Back to the future FINAL timeline (Trilogy Only)

sn939

I've posted several versions of this on other forums, but I was curious to see what the reaction would be here.

This is a chronology of events as they occur in the Final timeline as of the end of BTTF3 (i.e. the 'Eastwood' timeline). Thus it does not include events which took place in alternate timelines that were erased (such as 1985-A, or the 2015 in which Marty is fired) during the course of the movies.

Please note that this is the chronology from the POV of the timeline itself...and NOT from Marty or Doc's POV...since both Marty and Doc, being time traveler's, have traveled through various timelines, and thus have memories from different realities. I have specified which timeline time traveler's have arrived from, even if those timelines were erased.

Also, to fill in some of the gaps, I've used some of my own theories regarding alternate sequences of events...please feel free to debunk them if you like.

Here goes-

1885

-January 1st: Doc arrives from 1955 (of the 'revised' Lone Pine timeline) and crash-lands the Delorean. He discovers that the flying circuits have been destroyed and the time circuits damaged.
-Doc sets up as a blacksmith and attempts to repair the Delorean but this proves unsuccessful. At some point, he incurs the wrath of Bufford Tannen.
-September 1st: Doc buries the Delorean in the Delgado Mine and writes the letter to Marty, sending it to Western Union.
-September 2nd: Marty arrives from 1955 (of the Shonash timeline).
-September 3rd: Marty is reunited with Doc and warns him of his impending death at Tannen's hands, showing him the picture of the tombstone.
-September 4th: Doc rescues Clara from falling into the ravine and they fall in love.
-September 5th: At the Town Festival, Doc and Marty witness the inaugration of the Clock Tower and take a picture next to it. Marty saves Doc from being shot by Bufford.
-September 7th: Marty defeats Bufford and travels back to the future. Doc is stuck in the past, with Clara.
-Shonash Ravine is renamed Eastwood Ravine, in 'Clint Eastwood's' memory.

1885 - c.1895

-Doc and Clara get married at some point. They have two children, Jules and Verne.
-Doc works on a second time machine, intent on escaping the past, lest his family endanger the space-time continuum by remaining in the past where NONE of them are supposed to exist.
-Finally, in around 1895 (or possibly a little later), Doc completes the second flux capacitor (which runs on steam) and the second time machine-a train-and with Clara and the kids, travels to 2015.

1955

-November 5th: Early in the morning, Marty arrives from 1955 (of the Twin Pines timeline). He prevents the first meeting of his parents. At some point, Doc falls from his toilet seat and has the vision for the flux capacitor. Marty meets Doc and convinces him he's from the future.
-November 7th: Marty attempts to get George and Lorraine together, impersonating Darth Vader that night.
-November 8th: Marty causes Biff to crash into the manure truck.
-November 12th: Early in the morning, Marty and Doc arrive from 1985-A. Later, Old Biff arrives from 2015 (of the Lone Pine timeline). He gives his younger self the Almanac and leaves. The 'earlier' Marty tries to give Doc a letter warning him of his impending death in 1985. That night, at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, the 'earlier' Marty tries to get his parents together while the 'later' Marty tries to get the Almanac back from Biff. Biff is knocked out by George and Marty steals the Almanac from him. George and Lorraine kiss and fall in love. Biff gets the Almanac back from Marty. Marty manages to get it back and causes Biff to crash into another manure truck. Doc is struck by lightning and sent back to 1885. The Western Union man delivers Doc's 70 year old letter to Marty. Finally, '55 Doc sends the earlier Marty back to the future, using the lightining bolt which strikes the Clock Tower. The later Marty then surprises Doc, causing him to faint. Marty brings Doc home.
-November 13th: Marty informs Doc of his older self being trapped in the past.
-November 14th: Marty and Doc uncover the Delorean buried in the mine by the older Doc. Marty decides to go to the library to find out what became of Doc. He finds the picture of himself and Doc, taken on the night of the Clock Tower inaugration. From this, he surmises that he was meant to go back to 1885 and rescue Doc.
-November 16th: Marty takes the repaired Delorean and goes back to 1885. He is 'cancelled out' and replaced by the version of Marty from the Shonash timeline (who saw the tombstone).

