The Entire Back To The Future Timeline Explained

There's not a lot we know about the original version of 1885 before Marty and Doc started messing with it, but we do know one vitally important event that happens: Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen) was hired to be the new teacher at the Hill Valley school. She had just arrived at the Hill Valley train station, loaded up her wagon with her possessions, and was heading to her new home when a snake spooked her horses. She lost control of her wagon, and her horses took off galloping toward Shonash Ravine.

After careening into the ravine, Clara died without ever making it to her teaching post. Clayton Ravine wound up being named after her, and the story of her death became an urban legend at Hill Valley High. When students didn't like their teachers, they'd say they wished they would fall into the ravine like Clara Clayton. At the time of her death, Clara was single with no children.

The original Back to the Future film begins in 1985, where George and Lorraine are now married and live in a modest suburban home in Hill Valley. At work, George reports to Biff, who continues to bully him and creepily hit on Lorraine. Instead of doing his homework, George has now graduated to doing Biff's reports for him. Lorraine's brother Joey is in jail, and has failed to make his parole for at least the second time.

George and Lorraine have three children: Dave (Marc McClure), who is in his early 20s and works at Burger King; Linda (Wendie Jo Sperber), who is around 19 and single, and their youngest, Marty (Michael J. Fox), who is 17 and dreams of being a rock star. Marty's best friend is the eccentric scientist Doc Brown, and he has a serious girlfriend named Jennifer (Claudia Wells), of whom Marty's mother doesn't approve.

After 30 years of refining his initial design, Doc finally perfects the flux capacitor and builds a time machine out of a DeLorean. Because his invention requires a huge amount of energy, he lies to a group of Libyan terrorists, promising that he'll build them a bomb with the stolen plutonium they supply and instead giving them a bomb casing filled with pinball machine parts. As Doc conducts the first test of his time machine at the Twin Pines mall, the terrorists arrive and shoot him dead. In an effort to escape from the terrorists, Marty jumps into the DeLorean and accidentally travels back in time.

Marty decides to set the time of his return to a few minutes earlier than he left, hoping he'll be able to save Doc. However, by the time he arrives at the mall — now Lone Pine Mall, thanks to the tree Marty crashed into in 1955 — he's too late, and watches Doc get shot again. However, after the terrorists depart and Marty approaches Doc's body, Doc sits up, revealing that he's wearing a bulletproof vest. Stunned, Marty asked how he knew; Doc admits that he let curiosity get the best of him, and taped Marty's letter back together.

Marty returns home to find his family significantly better off than he left them. George is now a published science fiction novelist, and he and Lorraine are healthier and much more flirtatious than they were in the original timeline. While they still live in the same house, the decor has received an upgrade, although Marty's room remains the same. Biff now owns an auto shop, and is responsible for the detailing on the McFly cars.

Instead of a Burger King, Dave now works in an office, and while we still don't know much about Linda's life, she's at least dating a lot, which seems to speak to her increased self-confidence. Perhaps thanks to her own altered high school dating experience, Lorraine now loves Jennifer, and the McFlys have purchased Marty a black pickup truck, which they expect him to take on his weekend trip with her.

Just as everything seems perfect for Marty in 1985, Doc returns from 2015 and informs Marty and Jennifer (now played by Elizabeth Shue) that their future children need their help. The three of them pile into the DeLorean — which can now fly, thanks to its alterations — and zip back to 2015, thus spinning off a third alternate timeline. Biff sees them disappear, but can't make sense of what he saw for another 30 years.

In 2015, Jennifer is knocked unconscious while Marty impersonates his son so he can avoid the payroll robbery, thus giving both of his children a better fate. Thanks to Marty's intervention, Griff and his gang are arrested instead. Feeling lucky, Marty purchases a Grays Sports Almanac, detailing the results of sporting events from 1950-2000, but Doc makes him throw it away. However, recognizing the flying DeLorean from 1985, a much older Biff realizes that it's a time machine. Unbeknownst to Marty, Old Biff grabs the sports almanac and steals the DeLorean.

