Logline: High school teenager Marty McFly is accidentally sent to 1955 in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his friend, the eccentric scientist Doc Brown.
Writer: Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale
Director: Robert Zemeckis
Genre: Science Fiction
Starring: Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, Crispin Glover
Release Date: July 3, 1985
Script Can Be Found Here
As part of a weekly series, I’m looking at some of the WGA’s List of Top 101 Screenplays to see how everyone’s favorite screenwriting formula shows up. I neither condone nor condemn the framework. I’m just deeply curious about how it shows up in modern, great films.
Rank on WGA List: #56
“Back to the Future” Summary:
In 1985, Marty McFly is a clever teenager who lives in the fictional suburb of Hill Valley, CA. Although he comes from a bit of an underachieving family (with two loser siblings, dad George constantly being picked on by Biff the bully, and alcoholic mom Lorraine), he nevertheless has musical aspirations, a girlfriend named Jennifer, and a friendship with eccentric mad scientist friend Doc Emmett Brown. One night, Doc summons Marty to the Twin Pines mall, where Doc reveals his latest invention, a time traveling DeLorean, and does a successful test run with his dog, Einstein. When Libyan terrorists show up and shoot Doc Brown for the plutonium he swindled. Marty drives away in the DeLorean, breaking the space-time continuum and arriving in Mill Valley, 1955 (the coordinates Doc had entered). Stuck in 1955, Marty learns that his father was still a dweeb then (and picked on by Biff). When Marty rescues George from an oncoming car, he’s knocked unconscious and taken in by Lorraine (who develops a crush on Marty). Marty tracks down a younger Doc to try to get him back to the future, but Doc explains that the only power source that could get him back to 1985 is the lightning from the clock tower. Marty notices in a photograph that’s on him that his siblings are beginning to fade, and Doc realizes that Marty’s actions are altering his future. For instance, Lorraine was supposed to save George, and Lorraine is developing a crush on Marty. Marty tries to get George and Lorraine together at the dance, but it fails when Biff’s gang locks Marty in the trunk of the performing band’s car. George is arrive, is assaulted by Biff. After Biff hurts Lorraine, George knocks him unconscious and escorts Lorraine to the dance. The band frees Marty from the car, but as the lead guitarist injures his hand, Marty is forced to perform while George and Lorraine share a first kiss. Marty then proceeds to the courthouse to meet Doc.
Doc discovers a letter from Marty warning him about his future and rips it up. To save Doc from the Libyans, Marty recalibrates the DeLorean to return ten minutes before he had left the future. Lightning strikes, and it sends Marty back to 1985. He arrives just as Doc is being shot. While Marty grieves, Doc sits up revealing a bulletproof vest and noting that he pieced Marty’s note back together. When Doc takes Marty home, he sees that his father is now a successful science fiction author, his mother is happy, his siblings are successful, and Biff is a servile valet. Marty reunites with Jennifer only for Doc Brown to show up in the DeLorean, insisting that they need to go into the future with him to save their children.
“Back to the Future”’s 15-Point Breakdown:
| Number | STC Element | Page(s) in Script | Event in Script |
| 1 | Opening Image (page 1) | Page 1 | In script: INT. HIGH SCHOOL CLASSROOM – DAY A WEIRD FLICKERING WHITE LIGHT strobes the screen, accompanied by PROJECTOR NOISE and an OFFSCREEN CONTROL VOICE. CONTROL VOICE 5…4…3…2…1…detonate! The light becomes brighter as we pan over to MARTY MCFLY, 17, a good looking kid wearing Porsche mirrored sunglasses. The mirrored lenses reflect the MUSHROOM CLOUD of an ATOMIC EXPLOSION. In movie: It’s a room of clocks in Doc Brown’s studio |
| 2 | Theme Stated (by page 5) | (Not in script)/ 00:07:52 in film | In movie: STRICKLAND: No McFly ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley. MARTY: Well, history is gonna change. |
| 3 | Set-Up (pages 1-10) | Pages 1 – 17 | Six Things that Need FIxing: In script/movie: 1. Marty McFly’s in trouble with Strickland, gets detention, 2. He and his band (the Pinheads) get rejected from performing, 3. He’s afraid of sending his demo into a record company, 4. HIs family is a bunch of losers (including his dad) (note: these are all Marty-centric things). Other non-Marty things that need fixing are 5. The clock tower, and 6. Biff is beating up on his father, even though Biff smashed his father’s car (and has him do reports) 7. Lorraine doesn’t like Jennifer |
| 4 | Catalyst (page 12) | Pages 17 – 20 | Doc sends Einstein in the DeLorean back in time, allowing him to be the first time-traveler |
| 5 | Debate (pages 12-25) | Pages 20 – 25 | Emmett explains the technical side of it (including the flux capacitor); he puts the plutonium (that he swindled from the Libyans) in it; he wants to go into the future and is planning for that. The Libyans show up and start shooting, killing Doc Brown. Marty gets into the DeLorean and outruns them. |
| 6 | Break Into Two (page 25) | Page 26 | Marty leaves Hill Valley 1985, arrives in Hill Valley, 1955. This is the point of no return. If 1985 is the thesis, 1955 is the antithesis. |
| 7 | B-Story (page 30) | Page 35 | He wakes up with his mom taking care of him (This is after getting knocked out by a car (for trying to rescue his dad). His mom has a crush on him. She thinks his name is Calvin Klein. |
| 8 | Fun and Games (pages 30-55) | Pages 35 – 60 | Now that Marty is in 1955 (and his mom has the hots for him), he has a dinner with his mom’s family; he finds Doc and wants to get back to the future; he shows him the car and Doc shows the drawing for the flux capacitor and the video. Needs 1.21 gigawatts! |
| 9 | Midpoint (page 55) | Pages 45-49 | To get back to the future, Marty needs a little bit of plutonium (which is impossible to come by). Marty is stuck. Doc learns that the clock tower will be hit with lightning. If they can harness the power of that, then Marty can go back to the future. They look at the photo; the brother is being erased. If Marty doesn’t fix the past, then his family will be erased. He’ll be stuck. Doc explains that Marty needs to introduce his father to his mother. |
