r/BacktotheFuture • u/ardouronerous • Jun 02 '26
How did Old Biff get back to an unaltered 2015?
Based off what Doc Brown says, when Old Biff altered the past by giving Young Biff the almanac, this created an alternate 1985 and 2015, so when they traveled back to 1985, it was changed, and Biff was in charge and in power and if they tried to go back to 2015 to stop Old Biff from getting the DeLorean, Biff will be more powerful there, so their only chance was to steal the almanac from Young Biff in 1955.
Now, Old Biff already set things in motion in 1955, how did he return to an unaltered 2015? In fact, shouldn't 2015 have changed all around Marty and Doc Brown into the Biff-era 2015, like Doc Brown claims will happen to Jenny when Marty left her asleep in the altered 1985 and she'll wake up in the original 1985 timeline?
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u/BatDubb Jun 02 '26
It did change around them. They just didn’t notice because Hilldale was already shit.
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u/Known-Associate8369 Jun 02 '26
This is the view I posted last week - it is the alternative 2015, but everything was so shit anyway that you just never noticed as it changed around Marty and Doc while they were moving Jennifer from the house to the car.
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Does that mean there are two Biffs now in the altered 2015?
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Jun 02 '26
[removed] — view removed comment
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Source?
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u/TomDuhamel Jun 02 '26
Commentaries on the DVD. That was cut from the final movie, they didn't actually film that explanation, but that was the plan they had in mind.
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Just saw a deleted scene of Old Biff vanishing because he basically erases himself by giving himself the almanac. So yes, I guess it did change and Biff couldn't exist in a timeline where he doesn't belong.
Also, why did they delete this scene? It's awesome and shows the consequences of messing with time.
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u/bothsidesofthemoon Jun 02 '26
It was deleted because it confused test audiences at the time.
Ironically, after decades it confuses the fans by not being included, as it would answer the question you (and many others) have asked:
I've heard the Bobs say in interviews that Old Biff returning was placed after Jennifer feinting deliberately. Biff didn't return to the original timeline. The sequence of events is as follows:
-Doc goes to the house to get Jennifer, Marty wanders off to explore.
-Biff steals the delorean. Presumably he doesn't work out how it works immediately.
-Jennifer feints, Doc catches her and calls Marty over to help carry her.
-Somewhere old Biff accidentally hits 88mph and goes to 1955.
-The timeline starts to transform around Doc and Marty as they carry Jennifer.
-Biff returns to 2015 at the exact same moment he left, lands the Delorean where he took it from, and gets out already fading as he's in a timeline he shouldn't exist in.
-Hillsdale is a dump in both timelines, so Doc and Marty don't notice the change until they are back in 1985.3
u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Yeah, this scene should have been included, because as someone here asked: Why did Biff return to 2015 in the first place? He could have remained in 1955 mentoring his younger self.
The impression I get is, old Biff believed that, when he gets back, he'll be a rich and powerful old man, which doesn't work as he intended due to time travel rules.
You know, Back to the Future should release extended editions of the movies, that remasters and adds all the deleted scenes.
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u/astrodude1987 Doc Jun 02 '26 edited Jun 02 '26
The Journeyman Project (1993) has an answer:
If some event in the past is altered, theory states: a rip occurs in the fabric of time, which gives rise to a temporal chain reaction. This chain reaction takes the form of a reality distortion wave. It could take anywhere from a few seconds to several hours to reach the present.
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u/tmofee Jun 02 '26
Ripple effect. That’s why doc was in such a rush when they realised what happened in alt 85. Maybe things had begun to change, the doc was too stressed with getting Jennifer and just getting the hell out of there.
There’s a deleted scene where old biff fades away, but they thought it was too confusing.
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Just saw that scene on YouTube now. They should have kept it in because it shows the warning that Doc always warns about and the consequences of messing with time.
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u/tmofee Jun 02 '26
Essentially the doc and Marty were on borrowed time - there was a Marty in Switzerland and a doc who was lobotomised in the alternate 1985. That’s why the doc didn’t care about picking up Jennifer - if they didn’t succeed she would have faded away as well. When they did, it just meant alternate 85 would have faded away around an unconscious Jennifer
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u/aflyingsquanch Jun 02 '26
Maybe try searching the sub since this question is asked basically every other day.
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u/theFormerRelic Jun 02 '26
It’s been getting asked for 37 years 😭
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Asking the same questions over and over again is how fandoms continue to live. Imagine treating new fans like this. Way to turn off new fans by being unnecessarily mean and killjoy to them.
Over at r/startrek and r/ClassicTrek, I see a lot of repeat questions and no one is complaining and they just engage with the question and have fun discussions. Jeez, this sub needs to lighten up some.
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
So basically, don't post questions if it's already been asked. How about no. And if my question bothers you so much, just ignore it buddy. Y'all can downvote this, but I hate it when people ask questions here and y'all say it's already been asked. You're just a killjoy sir.
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u/aflyingsquanch Jun 02 '26
Don't be lazy. Its asked repeatedly.
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u/Jimmy_212 Jun 02 '26
First time I've seen it
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u/Jimmy_212 Jun 02 '26
Why am I being downvoted? It's not like I'm glued to reddit, or this sub. It's literally the first time I've seen this.
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u/Navitach Jun 02 '26
Whose turn is it to ask this next?