1955-1985

-Doc spends thirty years developing the time machine, although this time he may have a bit of headstart, having actually repaired the time circuit control microchip before even inventing it!

c. 1982-3

-Doc meets the younger Marty and befriends him, knowing it was meant to happen. Marty of course if unaware that Doc has already met 'him'.
-At some point, Doc reads the letter warning him about his death on the night of the first temporal experiment.

1985

-October 25th: Doc invites Marty to Lone Pine Mall for his experiment. Marty receives a flyer about the Clock Tower.
-October 26th: Early in the morning, Marty witnesses Doc carry out 'temporal experiment no. 1' on the Delorean (unknown to him, Doc has already worked on the Delorean TWICE). At around 1: 24 am, a week older Marty arrives at the Town Square and rushes to the mall. The Libyans arrive and shoot Doc, and the younger Marty escapes in the Delorean, being accidently sent back to 1955 (whereupon, he is 'cancelled out' and replaced by the original Twin Pines Marty). The Marty who has returned discovers that Doc is alive, and was wearing a bulletproof vest. Doc then takes the Delorean and travels to 2015.
In the morning, Marty is surprised by the 'new improved' version of his family, and the fact that he has a truck. Doc arrives from 2015 (of the Lone Pine timeline) and takes Marty and Jennifer into the future. Biff watches the Delorean disappear...he may remember seeing a similar vehicle back in 1955 when 'Calvin Klien' stole the Almanac from him.
-October 27th: At around 2:42 am, Jennifer and Einstien 'fade into' this timeline...Jennifer on her porch and Einstien in Doc's lab. At some point early in the day, Doc arrives from 2015 (of the Eastwood timeline) using the time train, along with Clara and the kids, and he picks up Einstien and travels a little forward in time to meet Marty. At 11, Marty arrives from 1885. He meets Jennifer and refuses to race Needles. Doc arrives in the time train and meets Marty, giving him the second copy of the picture they took at the Clock Tower inaugration in 1885. Doc then leaves for an unknown time.

2015

-Doc arrives from 1885 in the time train, with his family. He may be surprised and pleased to discover that this is a different future timeline he has arrives in, owing to Marty choosing not to race Needles thirty years ago. He may meet the (hopefully) more successful Marty and learn of the Delorean's destruction. Doc gets the train hover-converted and leaves for 1985, to first pick up Einstein and then meet the younger Marty.


I might make another timeline including the events of the games in future...

Michael J Fox is Canadian

Pretty good job. I'd assume you're ignoring Doc and Marty's original return from 2015 and leaving for 1955 as they were both during the alternate timeline?

Also doc would have had to make at least one trip to 1985 with the time train before the one we see; einstein is with him and he was left in the lab.

sn939

Michael J Fox is Canadian wrote: »

Pretty good job. I'd assume you're ignoring Doc and Marty's original return from 2015 and leaving for 1955 as they were both during the alternate timeline?

Also doc would have had to make at least one trip to 1985 with the time train before the one we see; einstein is with him and he was left in the lab.

Correct...all of that happened in the alternate 1985. I'm going with the theory that there was simply no trace of them during those late night/early morning hours, in the 'real' 1985. From the timeline's POV, in 1985, Marty departs with Doc, Jennifer and Einstein on October 26th 1985 at approximately 11: 00 am, and returns on his on October 27th 1985 at 11: 00 am.

As for Doc's additional trip to collect Einstien...I've covered that. If you read the 'October 27th' section more closely, I mention how Doc collected Einstien earlier on October 27th, before travelling forward a few hours to meet Marty by the tracks. I'd like to believe that Doc spoke to Marty in the future, and knew that Marty and Jennifer would be by the tracks looking over the Delorean wreckage, so he knew that would be a good time to meet them.

