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Trying to unscramble the loony, loopy timelines of the Back to the Future movies can be as difficult as unscrambling the eggs in Doc Brown's food processor. Disregarding the paradoxes inherent in the very idea of time travel itself, the real difficulty lies in the fact that the three films often violate their own internal precepts about temporal displacement. If the true import of time travel in the BttF movies is to be fully comprehended, then several complex issues must be addressed. According to no less an authority than Emmett L. Brown, a new space/time continuum is created whenever historical events are altered. Although there is a correlation between time traveling events and the generation of new continuums, there is a distinct qualitative difference between the two. It is the modification of past history which gives birth to a new timestream, not the act of chronological errantry itself.
The very "first" instance of continuum generation in Back to the Future occurs in 1955. After George McFly peeks into Lorraine's bedroom window, Marty pushes him out of the path of a car driven by Lorraine's father. This seemingly inconsequential act has the devastating effect of erasing Marty's future existence. Thus a brand new 1955 continuum is directly generated from its predecessor and the story then seems to advance quite naturally to its next subplot. However, upon deeper reflection, this process poses five unanswered questions.
When a new continuum is born, how do the characters make the transition to the parallel universe? When Marty shoves his father out of the way, the transition to the new worldline occurs instantaneously without any of the flash or fanfare of Delorean time warps. All of the characters simply and suddenly inhabit a new and slightly different timeline. In addition, only those characters that have made a Delorean time jump are aware of any changes. Furthermore, the effects of the transition are not solely confined to the major characters. Since the lives of Goldie Wilson and Chuck Berry are significantly altered by Marty's deed, it can be assumed that the ripple effect will impact the lives of many people and will persist into the continuum's future including their own descendents. It can also be postulated that all of the subsequent troubles in all of the films are directly attributable to "Calvin Klein" saving his father from a minor concussion!
This raises the second question: when a new continuum is created, what happens to the previous one? Does it blithely continue on with copies of everyone living out their lives or does the original continuum simply end, pinched out of existence by the ascendancy of the next? Unfortunately, the films provide very little evidence on this subject. The simplistic chalkboard diagram drawn by Doctor Brown suggests that the original does persist. However, at no point in the movies does a character manage to revisit the same exact "old" continuum after the generation of a new one! It might seem that the characters have returned to the original continuum, yet there are always significant differences (refer to diagram). So it seems that even if the old universe survives, it is permanently sealed off and therefore the question is moot. In a related issue, Emmitt further explains that if they were to travel from 1985 Mark V into the future, it would naturally have to 2015 V. But what if they traveled into the past? On Doc Brown's diagram, no past is displayed but again, it would have to 1955 V or 1885 V. Does this past already exist or would they be creating it from primeval space/time fabric by the act of chrono-errantry? In either case, it would still be the V worldline. In fact, it can be postulated that there are seven different space/time continuums in the Back to the Future movies. Stephen Hawking must be giggling!
The third issue involves attempts to repair an already altered timeline. There are four examples of this phenomenon in the films: Marty insuring the marriage of his parents in 1955 Mark II (BttF 1); foiling Griff's criminal plans in 2015 III (BttF 2); Biff giving the almanac to his younger self in 1955 IV (BttF 2); and Marty stealing the almanac back in 1955 V (BttF 2). As noted above, the original timeline can not be restored. So the surviving continuum is merely altered again to produce a more acceptable result. Though the events at the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance turn out essentially the way they were meant to be, their long-term effect is quite drastic and much more amenable for the entire McFly family. In the first and fourth of these "restoration" cases, the continuum is re-altered without even resorting to the Delorean. It could be argued that BttF 3 is one long re-alteration to bring final resolution to all the loose ends.
The fourth issue involves chronological excursions which produce no observable changes. This problem is rooted in the inherent paradoxes of time travel itself. There are only two instances of this type in the movies: Einstein's brief trip at the start of the first film and Emmett's eight months of existence in 1885 before the arrival of Marty. In the case of Einstein, does the existence of a character who is only sixty seconds younger than he should be constitute enough of a difference to give birth to a new continuum? It might not seem so until you consider Brown's case. 1885 appears to be perfectly normal, yet it contains a fifty year old man who has not yet been born. This man has also already invented temporal mechanics but this act won't occur for another 70 years. This man has even already visited the 21st century which won't start for 115 years. Most important of all, he can even make iced tea! These certainly seem to be a significant anomalies even though no historical events have been altered yet, such as saving Clara Clayton's life. As noted previously, if Doc Brown changed the course of 1885 between January 1st and September 2nd, the "altered" version of Marty in 1955 would either not be aware of it or else his existence might have been terminated.
