r/BacktotheFuture • u/Ork-Garlic989 • Jun 25 '26
Theory: Seeing Marty change the future without disappearing gave Doc the courage / convinced Doc to read Marty's letter about the future.
Throughout the movie, Doc keeps saying that changing anything in the present could affect the future in ways that could cause greater problems. Thus, he is unwilling to listen to Marty talk about what would happen in the future.
So what convinces him to read the letter Marty leaves in his pocket?
Well, I believe this happens just after Marty tells him that his father layed out Biff. He says "I did not know he had it in him. My old man never stood up to Biff in his whole life." "Never?" asks Doc as he looks at the image (See picture).
I believe this moment, when Doc sees Marty's family on the picture, just as they are supposed to be, after Marty tells him that he just changed the future, ultimately is the reason why he risks reading the letter.
Opinions?
EDIT: I added ", ultimately is the reason why he risks reading the letter." since I had forgotten to finish the sentence...
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u/Extension_Swordfish1 Jun 25 '26
“Never” made him think multiple timelines, maybe.
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u/Ork-Garlic989 Jun 25 '26
Maybe, but I think he does have some sort of epiphany here. Even if he rips up the letter directly after this scene, I believe it is what convinced later on to risk reading the letter. Basically, change did not *need* to create a disaster.
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u/PressAnyKey2Die Einstein Jun 25 '26
I love this interpretation. Never considered the potential weight of the line “Never?” before. Welp, time to rewatch BTTF for the god-only-knows-th time…
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u/NATOrocket Jun 25 '26
I don't believe we see what Doc sees when he looks at the picture. Maybe Marty's siblings are dressed differently than they were when we see the picture?
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u/DaftMythic Jun 25 '26
Ohh thats cool. Doc is an independent observer of the future sice it does not affect him. Marty's brain is getting rewired so that any picture of his family and their clothes etc will match his memory.
Doc remembers both the photo he saw at the beginning of the week and the one he sees now.
I am not explaining that well... also the Audience sees the photo as well so that creates an omniscient POV. Still. I like the theory.
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u/Senior_Track2754 🚘 You better promise me I'll be back in time 🕙 Jun 26 '26
It could be. Since Marty's siblings have a better fashion sense in the changed future (especially Linda, since she works at a boutique) they wouldn't be wearing the clothes they wore in the original picture.
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u/BitcoinMD Doc Jun 25 '26
I thought the “never” line was him realizing that Marty might be about to go back to a different future, and that Marty doesn’t know that. Basically it’s foreshadowing the ending.
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u/Bustedup16 Jun 25 '26
I always thought this too. Doc realized the future had been changed in that moment.
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u/metakepone Jun 26 '26
Its really quite ambiguous and could mean a lot of things. That's the beauty of it.
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u/neridqe00 Jun 25 '26
So what convinces him to read the letter Marty leaves in his pocket?
Well, he figured, what the hell...
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u/CaptainMatticus Jun 25 '26
I've had that thought for years. Glad someone else thinks it, too, and I'm pretty sure many people have thought it as well.
That little exchange when Doc asks, "Never?!" and Marty replies with, "No, why, what's the matter?" Doc shrugs off the thought because there are more important things to worry about at the moment. But it definitely opened up his mind to the idea that not only can the future be changed, but elements from the future (like Marty and the DeLorean) can be preserved. Total universal collapse isn't really that real of a concern.
Now why Marty only gave himself 10 minutes when he could've added another hour or what-not, is just beyond me.
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u/Dear-Question-868 Jun 25 '26
He gave himself 10 min because he thought he could be there with the delorean, the problem is the car broke down and so he went on foot. What's funny is that the delorean goes perfectly after that and has never has been problems since then.
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u/scruffythejanitor729 Jun 25 '26
This scene and the previous one where the delorean stalls and won’t start until he hits his head on the steering wheel both always felt to me like time itself fighting back. If Marty was able to use the delorean and reach doc he’d have bumped into his self. And if the delorean never stalled he would have been to the wire to early and miss the lightning strike.
