The Back to the Future trilogy is one of the most beloved film franchises ever. It’s the perfect combination of humor, sci-fi adventure, clever writing, and just straight-up fun. This series follows the rebellious yet charming teenager Marty McFly who goes on a zany adventure across time with his friend, the eccentric yet brilliant Doc Brown, who’s developed a time machine in a DeLorean. From ensuring that Marty’s parents meet in high school and fall in love in 1955 so that he’ll be born to saving Marty and his girlfriend Jennifer’s future kids from trouble in 2015 to preventing Doc Brown’s untimely demise in 1885, the film series careens across timelines in hilarious and thrilling ways.
Videos by ComicBook.com
However, as fun as these films are, there are a few plot holes that have never been addressed. This is understandable as movies about time travel are rarely, if ever, seamless in their portrayal of how messing with time works; there are just too many paradoxes to explain without causing even more confusion or getting into theoretical mambo-jumbo. Still, I have a bone to pick with the following Back to the Future plot holes.
Why’s Jennifer Still There?
While in the year 2015 to help their children, Jennifer faints when she accidentally bumps into the future version of herself. Once their mission is complete, Marty and Doc return to the year 1985 and leave the unconscious Jennifer on her front porch. Doc tells Marty that when she comes to, she’ll dismiss their adventure in the future as a crazy dream. But this is a different 1985, one in which the McFly family is shattered and Biff Tannen is on top of the world from using the sports almanac given to him by his future self.
While Doc and Marty manage to restore the timeline to the original 1985 we see at the end of the first Back to the Future, the third installment sees Marty reunite with Jennifer, who’s still asleep on her porch. But why is she still there? Doc and Marty dropped her off in the alternate 1985, then went back to 1955 to destroy the troublesome sports almanac, then went to 1885, and then back to 1985. With all of the tinkering with the timeline, shouldn’t Jennifer have ended up in a different place? How did she remain completely untouched despite all of the changes to the past and present?
[RELATED: Back to the Future 4: Robert Zemeckis Shoots Down Sequel or Remake, Reveals Surprising Idea for a New Movie]
There Were Two DeLoreans in 1885
At the end of Back to the Future Part II, Doc’s DeLorean is destroyed by a bolt of lightning, only for Marty to quickly learn that the lightning actually sent Doc back to 1885. Marty, still in the year 1955, visits Doc who had just helped the other Marty return to 1955. The two go to the location where the Doc of the past hid the DeLorean so that Marty can go back to his present in 1985. However, Marty discovers that Doc, while in the past, is shot and killed by Biff Tannen’s great-grandfather, Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, prompting Marty to go back to 1885 to save Doc.
The DeLorean that Marty used to travel to 1885 no longer has any gas, so they must use a steam engine to push it to 88 miles per hour in order to go back to 1985. But what happened to the DeLorean that Doc used to land in 1885? Maybe that one had gas, or at least some parts to fix up Marty’s DeLorean? It’s never even brought up, which is frustrating because it could have been a simple fix – Doc could’ve just said he used it for parts for his massive ice machine.
How Does the Time-Traveling DeLorean Even Exist?
After Doc and Marty return to 1985 to drop off Jennifer at her house following their escapades in 2015, they discover that this isn’t the 1985 they originated from. This new timeline sees Biff Tannen as Hill Valley’s richest and most corrupt person in town, having amassed his riches after a future version of himself gave him a sports almanac that enabled him to win by betting on the winning sports teams. Also, the McFly family is torn apart, Hilly Valley is a dystopian nightmare, and Doc has been declared insane and sent to an asylum.
However, this presents an obvious wrinkle in the timeline. Marty reads a newspaper in the alternate 1985 that shows that Doc was committed in 1983. If that’s the case, then he never would’ve built the DeLorean time machine to begin with. Wouldn’t the DeLorean they had in their possession have just disappeared like Marty almost did in the first Back to the Future film? In fact, it would mean that all of the events from the first film onward would never have happened at all.
