Happy Back to the Future Day! Wed 21st Oct 2015 (Discussion Thread)

[RAINCRAFTER]

Me is in EST. It's here for me. Happy Back to the Future Day!

[Fr8monkey]

[Vanamonde]

We had two threads about these movies. Now there is one. Merged.

[pTrevTrevs]

Well, I was sort of hoping to be able to buy a Pepsi Perfect today, but I found out that there were only 6500 bottles made, and later found out hat they all sold out within minutes.

Looks like I'll be drinking mostly Coke from now on, just like I did before today...

[YargJay9991]

We had two threads about these movies. Now there is one. Merged.

Ahh! So that's what happened... Thanks!

YargJay9991

[razark]

Ahh! So that's what happened...

Don't listen to their silly excuses. We know it's because someone adjusted the timeline.

[YargJay9991]

Great Scott! They did?!?

Well, I didn't know that. Tell me more:sticktongue:

YargJay9991

[gmpd2000]

Marty has arrived!

[CDK]

Marty McFly, the lucky guy!

[magnemoe]

Sure, there's that, but its likely going to be expensive as hell. It certainly won't be available in the quantities shown in Back to the Future, where even little kids have hover boards, and there are vastly varying qualities of hover boards, etc.

More important, the back to the future hover board used some sort of anti gravity, same did the flying cars.

if it was magnetic it would have to interact with earth magnetic field who is almost as hard.

Having an magnet hovering over metal is obviously possible but far simpler, main cost here will probably be the metal surface anyway.

[Fr8monkey]

The time travel reason we don't have hoverboards and flying cars:

[Bill Phil]

What if Hill Valley is "real" and they have all the advanced tech?

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

I just watched BTTF2, and I realized that the time travel model changes between movies! In the first movie, you can change the past, and you can be erased from time. In the second movie, if you change the past, you create a alternate timeline, and become a traveler from an alternate reality.

[Guest]

What if Hill Valley is "real" and they have all the advanced tech?

Confirmed

[adsii1970]

Nope, not me. I watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" last night. It was great!

[razark]

I just watched BTTF2, and I realized that the time travel model changes between movies! In the first movie, you can change the past, and you can be erased from time. In the second movie, if you change the past, you create a alternate timeline, and become a traveler from an alternate reality.

In the first movie, Marty's parents never got married and conceived him, therefore he would cease to exist. In the second movie, he was born, but the rest of the world was different.

The question is, after Biff travels back from 2015 to 1955, why does he return to 2015, instead of the 2015A that his time meddling should have created?

Edit:

Or did Biff(2015) return to 2015A, and the Biff seen returning in BttF2 is a alternate one from the one we see departing?

Edited October 22, 2015 by razark

[Motokid600]

Why is there not a cafe 80s?

[maltesh]

In the first movie, Marty's parents never got married and conceived him, therefore he would cease to exist. In the second movie, he was born, but the rest of the world was different.

The question is, after Biff travels back from 2015 to 1955, why does he return to 2015, instead of the 2015A that his time meddling should have created?

Edit:

Or did Biff(2015) return to 2015A, and the Biff seen returning in BttF2 is a alternate one from the one we see departing?

There's an answer in the time travel situation presented in the first movie: The effects of changes in history take time (for want of a better word) to affect objects or people not in their native time; When Marty prevented his parents from meeting, he had up to a week to fix things before the timestream changes erased him.

It may also be that time changes that are large move at a different rate than small time changes; Marty's parents not getting married is a small change in history, took a week to erase Marty.

Marty's parents being successful people is a larger change, but still not that significant; Perhaps it might take a few days before Marty's memories realign.

Biff becoming a millionaire results in a Hill Valley dystopia and significant other historical changes, including a fifth term for Richard Nixon.That time change ripples through fairly quickly. Marty and Doc and Jennifer happen to be time travelling as those echoes ripple through 2015

I imagine they also cause Old Biff to disappear; his Sports Almanac only goes to 2000, and I don't see him staying alive another 15 years after that.

