What is Digg?Sponsored by AVG
Not All Free Anti-Virus Software Is Created Equal view!
free.avg.com - 2.4 million people a week get AVG Anti-Virus Free, for the best protection against web threats.
97 Comments
- EnjoyFailure, on 11/03/2009, -0/+56I love the Back to the Future version of 2015. I for one can't wait to have flying 1980s automobiles in a little over 5 years.
- planetidiot, on 11/03/2009, -1/+48Uh, if memory serves there was a 2nd doc brown in Biff's altered 1985, and he was in the loony bin.
- mattkruse, on 11/03/2009, -1/+34If I could go back in time, I would travel to just before the site crashed and warn them of the Digg Effect. 10 minutes ought to be enough...
- zephc, on 11/03/2009, -0/+32There are effectively an infinite number of Doc Browns across all universes, but the timelines explored in the movie can be charted like this:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16 ...
Timeline 8 is the timeline to which all universe states finally collapse. - werdywerd, on 11/03/2009, -2/+31Marty: This is heavy, Doc.
Doc Brown: There's that word again: "heavy." Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull? - HALNINETHOUSAND, on 11/03/2009, -0/+29Mirror : http://rorr.im/digg.com/movies/the_long_unanswered ... :)
- CaviMike, on 11/03/2009, -3/+26Couldn't he have just used 1, 2, 3 and 4? I'm not in a ***** fraternity.
- Zenicius, on 11/03/2009, -0/+21I have my own long unanswered question. In Part II, old Biff grabs the almanac and steals the delorean back to 1955 and gives the book to his younger self. After completing his mission, he goes back to 2015 and leaves the delorean where he found it (and breaks his cane in the process). Since he drastically altered the future in 1955, resulting in an alternate 1985, how can he appear back in an unaltered 2015? It's been bugging me for years.
- jrm125, on 11/03/2009, -0/+20I felt so sad when the DeLorean got destroyed.
- kingmanic, on 11/03/2009, -0/+18Back to the future: Begins
Staring:
Shia LaBeouf as Marty McFly
Steve Carell as Dr. Emmett Brown
Anne Hathaway as Lorraine Baines McFly
Christian Bale as George McFly
Jack Black as Biff Tannen
Directed by McG - bigmarc27, on 11/03/2009, -3/+19Great Scott!
- somebodyscream, on 11/03/2009, -0/+16You are correct.
- animeguru, on 11/03/2009, -0/+14The hell with the flying car, I want the Pit Bull Hoverboard.
- natman001, on 11/03/2009, -0/+14A deleted scene in Back to the Future Part II explains this. Biff was affected by this change very much so. After getting out of the deloreon and breaking his cane he proceeds to fade from existence! Apparently Lorraine got fed up with him and shot him some time circa 1999. Check out the DVDs their awesome!
- sHockz, on 11/03/2009, -4/+17my favorite part of working as a best buy computer salesman back in the day was getting the customer who knew nothing about computers, and running through the computer spec's with them real fast....
"oh yea, it has a 8 usb ports, a 2ghz dual core processor, 4 gb of ram, a flux capacitor, integrated graphics card...."
it was always good for a laugh if they caught it, but it really helped me gauge what kind of customer i was dealing with - angrytortilla, on 11/03/2009, -2/+14Please do, Professor Pussnuts.
- beatleman, on 11/03/2009, -0/+11The long unanswered question of the one mirror for a web page that wouldn't load after only 50 some diggs...
- DarthVolta, on 11/03/2009, -0/+10It's like in the Island - cars of the future will all just be slightly modified Dodge Magnums and Chrysler 300s.
- pussnuts, on 11/03/2009, -1/+10I don't agree with this chart. There are several flaws. For starters, the time travel event that Einstein makes in 26 Oct. 1985 (one minute into the future.) This does not cause a new timeline to spawn since he is traveling into the future. There are several more things but I'm at work without a time machine. I would rather spend the next 30 minutes wrapping things up than debating this. If anyone cares or is interested though I will continue later.
- cbergstrom, on 11/04/2009, -0/+8This story is entirely told from Marty's perspective. He is Marty Prime, and the story revolves around him and his actions.
