Sunday, October 27th. 1985
12:34 PM
The Toyota Hilux Four-by-Four cruised down the suburban streets of Hill Valley. Marty McFly is now home and everything just feels right. For Marty, home was not just a place but also a time and the time is the present, his present, Sunday, October 27th. 1985. Marty is also feeling something he hasn't felt in a long time, control. He's where he wants to be, when he wants to be and with who he wants to be with. No longer does he have to worry about repairing the space-time continuum, preventing someone from getting shot or finding a way to get back to his own time.
He finally gets to take his girlfriend Jennifer Parker out for a spin in his new truck. From Marty's perspective, he has not seen Jennifer in ten days. He spent the last five days in the year 1885 and then another five days in the year 1955 before that. This followed another week that he was again in 1955. Jennifer never knew he had even gone on the first trip since she did not yet know that Marty's best friend, scientist and inventor Dr. Emmett L. Brown, built a time machine.
From Jennifer's point of view, the last twenty-four hours have been a futuristic daze filled with flying cars and domestic turmoil. She wondered if this was what a bad acid trip is like. Having never done acid, she had no frame of reference, she has just heard the term for years. Jennifer dismissed her future shock as a bad dream. The last thing she clearly remembers was seductively asking her boyfriend for a ride in his truck, "How about a ride, Mister?"
After returning from 1955 the first time, Marty was able to have a good night's sleep but the following morning Doc returned from the future saying, "It's your kids, Marty, something has got to be done about your kids!" and took Marty and Jennifer to the year 2015. Once they arrived in the future, Doc Brown zapped Jennifer with a sleep-inducing alpha-rhythm generator. Doc took the drastic measure because Jennifer was asking way too many questions about her future, her wedding, her wedding dress, where they live, and how many kids she and Marty have. Doc's time traveling mantra is that "No-one should know too much about their own future." Taking Jennifer on this temporal excursion was a last-minute decision that Doc made since she saw the time machine and he could not leave her back in 1985 with that information. Doc was sure that using the alpha-rhythm generator would make Jennifer think the trip and talk of time machines was all a dream but due to circumstances beyond anyone's control, their stay in the future was longer than planned. Jennifer wound up waking from her induced sleep in her 2015 home and was exposed to intimate details about her future life. She later fainted when she came face to face with her future self. Her future self also fainted as well. When Jennifer was returned to 1985, Doc and Marty left her on a porch swing in front of her house. Marty planned to return to Jennifer's house right away with some smelling salts but soon discovered that the time line was drastically and horribly altered. To fix the present, Marty and Doc had to get back to 1955. After a series of even more complications ending with Doc in the time machine getting struck by lightning and getting sent to the year 1885. Marty had to go back to 1885 to rescue Doc. When Marty returned from the old west, his priority was to get back to his girlfriend. Marty did not even take the time to change out of his 1885 clothes.
Seated on the passenger side of the truck, Jennifer is telling Marty that her nightmare about the future was so real. Marty has mixed feelings while listening to her. He is thrilled to be back with his girlfriend but he also wants to tell her to shut up about the future because everything she was saying about her supposed dream actually happened, but she can't know that. Hopefully, if she continues thinking it is all a dream she will eventually dismiss it as such and forget about it over time.
They stopped at a red light. Marty was doing his best to tune out what Jennifer was saying until she said, "And you got fired." Marty was surprised to hear that Jennifer's account of their lives together in the future was also less than perfect. This was the third time that he heard that.
The first time he heard something negative about his future was when he was acting out Doc's plan to save his kids. Doc was going to have Marty mascaraed as his future son Marty Junior and turn down an offer from a guy named Griff. Saying, "No" to Griff would prevent one event from starting a chain reaction that completely destroys Marty's entire family. While Marty was pretending to be his son, a very old Biff Tannen told him that Marty McFly Senior took his life and flushed it completely down the toilet.
The second time was while Marty was in the old west, he learned from Doc Brown that sometime in the future he gets into an accident because somebody called him a name. Admittedly, Marty can't back down whenever someone calls him a chicken. When Marty demanded that Doc give him more details about the accident Doc simply said, "I can't tell you. It might make things worse."
