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In Back to the Future, does the original timeline still exist?

posted 5 years ago by TMC-4 (19435)
1 reply | jump to latest

https://www.reddit.com/r/movies/comments/b0tfyx/in_back_to_the_future_does_the_original_timeline/

So, in Back to the Future, Marty accidentally goes back in time while trying to escape some Libyan terrorists. While there (then?), his mother unknowingly tries to get a little reverse-Oedipus action going on, and his dad almost misses out on some hot alcoholic action.

Marty then fixes things by playing Chuck Barry, and letting his dad punch a rapist. His parents dance, then kiss, and they end up living happily ever after, sans alcoholism, and with the addition of a nicely decorated house and a published novel.

The thing is, Doc drew a rudimentary map of the timelines while he and Marty were hanging out in his garage, and his map showed two timelines. The one Marty created was a tangent. It seems as if the original timeline might still exist, based on this drawing.

Does it?

Is Marty's original timeline still running as a parallel universe? Did he leave his family behind while he was off creating a new one that isn't horribly depressing? Does his family sit around the same dinner table drinking and watching television, hoping that one day their son might come home, as they did for Uncle Joey?

[–] Sandman81 (1501) 5 years ago

NO

In his garage in Part II, Doc called it an "alternate 1985". The only people who would even know that there was another timeline would be Doc, Marty, and Jennifer. Only one timeline at a time can exist. Which one exist depends on the events of the past that created it. With time travel it became possible to shift timelines, or even create new ones.

Using some Terminator time travel logic, when Sarah ask Kyle if he's from the future, he replies "One possible future." In BTTF there are 3 possible 1985's. One where the McFlys are poor, dysfunctional, and still being bullied by Biff, one where they are more loving, wealthier, and not under Biffs control, and the one where Biff owns everything.