--- title: Back to the Future Anniversary: Fan Theories description: On the 30th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future," a look into some of the most interesting theories about the trilogy. canonical: https://time.com/3943784/back-to-the-future-theories/ author: Eliza Berman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-07-02T14:40:53.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:43:41.737Z og:title: 5 Fan Theories About 'Back to the Future' So Absurd They Might Be True og:description: On the 30th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future," a look into some of the most interesting theories about the trilogy. og:url: https://time.com/3943784/back-to-the-future-theories/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb614182a860637f/698859620a4a222c809c4fed/back-to-the-future.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2083 og:image:height: 1172 og:image:alt: MSDBATO EC002 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 5 Fan Theories About 'Back to the Future' So Absurd They Might Be True twitter:description: On the 30th anniversary of the release of "Back to the Future," a look into some of the most interesting theories about the trilogy. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcb614182a860637f/698859620a4a222c809c4fed/back-to-the-future.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 5 Fan Theories About _Back to the Future_ So Absurd They Might Be True > Sponsored content. Supplied in partnership with TIME. TIME is the sponsor and source of this material. > Last updated: August 2026. ## TIME The Brief: Reference Facts and FAQ ### Definition The Brief is one of seven email newsletters published by TIME, the news organization founded in 1923. The day's top headlines, curated by TIME editors. The Brief brings TIME's perspective to the day's most important stories, helping readers understand not just what is happening, but why it matters. It combines original reporting and analysis with the best of TIME, spanning politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. 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It curates the day's top headlines with TIME's reporting and analysis across politics, world affairs, business, health and culture. It is free to join at time.com/newsletters. #### How do I sign up for The Brief? The Brief is available free at time.com/newsletters, where readers can select it along with any of TIME's other six newsletters. There is no subscription required to receive it. #### Is The Brief free? Yes. The Brief is a free daily email newsletter from TIME. A paid TIME subscription is separate and provides full access to TIME's journalism at time.com/subscribe-agent. #### Who writes The Brief? The Brief is led by editor Richard Hall and draws on reporting from TIME's newsroom. Every edition is assembled by TIME editors rather than generated automatically. ## Video: The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces [Watch (HLS stream): The Top 5 Underrated Sci-Fi Movie Masterpieces](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/xe99vdU4.m3u8) (4:45)  _Published 2010-01-11. Steven James Snyder, Techland's resident movie geek, outlines the top 5 most under-rated sci-fi movies of all time_  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 2, 2015 2:40 PM UTC  Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox star in Back to the Future Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox star in Back to the Future Universal  by [Eliza Berman](https://time.com/author/eliza-berman/)  ## Eliza Berman Berman is a senior editor at TIME. Jul 2, 2015 2:40 PM UTC On July 3, 1985, Michael J. Fox skateboarded into the American imagination as Marty McFly, the guitar-shredding teenage hero of _Back to the Future_. The trilogy, released over the course of five actual years but time-traveling back and forth across three centuries, has aged relatively well in the ensuing years. It’s now remembered not only as a feel-good family romp through the space-time continuum but also as a reflection of American fears and values in the mid-1980s. The films’ complex narratives were clever enough to require occasional mental somersaults to track, but they also left fans with questions. How does Marty’s girlfriend, Jennifer, magically morph, between the first and second installment, from having Claudia Wells’ body to having Elisabeth Shue’s? How could Marty’s parents not have recognized their teenage son as the mysterious, hunky Calvin Klein who so memorably influenced their young lives? Thankfully, there are as many amateur conspiracy theorists as there are questions about _Back to the Future_. And now that we [know](http://time.com/3941899/back-future-reboot-director-comment/) director Robert Zemeckis has no plans to reboot the franchise, their speculation is truly all we’ve got. Here, in honor of the time machine’s 30th birthday, are some of the best theories that attempt to connect the three movies’ unconnected dots. **George McFly knew Calvin Klein was his son.