Plot Hole in Back to the Future 2

Solochaser

Well-Known Member
So part 2 was my favorite growing up and I recently watched it. I noticed a glaring plot hole I couldn't ignore...Maybe someone here can rationalize it. If old biff went back in time to give himself the magazine, there is no way he can travel back to the original future to drop off the car for Marty and Doc. He would be going to the alternate future since he gave himself the magazine. Doc even gives a similar example why it's not possible to go to the original future (to Marty when he suggests they go back to the future to stop old biff from stealing the delorean). Also since Biff gave himself the magazine, Doc is institutionalized and therefore doesn't get to make the time machine. So going forward in that timeline, how does the magazine get to young biff? It's a time paradox, or maybe Marty and Doc are going to another Universe. Are they existing outside of time?
 
if I was to take a stab at this, maybe its relative to the time traveler. The Biff that goes back in time is old and from that time. Now lets add in the multiple universe theory. Past Biff can make an infinite amount of choices. One leaves all alone and time continues on. That Biff returns to possible future that Doc and Marty that we are following. That time machine travels back to an alternate time line. Then follows forth to the 50's changing the changes, and then returning to the universe time line that was the same they started in. So both the parallel universe theory and time travel issue have to work hand in hand.

Make sense?
 
You have to look at it like it's another universe - . Biff can travel back in time, give himself the book, go back to 2015 - and Hilldale can still be the same - It's mentioned in the commentary that Biff (of the Biffco timeline) is killed by Loraine in 1993 - which is why he disappears as soon as he reaches 2015 and the Delorean takes off - once that time machine is gone, so are his chances of the problem he created being set straight by him.

tHE 2015 of Biffco universe may have well been the same as the 2015 Marty and Doc visited, only I imagine Marty and Doc's lives would be affected. Biff would have been dead for years and with him his hold on Hill Valley would weaken.

Doc being in a looney bin and Marty being in Switzerland is the same as Marty watching himself in 1955 or at Twin Pines Mall - two Marty's in the same place - but you are right, once the book is in Biff's hands he in a sense keeps the time machine from being invented - perhaps, Doc did come up with the idea for the Flux Capasitor in 1955.
 
Standard time travel plot hole really. The solution is the time traveler themselves are immune to the changes that occur. Wether it be that they are actually going into realities split off from their own in different time lines or what not.
 
Standard time travel plot hole really. The solution is the time traveler themselves are immune to the changes that occur. Wether it be that they are actually going into realities split off from their own in different time lines or what not.


Biff still shouldn't be able to return to normal 2015 to drop off the Delorean if he altered the past. Marty wanted to travel from 1985 to 2015 to stop old Biff from stealing the Delorean and Doc said they would only go to an alternate future. What Torment said makes sense with the alternate parallel universe...and I need to watch the movie again with commentary. Any other theories guys and gals?
 
So hold on...if Biff goes back in time to give himself the book and then goes forward in time to the same time line the 'skew' doc was talking about would be where they go back to and cannot escape from without changing time in the past.

So if they then go back in time to stop old Biff from getting the book to then stop the time line from skewing then how did old Biff not get caught in the skew and revert back to the same time line and...
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The whole skewed timeline explanations by Doc seems more likely for Marty's better understanding and for the viewer ourselves. There are no multiple timelines in the BTTF Universe. Any changes in the past, replaces the old timeline with a new history. And those changes in history will catch up to people living in the present or future slowly through the ripple effect, including time travelers. But maybe a little for them as they are not in the linear timeline. If Doc and Marty stayed longer in 2015 after Old Biff's return or in 1985A they both might have been affected as well.

Every plot hole in the BTTF trilogy put forward by fans have been explained by other fans countless times with various theories. But those theories are based on rules which were derived upon through the scenarios in the movies. Of course since there is no actual proof to witness the effects of time travel, there is no way to accept nor deny those theories. But I still believe that there are really no plot holes in the BTTF movies, people just need to be thinking fourth dimensionally.. a lot.

Back to the Future™ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When Doc and Marty are in 1955-A, Doc says they can't return to the future to stop Biff from stealing the DeLorean, because it would be the wrong future. But if that's true, how did Old Biff manage to get back to the same future that he left? Shouldn't he have come back to a different future?

