Back to the Future Scribe Reveals How Doc Brown Illegally Funded Time Traveling Experiments

One of Back to the Future’s writers has revealed how Doc Brown illegally funded his time travel [...]

By Aaron Perine

One of Back to the Future's writers has revealed how Doc Brown illegally funded his time travel experiments. Much has been made of how Christopher Lloyd's wonderful doctor was actually able to afford all the materials that jumpstarted the plot of the movie. Bob Gale joined the Russo Bros. Pizza Film School to discuss a bunch of time-travel topics and of course, the good doctor's finances came up. It turns out there were some shaky insurance payments funding Doc Brown's whole operation. To say nothing of how he got into contact with those now-infamous terrorists at the start of the film. Gale spun an entertaining yarn that will make you reconsider the whole story on the podcast.

"By coming up with the character of this guy [Doc Brown] we asked what was his backstory, how is that he was the guy that invented time travel? He is far from what the cliche of the scientist, or even the mad scientist was at the time that we did it," Gale said. "First off, he's kind of a rebel and a hero, because he rips off this plutonium from these terrorists. That's pretty cool. We see all this stuff in this lab and we want to meet this guy."

"But there are all these other things. Some things you don't even pick up until the second or third time you see the movie," he added. "The newspaper article that you see in that opening shot. Did Doc Brown set his house on fire to collect the insurance so that he could continue financing his experiments?"

Avengers: Endgame scribe Stephen McFeely then asked the writer if he really used the ill-gotten funds to keep himself afloat. To which Gale replied, "Maybe he did…" Then the Back to Future writer pointed out a number of unethical choices that Doc made to make sure he got his way over the course of the film.

Last month was the 35th anniversary of Back to the Future and a new Blu-Ray collection just released. When fans get a hold of all of those extras, there is no doubt we'll be learning new things about Doc Brown and Marty McFly for weeks to come.

Which one of the Back to the Future movies is your favorite? Let us know down in the comments!

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