Sitting the in dungeon-esque testing center at work allows time for a lot of thinking. Pondering, if you will. Whereas some people may mentally examine the darkest depths of their souls (eg. every episode of "The Adventures of Pete & Pete"), I prefer to stick to more important aspects of the universe: time travel. Out of any and all sci-fi plot devices, time travel is my favorite. Why? I'm sure a lot of people agree with me that it would kick ass to go back and fix a stupid personal mistake, or maybe take advantage of a missed opportunity. Or in the case of Back to the Future, make your dad less of a pussy, have your brother be a successful business man (who still lives at home...?) and your sister a man magnet. Oh, and you'll have a sweet 4x4 waiting in your garage!
I love Back to the Future. But can we agree that it makes no goddamn sense? Seriously. My lifelong love of this classic franchise blinded me to the blatant issues for a long time. Aside from stating the obvious of "Yes, I understand that having a DeLorean that has the ability to travel through time via plutonium and going 88 miles per hour isn't exactly plausible", the fundamental use of time travel is completely nonsensical. Time travel can't be used to confirm preordained events AND change the future.
In the first Back to the Future, Marty goes into the cafe to use their public telephone where he accidentally bumps into his horrendously awkward teenage father (note: this part rocks because it's where Biff utters the always great "McFly, you Irish bug!" line). But anyway, Goldie Wilson starts gabbing to the cafe owner that he's been studying at night school and is going to make something of himself, to which a stunned Marty blurts out "That's right! He's going to be mayor!". Goldie's eyes light up because now he has the great idea to work really hard and become mayor. Because we saw a "Re-Elect Mayor Goldie Wilson" campaign car roll by in 80s Hill Valley 20 minutes ago (or 30 years ahead, if that's how you care to look at it), we get a chuckle because it is now implied that Marty was behind it all. Okay so far, so good. Marty has pushed along a preordained event.
Skip to the end, and Marty has completely changed the way his family appears and behaves. His dad is totally cool, writes sci-fi novels, wears Ray Bans and drives a BMW. And Biff is his bitch. Awesome, right? No. Marty has altered his future. As badass of a future as it is (please refer back to the 4x4 mentioned previously), it sort of sucks because Marty has no knowledge of this future. Everything that happened before he wakes up for the last scene of the movie, he has no memories of. That really fucking sucks. I mean, honestly!
Oh and by the way, BTTF Part II makes no sense either. Given that Marty and Jessica run off with Doc at the end of the first film to travel into the future to save their delinquent children (both played by Michael J. Fox, disturbingly) they would have no children to save. They just spent all that time zooming around in a flying DeLorean!
BTTF Part III makes no sense because there is a FUCKING FLYING TRAIN at the end. STUPID. What a horrible way to end a sweet trilogy.
No comments:
Post a Comment