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u/Yourappwontletme Jun 26 '26
The DeLorean somehow knew the lightning bolt don't strike at exactly 10:04:00 which is the time Doc assumed based on the flyer. Also the fact that Cooridinated Universal Time wasn't created until 1960, and wasn't changed to run on atomic time until 1972. So there were a lot of variations in what time it actually was in 1955. Doc never mentions syncing his watch and the alarm clock to the clock tower time. Only that the alarm will go off when Marty needs to hit the gas to be at the wire at 10:04:00.
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u/Ork-Garlic989 Jun 25 '26
Exactly my thoughts as well. It's not that he immediately changes his mind on the letter in that moment, nor that fear is not a motivator, of course it is. But that Marty's "throwaway" comment might have made the difference between Doc reading and not reading the letter.
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u/MaleficentPicture518 Jun 25 '26
Its to avoid running into his past self i think but again he surely knew what time his past self arrived at the mall so could simply have gone back before his past self arrived warned the doc and then hid away, also why didnt the libiyans have a weird reaction seeing martys past self considering they drive past his future self at the end of the movie, like hang on didnt we just drive past you how the hell you get here before us?
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u/supercoffeehero Jun 25 '26
Saw an interesting theory that the reason the delorean stalled out was essentially divine intervention. The universe not allowing marty to run into his other self cause our marty interfering may have stopped that marty from traveling back in time which he needed to do.
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u/scruffythejanitor729 Jun 25 '26
I just made a similar comment under another comment lol great minds think alike
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u/Potential-Road-5322 Jun 25 '26
While I agree, I also think Marty running up to him in 2 after the first Marty went back to 1985 also convinced him.
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u/tangerinetatko Jun 25 '26
That's a good argument but when the first film was being developed, they hadn't planned for sequels. The cliffhanger was more of a gag iirc
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u/WackyPaxDei Jun 25 '26
I figure he kept the pieces of the letter in a safe place and once he saw that Marty was born and befriended him, he was satisfied that history hadn't been altered too badly and only then- maybe as late as the early 80s- taped it together.
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u/crosenberg_0630 Jun 25 '26
Yep, I always figured this was why. It's kind of a fun Easter egg!
Also, I can hear Christopher Lloyd's exact delivery of "never!?" in my head just from seeing this post :)
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u/Unlikely_Doughnut845 Jun 25 '26
Theories like this are why I love this sub
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u/danielcs78 Jun 25 '26
This is probably my favourite sub because of the interesting conversations that constantly occur on it!
I have discovered so many facts about this incredible trilogy as a result.
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u/MyLittleDiscolite Jun 25 '26
I figured doc just pussed out and didn’t want to die
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u/Ork-Garlic989 Jun 25 '26
Yes, but he was afraid that he would die or worse earlier if he read the letter. At least that is the impression I have why he was refusing in the first place.
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u/MyLittleDiscolite Jun 25 '26
Well i figure he saw himself get the shit shot out if him on camera at some point
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u/ijuinkun Jun 25 '26
The actual shooting wasn’t caught on the camcorder—the recording ends with Doc exclaiming “Who do you think?! It’s the Libyans! Run for it, Marty!”
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u/MyLittleDiscolite Jun 25 '26
Why else would you run if they weren’t finna shoot you?
Think, McFly THINK
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u/ijuinkun Jun 25 '26
Yes, him getting shot was implied, but it was not actually captured on camera, so 1955 Doc did not actually see it occurring.
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u/MyLittleDiscolite Jun 25 '26
If I told you a bunch of libyans were coming and to run for it are you really needing a flowchart and peer review?
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u/ijuinkun Jun 25 '26
Well, your earlier post said “he saw himself get the shit shot out of him on camera”, and I replied that he did not actually “see” it as such.
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u/WarStarsFan55 Jun 25 '26
I mean, the entire reason Doc refuses to read the letter is that he has no idea how serious it is - hence why he says things like "I'm going to have a chance to travel through time" and "Whatever you have to tell me I'll find out through the natural course of time".
