White Noise

'Back to the Future' Paradox

So I was watching tbs last weekend and Back to the Future II was on. Part II has always been my favourite of the three because of the hover boards and the huge scandal surrounding them upon the original release of the movie. The Back to the Future trilogy is one of my favourite movie trilogies but as I was watching Marty McFly try to repair his future without messing up his past, I realized a significant flaw in the story. Now in the movie, if one travels through time to the past, they can alter the future by changing what happened in the past and upon their return to the present/future this new reality exists. For example, in the first Back to the Future film, Marty goes back in time and changes events and when he returns to the present his family is not a bunch of losers like they had been before his time travel adventure. In the second installment, Doc and Marty go to the future to prevent Marty's family from falling apart and while there Old Biff steals the time machine and travels to the past to visit his younger self. While in the past, Old Biff gives young Biff a sports almanac from the future so that he can become a millionaire by betting on sporting events that are listed in the almanac. Everything is fine so far, but here is the problem: when Old Biff goes back to the future, his reality hasn't changed, he returns to the same future he left and the reality doesn't change until Doc and Marty return to 1985. Now, I know that this has to happen in order for Marty and Doc to get the DeLorean back but I just don't understand how the people responsible for this cinematic piece of history could be so careless - especially since later in the same movie Doc explains to Marty that they cannot travel to the future to prevent Old Biff from going back in time because they are in the alternate 1985 so they would travel to the corresponding alternate future. I am sure that there are other flaws within the trilogy, its a tricky subject time travel and the space time continuum. I haven't watched the other two movies in a while so I will update you all if I discover any more once I have refreshed my memory with a little Michael J. Fox marathon.

p.s. Good luck to all of you on your upcoming/ in progress exams.

posted by bex @ 10:30 PM