Prologue

October 25, 1985:

We begin our story with a young man by the name of Martin Seamus “Marty” McFly, he was a seventeen-year-old, who was sleeping right now, not knowing that soon he would be awoken by a phone call that’ll change his life forever. Before that happens, we should know little about Marty. He’s an easy-going, well-intentioned, kind, loyal, and music-loving teenager, who goes to Hill Valley High School.

At school, he wasn’t the best student academically. He wasn’t the smartest at the school, but he did have decent grades, he could have better marks if he put his mind to it. But he had other priorities than schoolwork, his band The Pinheads. The only problem he had with school was that he had the tendency to be late for school.

But that wasn’t always his fault, however, as an elderly scientist, Dr. Emmett Brown (Doc, ) whom he was friends with, set his clocks twenty-five minutes slow over the last year. As before school, Marty would often go to Doc’s house to use the guitar amplifier that Doc made, it was bigger and more powerful than other amplifiers that were out there. So, when he got into his playing, the teen would forget about Doc’s clocks and so run late for school.

Marty is a very loyal guy. He constantly sticks up for the little guy when asked for help. He is also very steadfast to Doc, as several adults, including his parents, have said he’s very risky to be around, but Marty says that he really is not.

When faced with danger, Marty was known to be courageous and could be very resourceful and shrewd. The problem was his persistent desire to show others that he was not a coward, which sometimes caused him to take unnecessary risks. It also created a problem when people called him chicken. His pride and desire to be seen as tough makes it easy for people to manipulate him into doing what they want, which ends up getting Marty into more trouble.

Now, Marty when he wasn’t with his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, listening to Huey Lewis and the News and Eddie Van Halen, or on his skateboarder going around town and, in the park, he was the lead guitar for his band The Pinheads, that Marty and his two friends Lee, and Paul, formed when they were in elementary school.

Now we know a bit about Marty, let’s start the story, which started that morning.

It was like any other morning of that year, he got up, dressed, and decided to go to Doc’s seeing how he hadn’t been there for a few days. But when he got there and entered Doc’s garage, where Doc could be normally found, Marty discovered that neither Doc nor Einstein were there. Marty then proceeded to hook up his guitar to the giant amplifier. The teen had always wanted to see what it would be like if the amplifier was at full power but never did anything as Doc told him not to and was always there. But now that the scientist wasn’t there to stop him, Marty then turned up the volume and overdrive knobs all the way. He then played a single ‘power cord,’ which resulted in him being suddenly thrown back into a bookcase and the speaker being blown out.

Marty was amazed by how powerful the amplifier was, he had never seen one as powerful. He had to admit that Doc was a damn genius.

As he got up and tidied himself up, Doc’s phone rang, so answering it to see who it was, he found that it was Doc. Doc wanted Marty to meet him at Twin Pines Mall at 1:15am in order to assist him with his major breakthrough. He also warned Marty not to hook up into the amplifier due to a ‘slight possibility of overload.’ Wanting to know why Doc wanted to see what assistance Doc wanted so late, Marty agreed to meet him. That’s when all of the clocks in the garage started chiming eight o’clock. Doc then revealed that this was part of an experiment that he had been doing for the last year and that the clocks were all exactly twenty-five minutes slow. Upon remembering this and realizing that the time was actually 8:25am, Marty responded to Doc that he was late for school and headed out the door.

Unfortunately, Marty was a few minutes late to school, as he was about to enter school, met up with Jennifer, who told him not to go through the main entrance as Principal Strickland was looking for him and, if he got caught, it would be his fourth tardy slip in a row.

However, as they were trying to sneak their way to class, they got caught by none other than Principal Strickland, who presented them both with tardy slips. After finding out this was because Marty was at Doc’s garage, he warned Marty not to hang around with Doc because he believed that Doctor Brown was dangerous and a nutcase.

