Chapter 6 – Back to the Future/Improved Present
Doc wondered what the letter meant and Marty told him "you'll find out in thirty years". Realizing the letter contained information about the future and not wanting to accept the responsibility of knowing what would happen to him, Doc panicked and started tearing up the letter.
"This is so sad," Lorraine thought as she empathized with the pain her son must be going through. "Why does Doc Brown have to be so stubborn? If he's so concerned about the future, he could've just put the letter away in a safe place and kept it there for thirty years as Marty instructed."
"Doc doesn't have to tear up the letter," George mused. "Marty did specifically write 'Do not open until 1985' on it after all. I see no harm happening in that case. This doesn't look good for Doc Brown in the future."
Just as Marty prepared to directly tell Doc about his eventual fate, a branch fell off a tree and landed on the main cable, disconnecting it from the Clock Tower as Doc cried out "Great Scott!".
"Talk about one problem after another," George mused. "Let's see if Doc and Marty will think of something to fix this."
"That's not good," Lorraine noted. "How are they gonna get the cable back up there with only a few minutes left before it's 10:04pm? I'm still wrapping my head around the fact that Marty, my son, was in 1955 and present at the dance!"
Doc ran to the top of the Courthouse building and threw a rope down to Marty, who tied the fallen cable to the rope as Doc brought it back up.
"I take it there weren't any witnesses of this," George thought. "A sight like this would've surely surprised me and Lorraine had we passed by the square after the dance back then."
After calling out to Doc, Marty exclaimed, "I have to tell you about the future! I have to tell you about the future!"
George and Lorraine heard the desperation and passion evident in their son's shouting voice. They wouldn't want their son to return to the future and become overwhelmed with grief after finding out that Doc Brown had been murdered despite his efforts to save the scientist. Then again, they hadn't noticed any signs of such from Marty in reality, although he did seem somewhat distant lately now that they thought about it.
"On the night I go back in time, you get..." Marty was suddenly interrupted by the chiming of the Clock Tower's clock.
George and Lorraine tensed as Doc nearly fell off the Courthouse building, clinging onto one of the two cougar statues for dear life. After regaining his footing, Doc covered his ears while groaning in pain from the deafening chime.
Lorraine winced inwardly, imagining herself in Doc's position while having to put up with the clock's noise. She felt bad for both the scientist and her son.
"That's gotta be extremely loud for poor Doc Brown," George thought. "But I do appreciate the great lengths he's willing to go to for Marty's benefit."
As Marty called out to Doc once more, Doc reminded the teenager that he had less than four minutes left and urged him to go, prompting Marty to rush back into the DeLorean and drive off. George and Lorraine got the feeling that a part of their son would rather be stuck in the past with a Doc Brown who was alive than live in a present where Doc had been killed.
After watching the DeLorean drive down the street, Doc, with the cable in one hand, started moving across the ledge as cautiously as possible.
"I can only imagine how frightened Doc Brown must be up there," Lorraine mused. "I truly do have respect for him going through all of this for Marty."
She and George were startled as a small piece of the ledge broke off, while a flash of lightning illuminated the night sky.
"This makes me have a newfound respect for Doc Brown," George mused. "Hopefully, I'll have the chance to talk with him about this time travel stuff someday."
The video shifted to the DeLorean stopping in front of the white line, which read 'Start Here' above it, that Doc had painted on the street. After getting out of the car to insert the connecting hook in the flux capacitor, Marty got back into the DeLorean, distressed and frustrated. "Dammit, Doc, why did you have to tear up that letter?"
"I really wish I could comfort you right now, Marty," Lorraine thought, not liking to see any of her children so stressed out.
"I wonder if Marty will use the time machine to go back earlier than when he left and warn Doc that way," George mused.
As if on cue, Marty decided to do exactly that by changing the 'Destination Time' from 1:35am to 1:24am.
"I highly doubt eleven minutes will be nearly enough for Marty's plan to work, but let's see how it plays out," George thought.
"Something tells me eleven minutes won't be enough time," Lorraine had a similar thought. "Maybe a day or two earlier would've worked better? Then again, there might be two Marty's in that case and that could mess things up if they were to run into each other."