In her supposed dream, Jennifer sees a forty-seven-year-old Marty get fired because his coworker and longtime acquaintance Douglas Needles talked him into participating in an illegal scam to make extra money at work. The older Marty passed on the opportunity at first but went along with it after Needles called him a chicken. Unbeknownst to them their boss, Ito Fujitsu, was monitoring the entire transaction and fired Marty on the spot.
Futuristic printing machines throughout the house spit out sheets of paper called faxes. Jennifer grabs one of the sheets of paper from the fax machine closest to her. The document had a letterhead from a company called CUSCO. The message "YOU'RE FIRED!" was written on it in very large letters. After reading it, Jennifer folds the page and stuffs into her pocket.
Now with the temptation too great Marty had to ask Jennifer "What do you mean I got fired?" Before Jennifer can answer, Marty notices that they stopped next to the new Hilldale Housing Development. Marty knew that he would live in Hilldale in the future but he did not know that the trendy new development becomes a less than desirable neighborhood in the future. Without thinking, Marty excitedly tells his girlfriend, "This is where we live". Then catching himself he rephrases, "I mean this is where we're gonna live. Someday". Jennifer gives him a confused look as she processes what he just said. When she realizes that Marty's comment, about living in Hilldale in the future, lines up with her dream perfectly, she must ask, "It was a dream, wasn't it?"
Before Marty can invent an answer, a red four-by-four pick-up truck pulls up next to them. The driver is a seventeen-year-old Douglas Needles. Needles is always surrounded by his gang consisting of three guys. Unlike Biff Tannen's gang back in 1955 who liked to bully people, the younger Needles' gang was more interested in fast driving, getting stoned, and listening to loud music. Marty always tries to keep a safe distance from Needles and his gang. Not only because of the drug use, but also because Needles always greets Marty the exact same way each time they meet, "Hey! The big "M". How's it hanging, McFly?" Marty hates that.
Needles challenges Marty to a race when the traffic light turns green. Marty declined the challenge at first but then Needles said the one thing that he knew would provoke Marty into changing his mind, "What's the matter? Chicken?" Needles' gang punctuated the comment with laughter. Jennifer grabbed her boyfriend's hand and said, "Don't!" Marty just told her to grab a hold of something then shifted into gear. Knowing that the race is now on, Needles howls and his gang cheers as both drivers rev up their engines. When the light turned green, only Needles' truck sped forward. Marty instead sped backwards, spun around then screeched to a halt in a huge cloud of dust. Jennifer screams in shock. She asks Marty if he did that on purpose. "Yeah, you think I'm stupid enough to race that ass hole?" Marty responded. As the dust settles, Marty and Jennifer look out from the truck's rear window and watched Needles speeding off. A white Rolls Royce pulls out from a distant cross street and Needles barely misses it. It's obvious to the couple that if Marty actually raced Needles, he would have crashed into that expensive car. Marty shouts, "Jeez, I would've hit that Rolls Royce."
Upon hearing the word "Rolls Royce," Jennifer is reminded of a moment in her supposed dream when she was hiding in a closet in her future home in Hilldale. She overheard Marty's mother Lorraine tell their future daughter Marlene that about thirty years ago, Marty tried to prove he wasn't chicken and he ended up in an automobile accident. Marlene then asks, "Oh, you mean with the Rolls Royce?" Jennifer knows that this must be more than a coincidence. She reaches in her pocket to see if the note from the year 2015 is really there. It is. She takes the note out of her pocket and unfolds it. She and Marty watch the words "YOU'RE FIRED!" fade away. A stunned Jennifer looks at Marty and says, "It erased!"
The jig was up. It was time to come clean. Marty confessed to Jennifer that she was not dreaming. She had really been to the future and that the message erasing was what Doc calls the ripple effect. When Marty realized what he just said he shouted, "The future has changed and it's all because I didn't let Needles get to me when he called me a chicken. Now my life isn't gonna get flushed completely down the toilet!" Marty's feeling of control grows stronger. He studies the paper more intently by holding it up to the sun. He can't see any trace of the lettering ever being there. Jennifer hugs her boyfriend and shouts, "Great, now we can have a real big wedding." In the future, Jennifer saw her wedding picture and was shocked to learn that they got married at the Chapel O' Love in Las Vegas.