There are five time travelers in the series (technically 6, Clara doesn't count because we don't see the result of her affecting causality): Marty, Doc, Jennifer, Einstein, and Biff. Marty is present at every since instance of time travel (save one, the one big causality flaw in the series, which I’ll come to later), so we can observe the affect his travel has on the others.
Marty Prime, in movie 1, travels back to 1955. Every action he takes affects his perception of what 1985 is, so when he returns, he is effectively lost in time. It’s not his 1985, nor will he ever be able to return to his 1985 Prime (his original 1985). I think that in 1985 Prime he simply disappeared that night, after Doc was fatally shot. Those events continue, his family trying to find him, etc, in 1985 Prime, but Marty will never know of it.
In the newly altered 1985 of the 2nd movie, we learn about the affects of the past when you alter the future. Nothing happens. Causality maintains its integrity. Marty, Doc (#2), Jennifer (#2), and Einstein (#2) travel to 2015; the 2015 of the new 1985’s future. It occurs to one, and should have occurred to Doc based on what he learned of causality from Marty in 1955, that there was no need to go to 2015 to change the future, as just his knowledge of it and coming back will change that future. However, they go anyway. The 2015 that Doc went to without Marty is not, in theory, the same 2015 that the whole group goes to start movie 2, but it’s close enough that the main event that Doc wanted to prevent was still going to happen.
Now we come to the one big flaw in causality in the entire series, and one which cannot be explained. Biff steals the time machine and goes back to 1955. (Remember, there is no pre-1955, so 1955 can always be thought of as 1955 prime, which is why they try in the 2nd movie to heavily maintain causality between the two versions of Marty that are there: both are Marty Prime, but one just got there first.) When Biff travels back to 2015, he should have arrived in a brand new 2015, one where Marty and Doc are not present, because they never would have been there in the first place. That future no longer exists (or if it does, it’s not one that Biff can return to). However, he returns to that same future.
The only theory I have for this is that, somehow, in the universe of this movie, if you step outside of time, you are no longer affected by causality and stay linked to the others who have broken the timeline in the same way. The continuity makes sense in movie 1, as only Marty ever takes a trip in the time machine. In movie 2, this gets more complicated as the aforementioned five all travel in different parts of the 2nd movie. This would explain things a bit… perhaps 2015 *did* change around Marty, Doc, etc, and they simply didn’t notice. They pretty much bail as soon as they recover the machine. Biff dies offscreen, assuming a heart attack from the trip (in a deleted scene, they have him disappear, but I think they realized that didn’t make sense, and cut it). Marty, Doc, Jennifer, and Einstein are still effectively out of time, in this new 2015 timeline that they don’t know they’re in, and when they travel back to 1985, it is now a full 3rd new 1985 caused by Biff’s tinkering with 1955.
This actually makes some sense based on a line Doc says before they both go back to 1955. Marty asks about Jennifer and Einstein, and Doc says something like “they’ll be fine, assuming we complete our task everything will shift around them”. This backs up the “outside of time” theory and that all 5 of them (4 now, cause Biff is dead) are linked in causality.
They fix 1955, come back to 1985, now a 4th version which in theory is similar to the 2nd, and the same Jennifer and Einstein are there. The ones they are linked with. Jennifer has memory of what happened in 2015 and the “You’re Fired!” paper, and Einstein we obviously don’t know cause he’s a dog. The circle completes, Marty changes his future by not hitting the Rolls Royce, and the 2nd movie ends with a tight loop of causality.
Movie 3 only has the one time trip, and it’s backwards (then forwards). Assuming the link between the 4 remaining people, all of this theory holds true. This is also backed up by when Doc goes back to 1885 and changes history, Marty, Jennifer, and assumedly Einstein are also not changed, and the Doc’s affect on 1885 was so minor (as a scientist, he would attempt to do as little damage as he could) that not much has changed in the now 5th version of 1985.
Marty returns to 1885 and saves Clara and Doc. When he returns to 1985, this is now a 6th 1985 but linked by causality to #2, #4, and #5. The link allows Doc and Clara, from 1885, to show up and see Marty in 1985 and it be the same Marty: Marty Prime.
