Chapter One
November 20, 1985 8:40 pm Hill Valley California
"Tell us a story Daddy! Please?" begged little Vern Brown.
"Yes, tell us the one about how you helped Marty get back to his time!" his brother Jules chimed in.
"I don't know. It's already past your bedtime," Doctor Emmett Brown replied.
"Pleeeeese?" they begged.
"Oh, all right. Lie down."
Jules and Vern laid down on their beds. Doc took a seat on a chair and set the keys he'd been holding on a table beside him. Then he began the story he'd told many times before. "Thirty years ago, on November 5, 1955, I was working on one of my inventions. There was a knock at the door. When I opened it-"
"Skip to the good part!" Vern begged.
"The part where you're hanging from the clock!" Jules added.
"All right. So there I was on the clock tower reaching for the cable. All of a sudden the board I'd been standing on broke. I had to hold onto one of the hands of the clock with one hand and reach for the cable with the other so I could plug it in."
"Then you found a place to put your feet and were about to plug in the cable, but it was stuck under a tree!" Jules interrupted.
"And the other plug came undone when you plugged in the first one," Vern added.
"That's right. Then I slid down the cable-with gloves on of course-and got the other part plugged in just in time."
"Will you show us the time circuits again, Daddy?" Vern begged.
"Sure, I guess so," Doc agreed.
He picked up the keys from the table and took them out to the DeLorean. It was a new DeLorean. The other one had been smashed by a train. Doc opened the car door and sat in the seat with Vern on his lap and Jules standing close by.
"First you turn the time circuits on. This readout tells you where you're going," Doc explained, pointing to the top row of glowing numbers and letters. Then he pointed to the row below it. "This one tells you where you are." Finally he pointed to last one and said, "this one tells you where you were. You input your destination time on this keypad. If you wanted to witness the lightening bolt at the clock tower, you would input the destination time November 12, 1955 nine-thirty PM, which would give you enough time to get to the clock tower from here."
Doc yawned and said, "OK, time for bed."
He put Vern down beside Jules and got out of the car.
"Can I lock the car, Daddy?" Jules asked.
"Sure, son. Here."
Doc handed the keys to Jules, who then proceeded to lock the car door. All of a sudden Vern took off across the yard.
"Vern! Where are you going?" Doc asked, darting after him.
Vern stopped suddenly, causing Doc to nearly run into him. He picked up a controller from the grass.
"I've been wondering where the controller to my car was!" he told Doc.
In all the commotion, Doc didn't notice when Jules stuck the keys to the DeLorean in his pocket.
A little after an hour later, Doc awoke with a start.
Why did I wake up? he wondered.
He hadn't had any bad dreams, and his wife Clara was sleeping peacefully beside him. The only sound he heard was a car driving by. Then a powerful electric crackling noise split the quiet.
"Great Scott!" Doc exclaimed in a whisper. "That sounds like the noise the time machine makes when temporal displacement occurs!"
He got out of bed and ran to Jules and Vern's room. The beds were empty. Doc ran outside, only to discover the DeLorean was missing.
"Great Scott!"
Tap tap tap
Marty McFly's eyes sprang open with a start. His heart was racing. Why? He sat up in bed and listened. No sound came. He laid back down and buried his face in his pillow, annoyed at being woken up for no reason.
What woke me up? he wondered.
Just then the noise came again.
Tap tap tap
"What the hell?" he asked aloud. The noise was coming from the window. Someone must be trying to break in! he realized in terror.
"Marty!" came a voice.
Marty breathed a sigh of relief. It was just the Doc. He got out of bed and opened the window.
"Doc? What's going on? What the hell did you wake me up for?"
"No time for that now. Come on! Come with me and I'll explain on the way."
"At least let me get dressed," Marty reminded him.
"Right. Meet me at Eastwood Ravine."
"Eastwood Ravine," Marty repeated. "Right."
Marty took his skateboard to Eastwood Ravine. He couldn't take his 4(4 because the noise would wake his family. He felt sure they wouldn't allow him to go anywhere in the middle of the night, especially if he refused to tell them where. When he arrived at Eastwood Ravine, Doc was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like him to be late. All of a sudden Doc appeared out of nowhere.
"What the hell?" Marty asked. He rubbed his eyes, as if he thought the Doc was a figment of his imagination. When Doc was still there, he asked, "What's going on, Doc?"