Raist1277

Sounds to me like you have nailed all of the pertinent facts in a pretty fricking accurate timeline. All the pieces fit in with what I understand of time travel and that general sort of quantum conundrum LOL Kudos!

ELB1985

I don't understand why marty's get "cancelled out" here? if its strictly from the timeline point of view, he would be this "new marty" from the day he was born to the day he died.

otherwise i would say this is perfecto.

ELB1985

ELB1985 wrote: »

I don't understand why marty's get "cancelled out" here? if its strictly from the timeline point of view, he would be this "new marty" from the day he was born to the day he died.

otherwise i would say this is perfecto.

OOOOOh. I see the problam in my logic and the maneuver u took here....the tombstone paradox caught me off guard...otherwise, well you know.

ELB1985

Please note: after about 2 hours of writing reply then deleting it. I came to this conclusion.

Final timeline marty. Is totally PUNKED! when he makes the 1st jump at Lone pines.

Unfortantly this ruins your final timeline SN939.

the Marty in this final time line has to be twin pines marty the whole time.

You made the changes here I see but it just can't play out like that.

ELB1985

Now my point is He will still exstist but this Marty will actually have an Entirely different movie.
he wouldn't tell his mom to stop drinken... give his dad docs advice....etc becuse to him everything is worked out somehow.

because you see they jump "Timelines" whenever they travel time. So you can't paradox yourself. In reality Orginal marty (twin pines) made(final timeline martys) life what it is.

looking at it from finaltimemarty's life he will go back but perhaps make his future worst, same scenrio but like i just said his mom will now be a drunk in her future, his dad might never get the couarge to beat up biff because this marty will always remembered biff being afraid of his father...therefore confusing him to see his dad wimp out. and he might not even get them back together.

but by my logic eraseing yourself is impossible. unless another time traveler is doing it to u by destroying your orginal timeline. which in a weird way could of happened in bttf1 without us know. an identical universe where same exact story was happing in "our martys orginal timeline" the only difference between the 2 being a peice of dust was moved 2 inchs to the left in the school dance scene....

Anyway a twin pines marty would have to be in the final time line or else you would need to make this new Final marty time line scenerio in order of the films. because remember the future effects the past when talking time travel.

ELB1985

I'm sorry, it looks like i skewed into a tangent. For some reason in my thought process i went from looking at strictly the time line;to following the Marty of this timeline...

I'm very tired and will return to review both my comments and your timeline.

sn939

ELB1985 wrote: »

Now my point is He will still exstist but this Marty will actually have an Entirely different movie.
he wouldn't tell his mom to stop drinken... give his dad docs advice....etc becuse to him everything is worked out somehow.

because you see they jump "Timelines" whenever they travel time. So you can't paradox yourself. In reality Orginal marty (twin pines) made(final timeline martys) life what it is.

looking at it from finaltimemarty's life he will go back but perhaps make his future worst, same scenrio but like i just said his mom will now be a drunk in her future, his dad might never get the couarge to beat up biff because this marty will always remembered biff being afraid of his father...therefore confusing him to see his dad wimp out. and he might not even get them back together.

but by my logic eraseing yourself is impossible. unless another time traveler is doing it to u by destroying your orginal timeline. which in a weird way could of happened in bttf1 without us know. an identical universe where same exact story was happing in "our martys orginal timeline" the only difference between the 2 being a peice of dust was moved 2 inchs to the left in the school dance scene....

Anyway a twin pines marty would have to be in the final time line or else you would need to make this new Final marty time line scenerio in order of the films. because remember the future effects the past when talking time travel.

It's okay, I can understand your confusion.

I actually wanted to just focus on the timeline here, and not on Marty and his memories, but I will try to explain the whole Twin Pines/Lone Pine Marty dichotomy here for you.

Now the way I see it, there is only ONE universe, ONE timeline and ONE Marty at a time. The only way there can be two Marty's is if time travel is involved, in which case one is 'younger' or 'older' than the other. Because the timeline can be changed however, it is possible for two Marty's to co-exist, wherein they have different sets of memories...but in a broader cosmic sense, they are still the same person, and if the 'earlier' Marty does not go through with that the 'later' Marty went through...causality is violated such that the 'later' Marty cannot be the 'earlier' Marty...and since two totally different Marty's cannot co-exist in the long term, the ripple effect will erase the 'later' Marty.