A: As should be clear from the answer to the previous question, we believe Old Biff DID indeed return to a different future -- a "2015-A," which would have transformed around Marty, Doc, Jennifer and Einstein (just as Doc explains how 1985-A would change into 1985 and instantly transform around Jennifer and Einstein). This would happen AFTER Old Biff returned with the DeLorean. For this reason, we made sure that Doc had caught Jennifer and exited the McFly Townhouse before Old Biff returned. Thus, by the time Marty and Doc are carrying Jennifer back to the DeLorean, there COULD be other residents in that townhouse -- or perhaps the McFlys still live there. It is just as believable that the physicality of the neighborhood did NOT change as it is to believe that it did -- so we didn't change it. We decided not to make anything of this idea because this is one of those difficult time travel concepts that general audiences have a real hard time understanding. (Try explaining this stuff to your mother and you'll see what we mean.) A detailed explanation of it would have slowed down the story, and most of the audience doesn't ever think about it. That's why we made certain things ambiguous and left various things open for interpretation in hopes that the possibility of at least one or two explanations would be better than a "definitive" explanation that you could find holes in. Let's face it, time travel is fantasy, so there's no way to "prove" anything. As filmmakers, we try to create a set of rule for our stories and stick by them, and stay consistent within the little "universe" that we've created.
 
In the end they never return time to it's proper timelime anyway.

Marty's family should be a bunch of losers and he has no 4x4.

I think the "your future isn't written, no one's is" would have been a stronger message if they had returned to the proper timeline.
 
Old Biff returned before young Biff used the book. So nothing was changed. If he had thrown it away the future would have been the same. Only when he used it did the future start to warp, which was some time later.
 
If old biff went back in time to give himself the magazine, there is no way he can travel back to the original future to drop off the car for Marty and Doc.

Go even further back than this. The biggest "plot hole" in #2 takes place right at the beginning of the movie. Doc tells Marty they have to do something about his kids. They jump into the Delorean, and travel off into the future!!

Ok, so now Marty and Jennifer just aren't anywhere for 30 years. They didn't get married, they didn't have kids, and them in 2015 living as old people makes no sense. It would just seem that Marty and Jennifer vanished one day and nobody ever heard from them again. The way the movie is presented, they seem to continue on their lives from 1985-2015 even though they shouldn't be there.

Yeah, I know, way too literal. As a fun movie trilogy, BTTF really works on many different levels, but the time travel element is a little wonky.
 
The biggest "plot hole" in #2 takes place right at the beginning of the movie. Doc tells Marty they have to do something about his kids. They jump into the Delorean, and travel off into the future!!

Ok, so now Marty and Jennifer just aren't anywhere for 30 years. They didn't get married, they didn't have kids, and them in 2015 living as old people makes no sense. It would just seem that Marty and Jennifer vanished one day and nobody ever heard from them again. The way the movie is presented, they seem to continue on their lives from 1985-2015 even though they shouldn't be there.

Yeah, I know, way too literal. As a fun movie trilogy, BTTF really works on many different levels, but the time travel element is a little wonky.

Back to the Future™ Frequently Asked Questions

Q: When Doc takes Marty and Jennifer out of 1985 and brings them to the future, how can Old Marty and Old Jennifer (and their family) even be in the future? Wouldn't their disappearance from 1985 instantaneously erase their future?

A: To be honest, yes, it very well should erase their existence from the future. This is, in fact, the ultimate paradox of Back to the Future Part II. We really thought about this one for a long time, but we finally decided that after the set-up of Doc saying "Something's got to be done about your kids," the audience would feel cheated if we went to the future and found out they didn't exist. You could, however, argue that existence of Old Marty, Old Jennifer and their kids in the future automatically proves that young Marty and Jennifer will eventually get back to 1985. The flaw in this reasoning is that Doc repeatedly tells us that the future isn't written, so why would this part of the future be "written?" Ah, but Back to the Future Part III may contain the answer to this question after all. When Doc spots the tombstone in 1885 and sees that the name on the photograph of the tombstone has vanished but the date remains, he says "We know this photograph represents what will happen if the events of today continue to run their course into tomorrow." That's a pretty big "if." And it suggests that time travel to the future always takes you to a future based on the events of the time you left -- a logical extrapolation of what the future of that moment holds. Of course, the existence of free will allows for the possibility of infinite futures, which is what Doc says at the end of Back to the Future Part III: "Your future is whatever you make it." But time travel into the future takes you to the most likely future of the moment you left.
 
As a fun movie trilogy, BTTF really works on many different levels, but the time travel element is a little wonky.
I don't think it is.

Every plot hole in the BTTF trilogy put forward by fans have been explained by other fans countless times with various theories. But those theories are based on rules which were derived upon through the scenarios in the movies. Of course since there is no actual proof to witness the effects of time travel, there is no way to accept nor deny those theories. But I still believe that there are really no plot holes in the BTTF movies, people just need to be thinking fourth dimensionally.. a lot.
 
If people can ignore the fact that Doc has an issue with Marty taking the Almanac back into the past to profit from it, but has no problems with Marty taking a Hoverboard back to the past, where Marty can easily just sell it to Mattel and make the cash from it, I think the OP's above mentioned plot hole can be ignored too.
 
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