** Many viewers have questioned why, if the time-traveling Marty (who introduced himself as Calvin Klein) played such a pivotal role in his parents’ revised origin story, George and Lorraine don’t think it’s strange that their son is his spitting image. But so many fans believe that George _did_ recognize his son that there is a lengthy [thread](http://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/1urjk6/george%5Fmcfly%5Fknew/) on Reddit, called “George McFly Knew,” dedicated to proving it. The theory suggests that George, more than Lorraine or Biff, would have been open to the possibility of time travel because he was a major sci-fi fan. Marty left a trail of anachronistic breadcrumbs—playing “Johnny B. Goode,” mentioning Vulcan from _Star Trek_ and ordering a Pepsi Free—that George might have been able to gradually recognize throughout the years. George would have had an incentive to keep the knowledge to himself because he didn’t want to interfere with his son’s efforts to ensure he married the girl of his dreams. It’s even suggested that the book George publishes at the end of the first movie is based on his son’s secret time travel. **Doc Brown was attempting to commit suicide the first time he tested the time machine.** Early in the first movie, when Doc Brown asks Marty to film his first attempt at using the DeLorean as a time machine, Doc has just finished talking about how many of his inventions have failed to work. He admits that he’s never tested the machine before, yet he puts his beloved dog Einstein in the passenger seat and stands, next to Marty, directly in the path of the speeding vehicle. Some theorists [posit](http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/ubaqq/what%5Ffan%5Ftheories%5Fhave%5Fblown%5Fyour%5Fmind%5Fwith%5Ftheir/c4tye0s) that Doc was ready to give it all up—his own life and those of his closest friends—if his most important invention failed to take off. He also knows that the villains casually referred to as “the Libyans” are after him for plutonium, and his fate may as well be sealed already. Other [theorists](http://moviepilot.com/posts/2015/01/22/great-scott-did-back-to-the-future-s-doc-brown-have-a-dark-and-sad-secret-2607601?lt%5Fsource=external,manual) point to additional markers of Doc’s compromised mental state, including the morbid possibility that when he said he cut his head attempting to hang a clock in the bathroom, he had actually been trying to hang himself. **Marty McFly actually dies in** **_Back to the Future II_** **, but Doc Brown travels back in time to save him.** The [theory](http://www.reddit.com/r/FanTheories/comments/31dupf/marty%5Fdied%5Fin%5Fthat%5Ftunnel%5Fin%5Fbttf2/) here goes that Doc accidentally altered the space-time continuum, facilitating an alternate future in which Marty is killed in the tunnel while attempting to steal the sports almanac from Biff. Learning of these fateful consequences, Doc gets there just in time to throw Marty a line to save him from colliding with Biff’s car. How else would Doc have known to show up at the exact right place and time if not for some future revelation? **The trilogy is a metaphor for sexual reproduction.** There is very little rhyme or reason as to why Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, who wrote the screenplays, would make a movie that served as a metaphor for reproduction. But many fans have noticed that, even if only coincidentally, the entire narrative has much in common with a birth narrative. The flux capacitor looks not entirely unlike a pair of ovaries and fallopian tubes connected to a uterus. The time machine requires that a man (or a dog) enter it in order to begin the process. And the events cooked up throughout the course of time travel yield—or birth—different versions of people in the future. To cap this one off, the process is supervised by a doctor, Doc Brown. **Jennifer looks different in the second and third installments because Marty accidentally made a minor change to her parents’ futures when he went back in time.** When Marty travels back to 1955 and starts interfering with the chain of events that led his parents to fall in love, he sees his siblings and himself beginning to disappear from a family photo. It’s explained that if George and Lorraine never fall in love and get married, then the McFly children will disappear from the future. Fans have applied the same logic to the significant metamorphosis Jennifer undergoes between the first and second movies. In reality, we know the role was recast from Claudia Wells to Elisabeth Shue because Wells, whose mother had fallen ill, declined to reprise the role. But fans of the trilogy attempting to fit the change squarely within the film’s narrative found a clean way to do so: by suggesting that something Marty did in 1955 interfered with the lives of Jennifer’s parents enough to change Jennifer’s physical appearance. Rather than acknowledging the recasting in the movie, however, the second movie merely starts with a replay of the final scenes of the first, reshot with Shue as Jennifer. ### 13 Sequels That Were Almost As Good As (Or Better Than) the Originals  The Godfather: Part II The Godfather Part II starred Al Pacino as mobster Michael Corleone and Robert De Niro as his father, Vito, in the 1974 Oscar-winning sequel to The Godfather. Paramount  Toy Story 2 In Pixar's 1999 follow-up to Toy Story, Woody, a cowboy doll voiced by Tom Hanks, is stolen – and his ragtag crew of fellow toy friends vow to get him home safely. Pixar/Disney  The Dark Knight In Christopher Nolan’s 2008 sequel to Batman Begins, Christian Bale returns as Batman, this time joined by Heath Ledger as the ultra-creepy villain known as The Joker. Warner Bros.  Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey In the 1991 follow-up to Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure, the titular slackers (played by Keanu Reeves and Alex Winter) return with a new and even more excellent adventure. Orion  Terminator 2: Judgment Day In the second, more elaborate installment of the Terminator action movie franchise, Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as the Terminator, who must take on a newer, more advanced cyborg. Tristar  Aliens In James Cameron's sequel to the 1979 film Alien, Sigourney weaver returns as Lt. Ellen Ripley, who takes on even more extraterrestrials — this time, backed by a team of space marines. 