Complete listed story — includes the ending
Back to the Future
In 1985, teenager Marty McFly lives in Hill Valley, California, with his depressed alcoholic mother, Lorraine; his older siblings, who are professional and social failures; and his meek father, George, who is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen. After Marty's band fails a music audition, he confides in his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, that he fears becoming like his parents despite his ambitions.
That night, Marty meets his eccentric scientist friend, Emmett "Doc" Brown, in the Twin Pines mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean, powered by plutonium he swindled from Libyan terrorists. After Doc inputs a destination time of November 5, 1955 (the day he conceived his time travel invention), the terrorists arrive unexpectedly and gun him down. Marty flees in the DeLorean, inadvertently activating time travel when reaching 88 miles per hour (142 kilometers per hour).
Arriving in 1955, Marty discovers he has no plutonium, so he cannot return to 1985. While exploring a burgeoning Hill Valley, Marty encounters his teenage father, discovering Biff was bullying George even then. George falls into the path of an oncoming car while spying on the teenage Lorraine changing clothes, and Marty is knocked unconscious while saving him. He wakes to find himself tended to by Lorraine, who becomes infatuated with him. Marty tracks down and convinces a younger Doc that he is from the future. Doc explains the only source available in 1955 capable of generating the 1.21 gigawatts of power required for time travel is a lightning bolt. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that documents an upcoming lightning strike at the town's courthouse. As Marty's siblings begin to fade from a photo he carries with him, Doc realizes Marty's actions are altering the future and jeopardizing his existence: Lorraine was supposed to tend to George instead of Marty after the car accident. Early attempts to get his parents acquainted fail, Marty gains the animosity of Biff, and Lorraine's infatuation with Marty deepens.
Lorraine asks Marty to the school dance, and he plots to feign inappropriate advances on her, allowing George to intervene and rescue her, but the plan goes awry when Biff's gang locks Marty in the trunk of the performing band's car, while Biff forces himself onto Lorraine. George arrives expecting to find Marty but is assaulted by Biff. After Biff hurts Lorraine, an enraged George knocks him unconscious and escorts the grateful Lorraine to the dance. The band frees Marty from their car, but the lead guitarist injures his hand in the process, so Marty takes his place, performing while George and Lorraine share their first kiss. With his future no longer in jeopardy, Marty hurries to the courthouse to meet Doc.
Doc discovers a letter from Marty warning him about his future and rips it up, worried about the consequences. To save Doc, Marty recalibrates the DeLorean to return ten minutes before he had left the future. The lightning strikes, sending Marty back to 1985, but the DeLorean breaks down, forcing Marty to run back to the mall. He arrives as Doc is being shot. While Marty grieves at his side, Doc sits up, revealing he had pieced Marty's note back together and is wearing a bulletproof vest. He takes Marty home and departs to 2015 in the DeLorean. Marty wakes the next morning, discovering his father is now a confident and successful science fiction author, his mother is fit and happy, his siblings are successful, and Biff is a servile valet in George's employ. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc suddenly reappears in the DeLorean, insisting they return with him to the future to help their children.
Back to the Future Part II
On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown arrives unexpectedly in the DeLorean time machine, persuading Marty McFly and his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, to travel to the future with him and help their future children. Once they arrive in 2015, Doc incapacitates Jennifer, leaving her asleep in an alley to avoid letting her learn about her own future. Doc explains that their son Marty Jr. will be arrested for participating in a robbery with Biff Tannen's grandson Griff, leading to a chain of events that destroys the McFly family.
Doc instructs Marty to switch places with the identical Marty Jr. and refuse Griff's offer, but Griff goads Marty into a fight by calling him "chicken", and a hoverboard chase ensues. Griff and his gang are arrested, saving Marty's future children. Before rejoining Doc, Marty purchases an almanac containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. Doc discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can adequately dispose of it, they are interrupted by the police, who have found Jennifer incapacitated and are taking her to her 2015 home. They pursue, as does an elderly Biff, who has overheard their conversation and retrieved the discarded almanac.
