Why didn't Old Biff come back to an alternate 2015?

[Brent]

The Back to the Future trilogy is on TV today, and I'm watching it again, for the hundredth time, heh. While there are many things I could nitpick about now that I'm watching more closely for such things, for example the fact that in Part 1 Marty actually ended up leaving about 10 seconds after the alarm went off in his car cause it wouldn't start, meaning he would not have hit the wire at the same time the lightning struck cause the timing would be off now, so he'd miss it, be too late, heh. But there is one thing that really stands out about Part 2, and that is Old Biff and his traveling back to 1955.

If Old Biff traveled to 1955 from 2015, and gave young Biff the Sports Almanac, then when he returned to 2015 wouldn't it be the alternate 2015? Or has time not "caught up" with him yet, i.e. he returned so fast that by the time he got there the future hadn't changed yet. And if Marty and Doc and Jennifer stayed in the future, then eventually things would just change around them to the alternate future?

So when Doc and Marty and Jennifer went back to 1985, the changes had already caught up with 1985 so hence they ended up in the changed present.

The one issue though is the cane in the car, wouldn't that have disappeared eventually, and when they traveled to 1985 it shouldn't have still been there, cause eventually time would catch up and there would be no more Old Biff in that old timeline to break his cane in the car, so the cane should disappear at some point.

 

[Elemental]

I recall there is actually a deleted scene where after Biff arrives back in 2015 and gets out of the Delorian, he stumbles around a bit and then collapses and disappears, because yes, the timeline change did catch up with him and that particular Biff doesn't exist anymore. Even in the part of the clip that is in the film, you can see Biff start to weaken a bit. Without seeing the rest it appears it's just because he knocked the wind out of himself getting his cane out of the car or something.

The movies aren't perfect - I'm not aware of any time travel stories that don't have some number of paradoxes that don't quite make sense; probably has something to do with the fact that travel backward in time isn't possible.

 

[Brikar99]

Or has time not "caught up" with him yet, i.e. he returned so fast that by the time he got there the future hadn't changed yet.

This is probably the best explanation we could come up with. I mean, in the first movie it took the better part of a week for Marty to disappear after fouling up his parents' first meeting, right?

 

[Gaith]

The official explanation:

Our intention regarding old Biff was that upon his return to 2015, he would be erased from existence because he had changed his entire destiny by giving his younger self the Sports Almanac. (Probably, Lorraine shot him sometime around 1996!). After old Biff clutches his chest and staggers (the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"), we actually filmed him falling onto the street and vanishing, and we previewed the movie this way (see The Secrets of the Back to the Future™ Trilogy). However, the vast majority of the audience did not understand it, so we decided to cut it out, leaving the answer ambiguous, and subject to various interpretations — besides the above explanation, you can believe that Old Biff had a heart attack from the shock of time travel of from flying the car, or from something that happened to him in 1955.

So basically, he did come back to an alternate 2015, and "normal" 2015 changed around Doc, Marty and Jennifer, but by that point it was so similar that they didn't notice.

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place. The two Bobs hadn't thought through the implications of what was intended to be a mere gag joke at the end of the first movie.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

And you'll notice that there are no scenes in the future McFly house once old Biff returns to 2015. So it seems that old Biff has returned to an alternate 2015 that instantaneously transformed around Marty, Doc, Jennifer, & Einstein. It's just that Hilldale doesn't look very different going from one timeline to the next.

As for old Biff's cane, perhaps it would have eventually diappeared except that Marty & Doc came back to 1985. At that point, they started a chain of events with the probable outcome that old Biff would survive in some form in 2015. Therefore, the cane would still exist. Perhaps that last remnant of the cane would only disappear after Marty & Doc had irreversibly failed in their mission to repair the timeline. Or perhaps, even if Marty & Doc failed to restore the original timeline, Marty would have already changed things enough so that Lorraine wouldn't have murdered Biff in 1990.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place.

That's not a plothole. At the time that Marty & Jennifer encountered their future family, the most likely probability at that time was that they would successfully return to 1985 at some point and have that family.

Even if the future is not 100% set, you can still see the most probable outcome at that particular time. Remember that, at one point in Part III, the photo of the tombstone says "Clint Eastwood," indicating the most probable outcome at that moment even though it never actually happened.

