- "Everyone knows hoverboards don't work over water."--OK, I can accept this because the water interferes with the magnetic repulsion that theoretically makes hoverboards work, but if that were the case, wouldn't the hoverboard just stop hovering and fall into the water rather than just freezing?
- It's repeatedly shown that the time machine has three displays--current date, destination date, and date last visited. After 2015-Biff travels to 1955, how do neither Marty nor Doc notice that the "date last visited" display no longer shows 1985, but rather 1955, particularly given that they have to reset the time circuits to travel back to 1985? Wouldn't this not only tell them that someone had time traveled, but given them the exact date and time he went to/came from, thus obviating the need to go to creepy alternate 1985 at all?
Monday, July 8, 2013
GREAT SCOTT, I AM OVERANALYZING: While stuck at the Pittsburgh airport yesterday, I wound up re-watching Back to the Future II on my iPad--two questions:
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The real question is why seemingly smart people keep falling for Photoshopped "TODAY IS THE DAY MARTY WENT TO IN THE FUTURE" scams.
ReplyDeleteIt is not the "hoverability" part of the hoverboard that ceases to work on the water, it is the propulsion forward. On land, you gain forward momentum by pushing off with your feet (or grabbing onto a passing vehicle and using it tow you). On water, you cannot gain such forward momentum as easily. You can paddle with your feet a little (McFly tries this). You could also theoretically "punt" yourself forward, Venice-style. But "power" is really what's needed to propel yourself forward.
ReplyDeleteThis is what Tannen does...he has engines on his board to propel him over water, and his flunkies use towlines from Tannen's board to keep up.
Why was Doc in such a hurry at the end of BttF 1, anyway? He has a time machine! They could've fixed this at any point prior to when the bad things started.
ReplyDeleteDoc wants to make the change as close to the critical moment as possible so he minimizes risk/damage to the space time continuum.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that does annoy a bit--the "nobody calls me chicken" thing that's so important to the latter two films doesn't show up at all in the first one.
But nothing that Marty and Jennifer do in his first hours, days, weeks, months back in 1985 from 1955 are going to affect his ability to fix things before they go bad in 2015.
ReplyDeleteI'm sort of hoping this principle applies if/when Continuum ends. That is, I hope that Kiera ultimately returns to the moment at which she was sent back in time, such that her husband and son don't experience her absence. (That is, of course, IF what's going on in 2012 isn't changing the future.) (I realize that this post probably makes sense to at most 4 people here.)
ReplyDeleteExcellent explanation! The thing I can't get figure out how they could have avoided in BttF2 is the time travel error that drives the whole plot. After Biff goes back to 1955 and drops off the almanac, he's changed the future, and when he goes forward again, he should be going to the 2015 BiffWorld future, and the movie should end, as Doc and Marty in 2015 would have been wiped out of existence. Obviously that would be an inferior movie, so I'm fine with them playing fast and loose with the rules, I just wish they hadn't had to.
ReplyDeleteI think the theory here is that OldBiff returned to 2015 before YoungBiff had a chance to place any bets and thus change history, so the ripples had not yet begun. Had he stuck around in 1955 for longer, the ripples might have begun. (For instance, Marty did not disappear immediately from existence after disrupting his parents' first meeting in 1955.)
ReplyDeleteActually, it's arguably even darker, since in BiffWorld 2015, Biff is dead, so Biff wouldn't have been able to return to 2015 at all, leaving Marty, Doc, and Jennifer stranded in a timeline that no longer existed at all.
11/22/63 - King explains it all.
ReplyDeleteI sadly haven't started the second season yet, but I'm right there with you. (And one reason I like the show a lot? A show filmed in Vancouver THAT IS SET IN VANCOUVER.)
ReplyDelete