Although Back to the Future is a classic sci-fi series, I can’t help but believe that there is some magic behind the trilogy’s time travel after reading convincing fan theory. Back to the Future’s many timelines prove Doc Brown and Marty McFly did plenty to mess with the reality of their universe. However, eagle-eyed viewers will note that nothing ever changes too much in Hill Valley. In other time-travel movies, the ʙuттerfly effect reigns supreme, so any minor decision can have wild unforeseen consequences in the future.
In the Back to the Future trilogy, Marty and Doc need to ensure that only the right major changes happen, but they can largely avoid mᴀssive unforeseen consequences. As the Back to the Future easter egg that appears in all three movies proves, there is a lot of continuity between every timeline in the series. Certain major moments are seemingly fated to happen regardless of how many times the timeline is altered, and there may be a justification for this. One fan theory claims that the DeLorean is the trilogy’s instrument of fate.
The DeLorean Stalls Whenever Fate Doesn’t Want Marty To Intervene – Theory Explained
Back to the Future’s Time Machine Itself May Be Sabotaging Marty’s Efforts
A few years ago, Reddit user GlutenFree_Paper argued that the Delorean stalling at seemingly random times is actually a case of fate trying to ensure that Marty doesn’t change things too drastically. This theory gets pretty convincing when outlined at length. Back to the Future’s DeLorean stalls at numerous pivotal points in the narrative, and this could be because the timeline itself, or fate, destiny, chance, or whatever else readers want to call it, is pushing the events to stick to a certain preordained outcome.
The stalling allows the car to make up for Doc’s mistake and ensure the car starts the second it actually needs to for the plan to still work.
Consider, as GlutenFree_Paper notes, the DeLorean stalling in front of a billboard when the conspicuous time machine needs something to cover up its presence. Consider the time machine also stalling shortly before Back to the Future’s lightning strike, which Doc had miscalculated by a minute. Here, the stalling allows the car to make up for Doc’s mistake and ensure the car starts the second it actually needs to for the plan to still work.
Then, right as Morty returns to 1985, the DeLorean stalls again just as the Libyans are en route to the mall. Reddit user nods0123 added that the timeline also seems to correct itself in other minor moments, with Marty’s apparent “death” renaming the ravine when Doc changes the past so that Clara no longer dies there. This evidence all appears to point toward the idea that the DeLorean is an instrument of fate in the movie series, so it is perhaps fitting that some of the most convincing evidence comes from the time machine being an otherwise ordinary car.
Apart From The Flux Capacitor, The DeLorean Was A Regular Car That Ran On Gas
The DeLorean’s Problems Don’t Necessarily Add Up Without This Fan Theory
In Back to the Future Part III‘s Doc subplot, he explains to Marty that the DeLorean remains an ordinary car that runs on gasoline. Its function as a time machine aside, the DeLorean should operate like a normal car. As such, the fact that it stalls frequently, but pointedly only does so when it is secretly beneficial to the future of Marty and Doc, reinforces this theory. There are a lot of reasons to believe the DeLorean shapes Doc and Marty’s fate, even though neither seems to know this.
The DeLorean breaking down only when this secretly ᴀssisted Doc and Marty in avoiding unforeseen problems seems to prove that time is on the duo’s side in the series. For all of Marty McFly’s mistakes in Back to the Future, things do seem to work out for him when push comes to shove. It doesn’t hurt that Doc and Marty’s changes to the future don’t just benefit them, but Hill Valley as a whole. Whether it is traveling to the past to stop Biff from taking over the future or traveling to the old West, the pair always incidentally improve the town.
The Timeline Trying To Fix Itself Would Make Sense According To Back To The Future Rules
Back to the Future’s Time Travel Rules Do Prioritise One True Timeline
Throughout the series, the Back to the Future movies establish that there is only one timeline, so this timeline must try to resist major changes and has to readjust things whenever something is out of place. Effectively, as one Reddit user noted, the unseen hand of fate in the Back to the Future movies functions like death in the Final Destination universe. If things stray too far from their predestined plan, it is time for fate to intervene and rewrite reality.
This theory posits that the world of the Back to the Future trilogy will always return to something resembling its old self.
This Back to the Future fan theory certainly changed how I view the trilogy, although the evidence is still pretty subtle. Much like Back to the Future Part II’s almanac remains correct thanks to the ripple effect, this theory posits that the world of the Back to the Future trilogy will always return to something resembling its old self by virtue of fate’s intervention.
Source: Reddit