| 10 | Bad Guys Close In (pages 55-75) | Pages 49 – 67 | In the cafeteria, Marty tries to get his father in touch with his mother. He stands up to Biff. Marty continues to pressure George. He’s reluctant. (Marty’s brother disappears from a photo). Marty dresses up as a spaceman and plays Van Halen, which scares George. George hunts down McFly, who urges him to go into the diner and ask his mother out. Biff interrupts. Marty outruns Biff on a makeshift skateboard, and has Biff end up covered in manure. This only encourages more attraction from his mom. Doc shows Marty his plan (with models); it backfires. Mom tracks him down. She wants to be asked to the dance. He reluctantly says yes. Marty’s still trying to get George to ask Lorraine. Doc Brown and Marty set up. Marty writes a letter about the terrorists in 1985 and seals it. Enchantment Under the Sea dance begins; Lorraine and Marty park and kiss. Biff interrupts. Fights with Marty. His goons put him in a trunk. Marty’s locked in the trunk while Biff is date-raping Lorraine. George stands up to Biff, saving Lorraine. George decks Biff and rescues Lorraine. Nevertheless, Marty sees his sister is disappearing from the photo. With Marvin’s hand sliced, they can’t play. Marty steps up to the plate and plays so they can kiss. |
| 11 | All is Lost (page 75) | Pages 74 – 77 | Whiff of Death: Another guy cuts in to dance with Lorraine. Marty is fading from the photo and from the stage. He’s literally dying! |
| 12 | Dark Night of the Soul (pages 75-85) | Pages 77 – 79 | He fades back in, then plays Van Halen. His parents dance and kiss. “I guess you guys aren’t ready for that yet, but your kids are gonna love it.” |
| 13 | Break Into Three (page 85) | Page 79 | Now that Lorraine and George are together, Marty plays. (It’s the beginning of synthesis). Now Marty needs to get back to 1985. |
| 14 | Finale (pages 85-110) | Pages 79 – 96 | He meets Doc Brown at the Town Square. The photo is restored. They get ready to send Marty back to the future. Doc sees the letter. Doc rips it up. The wire fell down from the tower! Doc goes up into the tower. Marty has to tell him about the future. The bell chimes. With Doc’s help, he gets back to 1985. Now that he’s survived, he has to rescue Doc. He has to outrun the Libyans. Marty sees himself going back to the future. Doc is alive. He has a bulletproof vest (because of the letter). He comes back and sees that his family has changed. |
| 15 | Final Image (page 110) | Page 96 | The DeLorean goes into the future. |
“Back to the Future” Analysis:
While Back to the Future hits a lot of the STC metrics, it does so at a somewhat different pace (since many of the above events don’t exactly arrive “on time” in terms of script length).
That is perfectly okay. Overall, Back to the Future works extremely well because its so incredibly integrated. That is, in following its own internal story logic (which should be the writer’s top priority), the details are organic to the story and so many of them that are set-up in Act One are paid-off/revisited in Acts Two and Three.
I wanted to point out a few STC elements that need a bit more attention; if these are considered rules, I’d like to show how Back to the Future is breaking them.
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- Catalyst/Debate/Break Into Two: Per STC Goes to the Movies, the catalyst is defined as “something that is done to the hero to shake him. It’s the movie’s first whammy.” Once there is a noted disturbance in the protagonist’s life, there is a Debate which (as defined by STC) is “the section of the script, be it a scene or series of scenes, when the hero doubts the journey he must take.”
If we’re going by that definition, then either the Catalyst is 1) Marty getting the call from Doc Brown to meet him at the Twin Pines Mall, or 2) the Libyans arrive to kill Doc Brown. Between these two, the whammy seems to be the Libyans arriving to kill Doc Brown because it’s an event that shakes Marty McFly, it’s considerably high stakes, and it’s revisited later in the film.
That being said, Marty doesn’t have a lot of room for debate. With Doc presumably dead, he has to take action immediately and hightail it out of there by going back in time to 1955.
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- A-plot: In film, any plot usually revolves around a dramatic question pertaining to the A-plot that’s implied but never overtly stated. Here, the central question seems to be “Will Marty be able to get back to the future in the DeLorean so that he can save Doc Brown?” I see it as such because the major moments of his journey are 1) He goes back to 1955 at the end of act one, 2) at the midpoint, Doc notes that if they can harness the power of the lightning in the clock tower, then Marty can go back to the future, 3) he goes back to the future and saves Doc Brown who, thankfully, because of the letter wears a bulletproof vest.
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- B-plot: As B-plots tend to be the romantic and/or secondary plot, I posit that its dramatic question is “Will Marty get his parents together to kiss at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance so that he can save himself?” As Doc notes when Marty meets him in the past, he’s interrupted the space-time continuum by pushing his father out of the way of an oncoming car and taking the hit himself. Because his parents now know of his existence (and Mom’s developing the hots for him), his very existence is at stake because he and his siblings are disappearing from the photograph that he has.
Here’s what’s ingenious about Back to the Future: the B-plot could, in fact, be part of the A-plot; they’re one and the same. I nevertheless see it as separate; all things pertaining to his parents are B-plot (with the end result of Marty saving himself), and all things pertaining to getting back to the future are A-plot (with the end result of Marty saving Doc).
Open to hearing your thoughts: