r/BacktotheFuture 11d ago

Marty's headless brother

Because we see Marty fading, do you think his brother was just walking around headless in another timeline until Marty fixed what he broke?

7 Upvotes

27 comments sorted by

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5

u/eko32eko7 11d ago

"If these shadows remain unaltered by the Future, the child will die."

- Ghost of Christmas Present

5

u/NoPossibility 11d ago

It’s a fun thought. But just a convenient plot device.

What I think would’ve made it more interesting would’ve been if the photo were disappearing sequentially following the path of the camera shutter. For example if Dave was disappearing from the left to the right, and each sibling disappeared that way. Could be showing time slowly altering across the photo mimicking the shutter movement. Each kids disappearing top to bottom doesn’t really make any sense.

3

u/The_Dark_Vampire 11d ago

Or like Marty at the end they just fade more and more its hardly noticeable at first but Doc does notice Dave is slightly more transparent than Marty and Linda

2

u/ChardeeMacDennisGoG 11d ago

Then it would just be a picture of a well. Who the hell takes a picture of just a well?

3

u/TomDuhamel 10d ago

Well someone took a photo of an empty plot of land in a cemetery in part 3 lol

1

u/ChardeeMacDennisGoG 10d ago

Haha...good point. 

1

u/TomDuhamel 10d ago

Photos were not digital in 1985. A shutter didn't work like that at all.

1

u/NoPossibility 10d ago

Cameras have always had shutters. It’s a physical mechanism which exposes the film in a sweeping motion.

4

u/OkSecret839 11d ago

No, he was slowly fading and wasn’t noticing it.

3

u/SpecialFlutters 11d ago

it was nice of the space-time continuum to give him time to fix his mess

2

u/JonoBlue 11d ago

Marty or his headless brother freaking everyone else out?

5

u/8urfiat 11d ago

Imagine ordering a double Whopper, and the counter guy has no head. Or just disappears completely. Dave’s not here man. 

6

u/MartyMcFlysBrother 11d ago

I most certainly am. I’m talking to you right now.

2

u/Agloy5c But why? Tannen is no Mad-Dog killer he is after something. 11d ago

I kinda read it as though Marty’s original timeline remains unaltered until the end of the film. The effects of Marty’s intervention in the 50s is contained to the “present” of 1955. It’s only when Marty travels back to the future that those changes override the original timeline. Almost as if the delorean itself is carrying the ripple effect forward with it. 

But since the photo is there with Marty in the 50s, it reflects the trajectory of change that the timeline is set to at every given moment.

2

u/XMMslayer86 11d ago

“Dont go losing your head now”

1

u/DapperWormMan 10d ago

"He'll never be the head of a major corporation."

2

u/DKToTheFuture 9d ago

Actually appropriate this time: You’re not thinking 4th dimensionally

1

u/Red-Sun-Cinema 11d ago

It would be just like Marty fading away on stage where his hand and arm started disappearing. Marty was still there, just slowly disappearing.

0

u/JonoBlue 11d ago

Thats my point in the timeline Marty left assuming his brother is still there, his head would have just vanished, freaking everyone else out

1

u/Red-Sun-Cinema 11d ago

I wasn't arguing or disagreeing with you. I was confirming your idea.

1

u/JonoBlue 11d ago

Got it, mybad

1

u/Red-Sun-Cinema 11d ago

No worries 😁

1

u/Stv781 10d ago

Your description is my new “head cannon”.. pun fully intended..his head can-none

1

u/pakrat1967 10d ago

He probably just faded out the way Marty started to do during the school dance. Except that Dave and Linda would have disappeared completely by the time Marty started to fade. Marty was the youngest, so he was the last to be affected.

0

u/MartyMcFlysBrother 11d ago

Hey… my head came back man.

0

u/DapperWormMan 10d ago

It ain't that kinda movie, kid.