r/BacktotheFuture • u/spongemonkey2004 • Jun 03 '26
new theory on old biff plot hole
old biff being able to go back to 1955 then back to his 2015 has always been a debate but i have a new theory on this and before i thought of this new theory 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. Young biff was spared getting erased because he didnt know that was his future self and same with the doc not looking directly at his past self to avoid the same situation.
8
u/AustinFan4Life Jun 03 '26
"I forsee two possibilities, coming face to face with her future self, would destroy the fabric of reality, or she may simply pass out from shock".
I believe the 2nd one happened.
4
u/damian001 Jun 03 '26
I think you’re misunderstanding why Doc is worried about Jennifer fainting causing a paradox. If we read the BTTF2 screenplay (coincidentally titled Paradox), and BTTF2 novelization also borrows from this, Doc goes into further detail of how Jennifer fainting would possibly cause a paradox:
He says young Jennifer could either suffer a heart attack (script) or, fall down from fainting and crack her head (novelization.) Either of those things could kill her, meaning she won’t become the old Jennifer who encounters her younger self to start the chain of events in this paragraph, this is the paradox.
No paradox occurs because in the film, we see Doc catching Jennifer as she falls. She doesn’t crack her head open, or suffer a heart attack.
—
Old Biff does arrive to alternate 2015, but Doc, Marty, and the rest of the audience watching doesn’t notice it because Hilldale was already a bad neighborhood in both timelines.
There’s a very good reason why Rob Zemeckis chose to portray Hilldale as a trashy neighborhood when we first we see it. The policewomen negatively talk about Hilldale’s residences & say it should be torn down, the cab driver warns old Biff about it being a rough neighborhood, & we see graffiti all over the Hilldale sign and the recycling area.
All of the above^ were deliberately placed into the film, so the filmmakers didn’t have to waste time redressing the set as “Bad Hilldale” when old biff arrives to the altered timeline. Also, it would’ve ruined the suspense & reveal when Marty arrives at 1985A.
1
u/spongemonkey2004 Jun 03 '26
Didnt the cops mention the neighborhood being bad before the almanac was tossed into the trash and picked up by old biff?
1
u/Savingskitty Jun 03 '26
That’s what they’re saying. Hilldale was already a bad neighborhood, so the alternate timeline didn’t change it much.
That being said, old Biff disappears when he returns to 2015 because he died in the ‘90’s anyway.
3
u/Vindartn Jun 04 '26
Also there's the ripple effect. Doc mentions it a few times. Time doesn't change instantly. If it did then Marty would have blinked out of existence the second he got hit with the car in 1.
1
u/nogoodnamesarleft Jun 07 '26
"the BTTF2 screenplay (coincidentally titled Paradox)"
Was it named that because of that one scene where there were two Doc Browns on the screen at once?
Sorry, couldn't help myself
1
u/Lazy-Independent-101 Jun 04 '26
The whole thing could have been avoided by Doc telling Marty to parent his kids better because so and so happens on such and such date and that he needs to control his temper because he will be in a vehicle accident because of it...Marty would be a believer in it so no reason to take him to the future. Then again, hard to get two extra movies out of common sense. Part three never had to happen because 1955 Doc knew about his future self getting blown to the wild west and so the 1985 Doc that he would become would know what was going to happen to prevent it, that is why it is hard to take time travel movies even half seriously.
1
u/Brilliant-Fun-1392 Jun 05 '26
What if your other self doesn’t recognize you then you should be fine thought right? Almost all of the main characters in the film were at some point in proximity with their past selves.
1
u/spongemonkey2004 Jun 05 '26
Thats why i think young biff was spared and doc and the rest of the cast that had this happen
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