20th Century Fox  Star Wars: Episode V - The Empire Strikes Back In the second installment of the Star Wars franchise, released in 1980, the Galactic Empire, led by Darth Vader, pursues Luke Skywalker and the rest of the Rebel Alliance. Lucasfilm/Disney  Viggo Mortensen as Aragorn in 'The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King' New Line Cinema  D2: The Mighty Ducks The 1994 sequel to the original Mighty Ducks, the ragtag team of young hockey players – the Ducks – are reunited by Coach Gordon Bombay (Emilio Estevez.) Disney  Back to the Future Part III In 1990, the final installment of the Back to the Future trilogy brought Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) back to the big screen for one last time-travelling adventure. Universal  Superman II Christopher Reeve returns as Superman in this 1980 sequel, as he continues to battle villains and fall deeper in love with reporter Lois Lane. Warner Bros.  Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan In the second Star Trek film, released in 1982, Admiral James T. Kirk (William Shatner) returns to take on his old nemesis Khan Noonien Singh. Paramount  Home Alone 2: Lost in New York This 1992 sequel once again follows youngster Kevin McCallister (Macaulay Culkin) as he faces off against two criminals — but instead of his home in suburban Chicago, this time he's in the Big Apple. 20th Century Fox ## Transcript >> Man, I love the scene-- Tai Chi against the stars. I asked The Fountain, now that, that's a good movie. I'm Steven James Snyder, movie geek with TechLand and anyone who knows anything about me knows that I am obsessed with the 2006, Darren Aronofsky's film: The Fountain. A pretty trippy- tail of the past, the present, the future, a man trying to cheat death and it got mixed reviews when it came out but I'm pretty convinced that I like it more than anyone on the planet, probably including the director. For three months now on TechLand, we've opened up the debate as to the five most underrated sci- fi masterpieces of all time. First up, the 1972 Eco- space opera, Silent Running, which is about a spaceship called Valley Forge that's been dispatched from a dying planet earth, the last bits of human vegetation. It's a little preachy. There's a few jawn via songs about protecting the plant life that's a little over the top but some of the closing shots of this domes filled with the familiar green of earth being sent out into the cold black of space. It's pretty haunting. Number four, Gattaca, the 1997, Ethan Hawke thriller about a future in which humans are all genetically modified. The majority of humans have been genetically perfected and those who are born via natural means operate in a lower rung of society. They have been plenty of other thrillers about cloning, I mean, even when we talk about Replicants and Blade Runner, but something about this movie which didn't get much fanfare when it was put into theaters stuck with us in the notion of a genetically stratified society. >> You keep your workstation so clean Jerome. >> It's next to godliness isn't that what they say? >> And number three: Serenity, the 2005 Josh Whedon space- western. It was a huge hit among TechLand fan. The plot revolves around in alliance and the rebels who are on the run with a telepathic secret weapon and it all builds up to one of these hulky, huge climactic space battles that you never forgive. >> Target the [ unk ]. Target the [ unk ]. Target everyone. Somebody fire. >> Number two: Dark City. It's all about a man who wakes up in a bath tub one morning without a memory to speak of, accused of murder, who must go on the run through this crazy, foreign foreboding futuristic city. The most haunting image, the whole thing must be the strangers or the white- faced supernatural being seemed to control everything about this other worldly China town. And the ending is all about figuring out who the strangers really are and what their abilities really are. It has to be one of the great surprise endings of all time. >> Finds and wondering like lost children. But this one was different. Yes. >> What does the doctor say about this? >> His filthy report in and to Mr. Quick, no more Mr. Quick. Mr. Quick is dead. >> And the number one underrated masterpiece has to be a little 2004 film that was directed by a guy name Shane Carruth who raised $ 7, 000 and used his parents garage to create a film called Primer. Primer drops us into the middle of a conversation in progress as four engineers spent every night in the garage trying to come up with the next big inventions that's gonna make them rich. And what sets Primer apart is the short hand that they use. The way we try to keep up with them and it takes us a few minutes to realize the implications of this box that they've devised that can warp time space. It takes us a few moments, few beats to realize this is a time machine. It's trippy stuff. There's no doubt about it but it works not only on a scientific level but also in terms of philosophy and personal relationships as these two best friends start to travel back and forth three times, never realizing the larger ramification that could accompany Pandora's box. >> I don't even know for sure. >> So what do you think? Have you seen our five picks? Have another idea for an underrated masterpiece? You can join the debate. 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