Then the principal noted that Marty’s band, The Pinheads, was auditioning for the dance after school. Strickland informed Marty not to waste his time, calling him a slacker and telling him that ‘no McFly has ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley.’ Marty responded by saying that history was going to change.

Once he finished school, Marty and his band auditioned for the Battle of the Bands in front of three adults and one student in the Hill Valley High School gymnasium. Their audition song was a hard rock version of The Power of Love, unfortunately, the head judge told them to stop after playing just a short time, saying they were too darn loud.

After failing the audition, Jennifer tried to convince Marty to send a tape of his band’s music to a record company called R & G Records, reminding him of what Doc always said, that if he put his mind to it, he could accomplish anything. But Marty doubted himself that he would be rejected, something he couldn’t think he could deal with. As he thought about it, he realized that he was starting to sound like his father, George. Jennifer, however, insisted that his father wasn’t that bad, pointing out that he was letting Marty borrow his car tomorrow night in order to allow them to go camping by the lake that weekend. But Marty thought to himself that she didn’t know his father as he did.

At that moment, Marty saw a Toyota 4X4 being delivered to Statler Toyota and vowed to his girlfriend that someday, he would purchase that car. They discussed how romantic it would be to ride in that car up to the lake. Jennifer then asked Marty whether he had told his mother about their plans, to which Marty replied that he did not. Instead, he told her that he was going camping with friends, in order to avoid another lecture about how she didn’t do such things in her youth, jokingly remarking that his mother was born a nun. Jennifer stated that his mother was just trying to keep him respectable, to which he responded by saying that she wasn’t doing a good job and closing in for a kiss.

However, before they could kiss, they were interrupted by a lady who represented the Hill Valley Preservation Society, who asked them for a contribution to keep the broken clock tower as is and impede Mayor Wilson in his plans to replace the clock. An irritated Marty donated a quarter to appease her and was, in turn, handed a flyer.

After the woman left, Marty and Jennifer tried to kiss again, only to be interrupted once more. This time by Jennifer’s father, who had come to pick her up. As Jennifer prepared to leave, Marty promised to call her. Jennifer was going to be at her grandmother’s house that evening, so she wrote down her grandmother’s telephone number, along with I love you, on the back of his Save the Clock Tower flyer.

When he arrived home that night, the teen found that his father’s car was totalled by his father’s supervisor, Biff Tannen, who had wrecked the car while drinking and driving. Like always though, Biff, blamed his father by claiming the car had a blind spot and forced him to pay up to have his suit dry-cleaned as he had spilt beer over himself in the crash. And like the weak man that his father was, he accepted that this was his fault. This is what Marty hated about his father, allowing so many people to walk over him. This is why he tried not to let it happen to him too often. But he knew that he had to pick his fight before fighting back, those with important parents, family members, or friends, he had to be careful of and deal with them in a way that whilst they knew it was him, had no way to back it up or they started, and he was defending himself. But his father wouldn’t even do that to defend himself.

After telling George to finish up his reports and hand them over to him the following day, Biff left. Marty confronted his father about the fact that his plans for tomorrow night had been ruined and that Biff was to blame. His father conceded that Marty was right but stated that Biff was his supervisor and that he wasn’t very good at confrontations. All he could say was that he was sorry. That was all he ever did, avoid confrontations, and keep saying sorry for things he didn’t do. Once again, Marty wondered why his mother stayed with him, she didn’t seem happy to be with the man her husband had become, but still stayed with him.

During dinner, Marty was told by his father that he was better off without having to worry about all the aggravation and headaches of playing at the dance, to which his brother Dave agreed. (He was much like his father, weak-minded, and didn’t defend himself. Not only that, but he did awful at school and was now working at Burger King, as he couldn’t work anywhere else.)

Marty and his siblings were informed by their mother that their uncle, “Jailbird” Joey, didn’t make parole again and she said it would be nice if they all dropped him a line. After Dave left for work, Marty was told by his sister Linda that, while he was outside pouting over the car, Jennifer had called him twice.