Doc smiled, then disappeared again. A second later the locomotive Doc had made into a time machine appeared, seemingly out of thin air.
"I made a cloaking device!" Doc told him proudly.
"A cloaking device?" Marty asked. "Like from Star Trek?"
"Exactly! The device creates a 'shield' that bends light rays around the car, making it invisible!"
"Whoa, that's pretty heavy stuff!" Marty observed. "So what's the deal, Doc? Are we going somewhere? Or rather, some time?"
"Yup. Here's a 50s shirt. Put it on."
"50s? Why won't you tell me what we're doing?" Marty asked as he took off his shirt. "What's in the 50s?"
"Jules and Vern," Doc answered simply.
"Jules and Vern are in the 50s?" Marty asked in surprise. He put on the shirt Doc had given him.
"November 12, 1955 to be exact."
"November 12, 1955?" Marty repeated in shock. "That's the day I went back in time! It's also the day we had to get the book from Biff! How the hell did they get there?"
"I was telling them the story of how I helped you get back to the future in 1955, and even showed them the time circuits in the DeLorean. Now both the boys and the DeLorean are missing.
"Whoa, this is heavy!" Marty exclaimed.
"Come on, let's go!"
They entered the time machine and Doc set the destination time for November 12, 1955, 9:30 PM. The locomotive flew into the air and accelerated to eighty-eight miles per hour, from where it traveled thirty years into the past. Doc and Marty then exited the locomotive.
"Where should we search first?" Marty wanted to know.
"I don't know," Doc admitted. "We'd better split up."
"Right," Marty agreed.
"Marty, don't forget to watch out for your other selves."
"My other selves?" Marty asked.
"Yes. There are now three of you here, and there are three of me here," Doc reminded him. "The other you who needs to catch the lightning bolt at the clock tower, and the other you who is here with the other me to get the book from Biff. There's the me from 1955 who helps the other you get back to 1985, and the me from 1985 who is here with the other you to get the book from Biff."
"Right. This could get heavy, Doc!" Marty observed.
"Let's go," Doc said. "If you find the boys, meet me outside the café. If you haven't found them in forty-five minutes, meet me there anyway."
November 20, 1985 8:40 pm Hill Valley California
"Tell us a story Daddy! Please?" begged little Vern Brown.
"Yes, tell us the one about how you helped Marty get back to his time!" his brother Jules chimed in.
"I don't know. It's already past your bedtime," Doctor Emmett Brown replied.
"Pleeeeese?" they begged.
"Oh, all right. Lie down."
Jules and Vern laid down on their beds. Doc took a seat on a chair and set the keys he'd been holding on a table beside him. Then he began the story he'd told many times before. "Thirty years ago, on November 5, 1955, I was working on one of my inventions. There was a knock at the door. When I opened it-"
"Skip to the good part!" Vern begged.
"The part where you're hanging from the clock!" Jules added.
"All right. So there I was on the clock tower reaching for the cable. All of a sudden the board I'd been standing on broke. I had to hold onto one of the hands of the clock with one hand and reach for the cable with the other so I could plug it in."
"Then you found a place to put your feet and were about to plug in the cable, but it was stuck under a tree!" Jules interrupted.
"And the other plug came undone when you plugged in the first one," Vern added.
"That's right. Then I slid down the cable-with gloves on of course-and got the other part plugged in just in time."
"Will you show us the time circuits again, Daddy?" Vern begged.
"Sure, I guess so," Doc agreed.
He picked up the keys from the table and took them out to the DeLorean. It was a new DeLorean. The other one had been smashed by a train. Doc opened the car door and sat in the seat with Vern on his lap and Jules standing close by.
"First you turn the time circuits on. This readout tells you where you're going," Doc explained, pointing to the top row of glowing numbers and letters. Then he pointed to the row below it. "This one tells you where you are." Finally he pointed to last one and said, "this one tells you where you were. You input your destination time on this keypad. If you wanted to witness the lightening bolt at the clock tower, you would input the destination time November 12, 1955 nine-thirty PM, which would give you enough time to get to the clock tower from here."
Doc yawned and said, "OK, time for bed."
He put Vern down beside Jules and got out of the car.
"Can I lock the car, Daddy?" Jules asked.
"Sure, son. Here."
Doc handed the keys to Jules, who then proceeded to lock the car door. All of a sudden Vern took off across the yard.
