Back to the Future II

         Synchronize your watches. The future's coming back...

The film begins by re-showing the end of the previous film, where "Doc" Brown returns to the future. After refueling the new "Mr. Fusion" cold fusion reactor on his upgraded DeLorean time machine, he shepherds Marty McFly and Jennifer Parker (now played by Elisabeth Shue) in to take them into the future to fix an impending problem with their children. As the DeLorean takes off, now capable of powered flight as part of its upgrades, Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) accidentally sees the takeoff and disappearance of the flying DeLorean, and is surprised.

Shortly after they arrive in 2015, Jennifer begins asking too many questions about her future. Doc tranquilizes Jennifer, who is not necessary for his plan, explaining that he brought her along only because she saw the time machine. After landing in Hill Valley, Marty and Doc leave Jennifer in an alley, expecting her to remain unconscious while they attend to the crisis involving Marty's children. Doc explains that Martin McFly Jr., Marty's and Jennifer's son, is about to be approached by Griff Tannen, Biff's grandson, and his gang, who will offer him the chance to take part in a robbery. According to Doc, this event leads to the ruin of the entire McFly family. Marty impersonates his future son and tells Griff he will not join the robbery; however, his self-control crumbles when his courage is called into question, and he is accused of being a "chicken." The resulting confrontation leads to a hoverboard chase that causes Griff and his thugs to damage the glass facade of the nearby courthouse. Griff and his gang are arrested on an entirely different charge, Marty Jr.'s innocence has been assured without his knowledge and the planned robbery never occurs.

Before reuniting with Doc, Marty notices a sports almanac displayed in an antique store window, which lists sports statistics from 1950 through 2000. He buys it, intending to take the book back to 1985 and use the post-1985 data within for financial gain. Doc discovers the almanac, and sternly tells Marty that the purpose of inventing this time machine was for scientific investigation, not to win at gambling, and pitches the almanac into a garbage can. Meanwhile, Jennifer, still tranquilized, is found by the police, who mistake her for her future self after thumbprint identification, and take her to her future home, waking her up just as they arrive. Confused, she hides in a closet, not seeing Marlene McFly, Marty and Jennifer's daughter, letting George and Lorraine in for dinner. She also witnesses the Marty of 2015 being fired from his job after his Japanese boss catches him "cooperating" in an illegal scheme that his immediate boss and longtime 'friend,' Douglas Needles, goads him into joining, again by taunting him that he is too 'chicken' to try it. Traveling to the house, Doc leaves Marty with the DeLorean, finds Jennifer and sneaks her out of the house. Along the way, she encounters her older self, who has just arrived home, with the shock causing both women to pass out. Unable to carry her himself, Doc calls Marty for help, leaving the DeLorean unguarded.

While Doc and Marty rescue Jennifer, the elderly Biff (age 78), having overheard Doc and Marty talking about time travel and about the folly and hazards in using it to win at gambling, recovers the discarded sports almanac, steals the DeLorean and travels back in time. He returns the car just before Marty and Doc return to it to leave for their own time. Upon arrival in 1985, Marty and Doc find that Hill Valley has become a dilapidated, crime-ridden slum lorded over by 48 year-old Biff, who is now immeasurably rich, powerful and corrupt owing to decades of successful sports betting, the proceeds of which he invested in toxic waste dumps, oil, and to purchase the Hill Valley courthouse and convert it into a luxury hotel and casino, not to mention helping Richard Nixon run for a fifth term as President of the United States. Biff has also married Marty's widowed mother, Lorraine, after secretly killing her husband George on March 15, 1973. Doc deduces that the Biff of 2015 must have given the almanac to his younger self sometime in the past, also showing Marty that he has been committed to an insane asylum. Doc states they must find out when Biff gave the almanac to his younger self and stop the event, thereby restoring the present: once this is done, they will destroy the time machine, to prevent any further misuse of it. Interrupting the end scene from A Fistful of Dollars (which will echo in Part III) that Biff's watching on tv, resting in a bathtub with two lovers, Marty confronts Biff and finds out that he received the almanac on November 12, 1955, the date of the lightning storm that Marty used to get back to the future in Part I. Biff then intends to murder Marty (telling him that it's the same gun that he used to kill Marty's dad) as he now knows too much. Marty again is saved by Doc when Doc knocks out Biff with the DeLorean's gull-wing door.

Marty and Doc duly travel back to 1955 to prevent Biff from getting the almanac. Marty goes through a long and complicated series of events involving his multiple attempts to recover the almanac, all the while making sure that he does not interfere with past events again and does not undo all that he had previously done in 1955 in the first film to set his parents up with each other. After revisiting the events of the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, he eventually manages to steal the book from the 1955 Biff with the help of Doc in the flying DeLorean, and burns it, restoring history to its proper course, as evidenced by the changes in the newspapers from the alternative 1985, which now read "George McFly Honored" rather than "George McFly Murdered" and "Emmett Brown Commended" instead of "Emmett Brown Committed." As Doc fights the controls while attempting to land the DeLorean during the storm to pick Marty up, the car is struck by lightning, causing it to disappear, the time-travel capability having been triggered by the lightning. A few minutes later, a Western Union delivery man appears with a letter, which he explains was sent seventy years ago with the explicit instructions that it be delivered to Marty "at this exact location, at this exact minute, November 12, 1955". Marty opens the letter, which is from Doc, explaining that he is now living happily in 1885. Knowing he has only one source of help, Marty runs to the clock tower to find the Doc of 1955, just as lightning strikes to send the previous film's Marty back to the future. The shock of suddenly seeing the new Marty, whom (he thinks) he has just sent back to 1985 causes Doc to faint. The film ends as Marty tries to revive Doc, with the caption "To Be Concluded..." appearing.

                                                                          Copyright(C) 2007 - 2020. All rights reserved

back