Jennifer wakes up in her 2015 home and hides from the McFly family. She overhears that her future life with Marty is not what she expected, due to his involvement in an automobile accident, and witnesses Marty being goaded by his co-worker, Douglas Needles, into a shady business deal, resulting in his firing. Jennifer tries to escape the house but faints after encountering her future self. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Marty and Doc, Biff steals the time machine and returns it. Marty and Doc return to 1985, leaving an unconscious Jennifer on her front porch to sleep off the day's events as a dream.
Marty gradually realizes that the 1985 they have returned to is not the one he knows. Biff, having used the almanac to secure a fortune, is now one of the country's wealthiest and most corrupt men. He has turned Hill Valley into a chaotic dystopia with a casino hotel, secretly killed Marty's father, George, in 1973, forced Marty's mother Lorraine to marry him, and sent Marty to boarding school in Switzerland. Meanwhile, this timeline's version of Doc has been committed to a mental hospital. Doc deduces that old Biff took the time machine to give his younger self the almanac, and Marty learns from the alternate 1985 Biff that he received it on November 12, 1955, the date Marty had recently visited. Biff, acting on his future self's advice, tries to kill Marty, who flees with Doc to 1955.
Marty secretly follows the 1955 Biff and watches him receive the almanac from his 2015 self. Marty then follows him to the high school dance, carefully avoiding interrupting the events from his previous visit, and being forced to intervene when Biff's gang goes after the other Marty performing onstage. Marty finally gets the almanac but loses it after being again goaded into a fight with Biff. Marty chases after Biff's car on the hoverboard, getting the almanac back as Biff is left to crash into a manure truck for the second time in a week.
Marty burns the almanac, nullifying the changes to the timeline that it had caused, as Doc hovers above in the time machine. Before Marty can join him, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears, leaving Marty once again stranded in 1955. A Western Union courier arrives and delivers a letter to Marty from Doc, who tells him that the lightning strike transported him to 1885. Marty races back into town to find the 1955 Doc, who had just helped the other Marty to return to 1985. Shocked by Marty's sudden reappearance and that he is "back from the future", Doc faints.
Back to the Future Part III
On November 12, 1955, moments after witnessing Emmett "Doc" Brown disappear in his DeLorean, Marty McFly learns that Doc was sent 70 years into the past to 1885. Using information from Doc's 1885 letter, Marty and the 1955 Doc find and repair the DeLorean, hidden away by Doc in 1885, so that Marty can return to 1985. After finding it, Marty comes across a tombstone inscribed with Doc's name, erected by the town's then-new schoolteacher Clara Clayton, stating that Doc was killed by Biff Tannen's great-grandfather, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, over 80 dollars, six days after writing the letter.
Despite the letter's warning, Marty travels to September 2, 1885, to save Doc, arriving in the middle of a cavalry pursuit of Native Americans. Marty evades the pursuit, but damages the car's fuel line. Chased by a bear, he is knocked unconscious and found by his Irish-born great-great-grandparents Seamus and Maggie McFly, who allow him to stay the night. The next morning, under the alias Clint Eastwood, Marty arrives in a newly founded Hill Valley but runs afoul of Buford and his gang. Doc rescues Marty from Buford's attempted lynching. Doc agrees to leave 1885 after learning his fate, but without gasoline, the DeLorean cannot reach 88 miles per hour (142 kilometers per hour) to time-travel. He proposes using a steam locomotive to push the DeLorean to that speed.
While inspecting a rail spur, Doc saves Clara from falling into the ravine, averting her death from the original timeline. They fall in love. At a town festival, Buford tries shooting Doc, but after Marty intervenes, Buford challenges him to a showdown in two days by calling him "yellow". Doc Brown urges Marty not to react to provocation, letting it slip that Marty's impulsiveness causes a life-changing accident in the future.