 

[Admiral_Young]

Yeah it was explained in the "Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy" (which was hosted by Kirk Cameron btw lol) that Lorraine shot Biff and he was being erased from the timeline. I always found that fascinating.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

The official explanation:

Our intention regarding old Biff was that upon his return to 2015, he would be erased from existence because he had changed his entire destiny by giving his younger self the Sports Almanac. (Probably, Lorraine shot him sometime around 1996!). After old Biff clutches his chest and staggers (the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"), we actually filmed him falling onto the street and vanishing, and we previewed the movie this way (see The Secrets of the Back to the Future™ Trilogy). However, the vast majority of the audience did not understand it, so we decided to cut it out, leaving the answer ambiguous, and subject to various interpretations — besides the above explanation, you can believe that Old Biff had a heart attack from the shock of time travel of from flying the car, or from something that happened to him in 1955.

So basically, he did come back to an alternate 2015, and "normal" 2015 changed around Doc, Marty and Jennifer, but by that point it was so similar that they didn't notice.

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place. The two Bobs hadn't thought through the implications of what was intended to be a mere gag joke at the end of the first movie.

Gotta love those test audiences! Always there to ensure quality product.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

The official explanation:

Our intention regarding old Biff was that upon his return to 2015, he would be erased from existence because he had changed his entire destiny by giving his younger self the Sports Almanac. (Probably, Lorraine shot him sometime around 1996!). After old Biff clutches his chest and staggers (the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"), we actually filmed him falling onto the street and vanishing, and we previewed the movie this way (see The Secrets of the Back to the Future™ Trilogy). However, the vast majority of the audience did not understand it, so we decided to cut it out, leaving the answer ambiguous, and subject to various interpretations — besides the above explanation, you can believe that Old Biff had a heart attack from the shock of time travel of from flying the car, or from something that happened to him in 1955.

So basically, he did come back to an alternate 2015, and "normal" 2015 changed around Doc, Marty and Jennifer, but by that point it was so similar that they didn't notice.

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place. The two Bobs hadn't thought through the implications of what was intended to be a mere gag joke at the end of the first movie.

Gotta love those test audiences! Always there to ensure quality product.

I don't know if you're being sarcastic or not, but I'd say test audiences are often helpful. After all, according to Gale & Zemeckis, they were actually considering cutting the "Johnny B. Goode" scene from Part I until they screened it for a test audience and they loved it! (Also, who wants to bet that George Lucas would have had some vital second thoughts about a certain Gungan had he actually done any test audiences for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace?)

 

[Gaith]

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place.

That's not a plothole.

FWIW, Zemeckis and Gale disagree to some extent, though they also refer to your explanation.

Regardless, I think Part III got too lax with the time stuff, as your explanation shows. Problem was, they had an awesome cliffhanger for Part II, but not enough story to fill a good third movie, so they made a merely average one.

 

[Reverend]

If you want to watch an intricately plotted "realistic" time travel movie, go watch 'Primer'. If on the other hand you want to have fun, be entertained and remain conscious for the duration, stick with BttF.

Oh and the vanishing Biff scene (among others) can be found on youtube.

 

[The Borgified Corpse]

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place.

That's not a plothole.

FWIW, Zemeckis and Gale disagree to some extent, though they also refer to your explanation.

Funny. They agree it's a plothole but then talk themselves out of the plothole quite easily and into agreeing with me.

But then, I suppose this is the burden of being on the inside of the film. It's easier to see the flaws. Personally, I grew up with this trilogy, so I regard every single word as taken-for-granted gospel.

Regardless, I think Part III got too lax with the time stuff, as your explanation shows. Problem was, they had an awesome cliffhanger for Part II, but not enough story to fill a good third movie, so they made a merely average one.

I suppose Part III is the weakest one. However, I think it still has a vital place in the trilogy. For one, it gives a sense of closure that Part II doesn't have. For another, I think each film plays a different role in the evolution of the saga. Part I has the most humor. Part II is the most action packed. Part III has the most heart.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

[(Also, who wants to bet that George Lucas would have had some vital second thoughts about a certain Gungan had he actually done any test audiences for Star Wars: The Phantom Menace?)

Probably not the best defense for your point.

I'm sure they can be helpful but I can't help but cringe at some of the awful decisions I've heard over the years to placate test audiences. To be fair, I'm sure those get publicized more than the beneficial ones.

 

[Gaith]

I suppose Part III is the weakest one. However, I think it still has a vital place in the trilogy. For one, it gives a sense of closure that Part II doesn't have. For another, I think each film plays a different role in the evolution of the saga. Part I has the most humor. Part II is the most action packed. Part III has the most heart.

