BACK TO THE FUTURE - WHAT'S THE PLOT?

 

BACK TO THE FUTURE – What’s the Plot?

Directed by Robert Zemeckis
Written by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale

The year is 1985, the place, Hill Valley, California.  A teenage boy named Marty McFly visits the home and lab of his friend, Emmett "Doc" Brown, an eccentric scientist.
             
Even though Doc wasn’t home, Marty prepares to practice playing his electric guitar with the help of a giant amp that was probably built by Doc Brown himself.

Not realizing how powerful the amp was, Marty turns up the volume to its highest level.
After playing a simple chord on his guitar, the amp explodes with a loud bang that throws Marty back a few feet. After a phone call from Doc, Marty realizes that all his clocks are behind and that he is late for school.

Once At school, Marty meets his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker. He tells Jennifer that he fears that he will become like his parents despite his ambitions of being a rock star.

          
At home, Marty's nerdy father George, is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen, while his mother Lorraine is an overweight, depressed alcoholic. Lorraine tells them how she met George when her father hit him with his car and how they fell in love when she nursed him back to health. 

Marty meets Doc at a parking lot by a shopping mall at 1:16 A.M. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean car.  
    
After a successful test with his dog, Doc tells Marty that the time machine is powered by plutonium he stole from Libyan terrorists. 

While showing Marty the controls, Doc sets the date to November 5, 1955, the day he invented time travel. The terrorists suddenly arrive and open fire on them, killing Doc on the spot.       

Not knowing what to do, Marty escapes in the DeLorean and accidentally activates the time machine. Marty jumps back in time to 1955 without realizing he didn’t have any plutonium to return.

While exploring Hill Valley, he encounters the teenage George, and discovers that Biff has been bullying him.            

After Marty saves George from an oncoming car, he is knocked unconscious and awakens to find himself tended to by a teenage Lorraine. By doing this, she falls in love with Marty instead of George, therefore changing the future.

          
Marty tracks down Doc's younger self for help. Doc is unimpressed with Marty's knowledge of the future, but finally believes him when he accurately recounts how Doc invented time travel. 

          
With no plutonium, Doc explains that the only power source capable of generating the necessary 1.21 gigawatts of electricity for the time machine is a bolt of lightning. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that recounts a lightning strike at the town's clock tower due the coming Saturday night, November 12. 

Doc warns Marty that he must find a way for Lorraine to fall in love with George or he will be erased from existence. 

After Lorraine asks Marty to the school dance, Marty devises a plan with George: he will pretend inappropriate advances on Lorraine, allowing George to "rescue" her. 

The plan goes wrong when Biff appears instead of George. He bullies Marty, making his gang lock him in the trunk of the performing band's car and attempts to force himself on Lorraine.

           
Once George appears, he is bullied by Biff. Enraged, George knocks out Biff, and Lorraine accompanies him to the dance.

The band scheduled to play at the dance rescues Marty.  However, while unlocking the trunk, the lead guitarist cuts his hand preventing him from playing.  

Marty offers to help the band by playing the guitar instead. When the band plays a romantic ballad, George and Lorraine finally kiss, securing Marty’s existence in the future.

         
After playing Chuck Berry’s “Johnny B Good” to a stunned audience, Marty returns to the clock tower.  

He manages to race the DeLorean as the lightning strikes the clock tower, sending Marty back to 1985. 

After watching Doc get shot again, Marty grieves until Doc gets up and reveals that he had read Marty's warnings and worn a bulletproof vest. Doc takes Marty home and departs to the future.
          

Marty awakens the next morning to find that his father is now a confident and successful author, his mother is fit and happy, and Biff is now an simple auto valet.
    

As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc reappears with the DeLorean and insists that they return with him to help their future children. 

They all board the De Lorean, which now flies, and travel into the future!

     

The End…?