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somethingusefulfromflorida · 4 years

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Complete Timeline of “Back to the Future”

The entire trilogy takes place over the course of about two weeks from Marty McFly’s perspective, two days for an outside observer in 1985. We are given specific dates and times, often minute-by-minute, so we can piece together a complete timeline with time stamps. All times are in PST (Pacific Standard).

Part 1

Friday, October 25, 1985, 8:18 AM PST: The first movie begins with shots of Doc’s clocks and his automated breakfast machine. The clocks actually say 7:53, but we soon learn they are 25 minutes slow. We are soon introduced to Marty McFly, who accidentally overloads Doc’s giant amp around 8:23 or 8:24

Friday, October 25, 1985, 8:25 AM: Doc’s clocks all strike 8:00, and Marty realizes he is late for school. The thing is, he’s wearing a watch in this scene, and moreover he must have woken up to an alarm set on his bedroom clock, so how does he NOT know what time it actually is? Moving on; cue the “Power of Love” skateboarding-behind-cars sequence. Marty and Jennifer sneak into school too late, and Mr. Strickland gives him another tardy slip and the whole “slacker” spiel. “The future’s gonna change,” Marty says.

Friday, October 25, 1985, afternoon: after school, Marty’s band, the Pinheads, audition for the big dance. A real square of a teacher tells them to stop playing because they’re just too darn loud; I did not know who Huey Lewis was when I first saw this movie, so I didn’t realize this was a celebrity cameo meant to be a joke, I just figured he was a stuffy old man who isn’t with the times. Either way, Marty is dejected, but Jennifer tells him to send in his audition tape to the record company anyway. Marty ogles a new 4x4 truck, “Save the Clock Tower!” he gets a flier, Jennifer’s dad picks her up to take her to her grandma’s house.

Friday, October 25, 1985, evening: Marty returns home to find the car totaled (there goes his date at the lake with Jennifer). We are introduced to Biff and the McFly family. One awkward family dinner and a ton of exposition later, and we learn everything we need to know about George and Lorraine’s first meeting back in 1955; Lorraine’s dad hit George with his car, and it was love at first sight.

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 12:28 AM: Doc calls Marty, tells him to swing by his lab and pick up his camera before meeting him at Twin Pines Mall at 1:15.

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 1:15 AM: Marty arrives at Twin Pines Mall just as the clock ticks over to 1:16. The next few minutes are thoroughly documented. Doc emerges from his van in a souped up Delorean DMC-12.

1:18 AM: Doc begins his spiel for the camera, giving the date, time, and location of Temporal Experiment Number 1.

1:19 AM: “Einstein’s clock is in precise synchronization with my control watch.” He remote controls the Delorean to the opposite end of the parking lot and floors it towards him and Marty.

1:20:00 AM: At exactly one-twenty and zero seconds, the world’s first Temporal Displacement occurs, Marty thinks the Delorean explodes, but it actually just made a jump into the future, “one minute into the future to be exact.” Doc had nerves of steel to test it for the first time by driving it straight at him.

1:21:00 AM: Exactly one minute later, the Delorean reappears covered in ice, a special effect that the filmmakers stop using because it became impractical to coat the car with ice every time it travels through time. Some ice is always visible, but never to this extent again.

1:22 AM: Doc opens the Delorean to discover Einstein is perfectly fine; to him, the trip was instantaneous. The experiment was a complete success! Doc prepares for his historic journey as the first human to travel through time; he plans to go forward 25 years, later amended to 30 because it’s a nice round number.

1:34 AM: Doc is shot to death by Libyan terrorists because he used the plutonium they stole to build the time machine instead of the bomb they wanted (the less we think about the implications, the better).

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 1:35 AM: Marty flees from the terrorists in the Delorean, accidentally turns on the time circuits and blasts himself back to 1955.

Saturday, November 5, 1955, 6:15 AM: Marty arrives on Peabody farm, is mistaken for an alien and shot at. He drives away, accidentally running over one of the twin pines in the process. The exact time is not shown on screen except for the 6 (the last two digits are obscured), but the DVD menu says 6:15 so I’m sticking with it. The Delorean breaks down shortly after, and he hides it behind the Lyon Estates billboard. He walks into town, “Hill Valley 2 Miles.”