Meanwhile, Jennifer is brought to her future home by well-meaning police officers who believe she's the 2015 version of herself. While hiding from her future family, she witnesses the older Marty being fired by his boss after agreeing to participate in an illegal scheme with a coworker. Afterward, she reconnects with Marty and Doc, and the trio (plus Einstein, who's thankfully fine) return to 1985.

Sometime after Marty was born, Biff — now a billionaire, thanks to the almanac — murders George McFly and marries Lorraine. He also starts a company called BiffCo, uses his vast resources and influence to legalize gambling in California, and builds himself a 27-story casino in Hill Valley named Biff's Pleasure Paradise. Biff's control doesn't end with his businesses, though. He also largely usurps control of the Hill Valley Police Department, leading to Hill Valley becoming a teeming crime hub. As for Lorraine's children, by 1985, Dave has fallen into a life of crime, although Biff pays to keep him out of jail; Linda lives off of Biff's credit cards; and Marty is sent to boarding school in Switzerland. Back in Hill Valley, Biff forces Lorraine to get cosmetic surgery and she becomes an alcoholic.

This is the 1985 that Marty and Doc return to, in which they quickly realize that something in the past has gone horribly wrong. Doc learns that the 1985-D version of himself has been committed to a mental hospital, and that George McFly is dead. Marty confronts Biff, who readily admits everything about the almanac and his murder of George, and also tells him exactly when he received the almanac from his future self. Biff then attempts to shoot Marty with the same gun that killed his father, but Marty and Doc escape in the DeLorean.

Doc arrives in 1885, back in the earliest days of Hill Valley, and finds that the time circuits of the DeLorean have been completely fried by the lightning strike. Lacking the technology to fix the time machine, Doc realizes he's stranded in 1885, and builds a new life for himself as a blacksmith. After spending some time in 1885, Doc decides to hide the DeLorean in a mine shaft and leave detailed instructions for Marty on how to fix it in 1955, so he can return to 1985. Doc turns the letter over to the postal service, instructing them on the exact location, date, and time that they'll be able to deliver it to Marty in 1955. In his letter, he gives Marty explicit instructions not to return for him.

One of Doc's jobs as a blacksmith is shoeing a horse for Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen, Biff's ancestor, but Tannen then refuses to pay. Afterward, the horse throws Tannen off, causing him to break a $5 bottle of whiskey. Tannen blames Doc for the incident, saying he owes him $5 for the whiskey and $75 for the horse.

Shortly thereafter, Doc is asked by the mayor to go meet the new schoolteacher at the train station, leading him to save Clara Clayton from her fall into the ravine. The two quickly fall in love, but their romance is sadly short-lived. After getting his portrait taken in front of the new courthouse clock, Doc is shot in the back by Tannen while dancing with Clara at the town festival. He dies and is buried in Hill Valley, where his grave is later discovered by Marty in 1955 after receiving Doc's letter.

Marty returns home for good, to a timeline very much like the one he'd hoped to restore, with the exception that the ravine is now named "Eastwood Ravine," after he supposedly perished in it in 1885-G. No sooner has Marty arrived back in 1985 than a modern train comes through, smashing the DeLorean to bits while Marty jumps to safety. Although it's bittersweet, Marty realizes that this is what Doc wanted: to have the time traveling be over, the timeline secured, Marty back home, and Doc with his true love.

Marty reunites with Jennifer, and the two of them go for a drive. They're challenged to a race by Marty's future criminal accomplice at a stoplight, but instead of racing, Marty puts his truck in reverse. Watching a Rolls Royce cut into the would-be path of his truck, Marty realizes he would have gotten into a devastating car accident, which Jennifer realizes is the accident that would've cost him his music career. Looking at the fax from 2015-C in which Marty was fired, Jennifer sees that it's been erased.

Marty and Jennifer head back to the site of the wrecked DeLorean, and are shocked when a flying locomotive engine appears out of nowhere. It turns out that sometime after Marty traveled back to the future, Doc stole another train and built a new time machine, which he and Clara are using to travel throughout time. Doc reveals that he and Clara are now married with two young sons, Jules and Verne, after their favorite science fiction author. Doc urges Marty and Jennifer to make the best futures possible, since nothing has yet been written, and then takes off in his train for worlds — and times — unknown.