▨out, saving Lorraine in the process.
So knowing all of that, why would the McFlys invite Biff into their home and have him work for them as an errand boy, essentially? Sure👍, it would be nice to take someone who tormented us in high school and have them do a demeaning job, but it wouldn’t be worth risking the safety of our family, that’s for sure.
Yet, we see him very clearly at the end of the film, when Marty is back in the altered-1985, working for Marty's family. Why wasn'꧒t George more concerned about possible reperc🤪ussions of hiring Biff to work for them? Why did Lorraine seem unfazed that he was working there, and not even scared by his presence?
It doesn't quite add up.
35 🌺 Biff Changes His Ways Awfully Quickly
Speaking of Biff, there is something else about his role at the end of the first Back To The Future that is quite the head-scratcher. This has to do with the fact that h💞e was able to become a lackey for the Mcflys in the first place because it is honestly pretty astounding. I mean, he was the ultimate bully back when he was in high school with George and Lorraine and was seen as the “tough guy” amongst his peers.
And as we have discussed, Biff was the ultimate sleaze bag when he tried to force himself on Lorraine at the Enchantment Under Theဣ Sea dance, before George ended up saving her before he could follo💖w through on it.
So I guess we are supposed to believ🧸e that just because George punched him when he was trying to physically harm Lorraine, that suddenly hꦑe is a meek and awkward guy who will do anything George tells him to do?
It seems to me that the odds of that occurring is infinitesimal. But yet, we see clearly by the end of the film that Biff has completely chang﷽ed in character and become the polar opposite of his younger self. Interesting, but hardly believable.
34 💃 Doc Isn't Well-Versed In History
Whenever someone thinks of time-travel and what it would be like to go back to an important dateᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚ in the past, it is all hypothetical because as far as we are aware, time-travel is not possible as of yet. And it may never be.
But since Doc ended up creating a time machine, he had the very real possibility to go back to a very important date in America's history.
See, when Doc first thinks of somewhere to visit using the DeLorean to go back in time, he thinks he should go to the signing of the Declaration Of Independence, whꦅich he puts in the date as July 4th, 1776.
But historically, the actual signing occurred much later and was only printed and distributed on the July 4th,ꦑ 1776 date. So not only would he not be there on the correct date to view the signing, he would end up in Californ📖ia, not Philadelphia where the signing actually occurred.
And seeing as there were no roads or highways to get from California to Philadelphia, how would he expect to actually get there anyway�🌳�?
It is hard to say what his plan would have been in the long-run, but he didn't have to🔴 think about it much further since his plans changed significantly.
33 Doc Breaks His Own Rules 💜
It is a basic rule of thumb that if you are planning to travel back in time, you better not change the events that occurred during that time, or you could be jeopardizing the future in🔯 drastic ways.
But even the Doc doesn't seem to fully realize how important that rule is to live by when time t𓄧raveling.
The younger version of himself definitely tries to abide by that rule, as evidenced when in 1955, when Marty has traveled back to that time and meets the younger Doc, and Doc vehemently doesn’t want to know anything aꦫbout the future from Marty, so that he doesn’t alter his future in any way.
But the problem with that is that on the video he watches, his future-self has already mentioned that he tricked the Libyans into giving him plutonium🌠.
That is a pretty big thing to know about his future and would have altered his future immediately, I’m sure. So why did no one, including Marty or Doc, realize that that would cause a huge problem for their futures by him knowi🍨ng that information?
While we may never know why that fact wen﷽t undetected by them, at least we know that the Doc tried to do the right thing.
32 George Had A Bad Excuse For Missing The Dance 𝔍
Once Marty realized he had altered the future by having his parents not meet when they originally were supposed to, he had to do everything in his power to make surﷺe they not only met but fell in love and in turn, went on to get married and have children, Marty included.
So after messing up their chances the first time, he decided to get George, his father, to ask Lorraine, his m꧒other, to the Enchantment Under The Sea dance, so they could fall in love, as they were supposed to originally.
George, being the shy and nerdy guy he is, kept saying he couldn’t go to the dance because his favorite television show was on. The show in question was Science Fiction Theatre, but anyone who was a fan of the show back then, or who just googled the inform𝓡ation, can tell you that it should have been no problem since the dance was on Saturday 🦄but the show was on Friday, meaning that he still could have gone.
This was either a minute mistake on the writers’ part or a poor excuse that George was using.
Either way you look at it,ꦆ it just does not check out.
31 💝 Why Exactly Are All Doc's Clocks Slow? 🍷
There are plenty of instances in the first Back To The Future film that did not make complete sense. But they all varied in the severity of how little sense they made. Some were glaring plot holes, while others were so minuscule that if you blink you might🌃 miss the error anyways.
One scene, in particular, comes to mind that falls into that category. And it happens In the opening scene when Marty is over at Doc’s and we see a close up of all of the Doc's clocks. We find out soon after that they were all set at a slower pace. We are led to believe that it has something to do with the Doc's time travel experiments, but that is literally 🙈the last we ever hear o🐓f it.
It is hard to come to our own conclusions as to why the Doc would need to slow his clocks down in order for his experim🍌ents to be a success. So why was there no further explanation as to how it tied in with his time traveling? And how ✱exactly did it tie in anyways? These may seem like small questions but it could have better-explained part of the movie for us, at least.