"Time circuits on, flux capacitor... fluxing, engine running, all right!" Marty announced, before the DeLorean's engine suddenly died.
"Oh, no," Lorraine mentally cried out. "No, no, no. Why does this have to happen at the wrong time? Marty's already dealing with enough stress without the car suddenly stopping on him."
"This is the absolute worst time for the car to act up all of a sudden," George thought. "How will this plan even work, or will it even work at all? This is getting very intense."
The video shifted back to the Clock Tower, where Doc was struggling to reach the cable's plug when a chunk of the ledge suddenly broke under his feet. The scene made George and Lorraine feel as though they were going to jump out of their skin.
"Now we know how that happened," George thought about the missing piece of the ledge.
Doc grabbed onto the clock's hands for dear life, while the cable, which fell out of his grasp, caught onto the bottom of his pant leg. George and Lorraine were greatly concerned for the scientist's well-being. Doc Brown's death in the future was heart-wrenching enough. Marty would be even more devastated if Doc were to fall to his death in 1955, many years before he would even get the chance to properly meet Marty and build his time machine.
As the video briefly shifted back to Marty struggling to restart the DeLorean's engine before returning to Doc at the Clock Tower, George and Lorraine felt like they were watching the climax of a time travel movie, not knowing what to expect next. Their respect for Doc Brown went up even more, seeing that the scientist had gone through hell in an effort to get Marty out of his predicament. The McFly couple surely planned to thank Doc – not just with words – whenever they saw him again.
Doc reached the plug and carefully managed to grab the cable from his pants.
"That was so close," Lorraine said about the cable nearly falling.
"It's a good thing that cable caught onto his pants instead of falling to the ground," George realized.
Meanwhile, Marty was still trying to restart the DeLorean, to no avail, while the alarm clock that Doc had set on the dashboard went off. Was Marty too late, George and Lorraine wondered. If so, how would he possibly make it back to the future now? Perhaps some unforeseen miracle would help Marty out? Currently, things didn't seem to look too good for the McFly couple's youngest child.
In a fit of frustration, Marty bumped his head against the steering wheel and, amazingly, the car roared to life.
"What a miracle!" Lorraine mentally gushed. "I'm so glad Marty got it working again."
"That worked," George noted. "Maybe I should try that myself if there ever comes a time the family car doesn't wanna start."
After Marty drove off, the video shifted back to Doc, who was trying to connect the cable in its plug, only for it to not reach due to the falling branch sitting on top of the other end of the cable near the ground.
"While Marty got the car working, Doc Brown can't seem to get the cable back to its plug," Lorraine noted.
"Of course stuff like this can never be too easy or it wouldn't be as fun," George mused.
Becoming desperate, Doc yanked the cable, causing the other end of it to disconnect from the overhead cable that was attached to the lamppost. Doc let out a scream of despair.
"There goes another problem," George mentally pointed out. "What is Doc gonna do now, since Marty is already approaching?"
"There's no way that Doc will be able to fix that in time since he's way up there and Marty is already arriving," Lorraine mentally pointed out. "I hope this doesn't mean Marty will be stuck."
While Marty continued accelerating along the street, Doc saw the clock strike 10:03 before he noticed the approaching DeLorean in the distance.
"As much I'd like to believe otherwise, it's not humanly possible for Doc Brown to make it down there in time with only a minute left," Lorraine thought.
With sudden determination, Doc wasted no time inserting the cable into its plug. George and Lorraine watched in amazement as Doc then wrapped a part of the cable around the clock's hand and slid down the cable to the ground.
"That was pretty clever," George mentally complimented. "I guess Doc Brown's quick thinking will help Marty after all."
"Not many people would've thought to do that if they were in the same position," Lorraine thought.
While the speeding DeLorean started lighting up on reaching eighty-eight miles per hour, Doc grabbed the other end of the cable, which was lodged in the branch. After Doc pulled the end of the cable free, the clock struck 10:04 and, as if on cue, a huge lightning bolt descended from the night sky, slamming into the top of the Clock Tower.
George and Lorraine were utterly awed by the breathtaking sight that had been an important part of their town's history over the last thirty years. They could barely believe their eyes!
