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Back to the Future as Science Fiction: The Dangers of Time Travel
The Back to the Future trilogy is notable as being a work of Science Fiction: it not only contains elements of comedy, adventure, and romance, but it also has credible elements of science fiction, the main science fiction element obviously being time travel. Although the films may seem like they trivially promote it, the dangers of time travel are explicitly portrayed. Three aspects in particular-- life/death, setting/environment, and love/romance-- are addressed in relation to time travel, and the trilogy shows its disastrous effects.
The first film
In the first film, the most obvious threat is that of the future existence of both Marty and Doc. Near the beginning of the film, Doc has actually been killed: because he committed a crime by stealing plutonium from Libyan terrorists, they hunt him down and shoot him. Marty feels responsible for saving Doc’s life, but must also save his own: when he saves George from being hit by a car but inadvertently gets hit himself, he has undone the event that caused his parents to fall in love in the first place. By altering events of the past involving his parents, Marty has prevented them from getting together. He endangers his own life as well as the lives of his siblings. Marty has a photograph from 1985 with him, his brother, and his sister. As events progress, the bodies in the picture slowly start fading away; the alteration of the photograph is symbolic of the grave danger that Marty has caused.
Marty is also forced to endure awkward moments with his mother. Some critics claim that these moments can be called Oedpial. “The Oedipus complex or conflict is a concept developed by Sigmund Freud to explain the origin of certain neuroses in childhood. It is defined as a male child's unconscious desire for the exclusive love of his mother. This desire includes jealousy towards the father and the unconscious wish for that parent's death” (Wikipedia “Oedipus complex”). The film does have “the paradox of a family comedy which flirts with incest” (Gordon); however, Marty in no way desires the affections of his mother; the film thankfully does not go into much detail in this area.
There are obvious good things that come from the time travel. The future of the McFly family becomes much brighter, with George being a successful writer and everyone seemingly happy. Biff Tannen, the idiotic bully, is reduced to waxing cars for Marty’s father. In an interesting paradox, Marty also inspires Chuck Berry to write “Johnny Be Good” (Thompson 97). However, even though everything ends up okay, as with all three of the films, Marty has toyed with time and flirted with disaster.
The second film
In the second film, the major damage is caused when Biff Tannen steals a sports almanac with statistics from the years 1950 – 2000, and utilizes it to make himself rich. He then becomes wealthy and corrupt; Biff basically owns the town of Hill Valley and has turned it into a city where crime rules the streets. Here, setting plays a very important role. Through their use of the time machine, the protagonists have entirely altered their setting and have changed it from a quiet suburban town into a shady and dangerous city. Time travel can drastically change the environment for the worse.
The third film
In the third film, lives are endangered yet again. Doc has been transported into 1885 and dies a premature death after only being there for a week—“Mad Dog” Tannen kills him “over a matter of eighty dollars”—so Marty decides to go back and rescue Doc. However, by doing this, Marty once again places himself in mortal danger. He is almost killed by “Mad Dog,” but as usual, manages to survive. Although these films are meant to be “fun” and “light," throughout the trilogy, characters continually face the likely possibility of death.
The dangers of time travel also extend to romance: Doc falls in love with Clara in 1885, but faces a dilemma in terms of what to do about it. His mind realizes that any sort of relationship would be unethical, yet his heart cannot control his mind, and his love for Clara is a major obstacle in the way of returning to the future. As always in this trilogy, however, everything ends up okay: Doc and Clara get married, have children which they name Jules and Verne, and end the trilogy on a time-traveling vacation. Nonetheless, even though everything is resolved, the dangers of pursuing a romantic relationship in a different time period have been clearly shown.
Conclusion
In the Back to the Future trilogy, time travel is portrayed as being both beneficial and dangerous. It is obviously beneficial because everything ends up okay for all the characters at the conclusion of the tale; however, Doc gives explicit warnings and condemnations of time travel throughout the films-- the dangers of toying with "the space-time continuum." Because they travel through time, Marty and Doc are forced to confront love-related issues, dystopian environments, and ultimately, death.Time travel, with our current knowledge, is as of yet impossible—but if it were possible, should we, like Marty and Doc, go on adventurous journeys in order to improve our futures? The Back to the Future trilogy does not give a clear answer, but to a mature audience, the answer is obviously “no.”