Now consider the scene at Lone Pine Mall, in the final timeline. On the hill, we have Twin Pines Marty, who remembers his father being a wimp. Down, being chased by the Libyans is Lone Pine Marty, who remembers his father being a successful author.. They have different sets of memories...but yet, in terms of causality, Lone Pine Marty is the 'younger' self of Twin Pines Marty...and this is confirmed when LP Marty experiances temporal displacement at PRECISELY the same moment and PRECISELY the same location as TP Marty. At that moment, their destinies become intertwined, as the universe 'confirms' that they are the same Marty.

As for the memory issue...this is how I see it playing out. Eastwood Marty gets 'cancelled out' by Twin Pines Marty the moment he arrives in 1955, because TP Marty was there first and is already irrevocably a part of the history of the timeline Lone Pine Marty grew up in. So Marty, during the original week in 1955, is ALWAYS the same Marty whom we followed in BTTF1...who gets his parents together at the Enchantment under the Sea dance.

Now I believe, when Marty returns to 1985, he has returned to HIS family...the one and only McFly family in the the new timeline. It just so happens that because his other self was erased during the jump back to 1955, he has his original memories and so is confused by all the changes. But since HE is the one and only Marty now, logic dictates that the ripple effect changes him to become the Marty of the new timeline...i.e. in other words, Twin Pines Marty BECOMES Lone Pine Marty (which may perhaps explain his more assertive behavior in BTTF2 and 3). He now has memories of both timelines...because both Marty's are now literally one and the same. I do feel however, that Marty might possibly still regard his Twin Pines memories as being the 'real' ones, because from his POV temporally, he was 'originally' TP Marty and then BECAME LP Marty.

Now, you can just apply this principle to all the other time jumps we see. Including the one that creates Eastwood Marty (who is essentially the same as LP Marty in terms of memories...cept that he knows the local ravine as Eastwood Ravine).

ELB1985

ok your explantion fits better into the general bttf theory. Idk something doesn't feel right for me , thinken the twin pines marty can have the new memorys too. although considering the ripple effect i can accept that in time the twin pines marty would eventually have lone pine memories thus correcting anything we see in the movies when

for example: marty sees his truck and new family and is surprised...but at the end of bttf3 he's shifting the gears and driving it like he always owned it.

I just don't like your canceling out theory. snice this is time travelling there has to be 2 versions of the timeline and 2 martys to have one timeline there must be another.

you kinda propose a fusion where a "good future" still needs to correct its past to mantian it's "good future"

Its extremly difficult to accept that Lone pine marty would be destined to behave the same exact way as twin pine. although in the lonepine universe he is part of the history before he is born...

I understand your Idea now. but I think i need to stick to my muti-universe theory when it comes to explaining the lone pine marty visiting to the past. In which for me its destined for twin pines marty to end up in lone pine hill valley universe replacing the lone pine valley Marty, because lone pine marty will have a new life and story in for' lack of better terms' 3 pine valley.

Overall Excellent post. I never thought to look at it from a timeline point of veiw. you put it together well and it does make sense. Thank you for giving me a fresh idea to look at in bttf.

sn939

ELB1985 wrote: »

ok your explantion fits better into the general bttf theory. Idk something doesn't feel right for me , thinken the twin pines marty can have the new memorys too. although considering the ripple effect i can accept that in time the twin pines marty would eventually have lone pine memories thus correcting anything we see in the movies when

for example: marty sees his truck and new family and is surprised...but at the end of bttf3 he's shifting the gears and driving it like he always owned it.

I just don't like your canceling out theory. snice this is time travelling there has to be 2 versions of the timeline and 2 martys to have one timeline there must be another.

you kinda propose a fusion where a "good future" still needs to correct its past to mantian it's "good future"

Its extremly difficult to accept that Lone pine marty would be destined to behave the same exact way as twin pine. although in the lonepine universe he is part of the history before he is born...