"Wow!" Lorraine mentally gushed in astonishment.
"A sight to behold, indeed," George thought back to his conversation with Lorraine earlier. "We were able to witness it after all."
The lightning traveled down the main cable just as Doc reconnected it with the overhead cable, which the lightning continued through before entering the speeding DeLorean's flux capacitor. George and Lorraine's awe increased as the DeLorean instantly vanished through time, leaving a familiar pair of fire trails behind, while Doc watched in utter astonishment.
"Well, it seems that the planned really worked in the end," George noted with amazement. "I had a strong feeling it would though."
"Does this mean Marty is back in 1985?" Lorraine wondered in a mix of amazement and relief. "I certainly hope so. I also hope that the lightning didn't do anything to hurt him."
Doc ran down the street between the fire trails, letting out a euphoric cry as he briefly danced. The McFly couple knew exactly why the scientist was overwhelmed with happiness and, thus, didn't blame Doc for his reaction.
The video shifted to 1985, showing a helicopter flying by above the Clock Tower and Red Thomas Jr., the local bum, sleeping on a bus bench. George and Lorraine felt some sympathy for the man, or anyone in the same situation, every time they saw him. Red was awakened by the sound of three sonic booms that were accompanied by a loud crash noise, which startled the McFly couple as they prayed their son would be okay.
A realization instantly occurred to George and Lorraine as they saw that the DeLorean had crashed into the Assembly of Christ church. Over the last couple of weeks, the McFly couple had seen the place boarded up after someone had damaged the front of it. They never would've guessed, in a million years, that their son had been, albeit unintentionally, responsible for it.
While George and Lorraine instinctively felt a bit offended by Red's "crazy drunk driver" remark, since it referred to their son, they didn't truly hold it against him. After all, Red had no idea who was behind the wheel.
After stopping the DeLorean in the middle of the street, Marty hopped out of the car, relieved to be back in 1985. Realizing he still had time to warn Doc about the terrorists, Marty climbed back into the DeLorean and tried to drive it, only for the engine to stall once more.
"Not again," Lorraine mentally groaned. "But at least Marty's back in the year he belongs in."
"Perhaps he should hit his head on the steering wheel again," George mentally joked. "It worked quite well the last time."
The McFly couple were immediately alarmed upon recognizing the Libyans driving past. Was their son too late to save Doc Brown from his grim fate? Since Doc had torn up the letter and most likely trashed the pieces, there didn't seem to be any way for him to know what would happen. Despite the glaring odds, George and Lorraine prayed that the local scientist, who meant so much to their son, would somehow escape the brutal clutches of death.
After Marty started running after the Libyans, the video shifted to what was now called Lone Pine Mall as the teenager arrived just in time to see the terrorists' gunman shoot Doc, while Marty's one-week-younger self yelled "NOOOOO! BASTARDS!". Seeing the mall's name as they always knew it made George and Lorraine realized that it was only called 'Lone Pine Mall' due to what Marty had done to one of Otis Peabody's pine trees back in 1955. The sight of Doc getting shot down, along with the distraught look on the observing Marty's face, made the McFly couple feel a pang of sadness over the scientist being unable to avoid the violent encounter with the terrorists. Their feelings then shifted to surprise upon seeing Marty's younger self escape in the DeLorean as the terrorists chased him around the mall. It was quite strange to see two Martys at the same time, even if such was to be expected when time travel was involved.
After Marty's younger self disappeared into the past, the Libyans crashed into the Fox Photo stand. George and Lorraine felt some satisfaction upon seeing the terrorists get some sort of comeuppance after killing Doc and attempting to do the same to their son.
Marty rushed over to Doc, who was motionless on the ground.
"Wait, there's no blood," George observed with a sense of hope. "Hmmm... any chance he's wearing some kind of body armor under his radiation suit? I wouldn't be surprised."
Lorraine felt like crying herself as Marty sobbed over Doc's unmoving form. Despite his suspicion that Doc may still be alive, George's heart went out to his son.
"I knew it!" George mentally exclaimed as Doc blinked and sat up behind Marty, who was surprised to see the scientist not only alive but unharmed.