Although reluctant to return to 1985, Doc visits Clara to end their relationship and bid her goodbye. She dismisses his story about being from the future. Doc attempts a drinking binge, but passes out after one drink. Buford arrives for Marty, who sees his alias appear in the tombstone photograph and refuses to duel. A revived Doc is captured by Buford's gang, forcing Marty to duel. Marty uses a stove door as a bulletproof vest to survive Buford's shot and, in the ensuing fistfight, knocks Buford into a wagon of manure. Buford and his gang are then arrested for an earlier robbery.
On the train to San Francisco, Clara learns of Doc's heartbreak and runs back to town. She finds the model time machine at his shop and realizes Doc was telling the truth. Doc and Marty use the locomotive to push the DeLorean along the spur line. Clara boards the locomotive and loses her footing. Marty, in the DeLorean, passes his hoverboard to Doc, who uses it to save Clara. The DeLorean hits 88 mph and vanishes as the locomotive plunges from the unfinished bridge.
Arriving back in 1985 on October 27, Marty escapes the disabled DeLorean as a freight train destroys it. Reuniting with his girlfriend Jennifer Parker, Marty declines a street race with Needles, not knowing that he had avoided the accident Doc warned him about. Jennifer opens the fax message she kept from 2015 and watches the text regarding Marty's firing disappear.
As Marty and Jennifer examine the DeLorean wreckage, a steam locomotive time machine appears, operated by Doc, Clara, and their children. Doc gives Marty a photo of them standing next to the town clock in 1885. When Jennifer asks Doc about the blank fax, he says it means their future has not yet been written and encourages them to "make it a good one". Doc and his family bid farewell and fly off in the locomotive.
In 1985, teenager Marty McFly lives in Hill Valley, California, with his depressed alcoholic mother, Lorraine; his older siblings, who are professional and social failures; and his meek father, George, who is bullied by his supervisor, Biff Tannen. After Marty's band fails a music audition, he confides in his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, that he fears becoming like his parents despite his ambitions.
That night, Marty meets his eccentric scientist friend, Emmett "Doc" Brown, in the Twin Pines mall parking lot. Doc unveils a time machine built from a modified DeLorean, powered by plutonium he swindled from Libyan terrorists. After Doc inputs a destination time of November 5, 1955 (the day he conceived his time travel invention), the terrorists arrive unexpectedly and gun him down. Marty flees in the DeLorean, inadvertently activating time travel when reaching 88 miles per hour (142 kilometers per hour).
Arriving in 1955, Marty discovers he has no plutonium, so he cannot return to 1985. While exploring a burgeoning Hill Valley, Marty encounters his teenage father, discovering Biff was bullying George even then. George falls into the path of an oncoming car while spying on the teenage Lorraine changing clothes, and Marty is knocked unconscious while saving him. He wakes to find himself tended to by Lorraine, who becomes infatuated with him. Marty tracks down and convinces a younger Doc that he is from the future. Doc explains the only source available in 1955 capable of generating the 1.21 gigawatts of power required for time travel is a lightning bolt. Marty shows Doc a flyer from the future that documents an upcoming lightning strike at the town's courthouse. As Marty's siblings begin to fade from a photo he carries with him, Doc realizes Marty's actions are altering the future and jeopardizing his existence: Lorraine was supposed to tend to George instead of Marty after the car accident. Early attempts to get his parents acquainted fail, Marty gains the animosity of Biff, and Lorraine's infatuation with Marty deepens.
Lorraine asks Marty to the school dance, and he plots to feign inappropriate advances on her, allowing George to intervene and rescue her, but the plan goes awry when Biff's gang locks Marty in the trunk of the performing band's car, while Biff forces himself onto Lorraine. George arrives expecting to find Marty but is assaulted by Biff. After Biff hurts Lorraine, an enraged George knocks him unconscious and escorts the grateful Lorraine to the dance. The band frees Marty from their car, but the lead guitarist injures his hand in the process, so Marty takes his place, performing while George and Lorraine share their first kiss. With his future no longer in jeopardy, Marty hurries to the courthouse to meet Doc.