I understand your Idea now. but I think i need to stick to my muti-universe theory when it comes to explaining the lone pine marty visiting to the past. In which for me its destined for twin pines marty to end up in lone pine hill valley universe replacing the lone pine valley Marty, because lone pine marty will have a new life and story in for' lack of better terms' 3 pine valley.

Overall Excellent post. I never thought to look at it from a timeline point of veiw. you put it together well and it does make sense. Thank you for giving me a fresh idea to look at in bttf.

Well, your entitled to believe your 'multiverse' theory...though quiet frankly, Bob Gale and anyone else officially associated with the BTTF franchise have confirmed that there is only ever one timeline, which keeps getting changed by the ripple effect...so it stands to reason that there is only one Marty, who keeps getting changed by the ripple effect.

BTW, I never said Lone Pine Marty HAS to follow Twin Pines Marty's path...I think its entirely possible that LP Marty may choose NOT to go back in time for some reason...in which case, it will be impossible for TP Marty to be his 'future' self...and so TP Marty, having no continued 'base' for his existence...would be erased eventually. I believe this is the case in BTTF2...Hell Valley Marty did not go back in time and so was technically not 'our' Marty's past self, but an 'alternate self'...which was why, 'our' Marty would eventually have been erased had he not gone back to 1955 to fix the damage.

As for HOW things turned out the same time in both timelines at the mall...well the Bobs (and many fans) have theorized the existence of a 'Space-time Preservation Effect' which tries to keep things consistent between all timelines. Thus, we have similar events across timelines (for instance, Doc meets Clara and falls in love with her in two different timelines, Marty is challenged to the race with Needles in two timelines, Uncle Joey is in jail in EVERY timeline etc...). So, thanks to the SPE...LP Marty goes back in time to 1955 just like TP Marty did...but only because the essential factors were similar in both timelines (Doc inventing the time machine, Libyans attacking, Marty presuming Doc to be dead etc.)

Anyway, thanks for taking the trouble to figure out my long-winded timeline and subsequent explanations

Michael J Fox is Canadian

Well during the game Marty indicates that docs time machine made the timeline better and worse implying he remembers his original timeline as well as the biffhoric one.

There's no way marty gained the new memories of his timeline by the end of part III. Doc had NO memories of a timeline he didnt experience (marty visiting him a second time in 1955). Marty doesn't exactly do any tough driving with his truck, all we see is him park at Jennifers, stop at lights and back up.

sn939

Michael J Fox is Canadian wrote: »

Well during the game Marty indicates that docs time machine made the timeline better and worse implying he remembers his original timeline as well as the biffhoric one.

There's no way marty gained the new memories of his timeline by the end of part III. Doc had NO memories of a timeline he didnt experience (marty visiting him a second time in 1955). Marty doesn't exactly do any tough driving with his truck, all we see is him park at Jennifers, stop at lights and back up.

Of course Marty remembers the original timeline...I never said differently.

As far as the new memories go...in Doc's case, Doc didn't remember because he was trapped in the past...seventy years before the divergence (Marty's second trip to 1955) which created an alternate version of himself. As such, he maintained his original memories (the Lone Pine ones) alone...the ripple effect couldn't reach back into the past and change him. However, once Doc returned to his own time, 1985, at the end of BTTF3 (or basically the moment he traveled to any point in time after his own-which includes his trip to the future in the train), he would, I believe, gain his memories of the final 'Eastwood' timeline (which WOULD include Marty's second trip, but not, according to me, the tombstone...only Marty experianced THAT timeline).

The BTTF3 novelisation actually makes the case that the Doc trapped in 1885 eventually remembers meeting Marty for the second time in 1955...but that doesn't make sense to me. There is no reason why Doc would have no memory of uncovering the Delorean at the mine for the eight months he was trapped in 1885, and then suddenly gain them when Marty arrives. It makes far more sense for Doc to gain the new memories once he returns to his own time or beyond.