Saturday. November 5, 1955, 8:29: “Mr. Sandman” sequence, Marty walks around courtyard square, dazed and confused. It took him over two hours to drive from the mall to his house and then walk 2 miles into town, so of course he’s confused. The clock tower chimes 8:30, the first time Marty’s ever heard it go off. He enters Lou’s Cafe to find Doc’s address in the phone book, and encounters a young George and Biff. George bikes away, and Marty gives chase. Shortly after, George falls out of a tree while peeping on Lorraine like a creep, and is almost hit by her dad’s car; Marty pushes him out of the way, taking his place in the timeline. He hits his head and is knocked out.

“Almost 9 hours” later (so around 6-ish PM): Marty awakens in young Lorraine’s bedroom. She has the hots for him, Florence Nightingale style. He has dinner with the Baines family soon after, though the clock behind Lorraine’s parents says it’s 8:35. He leaves after his mom grabs his thigh (ew), and goes to find Doc at his mansion before he burned it down for the insurance money (this is never stated on screen, but the implication is clear). Doc doesn’t believe he’s from the future until he recounts the story about the wet toilet and the flux capacitor (it makes sense in context). Doc deduces that Marty messed up the timeline by interfering with his parent’s first meeting, so they have to find a way to get them back together.

Monday, November 7, 1955, morning: The date is never given, but we can assume Doc and Marty wanted to scope out the school as soon as possible, so Monday it is. Marty tries to introduce George to Lorraine, but she would rather introduce herself to him (ew)

November 7, lunchtime: Marty talks to George in the cafeteria, and almost gets into a fight with Biff after he assaults Lorraine.

November 7, afternoon: George goes home after school with Marty in tow, “why are you following me?” George tells him that he’s not ready to ask Lorraine out, and that nobody on this planet can change his mind.

Tuesday, November 8, 1955, 1:23 AM: Marty dresses in his radiation suit and visits George, pretending to be “Darth Vader, an extraterrestrial from the planet Vulcan.” He threatens to melt George’s brain with more Van Halen tapes if he doesn’t ask Lorraine to the dance. Mission accomplished.

November 8, afternoon: George skipped school that day, having overslept because “Darth Vader” knocked him out with chloroform (in a deleted scene). Marty encourages him to go into Lou’s Cafe and tell Lorraine that he is her density- I mean destiny. All goes well until Biff shows up; Marty gets into a fight followed by a chase through courtyard square where he accidentally introduces the town to the concept of skateboarding. Biff crashes into a manure truck, doing $300 damage to his car. Later that day, Doc and Marty go over the plan to go Back to the Future TM (the model is so crude, it’s not even to scale or painted). Lorraine followed Marty to Doc’s house and asks him to ask her to the dance. He reluctantly accepts.

Wednesday, November 9, afternoon: Marty and George go over their plan for the dance. Marty will “take advantage” of his mom (ew), and George will come to her rescue. This date isn’t given either, but we can assume it is the next day because they were wearing different clothes and I don’t think Marty would wait more than a day to go over his plan (time is of the essence).

Saturday, November 12, 1955, 7:55 PM: Doc sets up the “weather experiment” in courtyard square, Marty writes him a letter warning him of the terrorists (he doesn’t go into detail, he just says “you will be shot by terrorists.” Doc must be very surprised at what shenanigans his future self will get into).

8:59 PM: George is at the dance, dancing like a dork, and Marty and Lorraine arrive in Doc’s car. Marty is nervous as hell because he doesn’t want to feel up his own mom, but Lorraine is down to clown (ew). She kisses him, but is grossed out because he’s like her brother or something. Biff and his stooges pull him out of the car and throw him in the Starlighters’ trunk; Biff begins assaulting Lorraine.

9:00 PM: George goes out to fake-confront Marty, only to real-confront Biff. He finally manages to stand up for himself and the woman he loves, knocking Biff out with one punch. Hooray!

9:31 PM: Doc checks four different watches to deduce that Marty is running late (they’re cutting it close). Marvin Berry sliced his hand open helping break Marty out of his trunk, so Marty takes over on guitar. Earth Angel, George and Lorraine kiss, the timeline is restored, Johnny B Goode, “your kids are gonna love it.” Marty leaves George and Lorraine on good terms and heads out to courtyard square.

9:55 PM: Doc checks three more watches, and Marty arrives just in time, having changed back into his “life preserver” vest. The plan begins to unfurl.

9:56:38 PM exactly: Doc says the lightning bolt is 7 minutes and 22 seconds away, which strikes at exactly 10:04. Doc finds the latter and rips it up.