This prompted their mother to remark that she didn’t like Jennifer, stating that any girl who called a boy was just asking for trouble. After Linda asked how she was supposed to meet someone, their mother replied that it would simply just happen, retelling the story of she fell in love with their father after he was hit by her father’s car after falling out of a tree while birdwatching and how they had their first kiss at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance the following week.

Marty often wondered if his dad was different when he was his age and something happened to make him like this, someone who allowed himself to be walked all over. As if it wasn’t, Marty couldn’t understand why his mother would date his father.

Either way, seeing how he was going to be up later for Doc, Marty decided to go to bed for a few hours beforehand.

o0OoO0o

October 26, 1985:

It was 12:30am and Marty was in a deep sleep, he had forgotten to set his clock to wake him up at 12am, but that didn’t matter, as the phone began to ring. It would be the phone call that would forever change his future.

“Hello?” Marty answered the phone, feeling a bit groggy from waking up.

“Marty, you didn’t fall asleep, did you?” a man on the other end.

“Doc.” answered the phone as he realized what the time was, “No. No, don’t be silly.” the teen denied that he was asleep.

“Listen, this is very important. I’ve forgotten my video camera.” Doc told Marty, “Can you stop by my place and pick it up on your way to the mall?”

“Yeah, sure. I’m on my way.” Marty said as he hung up the phone.

Marty used his skateboard to go to Doc’s home and to Twin Pines Mall, he got there by 1:15am. Having a quick look around, Marty saw a white truck that read ‘Dr. E. Brown Enterprises,’ that was parked in the centre of the parking lot, where an old-looking dog was sitting on the ground across from it. Marty recognized the dog as Einstein, Doc’s pet sheepdog.

As Marty headed to the parking lot and greeted Einstein, and asked the dog as he rubbed its ears, “Hey, Einstein, where’s the doc, boy?”

That’s when the ramp at the back of the truck lowered and a DeLorean DMC-12, which had been heavily modified with coils and other odd components mounted on it, drove backwards out of the larger vehicle. The DeLorean slowed to a halt on the parking lot and its gull-wing door on the driver’s side opened as Doc Brown, who was clad in a white radiation suit, got out of the sports car.

“Doc!” Marty called out to his friend.

“Marty! You made it!” Doc said happy to see his young friend was there.

“Yeah.” Marty said with a smile.

“Welcome to my latest experiment.” Doc told the teen, “This is a big one, the one I’ve been waiting for all my life!”

“Well, it’s a DeLorean...” stated Marty, unsure what this experiment was and how the DeLorean was involved in it.

“Bear with me, Marty.” Doc informed his friend, “All your answers will be answered soon.” Then pulling the teen to the side, he said, “Roll the type and we’ll proceed.”

“Doc, is that a Devo shit?” asked Marty.

“Never mind that right now. Not now” Doc waved the question away.

As Marty held up the video camera, he said, “Okay, Doc, I’m ready.”

Doc stood in front of it and began with his introduction: “Good evening, I’m Dr. Emmett Brown. I’m standing in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. It’s Saturday morning, October 26, 1985, 1:18am. And this is temporal experiment number one.”

“C’mon, Einy, hey, hey boy, get in there, atta boy, in you go, get down, that’s it. Set down boy,” Doc called Einstein, where he then urged Einstein into the DeLorean and the dog sat on the driver’s seat as Doc buckled the seatbelt around him. “Please note that Einstein’s clock is in complete synchronisation with my control watch.” Doc held up his stopwatch and the stopwatch that Marty now noticed Einstein had one, he watched as both simultaneously changed from 1:18 to 1:19. “Got it?” he then asked the teen.

“Right, check, Doc,” Marty said as he continued to film.

“Good. Have a good trip Einstein, watch your head,” Doc said to the dog as he closed the door to the DeLorean. He pulled out a remote-control unit resembling those used for radio-controlled toy vehicles.

