1) Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Or as the rest of the country calls it:
Happy Another Excuse to Go Out and Drink Excessively Day!
(Yes, this counts as #1 on my Dispatch list this week. Deal with it.)
2) I used to be obsessed with BACK TO THE FUTURE. I saw it three times the summer it came out. Quick note:
I love any time travel stories. I would read any stories or books, or watch movies that had time travel as a plot. It was a guarantee to get my interest. I’m a little more discerning these days, but I admit, I’m still a sucker for a good time travel story.
Anyway…
BACK TO THE FUTURE came out in the summer of 1985, and it played all summer. That’s right: It’s not like today’s movies where something opens and fades away in a matter of weeks. Nope. This movie played and played… And even in late August when I went to see it a third time, it was still a packed audience.
Then, of course, I saw it numerous times when it came out on VHS, and later on cable. Always loved it every time.
However, there was always things about the ending that bothered me. Like:
Okay, so Marty’s dad stands up to the bully to protect Marty’s mom, which has a ripple effect on the future. In the future, Marty’s dad is no longer an older version of his nerdy teenage self as he was in the beginning, someone who avoids confrontation. He’s now a confident man who isn’t afraid to assert himself. His confidence has a positive effect on the rest of the family, as his oldest son (Marty’s brother) is no longer a fast-food worker. He wears suits “to the office.”
Although why he’s wearing a suit to the office on a Saturday is never explained. But no big deal. This is a minor quibble of mine. There could be many reasons why the brother is working an office job and is wearing a suit on a Saturday (Works in a bank? Sells insurance?).
Marty’s mom is now much fitter, active, and doesn’t appear to be an alcoholic as she was in the previous timeline. Marty’s sister, um… Marty’s sister is now dating a lot of guys.
Okay, I’m not sure how that last one is a big improvement, but I guess it’s meant to show that his sister is not some loser with no prospects for the future, and is now a confident, assertive woman. Who likes to serial date, I guess.
Anyway…
What always bothered me about this ending was, if the McFly family is much more confident and successful in this new timeline, then why are they living in the same house? Sure, the inside of the house is much nicer at the end of the movie than it was in the beginning, but what caused them to buy the same place. We (the audience) are supposed to believe that George McFly, successful writer and whatever the heck else he’s done over the past 30 years (never explained) still purchased the same house in the same lower middle-class area of the same town he grew up in? With the same one car garage, even though they have multiple vehicles now (including Marty’s tricked out 4×4)?
Okay, this isn’t impossible. There might be reasons for this. Maybe the parents traveled and went away to college, but ultimately came back to the same town because…
I don’t know. To be closer to their families? Maybe Grandpa was sick and they wanted to move back to help take care of him. They got a great deal on the house and decided they’d fix it up.
Maybe they don’t care about material things, and instead of buying a bigger house, they put their money away for college funds for the three kids instead.
Okay, so if Marty’s older siblings are more successful now, why are they still living at home?
More importantly, if you were going to hire someone to wash and wax your cars, would you hire the guy that tried to date rape the woman who became your wife? Okay, okay… I’m overthinking that part. Maybe I watched this movie too many times.
Let’s move on to what I consider the biggest plot hole:
How is it that the ripple effect Marty had on the past didn’t affect how many kids his parents had? Maybe they would have had more kids since they were financially more successful. Or maybe they would have stopped after two kids. Maybe they would have had children earlier in life, or later. We are supposed to believe that they conceived the same three kids on the same three days as the previous timeline?
There was a TV show years ago called JOURNEYMAN, about a guy who is pulled back in time to solve mysteries. It only ran 13 episodes, so don’t bother trying to find it.
In the present day, the guy is married and has a young son. In one episode, he travels back a few years to do something, something that seemed inconsequential, but when he travels back to the present, he no longer has a son. He has a daughter. He discovers that the one seemingly inconsequential thing he did caused his future self and future wife to postpone a trip. The trip is when they would have conceived their son. Since the trip didn’t happen at that time, they conceived a child on a different day, which resulted in the daughter.