I agree. The two Bobs had the story and characters for a wonderful, heart-filled forty-minute Part III, but commercial rather than artistic demands necessitated an hour's worth of a weak-sauce showdown plot and a other, tangential time paradox shenanigans.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I have always liked III...I know most fans could care less about it.

 

[Jetfire]

I liked 3.

 

[MetalPants]

How could one not like a flying time locomotive???

 

[Trekker4747]

The flying locomotive, to me, was just absurd. It makes a degree or two of sense that the "time machine" Doc built using 1890s components would have to be as big as a locomotive (the "tender" for all we know could've been the entirety of the time machine's working components. And one does wonder how Doc got a steam-engine to generate 1.21 gigawatts. But having it fly with the Delorean-like thruster-vents in the back was just dumb and silly in a movie, and a movie series, that mostly tried to root itself in a degree or two of reality.

The thing that gets me the most about the last two movies is how hypocritical Doc is! He rushes in to 1985 to pick-up Doc with all of the urge and urgency of someone with his ass on fire to get Marty to the future to "save his kids." Doc does this knowing full-well what will happen to Marty later that very same weekend!

Doc knows the problems Marty has with being called "chicken" and he knows that this will result Marty into being goaded into an race, resulting in an accident, that will shatter Marty's strength and confidence. (Let's be honest, and hopeful, that Marty was never going to be a rock star but him "continuing to work on his music" and "pursuing a career" and "not caring what others think" would've led him into being a stronger man. I think we'd all agree that Marty's future as shown in the movies is better than the "rock star" future where Marty is coked out of his mind, can barely utter a comprehensible sentence, cheats on Jenifer regularly with hookers and finally has to get a reality TV series just to relevant with the youth of America.)

Anyway, Doc's all for not letting Marty's kids make decisions that effect their lives and doing things to help then but, heaven forbid Doc tell Marty to get over himself and not crash into a Rolls Royce tomorrow. Nope. That's a decision and a lesson Marty has to learn on his own. Sorry, bud, but you get to wreck your brand-new truck (one wonders what Marty's "future" would've been had his parents' past not been changed since it was their past's change that caused Marty to get the truck that caused him to get into the accident) and become a sniveling little Yesman all on your own. Your dumbass son, however? We need to protect him from deciding on his own to engage in illegal activity and getting sent-up the river in a dystopian legal system.

 

[JarodRussell]

The official explanation:

Our intention regarding old Biff was that upon his return to 2015, he would be erased from existence because he had changed his entire destiny by giving his younger self the Sports Almanac. (Probably, Lorraine shot him sometime around 1996!). After old Biff clutches his chest and staggers (the same symptoms that Marty exhibited in Back to the Future when he was beginning to be "erased"), we actually filmed him falling onto the street and vanishing, and we previewed the movie this way (see The Secrets of the Back to the Future™ Trilogy). However, the vast majority of the audience did not understand it, so we decided to cut it out, leaving the answer ambiguous, and subject to various interpretations — besides the above explanation, you can believe that Old Biff had a heart attack from the shock of time travel of from flying the car, or from something that happened to him in 1955.

So basically, he did come back to an alternate 2015, and "normal" 2015 changed around Doc, Marty and Jennifer, but by that point it was so similar that they didn't notice.

If you're looking for plot holes in the trilogy, there are bigger ones. The biggest is probably that Doc takes Marty and Jen into 2015, which should have erased the future McFly family in the first place. The two Bobs hadn't thought through the implications of what was intended to be a mere gag joke at the end of the first movie.

Reading stuff like this, I wish they'd rethink their criteria for chosing their test audiences.

Anyway, Doc's all for not letting Marty's kids make decisions that effect their lives and doing things to help then but, heaven forbid Doc tell Marty to get over himself and not crash into a Rolls Royce tomorrow. Nope. That's a decision and a lesson Marty has to learn on his own. Sorry, bud, but you get to wreck your brand-new truck (one wonders what Marty's "future" would've been had his parents' past not been changed since it was their past's change that caused Marty to get the truck that caused him to get into the accident) and become a sniveling little Yesman all on your own. Your dumbass son, however? We need to protect him from deciding on his own to engage in illegal activity and getting sent-up the river in a dystopian legal system.

I thought that was the point of everything. The Doc gave Marty a chance to find it out for himself.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I always thought that 2015, as we saw it, was already starting to change. Remember how Hilldale, where the McFlys lived, was looking so run down? Maybe that was Biff's doing. Maybe the only reason it looked that way was because of Biff's interference in the past, which was starting to ripple forward into 2015.

In the real timeline, Hilldale may or may not look like that.