If the fourth supposition is correct, then the fifth issue arises and it's the trickiest of all. It may be that continuum alteration is an automatic and inescapable reflex function of the very first Delorean time traveling event, that all subsequent events depend from this one act. Indeed, it can be postulated that the beginning was Doc Brown's original brainstorm about the flux capacitor in 1955! In other words, the past, present and future fates of all the BttF characters were completely predetermined by this triumph of genius. Hello, hello butthead! Anybody home? This hypothesis is in direct opposition to the films' stated philosophy that each person's density... excuse me, destiny... is a fluid ongoing process like metamorphic headlines, disappearing photographs and multi-cadaver tombstones. Nevertheless, the characters may have been reduced to nothing more than "Chicken!" eggs in a Rube Goldberg food processor, just waiting to be scrambled. So sit back, order some chocolate milk, warm up the hoverboard, buckle up and hold on but close your eyes and just enjoy the ride.
To Be Continued... |
D = Doctor Emmitt Brown | E = Einstein |
M = Marty McFly | C = Clara Clayton |
J = Jennifer Parker | X = Jules Brown |
B = Biff Tannen | Y = Verne Brown |
# | Characters | Departure Date | Continuum | Time | Direction | Arrival Date | Continuum | Time |
1# | E | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - I | 1:20 am | future | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - I (?) | 1:21 am |
2 | M | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - I | 1:35 am | past | Sat Nov 5 | 1955 - I | 6:00 am |
3 | M | Sat Nov 12 | 1955 - III | 10:04 pm | future | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - III | 1:24 am |
4 | DE | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - III | Unknown | future | Unknown | 2015 - III | Unknown* |
5*# | D | Unknown | 2015 - III | Unknown | ? | Unknown | 2015 - III | Unknown*# |
6 | D | Unknown | 2015 - III | Unknown | past | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - III | 10:32 am |
7 | DMJ | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - III | 10:34 am | future | Wed Oct 21 | 2015 - III | 4:29 pm |
8 | B | Wed Oct 21 | 2015 - IV | 7:23 pm | past | Sat Nov 12 | 1955 - IV | Unknown* |
9* | B | Sat Nov 12 | 2015 - V | 7:28 pm | future | Wed Oct 21 | 2015 - V | 7:27 pm |
10 | DMJE | Wed Oct 21 | 2015 - V | 7:28 pm | past | Sat Oct 26 | 1985 - V | 9:00 pm |
11 | DM | Sun Oct 27 | 1985 - V | 2:42 am | past | Sat Nov 12 | 1955 - V | 6:00 am |
12 | D | Sat Nov 12 | 1955 - VI | 9:50 pm | past | Thu Jan 1 | 1885 VI | 12:00 am |
13 | M | Wed Nov 16 | 1955 - VI | Unknown | past | Wed Sep 2 | 1885 - VI | Unknown pm |
14 | M | Mon Sep 7 | 1885 - VI | 8:14 am | future | Sun Oct 27 | 1985 - VIII | 11:00 am |
15* | DC(XY) | Unknown | 1885 - VIII | Unknown | future | Unknown | 2015 - VIII | Unknown* |
16* | DCXY(E) | Unknown | 2015 - VIII | Unknown | past | Sun Oct 27 | 1985 - VIII | Unknown |
17 | DCXYE | Sun Oct 27 | 1985 - VIII | Unknown | past | Unknown | Unknown | Unknown |
1885 | 1955 | 1985 | 2015 | ||||
I | x x o | <---------2---------M | x | ||||
II | x x o | ||||||
III | x | M---------3---------> | x x x | DE--------4--------> <---------6---------D DMJ-------7-------> | x x o | ||
IV | x x o | <---------8----------- | <--- | <---------8---------B | x | ||
V | x x o | B----------9---------> <--------11-------DM | ---> x x | ---------9----------> <------10------DMJE | x x | ||
VI | x x o | <---------12--------D <-------13---------M | x x | : JE : | |||
VII | x x o | : : : | |||||
VIII | x x x | M--------14---------> DC(XY)-----15-----> ?<---------17--------- | ---> ---> <--- | ---------14----------> -----------15--------> <-----17-----DCXYE | x ---> x | ---------15----------> <-----16------DCXY | x x |