I have a headache. - Akaziel, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8Unfortunately they tend to ruin the good stuff. And Back To The Future was so quintessentially 80s...I honestly don't think it would work today. Just like I heard they greenlit and have been scripting a remake of Short Circuit. I just don't see that going well. It was the kind of movie that could only really work in the 80s.
- linagee, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8A wizard did it.
- Mudokon83, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8Actually if we abide by the BTTF cartoon. everyone is fine and living in a house together
- BigStare, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8Yep. They show him in the newspaper with the headline "Doctor Brown Commited" (or something similar).
After they erase the 'bad' 1985, the headline changed to "Doctor Brown Commended" - Sternology, on 11/03/2009, -0/+8it still hurts me now to think about it
- animeguru, on 11/03/2009, -0/+7Obviously because his dastardly deed was unsuccessful.
The 2015 he returns to must be altered in some way as Marty confronted him (Young Biff) and took the almanac in 1955, which he (Old Biff) must now know since it was the YB grown to OB that travelled to the past. This could be why OB was so adamant to YB that YB not let the almanac out of his site since OB knew that Marty would try to take it and if Marty were successful, YB would never become Alternate (or Bizzaro) Biff of the alternate 1985 time tangent where he is rich and powerful. Instead, YB would grow to become OB yet again.
Thus OB is actually reliving the same time loop indefinitely, recreating a new YB who fails to heed OBs warning and loses the almanac, never realizing his fortune. This new YB becomes the OB and plays it all out over again, attempting to change his own past and eliminating his current self.
Marty and Doc travel back in time landing on a tangent of that circular timeline. - mattkruse, on 11/03/2009, -0/+6Missing the final jump in time in the flying train...
- JamesBondQ, on 11/03/2009, -0/+6I was just about to say the same thing about Einstein. Same goes for some of the Part II stuff, but that depends on if you prescribe to the "12 monkey, going to the past does nothing, because the one timeline is inevitable" or the "butterfly effect, going to the past even a little totally fuxors the future" theory.
- TheEggAndI, on 11/03/2009, -0/+6i lost the desire to read the rest of this article, after i got to that line. if the guy doesnt remember that doc was committed in alternate 1985, then he shouldnt be attempting such an indepth analysis of the story as a whole. i consider myself a serious BTTF fanatic
- mywhitenoise, on 11/03/2009, -2/+8That sounds like the bible.
- CaptObvious, on 11/03/2009, -1/+7Nobody calls me chicken.
- mywhitenoise, on 11/03/2009, -1/+6yeah, those things have POWER!
- stanleyford, on 11/03/2009, -0/+5I just realized something that makes me sad. There is a timeline in the Back to the Future universe in which Doc Brown dies (he is gunned down by Libyans) and in which Marty becomes a missing person (he travels back in time and goes back to a different, future timeline). That timeline must have sucked.
- greerso, on 11/03/2009, -1/+6I hate that hollywood cant create anything new or original, but I'd love to see more Back to the Future, cant we recycle some of the good stuff?
- greerso, on 11/03/2009, -0/+4I know they'd kill it just as they did Indiana Jones. I'll dream on.
- tavisjohn, on 11/03/2009, -0/+4The problem is that when I hear a sales person sneak something like that, at Best Buy, I tend to grin pat them on the head, and walk away.
I have heard too many BB sales people state things that "THis computer can do" that by looking at the sticker, it could NOT do. - TheEngineer2008, on 11/05/2009, -0/+4True. In fact, none of the future jumps would have changed timelines. This is one error in the film. When Marty and the gang traveled into the future, they'd have found a future where they disappeared in 1985.
- pussnuts, on 11/04/2009, -0/+4Glad to see people are interested. Ok, just to hammer home the Einstein new timeline flaw. As a general rule of time travel, going into the future does not cause a new timeline to be spawned. I could prove this with real world examples (such as the twin paradox, or the fact that we are all time traveling forward as the natural progression of things) but since we're talking about this chart, I will prove by contradiction.
Look at the two future jumps made by Marty: First one in Timeline 2 from Nov 12, 1955 to Oc 26 1985, second from Sep 7 1885 to Oct 27 1985. These (correctly) do not show a new timeline being spawned as a result of future travel. So, either these lines are wrong or the single Einstein event is wrong.
