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"The big Back to the Future Question"

If (in the first Back to the future) einstein (the dog) is the first time traveller, during doc browns experiment, and einstein disappears for 1 minute, in the delorean. He re-appears as marty and the doc both jump out of the way, apparently, having skipped a whole minute .... why then, in the second film, does marty, when he travels into the future, with doc brown, see a future version of himself and a future version of his bird, jennifer, living out their lives, as though they were separate people?

It's always bothered me

anyway, before I get drawn into this any further, I will bid the good ship SR goodnight.

well I'm fascinated by the whole time travel theory - but to explore it properly would require a large amount of time and effort, and it's ten to three in the morning, so perhaps one for another time.

I like to think that it may be possible, maybe not for us as primitive beings, but with the unimaginable forces at work in the universe, surely anything is conceivably possible.

I just don't have the required knowledge to even make an educated guess as to how it may happen, or where, or what the consequences might be, but it's fun to explore the possibilities in film.

Of course, Back to the Future takes a light-hearted attitude to time travel - it is part of the plot, but it doesn't get too technical, which is probably why it was so popular.

But you're probably right when you say that most films dealing with it have plot holes. At least I can see what you're getting at - but don't forget, time travel is just a theory, even scientists at the top of their field could only really guess what the implications might be, so film producers are just presenting their (often clearly misguided) opinions of the possibilities of such a phenomenon.

Yes I know it depends on the quality of the story. It can be written without plot holes, but the fact it incorporates time travel, for me, automatically produces issues with the entire story - that's no fault of the writer.

Maybe, but I don't beleive it's possible to travel through it. It's not just the technology aspect or the science, it's the implications of travelling through it, that mean even if it was possible it could only end in disaster.

Whitestripes DX wrote:
> Any time travel plot will be riddled with holes.

not necessarily - the producers of a film create a reality for the viewer to accept and believe for the duration of the film (and in theory its sequels). If you then completely break the rules of the reality you are creating, it shows poor story telling skills. It means the only way you can further the story is to alter the characteristics of the reality you originally created. I'm willing to put up with this obvious film-making sin, as I love the trilogy, but I just like being a geek and nit-picking film plots to death.

> It's because it's impossible.

whether it's possible or not is completely irrelevant - a lot of things depicted in films are unlikely, implausible or impossible - it's the story that matters. I just don't like the way they ask you to believe one fictional reality in the first film, then completely change that reality for the second, and hope that Joe Lamen Movie-goer won't notice.

Whitestripes DX wrote:
> Any time travel plot will be riddled with holes.
>
> It's because it's impossible.

I would say beyond our current understanding, rather than impossible.

The Impossible is just the possible that hasn't happened.

Any time travel plot will be riddled with holes.

It's because it's impossible.

Darwock wrote:
> Yeah it's dead simple, Einstein went forward in time one minute. He
> hadn't *been* anywhere when he reappeared in the Delorean, that was
> him just arriving.

Yes, but for that minute, Einstein ceased to exist, he skipped past that minute, and appeared in marty and the docs future.

So, he didn't exist for an entire minute!

So when the doc turns up in his flying car, and he tells marty that he has to come to the future to 'help his kids', how can marty even have kids, assuming that he also ceases to exist for the period between then, and when the delorean arrives in the future.

Surely, both the doc and marty cease to exist for this time, therefore, it would be impossible for marty to have had children with his girlfriend, and certainly there should not be a second marty that existed during the time that the 'real' marty skipped forward in time.

The two theories are different - one assumes there are multiple realities, where different versions of a person exist, and the other theory assumes that when someone goes into the future, they cease to exist between the time they leave and when they arrive.

Apart from that, they're excellent films, I just found it a tad confusing.

Last ultimate Back To The Future.

How the hell can Marty's maw, paw, and Biff not recognise him as bieng the exact same guy from the past?

Geffdof wrote:
A good
> example of this is in the first film where he has the bullet proof
> vest on. For the whole introduction in the carpak he knew he was
> about to be shot but he did, he also knew that marty was about to get
> sent back in time and knew the whole story of what was about to
> happen to him but he lets it all happen to maintain the space time
> contin-you-um (obvuois sp?)

umm..

He's wearing a bullet proof vest because after Marty was sent back in time he gave the Doc a letter telling him he was going to get shot...