A closer look at Back to the Future shows that Marty McFly created a multiverse with his travels in time. Back to the Future is a time-travel/adventure movie released in 1985. The original, which received critical and audience acclaim when released and then spawned two sequel films, is considered a classic today.
The first Back to the Future follows 17-year-old Marty McFly as he accidentally uses his friend Doc Brown’s DeLorean-based time machine to travel back from 1985 to 1955. While in the past, Marty changes how his parents got together, and he informs Doc of his working time machine, so he can get help to go back to the future. When he returns to the present, Marty finds that parts of his life have changed for the better.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
The movie remarkably holds up after all these years and has become a staple in the time travel genre. However, a whole concept may be hidden deep within. Marty McFly, through his travels in time, creates his own multiverse. Like a lot of the theories about Back to the Future, there are many clues hidden within the movie that support this multiverse theory, be they in the time travel rules that Back to the Future establishes, the various story threads throughout the film series, and even the confirmation of the theory in Back to the Future Part II.
How Back to the Future's Time Travel Works
The time travel in Back to the Future is set up to be cause-to-effect. Therefore, characters can change things in the past that therefore will change the future. This is implied in the movie by Marty changing events in 1955 that then lead to changes when he returns to 1985. This type of time travel is more in line with Timecop or 13 Going on 30 as opposed to paradox-centered time travel where everything was always meant to happen, like The Terminator or Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. With this in mind, the original Back to the Future's time-travel rules mean Marty would not be returning to the same life he had before time traveling; instead, he would come back to a changed world, one where there is already a Marty McFly.
The New "Future" Marty Would Create Another Timeline
When Marty McFly returns to the present day and rushes back to the mall where he originally left the present, he still sees himself leaving in the DeLorean. This confirms that there already is a Marty McFly living in this world. So, when this new Marty leaves to go on his time travel adventure, the original Marty would take his place in this alternate reality and would live among a family he doesn’t know or have memories of.
Having been raised by a non-alcoholic mother and a confident father, this new Marty McFly would also be different from the original. Therefore, when he travels to 1955, he would act differently. It’s possible the new Marty would be more shocked at how shy and insecure his father is and less shocked at how outgoing his mother is, as opposed to the original Marty where it was the other way around. He may also handle Biff differently or not have as strong a connection with Doc, as he now has a more stable family life. Due to these possible changes, the new Marty would make his own changes to the past, and then, when returning to the present, he would have to live in his own alternate reality and replace the Marty there when he travels back in time. The cycle would repeat forever creating a multiverse of Marty McFlys in the wrong timeline.
Back To The Future 2 Confirmed Time Travel Changes Things
This theory of the multiverse existing in the franchise was confirmed in the first of the two Back to the Future sequels. Biff steals the time machine and makes his own changes in 1955, so when Marty and Doc return to the present day, they enter a world where Biff reigns supreme and where their lives are miserable. When Marty goes to Doc for answers, Doc explains that when Biff changed the past it skewed the timeline, and they are now in an alternate 1985.
However, with this explanation, Marty fixing the past would also result in them changing the timeline and now living in an alternate universe. It is never stated in any of the movies whether the alternate timeline outcome only applies when Biff is the one to change the past. Even when Doc saves Clara in Back to the Future Part III, Marty returns to a present where the ravine is no longer named after her but after him as Marty was the one to “fall” off the cliff. Therefore, whether it is Biff, Doc, or Marty, any change in the past results in returning to an alternate timeline.
Time travel movies always have audiences scratching their heads to understand the rules, but Back to the Future is one that, on the surface, kept it simple for audiences to understand. A closer look, however, revealed there is much more beneath the surface, and perhaps audiences have only been exposed to a small part of a greater picture. With the rise of multiverse films in the mainstream, the Back to the Future franchise may be looked at to have beaten others to the punch by establishing a multiverse of its own all those years ago.