Ignoring Jennifer's wedding talk, Marty points out something odd. Only the message is erased but the letterhead from a company called CUSCO remains. Marty asks, "What the hell is CUSCO? And shouldn't there be another message to take the place of "YOU'RE FIRED!"?" Jennifer asks Marty what he thought it should say. "I don't know. Your latest record just went platinum". Marty answers then states with great authority that they know that this piece of paper represented what would have happened if events had continued to run their course. Jennifer's expression shows that she cannot make any sense of what Marty is talking about. Marty explains that obviously, the time continuum has been changed again creating another alternate reality where his future does not suck. Jennifer still cannot make any sense of what Marty is talking about and shouts, "English, Marty!" the exact same way that Marty would talk to Doc. Marty responds, "Let me illustrate."
Marty gets out of his truck and Jennifer follows. Marty begins to illustrate the time line with his finger in the dust on the hood his truck like the time line Doc drew on his blackboard when they were in a different and hellish 1985. He showed how the timeline skewed into a tangent, creating an alternate evil 1985 when Old Biff, from the year 2015, stole the time machine so he could take a sports almanac back to 1955 and give it to his younger self. Young Biff bet on all the winners in every sporting event and grew up to become rich and powerful. Biff later killed Marty's dad, married his mom and had Doc committed. Jennifer notices that Marty is taking on some of Doc Brown's mannerisms when he gets technical. When Marty finished his illustration, he told Jennifer how when he stole back the sports almanac and burned it the ripple effect caused a newspaper from March 16th, 1973 with the headline "George McFly Murdered" to change to "George McFly Honored." The change showed that his father was alive and everything was back to normal or at least they created a new normal that looks close enough to the old normal. Now the note erasing proves that they created yet another reality. Jennifer, who can't process all the new information, suggests that Marty bring the note to Doc Brown.
Marty pauses and tells Jennifer that he has some bad news. Jennifer's eyes begin to well up. When Marty realizes what she is thinking he says, "No, no, he's alive! The Doc's alive! He's in the old west but he's alive!" Jennifer notices that Marty's western outfit looks authentic and not like something from Miller's Outpost. She then asks, "Were you there too?"
Marty explains that when they went back to 1955 and completed their mission, Doc was in the DeLorean when it got struck by lightning and was sent back to 1885. Marty went back to 1885 to rescue Doc but then Doc fell in love with a schoolteacher and things got complicated again. While Jennifer recovers from the bad news followed by the good news, Marty continues to ponder the note. It all demonstrates why Doc wanted the time machine to be destroyed. Marty ponders on what he just said, shouts, "Great Scott, the missions not over," and tells Jennifer to get into the truck. Jennifer asks, "Where are we going? What do we have to do?" Marty answered, "DAMAGE CONTROL." Jennifer rolls her eyes and steals Marty's catch phrase, "This is heavy."
In the truck, Marty speeds towards their destination. Jennifer asks Marty, "Where's the fire?" Marty explains that a diesel train smashed the DeLorean into a million pieces when he returned from 1885. There's not much left. Marty was sure that Doc's idea of destroying the time machine was to take it apart in the lab. It just now occurred to him that they still need to police the area just like he and Doc had to do after the Libyans showed up at the mall. Marty hadn't given the Libyans a second thought since he and Doc left the mall.
Marty decided that it was not a good idea to tell Jennifer about the Libyan terrorists that were trying to develop a nuclear bomb and hired Doc Brown to build it. However, Doc took the plutonium the Libyans stole to power the bomb in order to power his time machine and instead gave Libyans a shoddy bomb casing filled with used pinball machine parts. The terrorists found Doc and Marty in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. One of the terrorist shot Doc Brown with an assault rifle and then attempted to shoot Marty but his rifle jammed. Marty was able to get in to the DeLorean and speed off. The terrorists chased Marty around the parking lot in their Volkswagen bus. Marty reached 88 miles an hour while the time circuits were still on, the plutonium chamber was full and the flux capacitor activated. The DeLorean experienced temporal displacement causing a flash of light and fire trails that disoriented the terrorists, and caused them to drive their bus into a Fox Photo stand.
Just before Marty went back to 1985, he wrote a letter to Doc.
"Dear Dr. Brown
On the night that I go back in time, you will be shot by terrorists. Please take whatever precautions are necessary to prevent this terrible disaster.