Doc discovers a letter from Marty warning him about his future and rips it up, worried about the consequences. To save Doc, Marty recalibrates the DeLorean to return ten minutes before he had left the future. The lightning strikes, sending Marty back to 1985, but the DeLorean breaks down, forcing Marty to run back to the mall. He arrives as Doc is being shot. While Marty grieves at his side, Doc sits up, revealing he had pieced Marty's note back together and is wearing a bulletproof vest. He takes Marty home and departs to 2015 in the DeLorean. Marty wakes the next morning, discovering his father is now a confident and successful science fiction author, his mother is fit and happy, his siblings are successful, and Biff is a servile valet in George's employ. As Marty reunites with Jennifer, Doc suddenly reappears in the DeLorean, insisting they return with him to the future to help their children.
Back to the Future Part II
On October 26, 1985, Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown arrives unexpectedly in the DeLorean time machine, persuading Marty McFly and his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, to travel to the future with him and help their future children. Once they arrive in 2015, Doc incapacitates Jennifer, leaving her asleep in an alley to avoid letting her learn about her own future. Doc explains that their son Marty Jr. will be arrested for participating in a robbery with Biff Tannen's grandson Griff, leading to a chain of events that destroys the McFly family.
Doc instructs Marty to switch places with the identical Marty Jr. and refuse Griff's offer, but Griff goads Marty into a fight by calling him "chicken", and a hoverboard chase ensues. Griff and his gang are arrested, saving Marty's future children. Before rejoining Doc, Marty purchases an almanac containing the results of major sporting events from 1950 to 2000. Doc discovers it and warns Marty about profiting from time travel. Before Doc can adequately dispose of it, they are interrupted by the police, who have found Jennifer incapacitated and are taking her to her 2015 home. They pursue, as does an elderly Biff, who has overheard their conversation and retrieved the discarded almanac.
Jennifer wakes up in her 2015 home and hides from the McFly family. She overhears that her future life with Marty is not what she expected, due to his involvement in an automobile accident, and witnesses Marty being goaded by his co-worker, Douglas Needles, into a shady business deal, resulting in his firing. Jennifer tries to escape the house but faints after encountering her future self. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to Marty and Doc, Biff steals the time machine and returns it. Marty and Doc return to 1985, leaving an unconscious Jennifer on her front porch to sleep off the day's events as a dream.
Marty gradually realizes that the 1985 they have returned to is not the one he knows. Biff, having used the almanac to secure a fortune, is now one of the country's wealthiest and most corrupt men. He has turned Hill Valley into a chaotic dystopia with a casino hotel, secretly killed Marty's father, George, in 1973, forced Marty's mother Lorraine to marry him, and sent Marty to boarding school in Switzerland. Meanwhile, this timeline's version of Doc has been committed to a mental hospital. Doc deduces that old Biff took the time machine to give his younger self the almanac, and Marty learns from the alternate 1985 Biff that he received it on November 12, 1955, the date Marty had recently visited. Biff, acting on his future self's advice, tries to kill Marty, who flees with Doc to 1955.
Marty secretly follows the 1955 Biff and watches him receive the almanac from his 2015 self. Marty then follows him to the high school dance, carefully avoiding interrupting the events from his previous visit, and being forced to intervene when Biff's gang goes after the other Marty performing onstage. Marty finally gets the almanac but loses it after being again goaded into a fight with Biff. Marty chases after Biff's car on the hoverboard, getting the almanac back as Biff is left to crash into a manure truck for the second time in a week.
Marty burns the almanac, nullifying the changes to the timeline that it had caused, as Doc hovers above in the time machine. Before Marty can join him, the DeLorean is struck by lightning and disappears, leaving Marty once again stranded in 1955. A Western Union courier arrives and delivers a letter to Marty from Doc, who tells him that the lightning strike transported him to 1885. Marty races back into town to find the 1955 Doc, who had just helped the other Marty to return to 1985. Shocked by Marty's sudden reappearance and that he is "back from the future", Doc faints.