"How?" Lorraine wondered, surprised and relieved at the same time. "Wait a minute, he's wearing something that's bulletproof, isn't he? He has to be if he's fine and doesn't seem to be hurt."
Sure enough, Doc unzipped the top of his radiation suit, revealing a bulletproof vest underneath.
"But how did he know if the letter was torn up?" Lorraine wondered.
"Was he wearing it the first time around also?" George thought before shrugging it off. "No. I think I saw some blood the first time while there doesn't seem to be any now, so he couldn't have been wearing it then."
The McFly couple was stunned as Doc revealed that he had taped Marty's letter, which was yellowed and worn, back together.
"Guess he changed his mind after all," George mused. "Again, not completely surprised."
"I'm so glad that Doc Brown taped it back together," Lorraine thought happily. "Otherwise, poor Marty would've been so devastated by his death, but of course George, Linda, Dave, and I would be there for him."
The video shifted to Doc dropping Marty off at home, while the former planned to go thirty years into the future. George and Lorraine recalled that Doc had planned to travel twenty-five years into the future before Marty had gone back to 1955. They suspected that Marty's visit in the past had likely influenced Doc to travel the additional five years instead. In other words, Doc had been visited by Marty thirty years ago, so why not go thirty years ahead for his trip to the future? That idea was reinforced by Doc's "it's a nice round number" remark.
"Look me up when you get there, all right? I guess I'll be about forty-seven," Marty said to Doc, who promised "I will".
"Lorraine and I would be about seventy-seven in 2015," George mentally noted. "It would nice if the video were to show what the future looks like. Hopefully, Marty has a happy life with his girlfriend Jennifer and our grandkids that I'm sure we'll have by then."
After watching Doc disappear through time down the street, Marty headed towards the back of his house through the side gate. The video shifted to daylight, showing Marty waking up at 10:28am as "Back in Time" by Huey Lewis and the News played from his clock. "What a nightmare," Marty muttered.
Although George and Lorraine were, by this point, convinced that Marty had actually been in 1955, since the events they had witnessed from that year were undeniably real, they didn't blame him for thinking that his time travel experiences had been a dream. After all, Marty had been through a very stressful and intense week, which the McFly couple still felt partially responsible for.
The next part of the video showed Marty entering the living room, bewildered that everyone inside was different. All the furniture, equipment, decorations, and other items in the house were newer, neater, and quite upscale. George and Lorraine felt a sense of relief to see their house in its normal state, while realizing that Marty's surprise was a result of him changing their lives for the better back in 1955. They were also glad to see their other two children, Linda and Dave, after having spent much of the video concerned about their existence. Unlike what George and Lorraine had seen near the beginning of the video, everything seemed to be back as they knew it.
"Marty, I always wear a suit to the office," Dave reminded Marty, who was confused by what his older brother was wearing.
"Does this mean Marty will never remember anything about the life we know again? I really hope that isn't the case and that his memories will return," Lorraine mused with concern, realizing that the version of her son in the video was not the one she had raised and feared the possibility that Marty, as she had known him over the last seventeen years, would never be the same again. At any rate, regardless of what her youngest child remembered, she would continue to love and care about him all the same.
George and Lorraine saw themselves enter the house, happily bantering over a tennis game they had played, while Marty fell to the floor from the shock of his parents looking quite different from how he knew them. The McFly couple vividly remembered that specific morning from two weeks ago, including Marty's seemingly strange behavior, which they now understood the reason of, and the arrival of George's first novel. It was quite surreal revisiting such a relatively recent moment from their lives and viewing it from a different perspective.
"Mom! Dad! You guys... look great. Mom, you look so thin," Marty said to his parents in amazement, while Video-Lorraine thanked him for the comment.
"Now I completely understand why he acted this way," George mused.
"He said that because he doesn't recognize us as we are," the current Lorraine realized. "This Marty is from that other reality, where I was miserable and an alcoholic. I'm so glad Doc Brown invented that time machine, since it led to Marty changing our lives for the better."
After Video-Lorraine cheerfully greeted her children "good morning", Linda told Marty that Jennifer had called him and Video-Lorraine affectionately commented, "I sure like her, Marty. She is such a sweet girl".
