This post contains spoilers. This is not a review but more like an analysis. I assume you’ve seen the movie (probably many times). This is just my interpretation. You can watch the trailer at the end of this post. See my previous entry about the original movie in the series:

Molecules to Movies: Back to the Future (1985)

Back to the Future Part II is directed by Robert Zemeckis and stars Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Thomas F. Wilson, and Lea Thompson.

Like my previous post I will discuss nostalgia and the change in population centers over time. Part of this movie takes place in 2015, then 26 years in the future. I always find it fascinating to watch a futuristic movie that now takes place in the past, as I am writing this in 2018. The bulk of this post will focus on what they got right and what they got wrong about 2015.

This film picks up right where the first one left off. After Marty returns from 1955 to 1985, Doc Brown leaves to travel 30 years in the future. He returns the next day to bring Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer back to 2015, saying they must do something to save their children.

Doc has made futuristic upgrades to the car and his wardrobe. This includes a portable fusion reactor and a clear tie. Why oh why did this not become a fashion trend? From the 1950s onward, flying cars were a presumption about the future, so of course everyone has flying cars. Of course that never became a thing. Nowadays it doesn’t seem likely as all auto technology is focused on self-driving cars. Hoverboards, accurate weather prediction, rejuvenation clinics, endless Jaws sequels, swift justice, self-lacing shoes and auto-fitting jackets never really happened. Fashion is understandably hard to predict. Nobody wears there pants inside out, yet. One thing they predicted was never obvious while watching this 30 years ago. They really were pretty accurate with their depiction of downtown revival and gentrification. 1985 downtown was rundown with porn stores and walls covered with graffiti. This version of 1985 shows a bustling downtown once again, as it was in 1955. This time the population is slightly more diverse. The soda bar from 1955 is now an 80s cafe. In 1985 it was an aerobics studio I believe.

The actors play many roles, often appearing onscreen at the same time. Michael J. Fox plays Marty as a teenager and as an adult version of himself. He also plays Marty’s teenage son and daughter. Thomas F. Wilson plays Biff in 1955, 1985 and 2015. He also plays Biff’s grandson, Griff. Lea Thompson plays Marty’s mother Lorraine in 1955, 1985 and 2015. Christopher Lloyd also plays 1955 and 1985 versions of himself. Crispin Glover did not return as George McFly for this film and was replaced with an actor wearing facial prosthetics to appear more like him. Crispin Glover sued the producers over this.

The Plot

Alright I’m not going to even try to keep up with the plot throughout this post. You should have seen this already if you are reading this. I’ll give a quick summary then just stick to my meandering thoughts on the film for the rest of the post. They go to 2015, then back to an alternate 1985. Secretly, old Biff stole the time machine, traveled to 1955 with a book of sports scores, then returned the car just a short time later in 2015. Young Biff becomes rich betting on the outcomes listed in the book. Marty and Doc are stuck in an alternate 1985 where the psychopathic Biff has basically become the Donald Trump of Hill Valley. That is Trump the real estate tycoon of the 80s, not the reality TV star. Marty and Doc then travel to 1955 to steal back the book of sports scores and restore the 1985 where Marty’s family is rich and Biff is in their service. Unfortunately, the Delorean is struck by lightning and Doc is sent back to 1885, setting up the next sequel. Ok enough of the plot. I’ll break my thoughts up based on the year and alternate versions of each year.

2015

While it is predicting 2015, I will give it some leeway in getting it right through the present day in 2018. It’s close enough. They show newspaper company drones. They’re halfright, although they are used in the air rather than as a replacement for reporters on the ground. Although they are kind of right that technology (as well as small budgets) has reduced the number of people needed to cover news. Many news reporters are now expected to also set up their own cameras and edit their own stories.

Something I’ve never noticed before is the button down shirt Doc wears. It shows a repeating image of a train chased by a horse, foreshadowing the events in the third movie. That one takes place in the west and prominently features horses and a train. A train even becomes Doc’s next time machine. I’m not the only one who noticed this.

Future Marty and Jennifer live in Hilldale. Mirroring the original, what was once a nice suburban neighborhood is now rundown in the future. The entrance sign to Hilldale is subtitled “an address for success” but graffiti has changed it to “an address for suckers.” As money and population flows back toward urban centers, the immediate suburbs are now left to decay. Such changes are actually happening today in many cities. I can attest to that in my city of Buffalo, NY.