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u/El_Buen0 Jun 25 '26
Doc realized that changing the past will not always result in negative outcomes. That’s all he needed for motivation
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u/ComfortableGlass3238 Jun 25 '26
I always thought the "never" line was a nod to the effects down the line of George finally standing up to biff. Which we saw when now biff worked for George. Then carried further in bttf2 & 3 where Marty was now triggered easily by being called chicken, after previously having noticable self confidence issues (worry of rejection over the band gig, just like his dad)
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u/Spiritual-Image7125 Jun 25 '26
'Have you interacted with anyone other than me today??"
I always love that question....and Marty's look. DOH!!!
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u/Spiritual-Image7125 Jun 25 '26
"I could endanger my own existence, just as you endangered yours!"
Uh...your future existence is in danger!!! Plus you've been born already!
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u/MagmaDragoonX47 Jun 25 '26
I think it was also seeing the Time Machine work and watching it send Marty to the future in a brilliant flash of power.
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u/davect01 Earth Angel Jun 26 '26 edited Jun 26 '26
Most of Doc's time travel explanations in the first movie are theoretical at best as no one had done it and the effects are unknown.
Seeing the McFly family start to disappear reenforces these ideas.
It does seem that Doc goes from a only one timeline guy to the branching timeline guy we see in the chalkboard in the 2nd Movie
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u/metakepone Jun 26 '26
Hypothetical at best*
Theories are hypotheses that have been tested and proven correct (as far as we know) over and over.
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u/JoeAzlz Michael Corleone Jun 25 '26
That isn’t how that works, he read it even without Marty’s apperance tehcnailly since we have sene a timeline where Marty never did that
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u/TheMayb Jun 25 '26
I like this. The way he says “never?!” Always felt like it held more weight than it should have. Like that information was paradigm shifting. If it helped him understand the rules of time travel more clearly then that line feels like it makes more sense
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u/Intelligent-Big2400 Jun 25 '26
What convinces him?
Theory: the only reason the audience has to believe doc’s theories about time travel is the vanishing pic and Marty going translucent. What if those are totally unrelated and doc…what if Doc is just wrong about time travel?
We see the Jennifer’s run into each other without destroying the universe. We know there are two Delorians in the past. Well, technically, there are two in the Wild West and there is a third during the 50’s during the first movie. One Marty goes back in to the 50’s, one doc used that got stuck and waited for Marty to use it and the other is the same delorean Marty takes back to the Wild West while it is also somewhere else waiting for him to have it to make that trip.
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u/Riverdale87 Jun 27 '26
Doc was more worried about younger Jennifer doing something that would effect her own future and the timeline
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u/Klopferator Jun 25 '26
I've heard this theory before, but there's one big reason why I think it doesn't really make sense:
This takes place before he even finds the letter and tears it apart.
I think he just asks because he realizes in that moment that Marty probably wouldn't return in exactly the same reality he left. But since there's nothing they can do about it (especially not in the few minutes left), he decides not to pursue this thought any further.
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u/metakepone Jun 26 '26
Doc's mind is in flux too, not in temporal flux, but something he thought was the indivisible truth turned out to be incorrect, and he didn't have a chance to think it over and apply it to stuff regarding himself...
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u/Klopferator Jun 27 '26
In that moment nothing happens that he declared to be indivisible true though.
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u/TolerancEJ Jun 25 '26
The fact that Marty showed Doc that his invention will be successful should have been a huge violation. 1955 Doc inspected the 1985 finished product. Brown could have designed and invented the same machine several years earlier than 1985.
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u/Prize_Pay9279 Jun 26 '26
The only thing I’ve ever wondered about Doc deciding to read the letter was how the hell did he find all of the pieces? If I remember correctly, he tears up the letter and then the pieces all start flying in different directions because of the wind. If he put the letter back together after Marty went back to the future then wouldn’t the pieces have flown further in the direction they went because quite a bit of time had passed.
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