"I remember saying those exact words and I fully stand by them," the current Lorraine thought fondly.
As Video-Lorraine reminded Marty of his big date with Jennifer at the lake, which they had been planning for two weeks, Marty told his mother that the car had been wrecked, prompting alarmed reactions from the others as Video-George checked outside to find Biff waxing the family's BMW.
"It's such a relief to see everyone, including Biff, normal again," the current George mused.
As Video-George firmly reminded Biff to put two coats of wax on the car instead of one, Biff responded he was "just finishing up the second coat now". "Now, Biff, don't con me," Video-George reprimanded the former bully, who chuckled nervously with "I'm... I'm sorry, McFly. I meant I was just starting on the second coat".
With Biff's 1955 actions still fresh on their minds, it was quite pleasing for both George and Lorraine to see their longtime adversary as his usual subservient self again, though Lorraine still found herself wondering why George insisted on keeping Biff of all people around, rather than hiring someone else to work on their vehicles, despite how horribly he had treated them back in high school and the fact that Biff had a habit of dishonesty.
"Ah, Biff, what a character. Always trying to get away with something," Video-George remarked with amusement. "I've had to stay on top of Biff ever since high school."
"That's true," the current George agreed with himself.
"Although, if it wasn't for him..." Video-George continued, before Video-Lorraine affectionately finished the sentence with "we never would've fallen in love".
"Actually, if it wasn't for Marty as well, George and I never would've fallen in love," the current Lorraine mentally corrected.
"Actually, I'd say Marty gets more credit than Biff for me and Lorraine falling in love," the current George mused. "If it wasn't for Marty and all his good advice, I never would've mustered the courage to stand up to Biff. On the other hand, if it wasn't for Biff showing up when he did, I probably wouldn't have won Lorraine's heart since I'm sure the original plan that Marty and I had would've failed."
The next part of the video showed a seemingly eager Biff bringing in a box containing George's novel. Video-Lorraine opened the box with excitement, proud that her husband had published his first novel called A Match Made in Space. Knowing that his own son had been (or, rather, pretended to be) the 'Darth Vader' figure who had visited him three decades ago made the current George see his book in an even more meaningful way. Lorraine thought of her son Marty upon seeing the cover of her husband's novel.
"Like I've always told you, you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything," Video-George said to Marty.
"Ironic, considering it was Marty who told me that first," the current George mused. "Little had I known..."
Biff handed Marty a set of keys, telling him he was "all waxed up and ready for tonight". Marty was confused, wondering what he had keys for, while the current George and Lorraine recalled that their son hadn't had the truck in the reality that he had come from.
"When we get back home once this is all over, Lorraine and I are gonna have to sit down and talk with Marty to find out what exactly he remembers or doesn't remember," George made a mental note of that.
"Although he'll always be my Marty regardless, I sure hope his memories aren't lost forever," Lorraine mused worriedly. "It would be very challenging for him to adapt to a life he no longer knows while remembering one that no longer exist."
The video shifted to Marty discovering his Toyota truck in the garage as Jennifer arrived. Happy to see his girlfriend, Marty took a close look at her, while Jennifer remarked that Marty was acting like he hadn't seen her in a week.
"He really hasn't," George mentally pointed out.
"She has no idea how true that is," Lorraine thought.
As Jennifer asked him if everything was all right, Marty looked back at his parents, who were observing him at the door inside their house. "Oh, yeah, everything is great," Marty responded to Jennifer's question.
"In some ways, Jennifer really does remind me a lot of Lorraine when she was younger," George thought. "That makes Marty one lucky young man."
"I have a strong feeling that Jennifer and Marty will be just like me and George in the future," Lorraine mused fondly.
As Marty and Jennifer were about to kiss, three sonic booms erupted as the DeLorean time machine abruptly appeared and screeched to a halt in the driveway. George and Lorraine were taken aback, not having expected Doc Brown to show up out of the blue at their house in broad daylight, let alone in such a reckless fashion, since local residents could've very easily witnessed the DeLorean appearing seemingly out of thin air.