Back to the Future Part III
On November 12, 1955, moments after witnessing Emmett "Doc" Brown disappear in his DeLorean, Marty McFly learns that Doc was sent 70 years into the past to 1885. Using information from Doc's 1885 letter, Marty and the 1955 Doc find and repair the DeLorean, hidden away by Doc in 1885, so that Marty can return to 1985. After finding it, Marty comes across a tombstone inscribed with Doc's name, erected by the town's then-new schoolteacher Clara Clayton, stating that Doc was killed by Biff Tannen's great-grandfather, Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, over 80 dollars, six days after writing the letter.
Despite the letter's warning, Marty travels to September 2, 1885, to save Doc, arriving in the middle of a cavalry pursuit of Native Americans. Marty evades the pursuit, but damages the car's fuel line. Chased by a bear, he is knocked unconscious and found by his Irish-born great-great-grandparents Seamus and Maggie McFly, who allow him to stay the night. The next morning, under the alias Clint Eastwood, Marty arrives in a newly founded Hill Valley but runs afoul of Buford and his gang. Doc rescues Marty from Buford's attempted lynching. Doc agrees to leave 1885 after learning his fate, but without gasoline, the DeLorean cannot reach 88 miles per hour (142 kilometers per hour) to time-travel. He proposes using a steam locomotive to push the DeLorean to that speed.
While inspecting a rail spur, Doc saves Clara from falling into the ravine, averting her death from the original timeline. They fall in love. At a town festival, Buford tries shooting Doc, but after Marty intervenes, Buford challenges him to a showdown in two days by calling him "yellow". Doc Brown urges Marty not to react to provocation, letting it slip that Marty's impulsiveness causes a life-changing accident in the future.
Although reluctant to return to 1985, Doc visits Clara to end their relationship and bid her goodbye. She dismisses his story about being from the future. Doc attempts a drinking binge, but passes out after one drink. Buford arrives for Marty, who sees his alias appear in the tombstone photograph and refuses to duel. A revived Doc is captured by Buford's gang, forcing Marty to duel. Marty uses a stove door as a bulletproof vest to survive Buford's shot and, in the ensuing fistfight, knocks Buford into a wagon of manure. Buford and his gang are then arrested for an earlier robbery.
On the train to San Francisco, Clara learns of Doc's heartbreak and runs back to town. She finds the model time machine at his shop and realizes Doc was telling the truth. Doc and Marty use the locomotive to push the DeLorean along the spur line. Clara boards the locomotive and loses her footing. Marty, in the DeLorean, passes his hoverboard to Doc, who uses it to save Clara. The DeLorean hits 88 mph and vanishes as the locomotive plunges from the unfinished bridge.
Arriving back in 1985 on October 27, Marty escapes the disabled DeLorean as a freight train destroys it. Reuniting with his girlfriend Jennifer Parker, Marty declines a street race with Needles, not knowing that he had avoided the accident Doc warned him about. Jennifer opens the fax message she kept from 2015 and watches the text regarding Marty's firing disappear.
As Marty and Jennifer examine the DeLorean wreckage, a steam locomotive time machine appears, operated by Doc, Clara, and their children. Doc gives Marty a photo of them standing next to the town clock in 1885. When Jennifer asks Doc about the blank fax, he says it means their future has not yet been written and encourages them to "make it a good one". Doc and his family bid farewell and fly off in the locomotive.
Sources and content license
Source and revision history ↗ · Exact listed stories combined in catalog order. Sources retain their stated license; formatting and headings adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Back to the Future. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Back to the Future Part II. Section headings and formatting adjusted. Adapted from Wikipedia contributors, Back to the Future Part III. Section headings and formatting adjusted. · Content license