[GoSlash27]

Things it should've warned us about but didn't:

The internet

Hipsters

Political correctness

Things we had to look forward to that it didn't mention:

The internet

Smart phones

Genetic sequencing

Nanotechnology

3D printing

Things it promised that we didn't get:

Flying cars

"Mr. Fusion"

Self- tying shoelaces

The Cubs winning the World Series

Rampant fax machines

Antigrav hoverboards

[Guest]

Things it should've warned us about but didn't:

The internet

Hipsters

Political correctness

Things we had to look forward to that it didn't mention:

The internet

Smart phones

Genetic sequencing

Nanotechnology

3D printing

Things it promised that we didn't get:

Flying cars

"Mr. Fusion"

Self- tying shoelaces

The Cubs winning the World Series

Rampant fax machines

Antigrav hoverboards

So true.

[maltesh]

Smart phones

From what I can recall from Wednesday's viewing, though, he never actually uses any other feature of the device except the camera (assuming that it has other features.)

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

In the first movie, Marty's parents never got married and conceived him, therefore he would cease to exist. In the second movie, he was born, but the rest of the world was different.

The question is, after Biff travels back from 2015 to 1955, why does he return to 2015, instead of the 2015A that his time meddling should have created?

Edit:

Or did Biff(2015) return to 2015A, and the Biff seen returning in BttF2 is a alternate one from the one we see departing?

Okay, in the first movie he changes his present, by preventing his mother from marrying his father. But in the second movie, Biff changes 1955 so that his mother doesn't marry his father, which would, by the logic of the first movie, cause him to cease to exist. It is explained by the fact that Biff created an alternate reality, which Marty isn't from, the 1985 which Biff meddled with's Marty is presumable elsewhere.

So one movie says that changing the past changes the future, but the other says that changing the past creates another time line.

Like this:

First movie:

1955---------------------------1985---------------------------2015

Time travel makes it look like this:

1955---------------------------Changed, but not different 1985.

Second movie:

Time travel makes it look like this:

1955---------------------------Old 1985, which Marty is from, this remains unchanged regardless of time travel.

--\

---\

1955---------------------------New 1985, which Marty now is in, due to Biff's meddling.

[razark]

But in the second movie, Biff changes 1955 so that his mother doesn't marry his father, which would, by the logic of the first movie, cause him to cease to exist.

Marty was 17 in 1985, which means he was born in 1968. In the 1985A timeline, Marty's father was killed by Biff in 1973, and Biff married his widowed mother at some later time.

So one movie says that changing the past changes the future, but the other says that changing the past creates another time line.

In the first movie, Marty travels to 1955, and changes things, and then returns to 1985 in the new timeline he created, rather than the old time line, which still exists as a parallel dimension. There's no difference between the way time travel works in the two, just in the point of view you experience it from.

The 1985 that Marty returns to in the first movie is still a different time line, it just happens to be very close to the original:

1955---------------------------Old 1985, which Marty is from, this remains unchanged regardless of time travel.

--\

---\

1955---------------------------New 1985, which Marty now is in, due to Marty's meddling.

None of which explains why Biff returns to an unchanged 2015. Doc and Marty exist in the original 2015, but Biff should return to the 2015A timeline he created.

Edited October 23, 2015 by razark

[Mad Rocket Scientist]

Marty was 17 in 1985, which means he was born in 1968. In the 1985A timeline, Marty's father was killed by Biff in 1973, and Biff married his widowed mother at some later time.

In the first movie, Marty travels to 1955, and changes things, and then returns to 1985 in the new timeline he created, rather than the old time line, which still exists as a parallel dimension. There's no difference between the way time travel works in the two, just in the point of view you experience it from.

The 1985 that Marty returns to in the first movie is still a different time line, it just happens to be very close to the original:

1955---------------------------Old 1985, which Marty is from, this remains unchanged regardless of time travel.

--\

---\

1955---------------------------New 1985, which Marty now is in, due to Marty's meddling.

None of which explains why Biff returns to an unchanged 2015. Doc and Marty exist in the original 2015, but Biff should return to the 2015A timeline he created.

I see, I forgot Marty's father was killed by Biff.

But, yes, why came back to the same 2015 doesn't make any sense. In fact, why didn't that 2015 change instantly when Biff time-traveled? Do you have to time travel to experience changes to the past, like reloading a page?

[YargJay9991]

Um... It's a movie. It's not supposed to make sense! Well it is a little bit but (in case you didn't know) *whispers* BTTF didn't actually happen.

Hollywood never hires scientists to fix up every hole and gap in movies.

YargJay9991