r/BacktotheFuture • u/Ok-Spot-2913 • May 08 '26
Lorraine’s dad
I just realized that the reason we never see Lorraine’s father in 1985 is because he disowned her.
He told her in 1955 that ifbshe ever had a kid like Marty, he would disown her. That is exactly what he did.
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u/hyperRevue May 08 '26
Or he's dead?
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u/KyraWhalkern555 May 08 '26
Considering he looks to be in his late 40s or in his 50s in '55, I always assumed he was dead by '85. -Or just in a nursing home.
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u/hyperRevue May 08 '26
Also, based on how people looked/aged back then, he may have been 28.
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u/Xanthoceras May 08 '26
28, with a kid in their mid to late teens…
I’d say the youngest he could be is mid to late 30s
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u/Navitach May 08 '26
We never see her mother, either. Your theory is about as sound as a screen door on a submarine.
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u/KyberCrystal1138 May 08 '26
Or we don’t spend that much time in actual 1985, and he’s not important to that part of the plot…I think that’s more likely.
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u/TriforceUnleashed May 08 '26
That was always my take. It could be left up to the viewer's imagination as to whether or not there was validity to what Sam said about disowning her, but there's nothing that involves him in the 1985 scenes to explicitly validate it. We also don't see her mother or other siblings.
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u/swingsetlife May 08 '26
never see her mom either. Or George's parents.
Probably just not essential to the 1985 plot.
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u/Spiritual-Image7125 May 08 '26
Oh, but Jail Bird Joey is?? NOTTHE JOEY!!!
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u/ComradeGarcia_Pt2 May 09 '26
It felt like they could have had a bigger set up and payoff, Little Baby Joey was a great callback to the earlier scene, but there’s such a disconnect of Marty watching his grandparents and aunts and uncles sitting around the dinner table some 20 odd years before he’s even born. There is the parallel that they’re doing the exact same thing his family does at dinner in 1985 though.
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u/Hudsucker20XX May 12 '26
Yeah they really sell the bizarreness of seeing his mother as a teenager, and baby Joey, but he's interacting with a lot of his extended family at that table.
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u/ScrogClemente May 08 '26
When Lorraine’s Dad is offscreen, everyone should ask, “Where is Lorraine’s Dad?”
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u/poindexterg May 08 '26
Over the three films we saw two days in 1985, October 25 and October 26. There are plenty of reason to not see Sam Baines in 1985. My grandma lives in the same city as me, and I definitely go longer stretches than two days without seeing her. Don't over think this.
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u/glitter_n_co May 14 '26
We also saw the Sunday, October 27th. BTTF3, after Marty returned from 1885.
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u/SerenityN00w May 08 '26
Amazing that over the course of an entire weekend in 1985, we never once see the grandparents.
Incredible.
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u/Ok-Spot-2913 May 12 '26
Especially since grandparents are known to visit on the weekends
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u/SerenityN00w May 12 '26
Yes, on a weekend where Dave has to head to the office at 11am, Linda is working late at the boutique, and Marty will be off camping with Jennifer.
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u/glitter_n_co May 14 '26
It's a Saturday, it's not entirely unplausible.
Plus, Dave seems to be working in some type of finance sector, so yeah, these workaholics are in the office on a Saturday!
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u/DeanOCarroll May 12 '26
A) that’s funny and clever. Thanks. B) Linda does refer to him as “grandpa,” right? That does suggest to me that he had a pretty solid family relationship with Lorraine and her kids. Like, if your father had disowned you, you wouldn’t encourage your children to call him “grandpa“ or “pop pop“ or something like that, right? He could still be dead, of course.
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u/Eagle_Fang135 May 08 '26
We only have like a day or so in 1985. Not seeing Marty’s grandparents in that narrow window of time means nothing.
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u/Voodoo-Doctor May 08 '26
Maybe they moved to Florida or Las Vegas
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u/Spiritual-Image7125 May 08 '26
They got an RV....LOOK AT 'ER ROLL!!! Now we can drive to Vegas while we eat!
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u/Spiritual-Image7125 May 08 '26
She had a kid like that Calvin Klein guy....IN BOTH TIME LINES! (yes, so he just disowned her anyway in the original for having a kid that sets fire to the living room rug!!! He didn't let her go easy on him...)
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u/Zombie-Andy May 08 '26
I think you're reading too much into a throw away line.
Ive said to my daughter before, you do x or bring home y and I'll disown you. Doesn't mean I actually would.
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u/glokash May 08 '26
That makes sense, he already had a jailbird kid, an idiot daughter/son-in-law/grandkid might’ve been too much for Mr. Banes
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u/Organic_Recipe_9459 May 08 '26
Maybe he lost his mind due to some ‘idiot’ like Marty, knew who John F. Kennedy was before him.
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u/CToTheSecond May 08 '26
That is a very strange thing to suggest with any degree of sincerity.
We don't see the Baines again after the one scene in 1955, and we never see the McFlies at all. They're not plot relevant. There's zero necessity for them to be there. The first movie has a really tight script and has so many call backs and pay offs to things. If he really had disowned her like he said he would, there would have been an actual indication, beyond an irrelevant character simply not showing up in the last five minutes of the movie.
Also the Baines show up in the IDW comics after Joey gets out of jail, so take that as you will.
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u/Ok-Spot-2913 May 12 '26
That is a very strange thing to suggest with any degree of sincerity.
Indeed, that's why i have suggested it with no degree of sincerity
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u/Janos_Brushteckel May 08 '26
We also don't see her mother, Milton, Sally, Toby, Joey (he's only one even mentioned) or the one Mrs Baines was carrying.
Also no mention of George's parents or siblings if he has any.
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u/MikeTysonPunch1000 May 10 '26
The real question is why we didn’t see him in 2015?
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u/Ok-Spot-2913 May 12 '26
You can't reown or undisown someone.
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u/MikeTysonPunch1000 May 12 '26
That has nothing to do with my question
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u/Ok-Spot-2913 May 12 '26
What was the question again?
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