“You have that thing hooked up to the ... car?” Marty asked Doc incredulously.

“Watch this,” responded Doc, unwilling to give Marty any hints of what was about to occur. Doc began pushing the controls on the remote, and the car reversed quickly away from them. Doc continued to get the DeLorean in place as Marty, still filming, panned over from the car to Doc. “Not me, the car!” Marty quickly pointed the camera back on Einstein and the DeLorean.

“Watch this,” responded Doc, unwilling to give Marty any hints of what was about to occur. Doc began pushing the controls on the remote, and the car reversed quickly away from them. Doc continued to get the DeLorean in place as Marty, still filming, panned over from the car to Doc. “Not me, the car! The car!” Doc urged, Marty then quickly pointed the camera back at Einstein and the DeLorean, as it drove to the far end of the parking lot before slowing to a halt.

With the DeLorean now in position on the opposite side of the mall parking lot, Einstein barked, the DeLorean drove in reverse, heading further down the far end of the lot, and stopped again. Doc led Marty across the way and the two stood in a spot where the DeLorean was directly facing them up ahead.

“If my calculations are correct,” said Doc to Marty, “When this baby hits 88 miles per hour, you’re gonna see some serious shit.”

Marty was nervous. He knew that Doc was eccentric but mostly harmless, but this was Marty’s first direct encounter with one of his experiments. Maybe the others were right. Maybe Doc was an insane and dangerous scientist. He didn’t want to think about this about his friend, but still, he had to wonder.

There was no time to react. Marty was frozen when Doc hit the controls and the DeLorean’s wheels started moving. The DeLorean, however, remained in place due to the tires being slightly elevated. As the wheels kept moving faster, the odometer on Doc’s remote moved up.

20... 30... 40...

Doc looked at Marty, Marty looked back. Doc’s expression was one of excited anticipation, while Marty was wearing one of confusion and fear. Doc gave Marty a reassuring nod, although Marty didn’t seem to take much comfort in it.

50... 60... 70...

Doc flipped a switch on his controls and the car began moving at a good clip right towards them. Marty attempted to step out of the pathway of the car, but Doc grabbed him and pulled him back. “Watch this, watch this,” Doc said to Marty.

80... 85... 86... 87...

The car was still headed right for them, and now they had no time to get out of the way. Marty closed his eyes, expecting never to open them again when the DeLorean began glowing and blue electric sparks surrounded the vehicle.

88.

The car disappeared in a blinding white light, and two fiery tracks trailed between Doc and Marty’s legs where the DeLorean’s tires should have been.

Marty was gobsmacked, he couldn’t believe what he had just seen. Words failed him right then, he couldn’t let out what he was thinking, how he could have been killed or that the damn car disappeared like that.

“Ha, what did I tell you!” exclaimed Doc, who was jumping up and down, excited that his experiment worked. He then looked at his watch as he said, “Eighty-eight miles per hour. The temporal displacement occurred at exactly 1:20 A.M. and zero seconds.”

All that remained from the DeLorean was the licence plate that was spinning in the middle of the parking lot. Marty went to inspect the plate and burned his finger on the metal. “Hot, Jesus Christ, Doc! Jesus Christ, Doc, you disintegrated Einstein!” Marty cried out in shock. He couldn’t believe it, Doc was acting as if nothing was wrong. ’Has Doc finally last it?’ Marty thought to himself.

“Calm down, Marty, I didn’t disintegrate anything.” Doc reassured his young friend, “The molecular structure of Einstein and the car are completely intact.”

“Where the hell are they?” Marty wondered, horrified.

“The appropriate question is, not where the hell are they, but when the hell are they. Einstein has just become the world’s first-time traveller. I sent him into the future.” Doc paused for dramatic effect. “One minute into the future to be exact. And at exactly 1:21 A.M. we should catch up with him and the time machine.”

“Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc, are you telling me that you built a time machine ... out of a DeLorean?” Marty asked in shock as he took a few moments to process all of this.