“Precisely” four years after the original, director Robert Zemeckis returned with screenwriter Bob Gale for the second instalment of the “Back To The Future” franchise. By now, we’ve all lived through 2015 and can easily look back and laugh at how they imagined the future. But, “Back To The Future Part 2” (1989) almost did a decent job in predicting 2015. Some ideas, like getting multiple fax messages at once, might have felt futuristic at the time, but they seem quaint now to modern eyes. Still, the film was ambitious; most importantly, it dared to use time travel to introduce paradoxes to a mainstream audience in the late 1980s.
Back to the Future Part II (1989) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Why did Doc urge Marty to time travel to the future?
At the end of “Back To The Future” (1985), Doctor Brown arrives from the future in his flying DeLorean. Marty, who has just returned from 1955, is shocked when the Doctor asks him to travel through time “once again”—but this time, to the future! In 2015, Marty’s son gets into trouble and is arrested. It does not stop there, but continues to ruin the McFly family’s future. Worried about the fate of Marty’s family, Doctor Brown from the future comes back to 1985 to ask for Marty’s support to save Marty’s kids and also his future.
That’s just the beginning. Marty travels to 2015 with his girlfriend, Jennifer, who has no idea what’s happening, and the Doctor’s dog. Though Marty is special in that he got the chance to time travel to the past and now to the future, he is still young. While roaming around the streets of 2015, he’s drawn to a magazine called “Sports Almanac,” which lists every sports result from 1950 to 2000. Marty figures if he takes it back to 1985, he could get rich by betting on games. But the Doctor warns him not to mess with the time for personal gain. The doctor’s morality does not allow him to support Marty’s idea of bringing the sports magazine to 1985.
Meanwhile, Biff (played by Thomas F. Wilson), once a bully, now a septuagenarian in 2015, overhears Doctor Brown and Marty’s conversation about the Almanac and time travel. The grumpy yet greedy Biff steals the DeLorean and the Almanac without the Doctor’s or Marty’s knowledge, setting off a chain of events that alter the future. The heart of the film becomes about Marty and Doc Brown trying to undo the chaos Biff has caused.
Back to the Future Part II (1989) Movie Ending Explained:
Why did Marty burn the Sports Almanac?
After the face-off with Biff, Marty manages to retrieve the Sports Almanac. Marty almost had a car crash because of this. After getting back the Sports Almanac, Marty meets Doctor Brown at the entrance of Lyon Estates in November 1955. As soon as the Doctor sees Marty celebrating the success of retrieving the magazine, he advises Marty to burn the magazine. Marty is still a bit hesitant. Because he knows that Biff cannot have the magazine anymore, since he just stole it from him. But his conscience does not let him have the book. Marty tosses the Almanac into the fire and watches as the newspaper headlines instantly change, proving the timeline is restored. Just as Marty and Doctor Brown are about to celebrate the victory, lightning suddenly strikes the flying DeLorean. The time-travelling car vanishes without warning, leaving Marty alone and completely confused about what just happened.
What is in the Letter that Marty received?
Marty begins to panic, worried he’s now trapped in 1955 “again” and that Doctor Brown from the future might be gone for good. Suddenly, headlights from a car shine in his face. Is it Biff coming for him? Instead, a mysterious man in a hat and long coat steps out of the car and approaches Marty, asking if he is Marty McFly.
Marty is surprised to hear someone other than Doctor Brown knows his name in 1955. Marty has no clue about this person. Suddenly, the man drops him a letter, saying his letter has been waiting to be delivered to him for 70 years. It dawns on Marty that the letter is from the Doctor, 70 years before, written in 1885. When lightning struck the DeLorean, the time machine malfunctioned and sent Doctor Brown even further back in time—to the Wild West.
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Now, Marty has a new mission: he must find a way to travel to 1885 to rescue 2015’s Doctor Brown, who is stranded in the past. Meanwhile, all of this is happening at the same time as the ending of the original “Back to the Future” (1985). Marty must avoid running into his other self, who is also in 1955 at this point, who is trying to get back to 1985.
With the help of the Doctor from 1955, Marty from 1985 prepares to journey back to 1885 to save his friend who is from 2015. What happens next? This cliff-hanger sets the stage for the adventure in “Back to the Future Part 3” (1990).
A Missed Spoiler in the First Act!
It’s easy to overlook this detail amidst all the chaos unfolding in the beginning, i.e., after 2015’s Biff returns from his quick trip to the past; he suddenly looks sick and panicked. As soon as he arrives back in 2015, Biff stumbles out and collapses. He even drops his cane handle and the sports almanac inside the DeLorean. At first glance, we might think that time-traveling for the first time just made the old man nauseous. But, after seeing how the story unfolds, it becomes clear why Biff is acting so strangely.
Even though Biff instructs his younger self in 1955 to use the Sports Almanac for betting, when he returns to 2015, nothing appears to have changed. His strange behaviour is not just from the long travel, but is actually a subtle clue that something is amiss—a clever bit of foreshadowing in the film’s time travel logic and how Biff would end up “again”. It’s easy to miss this detail at first, since we don’t yet realize what has happened to the old Biff in the past at that point in the movie.
Back to the Future Part II (1989) Movie Themes Analysed:
Meanness, Revenge, and Greed
Compared to the first instalment of this franchise, this sequel focuses more on Biff’s revenge and greed. Biff gets a chance to change the past, which leads to an alternate Future. He wants to get back at those who rejected or insulted him, especially Lorraine, the girl who never liked him. In 1955, Biff’s idea of revenge is to marry her, no matter what it takes. Although Biff’s character sometimes feels like a caricature in pop culture, his story is surprisingly universal. He believes that he’s superior to everyone else, and his meanness and violence are his way of asserting control.
The film hints that bullies like Biff might not be born mean. Kids who experience childhood trauma or grow up without proper guidance can easily take the wrong path. Sometimes, the bully can also be a victim, shaped by circumstance and society as much as by their own choices. For Biff, revenge doesn’t just make him mean; it evolves into full-blown greed, stretching across decades. We all have the freedom to make choices, but when our actions cross a line, they become a problem, and they always have consequences.
Ignore negativity!
When someone calls you a “Chicken,” does it get under your skin? For Marty, it definitely does. No matter which era he finds himself in, he just can’t handle being called “Chicken.” This kind of taunt isn’t unusual; it is common in many cultures to use teasing nicknames to insult or challenge someone. Most of us have probably faced something similar. Maybe it bothered us when we were teenagers. As adults, we might think we’re above caring about childish names. But the truth is, those words can still sting. It’s like the tiny scratch from a thorn on a rose stem—not deep enough to bleed, but enough to remind you it’s there.
Marty often acts impulsively whenever someone calls him “Chicken.” Sure, he stands up for himself—but at what cost? He gets fired, nearly loses his chance to save both his present and his future, and puts others and everything at risk. In the previous film, standing up for those we love was a central theme. Here, beyond the ideas of bullies and revenge, there’s a subtler lesson: sometimes, simply ignoring a provocation could save us from consequences that threaten our very existence.
