Where's My Hoverboard? (It's All in Marty's Head.)
It's 2015, and as October 21st approaches, it's becoming painfully obvious that the world will look nothing like the one that Marty experienced. So, the filmmakers' vision of the future was far from accurate, right? I'm going to make a case that not only was their vision not inaccurate, but that they never actually shared their true vision of the future. "Why?" you may ask. Simple:
Marty McFly never actually traveled through time.
I'm sure I've confused you, which is par for the course, but stay with me. Sure, there were three movies of time traveling adventures, but I feel like people seem to have overlooked a very real possibility:
Marty McFly's real life experiences ended five and a half minutes into the first film!
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| The last second of Marty's reality in the series. |
You know... when he was thrown 10 feet backward into a shelf full of junk, which then collapsed onto him. This incident is played off very quickly after it occurs, yet they spent almost a minute and a half slowly building anticipation up until the blast. Odd, isn't it, that they would focus so intently, albeit briefly, on something seemingly inconsequential? Also odd is that we are supposed to believe Marty was able to stand up from this, almost immediately, unscathed. Is Marty really that resilient? If we are to believe this, then why is it that every other time Marty bumps his head in the slightest throughout the rest of the series, he is rendered comatose immediately? It just doesn't add up, and it leads me to come to the only logical conclusion:
Everything after 5:25 in Back to the Future was a dream!
Think about it. What actually happened up until that point? We saw that Doc had an obsession with clocks, a few simple gadgets, and a case of plutonium (although Marty didn't see that). Doc was broke and lived in his own filth. We see no indication, no evidence up to this point, that this man has the ability to construct anything more complex than a small robotic arm. Why's he have the plutonium? He's broke. He needs to make money somehow. Who's to say Doc isn't dealing on the black market to get by? Doc isn't really the focus of this though. Marty is, and he's buried under a pile of rubble after taking a good bump to the head. Twenty seconds later, Doc calls his own house, despite the fact that he should have no idea that Marty is there, and starts the plot rolling, even referencing the amplifier that Marty just blew up. Off Marty goes, as he's late for school, but in reality he's still laying there under that pile in a coma. Don't buy my theory?
The rest of the series gives ample clues that Marty is dreaming.
The rest of the series gives ample clues that Marty is dreaming.
Right away, the classic "being late" dream begins, as Marty rushes to school. This leads directly into Marty's subconscious worries of inadequacy, as he is told he isn't good enough by the principal, and then Huey Lewis. He's obviously under some stress in his life.
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| George:"Did you hit your head?" Marty's subconscious manifesting as his dad. |
All the time traveling seems completely within the realm of a fanciful dream of a teenager, as do the simplistic and predictable actions of the other people in his dream. Wherever he goes, he's the center of attention, and instantly a hero to everyone. These things don't make much sense, judging by his small stature and the fact that he is a stranger virtually everywhere he goes. Furthermore, when he gets back to his own time, the only drastic changes to anything (with the exception of alternate 1985 in Back to the Future 2) are to his own family and Biff. In Marty's mind, he seems to only care about the repercussions of his actions as they pertain to those immediately around him. Marty must have a hell of an ego.
Further evidence comes from Jennifer's drastic change in appearance at the beginning of Back to the Future 2. A character changing appearance at random in a dream is very common. Your brain usually chugs right along as if nothing is different, just as Marty does when he sees Jennifer. This also leads me to ask if Marty actually even has a girlfriend, or if Jennifer is just a figment of his imagination. He's a teenage boy. This isn't that far fetched.
Speaking of appearances, isn't it convenient that so many characters in other times are doppelgangers of people in Marty's time? Sure, they're supposed to be relatives, but family resemblance only goes so far. Marty doesn't look anything like his mother, father, or siblings, but both his children and his great great grandfather look exactly like him? Marty is experiencing what Dorothy did in The Wizard of Oz. Marty's Land of Oz is simply his hometown in different time periods. Marty doesn't have the imagination Dorothy did.
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| Oh, that Marty. He just loves to sleep in the road! |
Finally, the most crucial evidence comes from all the times Marty hits
his head in the series after 5:25. He is immediately knocked into a
coma, waking in a strange place thinking he was just having a dream. It's always really awkward when you're having a dream and you realize that you're having a dream. Unless you have mastered lucid dreaming, or you're like our friend Marty, the dream usually terminates abruptly. In Marty's case, his subconscious is trying to tell him, repeatedly screaming at him, that he is dreaming, but the dream
can't end because of the head trauma he suffered from the shelf.
Everything continues because the coma continues. The series never shows
Marty actually waking up from that coma, so, perhaps he never did.
Sadly, Marty McFly's adventures in reality may have ended right there on
Doc's floor. None of the other events of the series actually happened,
and, for all we know, after the end credits of Back to the Future 3
rolled, Marty's dreams may have veered into even stranger places.
Perhaps he dreamed he was a dog, or a doctor, or a deputy mayor.
So, on October 21st, when you look around at your world and wonder why you don't have a hoverboard and a flying car, just remember:
Give yourself a significant enough head injury, and, in your own mind, they can be yours!
Give yourself a significant enough head injury, and, in your own mind, they can be yours!
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Big Cray: Accept No Substitute