Moving on from that though, I am bothered by the representation of the timelines as linear from start to finish. For the sake of this next argument, let us consider only the scope of these time travel events on the chart. In this context, all travel happens to, fro the dates Jan 1, 1885 and Oct 21, 2015.
Since no time travel events happen before Jan 1, 1885 all of the timelines on the chart really share the same timeline before Jan 1, 1885. They are rooted in a common timeline. The chart shows 9 timelines either extending back infinite or being instantiated at the destination point of each event. This is misleading and confusing since it obscures the branching context of the new timeline. Most of the problems I have with this chart can be resolved by moving towards a branching model.
Ok so thats all the time I have this morning. If anyone is still reading this thread, let me know what you think. - anthropodeus, on 11/03/2009, -0/+4i'd love to recycle the good stuff . . . like a banana in my Mr. Fusion!
- CaptObvious, on 11/03/2009, -1/+5Too bad the Post Office isn't as efficient as the weather service.
- zephc, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3Clearly it spawned another universe, one in which Doc Brown was delayed from taking his own jump through time by one minute, thereby arguably giving the Libyans time to shoot him after finding him - he may have been gone and have left Marty there to deal with the Libyans, in which case the movie would have been shorter and more resembling 'Saw' than the BTTF we know and love.
- animeguru, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3That immediately came to mind while reading the article. So he'd be Doc Brown γ... meaning that we actually end with Doc Brown ε.
Of course, the whole article is debatable, but amusing none the less.
EDIT: BigStare's comment made me realize that the commended Dob Brown is Doc Brown δ, which means we're on Doc Brown ζ at the end of the third film. - zephc, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3We don't know what happened when the flying train jumped. We can just assume the train was vaporized or otherwise lost to the multiverse, therefore creating no new universe path traversals.
- adrianrussell, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3I think the idea is that it takes a certain time for events to change the space-time continuum (this is suggested by the way Marty only starts to fade in a picture rather than just disappear straight away), especially for as massive a change as was caused, this allowed him a window of time to get back. The problem then is that he dies, because he was supposedly shot by his wife in the 90's, and fades away but then why didn't the rest of the world change around him.
Another question: If Marty and Doc stop Clara falling down the ravine, then how do they remember it is called 'Clara' ravine. And wouldn't that therefore erase them and create a new set of Marty and Doc? - ChuyMatt, on 11/04/2009, -0/+3Emmet tags?
- justmeanddigg, on 11/03/2009, -1/+4Yes, that is a line from the movie we are discussing.
- Zihuatanejo, on 11/03/2009, -0/+3I'll field this one. Let me ask you something. Why would a person whose shirt says "Genius at Work" spend all his time watching a children's TV show.
- MizuhoChan, on 11/04/2009, -1/+3One.
- anthropodeus, on 11/03/2009, -0/+2sorry to double-comment, but it took a little thinking. here are the timelines. going into the future does not create a new timeline, but going backward does:
t1: lets assume this is the timeline we see at the end of movie 1, in which middle-aged biff is nice to the McFly family. marty proceeds to go forward along this timeline to 2015, IN WHICH HE SHOULD NOT EXIST. after all, he disappeared into thin air 30 years ago. assuming everything else somehow stayed the same, old biff gets the delorean and goes back in time, creating a new timeline
t2: old biff arrives in 1955 and gives young biff the almanac. old biff should then have traveled into a future 2015 in which he's rich and powerful. THE MARTY AND DOC OF T1 NEVER GET THE DELOREAN BACK. - RizzosBack, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2Same ***** happens in every episode of Star Trek. Every time Captain Kirk steps on the transporter he is disintegrated and a photocopy of Kirk takes his place. Sure, the Kirk that comes out is identical to the last one in every way, and nobody will ever know the difference, but how do we not know that the Kirk who de-materialized didn't die in horrible agony while the facsimile materialized on the other side?
***** may be like The Prestige.
Makes me agree with McCoy. -
Show 51 - 98 of 98 discussions
© Digg Inc. 2009
— Content created and posted by Digg users is 