Your friend
Marty"
After reading the letter, Doc wore a bulletproof vest the night he was shot and survived the attack.
While driving back to the spot where the train destroyed the Time Machine, Marty told Jennifer that everything that does not come standard on a DeLorean needs to be picked up. We can't have somebody find any of the parts that Doc invented or any artifacts from the future. That could lead to a major paradox. Marty then ponders if something from the future can even be called an artifact. Jennifer tells Marty to slow down and reminds him that they just avoided one accident and she did not want to get into another. Marty agrees and slows down.
Marty and Jennifer arrive at the train tracks and survey the DeLorean wreckage. They make sure no one else can see what they are doing. Jennifer tells Marty, "You're right. There's not much left." Marty picks up a section of the photograph of Doc standing by the clock in 1885. Marty admits to Jennifer, "Doc's never coming back. I'm sure gonna miss him".
The couple hears the crossing bells start ringing and watch the crossing gate lower. Marty and Jennifer look down both sides of the track but do not see a train coming. Marty asks, "What the hell?" They then hear three sonic booms that propel them backwards. They land softly on some grass. A locomotive resembling Captain Nemo's submarine the Nautilus appears out of nowhere and screeches to a stop. Marty notices the initials ELB painted on the side of the locomotive. Doc Brown opens the side window and sticks his head out. He is wearing formal clothes from the 1890s.
On the other side of the train, out of sight of Doc, Marty, and Jennifer, a man dressed like a cowboy is clutching on to the train's handhold. He releases his death grip and falls to the ground. The stowaway wipes the frost off his coat and out of his full beard. Its Buford Tannen. Buford, unaware of his new surroundings or what is happening on the other side of the train, picks himself up and runs off. He follows the tracks behind Doc's train and hides behind the Hilldale billboard. Buford reaches for his bottle of fine Kentucky Red Eye to warm himself only to discover that it broke when he fell. His clothes now smell of whiskey.
Back on the other side of the train a shocked Marty shouts, "Doc! Doc!" Doc shouts back, "Marty! It runs on steam!" The door on the cab opens like the gull wing door of a DeLorean to reveal the woman Doc fell madly in love with Clara Clayton. Doc proudly announces, "Meet the family. Clara, you know." Then with his hand, Doc gestures for someone else to come over. "These are our boys! Jules…" Doc says proudly. A young boy of about 9 years old appears in the doorway. Jules is followed by his younger brother, who is about 7 years old. Doc continues, "…and Verne." Vern is followed by Doc's dog Einstein. Marty told Doc that he thought he would never see him again! Doc assured him that you can't keep a good scientist down. "After all, I had to come back for Einstein" said Doc, "and well I didn't want you to be worried about me." Clara gives Doc a package who then gives it to Marty, "I brought you a little souvenir." Marty opens it, it is a framed photo of him and Doc on either side of the clock in 1885. On the frame's matting, Doc wrote, "To Marty, Partner in time. September 5th 1885". Marty tells Doc, "It's great Doc. Thanks."
Jennifer, knowing that Marty is overcome by emotion, takes out the erased fax from her pocket, shows it to Doc and asks, "Doctor Brown? I brought this note back from the future and now it's erased!" Clara is nervous as to how her husband is going to respond. Not acting surprised Doc says, "Of course it's erased." Jennifer asks, "But what does that mean?" Without even having to think about it, Doc knew exactly what to say, "It means that your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one. Both of ya". Marty assures his friend that they will. Seeing that both Marty and Jennifer are satisfied with that answer, Clara lets out a sigh of relief.
Before Marty and Jennifer can ask any more questions, Doc instructs the young couple to stand back. The train door closes. Doc tells his boys to buckle up. Before they leave Marty asks, "Hey, Doc where ya going now? Back to the future?" Doc smiles, shakes his head, and says, "Nope. Already been there!" Marty and Jennifer wave good-bye to the Brown family as the train rises off the ground and the wheels shift horizontally. It is obvious to Marty that the train has been hover converted. While in midair, the train turns around over the Hilldale billboard. A shocked Buford says to himself, "A flying train? What the hell is going on here?" The train accelerates to 88 miles per hour, achieving temporal displacement and disappears leaving two fire trails in the sky. When Buford sees the abomination in the sky, he faints, landing behind the billboard.