"Vern! Where are you going?" Doc asked, darting after him.
Vern stopped suddenly, causing Doc to nearly run into him. He picked up a controller from the grass.
"I've been wondering where the controller to my car was!" he told Doc.
In all the commotion, Doc didn't notice when Jules stuck the keys to the DeLorean in his pocket.
A little after an hour later, Doc awoke with a start.
Why did I wake up? he wondered.
He hadn't had any bad dreams, and his wife Clara was sleeping peacefully beside him. The only sound he heard was a car driving by. Then a powerful electric crackling noise split the quiet.
"Great Scott!" Doc exclaimed in a whisper. "That sounds like the noise the time machine makes when temporal displacement occurs!"
He got out of bed and ran to Jules and Vern's room. The beds were empty. Doc ran outside, only to discover the DeLorean was missing.
"Great Scott!"
Tap tap tap
Marty McFly's eyes sprang open with a start. His heart was racing. Why? He sat up in bed and listened. No sound came. He laid back down and buried his face in his pillow, annoyed at being woken up for no reason.
What woke me up? he wondered.
Just then the noise came again.
Tap tap tap
"What the hell?" he asked aloud. The noise was coming from the window. Someone must be trying to break in! he realized in terror.
"Marty!" came a voice.
Marty breathed a sigh of relief. It was just the Doc. He got out of bed and opened the window.
"Doc? What's going on? What the hell did you wake me up for?"
"No time for that now. Come on! Come with me and I'll explain on the way."
"At least let me get dressed," Marty reminded him.
"Right. Meet me at Eastwood Ravine."
"Eastwood Ravine," Marty repeated. "Right."
Marty took his skateboard to Eastwood Ravine. He couldn't take his 4(4 because the noise would wake his family. He felt sure they wouldn't allow him to go anywhere in the middle of the night, especially if he refused to tell them where. When he arrived at Eastwood Ravine, Doc was nowhere to be seen. It wasn't like him to be late. All of a sudden Doc appeared out of nowhere.
"What the hell?" Marty asked. He rubbed his eyes, as if he thought the Doc was a figment of his imagination. When Doc was still there, he asked, "What's going on, Doc?"
Doc smiled, then disappeared again. A second later the locomotive Doc had made into a time machine appeared, seemingly out of thin air.
"I made a cloaking device!" Doc told him proudly.
"A cloaking device?" Marty asked. "Like from Star Trek?"
"Exactly! The device creates a 'shield' that bends light rays around the car, making it invisible!"
"Whoa, that's pretty heavy stuff!" Marty observed. "So what's the deal, Doc? Are we going somewhere? Or rather, some time?"
"Yup. Here's a 50s shirt. Put it on."
"50s? Why won't you tell me what we're doing?" Marty asked as he took off his shirt. "What's in the 50s?"
"Jules and Vern," Doc answered simply.
"Jules and Vern are in the 50s?" Marty asked in surprise. He put on the shirt Doc had given him.
"November 12, 1955 to be exact."
"November 12, 1955?" Marty repeated in shock. "That's the day I went back in time! It's also the day we had to get the book from Biff! How the hell did they get there?"
"I was telling them the story of how I helped you get back to the future in 1955, and even showed them the time circuits in the DeLorean. Now both the boys and the DeLorean are missing.
"Whoa, this is heavy!" Marty exclaimed.
"Come on, let's go!"
They entered the time machine and Doc set the destination time for November 12, 1955, 9:30 PM. The locomotive flew into the air and accelerated to eighty-eight miles per hour, from where it traveled thirty years into the past. Doc and Marty then exited the locomotive.
"Where should we search first?" Marty wanted to know.
"I don't know," Doc admitted. "We'd better split up."
"Right," Marty agreed.
"Marty, don't forget to watch out for your other selves."
"My other selves?" Marty asked.
"Yes. There are now three of you here, and there are three of me here," Doc reminded him. "The other you who needs to catch the lightning bolt at the clock tower, and the other you who is here with the other me to get the book from Biff. There's the me from 1955 who helps the other you get back to 1985, and the me from 1985 who is here with the other you to get the book from Biff."
"Right. This could get heavy, Doc!" Marty observed.
"Let's go," Doc said. "If you find the boys, meet me outside the café. If you haven't found them in forty-five minutes, meet me there anyway."