What are our options for the big baddie?
- The Libyan terrorists who shoot Doc for not making them a nuclear bomb. It’s difficult to get hold of plutonium, even in 1985.
- George and Lorraine’s relationship. If they don’t fall in love, Marty disappears.
- Biff, who bullies George, Lorraine, and Marty.
- The nature of time itself.
There might be others, but this is all I can come up with for now. I thought about including Principal Strickland but he’s not really an antagonist as much as he is commentary on the McFly’s sad state through time.
All of those seem like viable options. Marty needs to warn Doc about the Libyans, which is why he wrote the letter. But Marty can’t tell Doc before he has to get to the starting line for their ballet of lightning bolt time travel. And Marty does not make it back in time to warn Doc. Instead, Doc pieces the letter together and reads it himself. Marty has already defeated the Libyan threat before he gets in the Delorean. He doesn’t know until Doc pops up from the parking lot with a bulletproof vest.
What about George and Loraine’s relationship? Marty already solved this one at the dance. Once they kiss to Earth Angel, Marty’s hand reappears. He has repaired the timeline. Their relationship is no longer a threat.
What about Biff? George already knocked him out. Biff won’t be a problem until the sequel.
The nature of time itself? Marty fixed his parent’s relationship and just has to follow Doc’s plan and get back to the future. Time will not betray him, but he must get to the wire as the lightning bolt hits. So what is preventing Marty from doing that? What is the challenge?
The ultimate boss in Back to the Future is a tree branch.
Yes, really. The whole exciting sequence of events is because a tree branch falls on Doc’s power line and he has to plug it back in, braving storm winds, heights, and crumbling old buildings.
The Delorean’s engine also gets an honorable mention as a mini-boss. It dies right as Marty finishes his time travel checklist. How do Marty and Doc defeat these bad guys? Marty hits his head into the steering wheel, and the car starts and Doc plugs the power line back in just in time.
But, when you look at it like that, it does not do justice to this ending. Back to the Future has one of the best endings in cinematic history! You know exactly how little time Doc has to plug everything back in. The old tower crumbles under his feet, and he slips from the clock face, the plug catching on his pant leg. Doc might die trying to plug this back in, and Marty has already started his run. But Doc finally gets both ends of the cable in his hands, but they won’t reach because of the tree branch! So he pulls to get more slack, and the other side unplugs!
Doc doesn’t have enough time to walk, so he wraps the line around the clock arm and turns the power line into a zipline to get down! The tree branch that caused all the problems now helps Doc make it back to the ground! Then Doc frees the cable and plugs it back in, just as the lightning strikes.
When you think of a movie finale or a cinematic set piece, you probably do not imagine someone plugging in an electrical socket or moving a tree branch. But that is exactly what Back to the Future’s finale is about.
I think part of the reason it is so exciting is we are prepared for what to expect. Doc showed us using models how the final sequence would play out. The music plays a big part, too. We worry for Doc as he scrambles high above Hill Valley’s town square. We feel Marty’s frustration when the Delorean won’t start. The actors also do a great job. You probably can hear Doc screaming in frustration in the back of your mind.
So how can this boring bad guy make for one of the most exciting endings in film history? I think part of it is the ticking clock. It isn’t just one clock. The clock tower ticking behind Doc, Marty’s alarm clock, and we see the Delorean racing down the street along with its speedometer. Doc only has the time it takes for Marty to get up to 88 miles per hour.
But I think the stand-out portion of the finale is the clear series of problems Doc has to solve. It is all communicated clearly and visually. We know when that giant plug disconnects. So here are all the problems our heroes have to solve for the finale.
- Doc has to climb around a gargoyle while holding the plug in one hand. He slips.
- Doc inches around the clock face but can’t quite reach the plug. Then the ledge below him breaks, and he falls, dropping the plug in his off-hand. Luckily, the plug catches on his pant leg.
- The Delorean dies on Marty.
- Doc grabs the plug hanging from the clock tower to pull himself up, but the one attached to his pant leg rips his pants as it almost slips away.
- Marty’s alarm clock goes off. The Delorean still won’t start. He hits his head against the steering wheel, and the engine roars. Marty starts his run.
- Doc climbs back onto the ledge, but the two connectors won’t reach. He pulls, and the street connection unplugs. Doc screams.
- Doc plugs the clock tower side back in, loops the power cable to make a zip line, and slides back to the street.
- Doc Wrestles the street plug back away from the street and plugs it in just as the lightning strikes, sending Marty back to the future!
Doc already devised a plan to get Marty back earlier in the movie. Nothing in the plan changes in the finale, except a tree branch falls on his power line, and Doc has to plug it back in. The Delorean shuts off for a moment, but it starts up in time for Marty to make his run. Marty does not have that many problems to solve. It’s mostly on Doc. But because we understand the plan so clearly, we are on the edge of our seats watching Doc struggle to plug the cable back in. He could die trying to plug in this electrical socket! And if Doc fails, Marty will be stuck in high school with his parents until Doc can steal more Uranium.
But Marty won’t die. His life isn’t at risk; just his 1985 high school career would be over. But because things are moving so quickly, and we have so many ticking clocks and problems for Doc to solve, we are all in on this time travel experiment. Marty must get back to the future! It’s like watching a launch sequence for a rocket.
And to top it all off, you have Marty and Doc’s friendship. Doc cheers for Marty when he starts his run. Marty sees Doc plugging in the socket and is worried for him. And after Marty leaves, Doc cheers in the street. Doc already knew his time machine worked when Marty showed him the Flux capacitor, which Doc designed just before Marty arrived. But seeing it all work, Doc is ecstatic, and so are we.
It’s hard to believe a wayward tree branch makes such an extraordinary ending possible, but it does. For me, Back to the Future’s ending shows that solving simple problems with some old-school stunts can be more exciting than any special effects extravaganza.
Daniel N. Blair 