If it seems I’m being vague on the details to avoid spoilers — I’m not. Just been many years since I saw the show.
The Journeyman guy (whatever the hell his name was) ends up going back in time again, fixes it, and gets his son back in the present.
Back to the movie:
So, with this new reset timeline where George and Lorraine have a better life, they still conceive the same three kids at the same exact time as the previous timeline? Eh. Doesn’t seem likely.
But then I had an epiphany: Marty didn’t change the timeline. He fixed it. That timeline where his dad is Mr. Cool-and-Confident was always the correct timeline.
Hear me out:
In the beginning of the movie, Marty was the same kid from the altered timeline. He was always the son of the assertive, confident George McFly. Compare his family in the beginning of the movie to Marty. Would anyone look at that initial family of losers and think,
“Oh, yeah. Marty obviously comes from that family.”
No, they wouldn’t. Marty is nothing like those people. He’s confident. He asserts himself. He dresses in the latest mid-1980’s fashion. He plays in a rock band. He’s got a cute girlfriend. He’s nothing like his siblings, and he’s definitely not like sniveling, nerdy George McFly.
So how is it possible that Marty is born into that particular family? Answer: He isn’t.
Marty exists out-of-time. He’s an anomaly. He was always from the altered timeline, and was always meant to go back to the past to change it so he can be born.
At the end of the movie, Marty is unchanged because he was always from that timeline.
There you go. Solved it. Marty didn’t alter the timeline he was from. He fixed it to be what it was always supposed to be.
3) “Hey, how come you didn’t mention the BACK TO THE FUTURE sequels?”
Good question, Skippy.
Confession: I’ve never been a fan of the sequels. As much as I loved the first movie, and was excited when I learned they were filming two sequels back-to-back, I found Parts 2 and 3 to be lackluster.
Part of it was because the second half of Part 2 takes place in 1955 (again) and I had the feeling of, “Didn’t we already do this?” Felt like it was just a rehash of the first one.
The first part of the second movie takes place in the future, and as much fun as I thought that would be, it kind of wasn’t. Also, I was distracted by the fact that Marty’s girlfriend had turned into Elisabeth Shue, and I kept wondering, “How did Marty’s girlfriend turn into the Karate Kid’s girlfriend? Does Mr. Miyagi know about this?”
Come to think of it…
There should have been a BACK TO THE FUTURE/KARATE KID crossover story. Somebody needs to write some fan fiction about that.
As for Part 3, the idea of the whole movie being set in the Old West was just uninspired, in my opinion.
Look, sequels are hard because you tend to use up all your best stuff in the first one, and then you’re scrambling to tell a story that somehow outdoes the first one. And you never really do (e.g. THE MATRIX movies.).
4) What I’m watching:
Still banging away at season 2 of SEVERANCE. At this point, there are so many subplots going, I don’t foresee them tying anything up before the end of the season. Which is fine, as long as they don’t go another three years between seasons again. Because if they do, I’m going to lose the entire thread of everything that’s going on.
It’s still great television.
5) What I’m reading:
Just finished up KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL, and although I enjoyed it enough to want to read some of Bourdain’s other books, I’m going to take a break for a while because much like the TV show THE BEAR, sometimes you need a break from the pressures of food service.
I’m starting ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK by Chris Whitaker, a thick novel (608 pages), but with short chapters (261 chapters, in fact).
The book starts in 1975, where a social outcast kid named “Patch” (because he was born with one eye, wears eyepatches, and fancies himself a pirate) saves a girl from being abducted, but then is injured and possibly taken by a serial killer. The book is a mystery story (what happens to the kid and who is the perpetrator) and the effects it has on his mother, his best friend (another social outcast), and the townspeople. Much like the TV show TRUE DETECTIVE, the various cast of characters are just as important to the story as the central plot.
That’s your Dispatch for the week.
Slade Grayson is a writer who relies on the kindness of strangers. And readers. And sometimes strange readers. You can buy his books here, or buy him a coffee here.