Marty was stunned and stood motionless as he watched the fire trails dissipate. He knows that this was the end of something really special. He is happy that he and Doc succeeded in their mission and that Doc now has a wife and kids but he is also sad that the adventure is over. The rest of his life will pale in comparison to his time traveling days. Jennifer hugs her boyfriend and holds it for a long time. While being hugged Marty feels the stress and pressure of his last few weeks wash away. He reminds himself that he is finally home and in control. Marty takes a deep breath and gets to work. They start by visually scanning the area again to make sure that no one is watching them. Marty tells Jennifer, "We got to be inconspicuous." Jennifer runs her finger across his buckskin. Marty realizes her point and removes his hat, Buckskin, neckerchief, and shirt. Jennifer studies the top half of his old-fashioned long Johns, "I like the purple Calvin Klein underwear I got you better." Jennifer spots Marty's 1955 black leather jacket in the debris field and hands it to him. Marty puts the jacket on then poses like a male model in a magazine ad looking at his watch. Jennifer gives him the once over and then a thumbs up.
After they policed the area they load up the truck with the Mr. Fusion, the Flux Capacitor, the time readout display, the orange 2015 license plate and anything that looked like it should not be left behind. Jennifer finds Marty's blue jeans completely shredded. Marty told her that he could still wear them when his band "The Pinheads" are on stage. Jennifer asked Marty if he is going to send his tape to the record company. Marty assured her that it would be in the mail first thing in the morning then he notices a shiny box. When he got closer, he recognizes it as the briefcase where Doc kept money from different time periods. Impressed that the case survived the train wreck, Marty opens it and finds the newspaper with the headline "Emmett Brown Commended" resting on top of the cash. Marty was surprised that Doc did not burn this. He could picture his friend preach that if this newspaper fell into the wrong hands we could have a major paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space-time continuum and destroy the entire universe. He also might just say, "Well, I figured, what the hell." Marty notices that some of the money compartments are now empty. Probably money Doc could spend in 1885. Marty reaches into the inside pocket of his leather jacket and finds the folded newspaper with the headline "George McFly Honored" and places it on top of the other paper, closes the case and hides it behind the driver's seat of his truck.
As Marty covers everything they collected with his buckskin, Jennifer finds Marty's Nikes in a bush. Marty takes off his boots and slips on his Nikes. He was so happy to be in comfortable shoes again, but he decided also not to tell Jennifer that a gunman named Buford Tannen shot at these shoes to get him to dance and Marty definitely was not going to tell Jennifer that he had a show down in the street with Buford. Marty was so happy that he will never have to lay eyes on Buford again. If Marty had not outsmarted Buford there would be a tombstone in the boot hill cemetery with the name of Marty's 1885 alias Clint Eastwood etched in it. Marty makes one last pass at the debris field and finds his Archer Space Patrol walkie-talkie with the large Burgess Battery still duct taped to it. Marty notices that the walkie-talkie is still on, presses the talk button and says, "Doc?" and after not hearing a response turns the walkie-talkie off.
As Marty and Jennifer are driving, out of the Hilldale development, a Deputy Sheriff on horseback motions for Marty to pull over. Marty did not think he committed any traffic violations but his bigger concern was the Deputy looking under the buckskin. The Deputy dismounts and walks over to Marty. Marty then recognized him as Deputy Cobb. Deputy D. Cobb was the TV spokesperson for the Hill County Sheriff's Department and used to visit Marty's School to give lectures on how to cross the street and not talking to strangers. Marty thought that if he acted likes a star struck fan, Deputy Cobb might not want to look under the buckskin. Deputy Cobb was used to being recognized by all the kids as a role model in town and that made it harder for him to ask Marty, "Did you see a cowboy driving a DeLorean on the train tracks?" Marty looked at the Deputy as if he just heard the craziest thing in the world… and he did. Without waiting for an answer, the Deputy told Marty that he reacted the same way when the call came in but then they got another call and another, and another. Marty assured him that he would let him know if he sees a cowboy driving a DeLorean on the train tracks. The Deputy thanked him and went on his way. On the drive to Doc's lab Marty was trying to put "Did you see a cowboy driving a DeLorean on the train tracks?" to music.