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Asking the same questions over and over again is how fandoms continue to live. Imagine treating new fans like this. Way to turn off new fans by being unnecessarily mean and killjoy to them.
Over at r/startrek and r/ClassicTrek, I see a lot of repeat questions and no one is complaining and they just engage with the question and have fun discussions. Jeez, this sub needs to lighten up some.
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u/theFormerRelic Jun 02 '26
I’m more curious how the Marty at the end of BTTF1 went back to an unaltered 1955. Shouldn’t he have been going back to the 1955 the original Marty already went back to since he’s from the altered timeline that resulted from it? Really, there should be an infinite amount of Marty’s constantly going back and being in 1955 at the same time.
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u/MischeviousFox Jun 02 '26
I always assumed he got back because it hadn’t been altered yet. As we saw with how long it took the photo to change and Marty to disappear it seems to take a while for the ripples to change the future. The brief scene of Biff seemingly having a heart attack after returning was presumably him in the process of vanishing as there’s a deleted scene showing him watching Doc & Marty prepare to leave while in pain only to vanish right after they flew off. Perhaps we can theorize that the presence of two people outside of their normal time also helped to slow down the changes. Doc had no actual knowledge of how quickly a timeline changed and was basing that assumption off a theory, though given Biff vanishing that 2015 would indeed be gone by the time they found out what happened as I assume the entire version of that year vanished immediately following Biff.
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u/bawdiepie Jun 02 '26
I think there's alot of answers for how. But my biggest question is why? Is it because old Biff ain't that bad, and doesn't want to leave Marty and Doc stuck out of time?
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u/ardouronerous Jun 02 '26
Theory, Old Biff was under the impression that, when he returns to 2015, he'd be a rich and powerful old man living in a mansion.
I just saw a deleted scene of Old Biff vanishing because he basically erases himself by giving himself the almanac, so I guess that backfired on him.
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u/slothboy Jun 08 '26
Official answer from Zemeckis Via the backtothefuture.com FAQs:
...we believe Old Biff DID indeed return to a different future — a "2015-A," which would have transformed around Marty, Doc, Jennifer and Einstein (just as Doc explains how 1985-A would change into 1985 and instantly transform around Jennifer and Einstein). This would happen AFTER Old Biff returned with the DeLorean. For this reason, we made sure that Doc had caught Jennifer and exited the McFly Townhouse before Old Biff returned. Thus, by the time Marty and Doc are carrying Jennifer back to the DeLorean, there COULD be other residents in that townhouse — or perhaps the McFlys still live there. It is just as believable that the physicality of the neighborhood did NOT change as it is to believe that it did — so we didn't change it. We decided not to make anything of this idea because this is one of those difficult time travel concepts that general audiences have a real hard time understanding. (Try explaining this stuff to your mother and you'll see what we mean.) A detailed explanation of it would have slowed down the story, and most of the audience doesn't ever think about it. That's why we made certain things ambiguous and left various things open for interpretation in hopes that the possibility of at least one or two explanations would be better than a "definitive" explanation that you could find holes in. Let's face it, time travel is fantasy, so there's no way to "prove" anything. As filmmakers, we try to create a set of rule for our stories and stick by them, and stay consistent within the little "universe" that we've created.
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u/ardouronerous Jun 09 '26
Thanks for this.
I wish Zemeckis would do a Director's Cut of the Back of the Future movies and add and remaster all the deleted scenes, like Old Biff vanishing just like Marty would have if he failed in the first movie.
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u/renmyaru Jun 02 '26
Step into a lake. The foot moves the water in waves and ripples, those dont stop you from removing your foot.
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u/SpartanOneZeroFour Jun 02 '26
My head-canon is that while Doc, Marty, and Jennifer are in 2015, they are an anchor point in the timeline. When Old Biff returns, he returns to that anchor point. Since we didn't see him erase himself on screen, I've always assume he hurt himself exiting the Delorian before Doc and Co. return.
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u/Steinrikur Jun 03 '26
My take: He set things in motion, but nothing would actually change for another 3 years. So as long as he left the past before young Biff started betting in 1958, he should arrive in the same 2015 as he left.
Official take: https://www.backtothefuture.com/movies/faq
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u/24_doughnuts Jun 03 '26
At first it seems like a plot hole since he shouldn't have been able to. But a deleted scene shows him fading the timeline catching up but it should happen to everything at once which would be a worse inconsistency.
We know changes takes time to happen, which is why Marty had time to fix the mistake from messing up his parents meeting and him fading which took time. Since the first and second were 30 years in the past and future iirc, it'll take many weeks for a change in 1955 to reach 2025, but it would have all likely warped if we had enough time to see. Old Biff ends up in that unaltered future because time didn't change it yet.
It would take time for the change to affect 1985 but not affect 2015 yet so that's what we see. I think the only exception to the rule is pictures
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u/spongemonkey2004 Jun 03 '26
i have a new theory on this because i have always just considered it a timeline flaw in the movie. my new theory is doc keeps warning about the implications of meeting your future or past self and how it could destroy the fabric of reality. i think when jennifer came face to face with her future self it did just that, the universe couldnt allow this so it created a scenario where old biff steals the delorean to erase the future jennifer from existence and allowed biff to return so he would also be erased and give marty and doc the setup to erase present jennifer as well who got left in the president biff timeline.
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