Other things they get right is the loss of privacy with advanced technology. In the film this occurs when Marty’s boss is shown to monitor his phone calls. It may have sounded ludicrous once, but it’s a common fear now that our communications are not secure. We have certainly learned that large companies cannot be trusted.

Alternate 1985

The neighborhoods in the original timeline was slightly run down, with graffiti at the neighborhood entrance. This version is in even more decline as there are junk cars in the driveway and bars on the windows. It really was not necessary to have Marty’s home occupied by African-Americans. It’s comes off racist to signify lower class this way.

Alternate 1985 projects all the urban fears of that era, with bikers, weapons in the streets, gambling and an egomaniacal Biff profiting amid the slums surrounding his palace. Biff purposely looks like Donald Trump with all the self-importance that goes along with that.

Another foreshadowing to the third movie occurs when Biff is watching a Clint Eastwood film. Marty would take on the name of Clint Eastwood when he travels to 1885.

The original film's plot centered on an Oedipus complex played out against the will of Marty, as his teenage mother Lorraine is attracted to him when he travels to 1955. Marty was the cause of this attraction as he saved he took his father's place in a car accident, unwittingly putting himself in his mother's care, instead of his father. This led to a Florence Nightingale effect, where Lorriane was attracted to the man she nursed back to health. It was originally George who won her affection. The attraction of Lorraine to Marty is absent from this sequel. Instead, the other half of this Oedipal scenario plays out as Marty unwittingly causes the death of his father George. Again, Marty is an unknowing actor causing these events. In this alternate version of 1985, Biff killed Marty's father George McFly, but this never would have happened if Marty had not attempted to bring the sports scores almanac back in time with him. None of this would have happened if Marty had just stayed in his own time in the first place. Like an odd version of the Oedipus tale, Marty in some sense not only causes his mother to be being sexually attracted to him, but he also inadvertently causes the death of his father.

1955

I covered this in my previous post. This is nostalgia for a time when urban areas had a small time feel and very busy commercial areas. And it's kind of racist.

On Time Travel

Time travel is essentially fantasy, considered sci-fi only because it has a technological explanation in modern stories. The early time travel novels have no technological explanation, such as in A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, by Mark Twain. Similarly, there is no explanation for time travel in some modern books as in Octavia Butler'sKindred or Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five where the protagonists repeatedly travel through time, often against their will. The appeal of time travel comes from wondering what it would be like to experience life in a different decade or century. Kindred shows that for some people, this could not be very appealing when traveling back in time to the Antebellum South. But since these first two movies happen within the lives of our characters, it is more an appeal to wanting the ability to go back and change things in your life for the better. The movie makes a great deal about the drastic changes that can be made when someone interferes with the past. It also shows how people can be completely different in each timeline, depending on events in their lives both within and beyond their control. Lorraine undergoes changes in each timeline, only happy in the one where George was a successful writer. She is an alcoholic, upset at the direction her life took in both the other timelines. I wonder what changes it would take to make Biff a decent person.

Being a product of fantasy, the rules of time travel can always be specific to the text. It can be confusing for some as they enter the movie certain of rules from previous movies they have seen. Some movies have parallel worlds that exist in all versions of the timeline. This series appears to have one timeline at a time, where all changes ripple through time and paradoxes must be avoided. One can somehow erase their own existence by changing the past. Of course, if you follow the logic, how can Biff ever give his younger self the book if the future he came from doesn't happen? Why are the original Marty, Jennifer and Doc Brown missing from alternate 1985? Would any of them have met and traveled to the future in a timeline where Biff marries Marty's mother? Shouldn't there be a double of each of them?

Once one changes the past, the future changes. To offset the change one must follow back in time and prevent that change. This is different from a show like Continuum, where killing a parent does nothing to stop the son from appearing from the future. People can survive even if their original timeline dies. Different still are time travel movies like Timecrimes and Predestination have characters in closed loops where there is a cause and effect loop but no original cause to set the events in motion. Figuring out the logic is half the fun of watching a time travel film.

I’ll continue with Back to the Future Part 3 soon. The series takes a very different turn in that one as it takes place in 1885, far removed from the character's original timeline.

This trailer is the property of Universal Pictures.