Back To The Future

Marty McFly is a teenager living in Hill Valley, California, son of the cowardly George McFly, who is frequently picked on by his bullying supervisor Biff Tannen, and the prudish Lorraine Baines McFly. On the morning of October 25, 1985, his eccentric friend, scientist Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown, calls him, asking to meet at 1:15am the following morning at Twin Pines Mall. At dinner that night, Lorraine recounts how she first met George when her father hit him with his car as George was "bird-watching".That night, Marty meets Doc as planned in the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. Doc reveals a DeLorean DMC-12 which he has modified into a time machine. As Marty videotapes, Doc explains that the car travels to a programmed date and time upon reaching 88 miles per hour; a plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor generates the 1.21 gigawatts of power required. Demonstrating how to program the machine, Doc enters in November 5, 1955 as the target date, explaining that it was the day he conceived the idea of the flux capacitor, the device which "makes time travel possible." Before Doc can depart for his planned trip into the future, a group of Libyan terrorists, from whom he stole the plutonium, arrive in a Volkswagen Bus and murder him. Marty drives away in the DeLorean, with the time machine activated and the Libyans in pursuit; in mid-chase, the DeLorean hits 88 miles per hour and is inadvertently transported back in time to 1955.Marty hides the DeLorean (which is inoperative) and makes his way into the Hill Valley of 1955. Marty runs into his father George, then a teenager, and discovers him to be a peeping tom instead of a birdwatcher. As George is about to be hit by a car, Marty pushes him out of the way and takes the impact. The car turns out to be driven by Lorraine's father, resulting in Lorraine becoming infatuated with Marty instead of George. Marty is disturbed by her aggressive flirtations, not only because of the incestuous connotations but because they contrast sharply with the prudish mother he is familiar with. He flees from her home to find Doc Brown.Using a camcorder, Marty shows Doc the recording of the 1985 experiment. Doc is aghast at the time machine's power requirements, telling Marty that the only possible source of that much power in 1955 is a bolt of lightning. Marty remembers that lightning will strike the courthouse tower the following Saturday at exactly 10:04pm. As a result, Doc begins planning how to harness the bolt's power. Doc also deduces that Marty, by saving his father from the accident, has prevented his parents from meeting; he instructs Marty to set things right or else he, along with his siblings, will never exist.After several failed attempts at playing matchmaker, Marty eventually creates a plan to have George appear to rescue Lorraine from Marty's overt sexual advances on the night of a school dance. However, the plan goes awry when a drunken Biff shows up unexpectedly, pulls Marty from the car, and forces himself on Lorraine. As planned, George arrives to rescue Lorraine, but is shocked to find Biff instead of Marty. Biff orders him to turn around and walk away, but George cannot bring himself to ignore Lorraine's pleas for help. Biff easily subjugates George, but when Biff strikes Lorraine, George finally snaps and knocks out his tormentor with a single punch. A smitten Lorraine follows George to the dance floor, where they finally kiss for the first time, affirming Marty's future.Meanwhile, Doc connects a lightning rod from the courthouse tower to a power line rigged between two streetlights; the DeLorean, equipped with a modified trolley pole, is planned to hit the line when the lightning bolt strikes to receive enough power to travel time. Marty writes Doc a letter to warn Doc of his murder in 1985, but Doc indignantly tears up the letter without reading it, describing the dangers of altering the future. Despite unplanned debacles, Doc's scheme is successful, and Marty returns to 1985. Though Marty alters his time of arrival, he arrives too late to stop Doc from being shot. As Marty mourns Doc, Doc revives and opens his radiation suit to reveal a bulletproof vest. He shows Marty the letter from 1955, taped back together; when Marty asks Doc about his belief in not altering the future, Doc replies, "I figured, what the hell?"That morning, Marty awakens to find his home and family significantly improved. Lorraine is physically fit and is no longer prudish, George has become a self-confident and successful science fiction novelist, and Biff has become a servile toady to George. Just as Jennifer and Marty reunite, Doc arrives, insisting frantically that they must accompany him to defuse a problem concerning their future children. Once they enter the DeLorean, it converts into a hovercar, and the DeLorean rushes into the screen as the time machine activates, concluding the movie.