9:58 PM: a branch falls on the wire, disconnecting it. Doc climbs the clock tower with a rope so he can pull it back up.

9:59 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:34:41, Doc emerges from the top of the tower and pulls up the plug.

10:00 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:35:30 (this minute was 49 seconds long), Marty tries to tell Doc about the terrorists, but he has to get going because time is running out.

10:01 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:36:09 (this one was 39 seconds), Marty drives to the end of the runway and resets the time circuits to give him 11 extra minutes to warn Doc (only 11? you’re cutting it close as is, Marty). Doc slips on the clock’s facade, almost dropping the plug.

10:02 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:38:00 (111 seconds), the Delorean won’t start, the alarm goes off, everything is going wrong. Marty slams his head in desperation and the engine kicks to life (Doc’s calculations were wrong; he told Marty to floor it when the alarm went off, but he started a few seconds late and still made it. If he had floored it on time, he would have been several seconds too early and hit the wire before the lightning struck).

10:03 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:39:50 (110 seconds), Doc plugs in one end of the wire, which unplugs the other end. Marty is almost there, so Doc ziplines down to the ground and runs over to the lamppost [note; the Delorean’s time circuits read 10:03 before the clock tower ticks over to 10:03]

Saturday, November 12, 1955, 10:04 PM: the clock ticks at runtime 1:40:38 (48 seconds). Lightning strikes the clock tower just as the Delorean hits the wire, sending Marty Back to the Future TM.

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 1:24 AM: the Delorean rematerializes in courtyard square, crashing into the movie theater, but otherwise intact. The engine gives out before Marty can head to the mall, and the terrorists drive past him. He gives chase on foot, but doesn’t make it in time. [Note: a digital clock on courtyard square says it was 1:23 when Marty arrived, ticking over to 1:24 after he emerges from the Delorean. The Delorean’s time circuits are consistently a minute ahead]

1:33 AM: Marty arrives at Lone Pine Mall just in time to see the terrorists gun Doc down. He sees himself jump into the Delorean at 1:34, and blast into the past after a short chase. The terrorists crash into a photo kiosk and the van rolls over, presumably killing them (we never see the van hit the ground, we just see it start tipping, but the camera cuts away and we never see them emerge and try to collect Doc’s body). Doc is in fact alive, having taped Marty’s latter back together and worn a bullet proof vest, the first of several in the series. Doc takes Marty home, then travels 30 years into the future, “look me up when you get there.”

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 10:28 AM: Marty’s alarm goes off, “Back in Time” by Huey Lewis plays on the radio. Marty thinks the past week was just a bad dream until he discovers new furniture and successful family members. Lorraine is no longer an alcoholic, George is an author, David works at an office instead of Burger King, and Linda is a trendy socialite. Biff has become the neutered family gopher, cleaning their cars and kowtowing to George’s commands. He gives Marty the keys to his truck, the 4x4 he was ogling earlier with Jennifer.

10:30-ish: Marty reunites with Jennifer, “you’re acting like you haven’t seen me in a week,” “I haven’t.” They kiss, at which point Doc returns from the future with a warning, “you’ve got to come back with me,” “where?” “Back to the Future TM.” Where they’re going, they don’t need roads; the Delorean flies away, roll credits.

The first movie was never intended to have sequels. It ended on a cliffhanger as a joke, “the adventures continue,” and it wasn’t until four years later that they decided to film Parts 2 and 3 back-to-back to round out the story.

In real time, Part 1 takes place over 1 day, 2 hours, 12 minutes

Friday, October 25, 1985 8:18 AM to Saturday, October 26, 1985, 10:30 AM

For Marty, it takes place over 8 days, 18 hours, 11 minutes

Friday, October 25, 1985, 8:18 AM to Saturday, October 26, 1985, 1:34 AM (17 hours, 16 minutes)

Saturday, November 5, 1955, 6:15 AM to Saturday, November 12, 1955, 10:04 PM (7 days, 15 hours, 49 minutes)

Saturday, October 26, 1985, 1:24 AM to Saturday, October 26, 1985, 10:30 AM (9 hours, 6 minutes)

Part 2:

https://somethingusefulfromflorida.tumblr.com/post/189335688766/complete-timeline-of-back-to-the-future

Part 3:

https://somethingusefulfromflorida.tumblr.com/post/189337316891/complete-timeline-of-back-to-the-future

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