"Marty! You've gotta come back with me!" Doc announced frantically, after rushing out of the DeLorean.
George and Lorraine were stunned by Doc's clothing and what appeared to be metal goggles covering his eyes, which the McFly couple quickly deduced were items from the future.
"Where?" Marty asked, before Doc replied, "Back to the future."
"So Marty, and perhaps Jennifer, are about to go to the future with Doc?" George thought, intrigued. "From the tone of Doc's voice, it seems urgent. I wonder what the purpose of this trip will be."
"What does Doc Brown need Marty to go with him to the future for?" Lorraine wondered. "Also, Marty was getting ready to enjoy his day with Jennifer. Couldn't Doc Brown have waited until after they returned from the lake for this? He has a time machine after all."
The McFly couple wondered what Doc was up to as the inventor grabbed some garbage waste from one of their trash containers. Their question was answered when Doc told Marty he needed fuel and tossed the garbage waste into a white unit labeled 'Mr. Fusion' that was installed on the DeLorean. "Go ahead, quick, get in the car."
George and Lorraine suspected that the 'Mr. Fusion' device was something Doc had gotten from the future and it appeared to fueled by... banana peels and a beer can? That seemed awfully convenient, especially for a time machine. But, if that meant the DeLorean no longer required Plutonium to operate, the McFly couple was all for it and admired Doc's decision to seek a much safer method of traveling through time.
"No, no, no, Doc, I just got here, okay?" Marty said to the inventor. "Jennifer's here. We're gonna take the new truck for a spin."
"Marty definitely has a point," Lorraine mentally agreed with her son. "As I said, since he has a time machine, Doc Brown could've waited until after the date."
"Well, bring her along. This concerns her too," Doc told Marty.
What exactly was going on in the future that concerned their son and his girlfriend? Was there something wrong in their future? George and Lorraine were curious and worried at the same time.
"Wait a minute, Doc, what are you talking about? What happens to us in the future? Do we become assholes or something?" Marty asked. After pausing for a second, Doc responded, "No, no, no, no, no, Marty, both you and Jennifer turn out fine."
Doc's hesitation didn't go unnoticed by George and Lorraine, who both suspected that the inventor wasn't being entirely truthful to their son. Not that it surprised the McFly couple, considering how cautious Doc had been about future knowledge back in 1955.
"It's your kids, Marty. Something has gotta be done about your kids!" Doc stated urgently.
His kids? Marty's kids meant...their grandchildren! What exactly was happening with their future grandchildren? Granted, they hadn't been born yet from George and Lorraine's perspective, but the thought of something terrible happening to any of their children's children was concerning.
The video shifted to the DeLorean backing out of the driveway and into the street. "Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to eighty-eight," Marty advised, while Doc responded with, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads."
What on Earth did that mean? George and Lorraine mentally questioned. The McFly couple suddenly got their answer as, to their astonishment, the DeLorean levitated off the ground while its wheels turned sideways. The DeLorean can fly!
"This can't be real... this can't be..." Lorraine mentally trailed off in bewilderment.
"Wow, can't say I was expecting this," George mused. "Then again, if a time machine is real, perhaps flying vehicles wouldn't be that far behind."
The next part of the video showed Biff coming out of the McFly house, wanting to show Marty his new auto-detailing matchbooks. Biff stopped dead in his tracks at the sight of the flying DeLorean, watching in bewilderment as it took towards the sky.
"Of all the people in the neighborhood who spotted the DeLorean, it just had to be Biff," George mused grimly. "I certainly wouldn't trust him with something like a time machine."
"God forbid Biff somehow gets his hands on Doc Brown's time machine," Lorraine shivered at that possibility.
As the flying DeLorean disappeared in a flash of light before his eyes, Biff muttered, "What the hell is going on here?"
The unsettling look of suspicion on Biff's face, along with the tone of his voice, made Lorraine feel very uneasy for a reason she couldn't place her finger on. George, too, had a dreadful feeling about Biff witnessing the time machine. He couldn't figure out why, but, for a brief moment, the science fiction author almost felt like his nervous teenage self again.
For the time being, the McFly couple had no idea that their current fears were justified in a way that was more horrendous than they imagined...