# It was 25 years ago today that Marty McFly went back in time. **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [October 26, 2010, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411 "2010-10-26T16:12:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 17\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/61 "2010-10-27T17:58:32Z")
> [@Push\_You\_Down](#): > > I just recently watched it and saw something that just as a local Angelino struck me. When Marty leaves Doc’s house in the begining he turns a corner onto a busy street. It’s Victory Blvd in Burbank. The only problem is that Doc lives in the garage to his family mansion, which is actually the historical Gamble House in Pasadena. Stranger ---
**Author:** ![Sister\_Vigilante](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9de0a6/32.png) [@Sister\_Vigilante](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sister_Vigilante)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/62 "2010-10-27T18:08:45Z")
This is one of my favorite movies of all time. I spent a whole summer watching it every night on VHS after my parents went to bed. ---
**Author:** ![joebuck20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/74df32/32.png) [@joebuck20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/joebuck20)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/63 "2010-10-27T18:12:47Z")
> [@Bosstone](#): > > One! Point! Twentyone! Jigawatts! (Ahem) Gigawatts. ---
**Author:** ![Llama\_Llogophile](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/49beb7/32.png) [@Llama\_Llogophile](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Llama_Llogophile)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/64 "2010-10-27T18:29:48Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > (Ahem) Gigawatts. What the hell is a j(g)igawatt?! ---
**Author:** ![Bosstone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@Bosstone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosstone)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/65 "2010-10-27T18:34:52Z")
Giggety. ---
**Author:** ![Winnie](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e480ec/32.png) [@Winnie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Winnie)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/66 "2010-10-27T18:35:01Z")
> [@Tangent](#): > > Also, BTTF is constantly gaining new young fans since parents view it as a family-friendly movie. It has action and adventure and humor, without resorting to crudity and over-the-top violence and gore. I’m a teacher and I often discover that some of my students are big BTTF fans. THIS. My 6-year old has taken a huge interest in it since catching the beginning of it one day and looooooving the scene with Marty riding his skateboard to school. We’ve watched it with him a few times, using the mute button to silence some choice words that we’re not ready for him to be repeating yet, and he is completely entranced by it. The film still holds up, still makes us laugh. “Mayor Goldie Wilson, I like the SOUND of that!” ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/67 "2010-10-27T18:46:40Z")
> [@Mach Tuck](#): > > What the hell is a j(g)igawatt?! Giga is the prefix for billion or 10^9. So a Gigawatt is a billion Watts. It’s a real unit. ---
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/68 "2010-10-27T18:51:02Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > [Quote=Mach Tuck] > > What the hell is a j(g)igawatt?! Giga is the prefix for billion or 10^9. So a Gigawatt is a billion Watts. It’s a real unit. [/QUOTE] And one point twenty-one of them make a loud whooshing sound. 😃 ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/69 "2010-10-27T19:12:17Z")
> [@joebuck20](#): > > (Ahem) Gigawatts. I’ll stand by my Jigawatt 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/70 "2010-10-27T19:30:24Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Giga is the prefix for billion or 10^9. So a Gigawatt is a billion Watts. It’s a real unit. And it can be pronounced with a hard G (American pronunciation) or a soft G (Europeans). Stranger ---
**Author:** ![borschevsky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/97f17d/32.png) [@borschevsky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/borschevsky)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/71 "2010-10-27T19:31:40Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > _Almost_, yes, but not quite. > > One of the nitpicks I’ve always had with BTTF is that some of the things Marty does in the past create a different future when he gets back (he gives his dad the confidence to be more successful; the name of the mall changes because he ran over the tree) – while some of the things he does are shown to have influenced aspects of the future he came from (he convinces the mayor to run for mayor; he gives Chuck Berry his “new sound”). I don’t see how you can have it both ways. This is true, but I think you can fanwank it if you want to, by saying that these events (Chuck Berry, the Mayor) really are changed by Marty. Do we ever actually see anything in the changed future to verify that Chuck Berry still has written the song, or that the mayor is still mayor? Even if we do, we can explain it by saying that these events have just happened through a different path. > [@BMalion](#): > > and at one point aren’t there like 4 or 5 Deloreans in 1955 at the same time? Yes, I think there are 4: 1. The one Marty arrives in at the start of BTTF1. 2. The one Old Biff uses to bring the almanac to himself in BTTF2. 3. The one Marty & Doc use to retrieve the almanac in BTTF2. 4. The one Doc leaves in the cave that Marty uses in BTTF3. ---
**Author:** ![Red\_Barchetta](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/da6949/32.png) [@Red\_Barchetta](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Red_Barchetta)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/72 "2010-10-27T19:52:35Z")
> [@Trans Fat Og](#): > > Few men who dream of time travel realize how close one might come to unwittingly \*\*meating \*\*their mother. > > _ **Ick!** _ Ick indeed! ---
**Author:** ![lost4life](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/c4cdca/32.png) [@lost4life](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lost4life)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/73 "2010-10-27T19:53:58Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > And it can be pronounced with a hard G (American pronunciation) or a soft G (Europeans). > > Stranger Somewhere I heard an interview with the writer (director’s commentary maybe) who said they asked someone about the unit and they pronounced it Jigawatt, so in the original script it was actually spelled with a J. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 8:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/74 "2010-10-27T20:15:16Z")
> [@Wheelz](#): > > _Almost_, yes, but not quite. > > One of the nitpicks I’ve always had with BTTF is that some of the things Marty does in the past create a different future when he gets back (he gives his dad the confidence to be more successful Indeed. Original Marty runs to the mall after returning to 1985 to watch Doc Brown get shot (again) and another version of hiumself dive into the DeLorean and speed away. Thing is, _that_ Marty grew up with confident parents and might have heard the story about some guy named Calvin who pushed his dad out of the path of a moving car and sang at the prom and whatnot, rather than the version Original Marty grw up with. What does New Marty do in 1955? Who knows. In any case, he never manages to get the 1.21 Gigawatts necessary to return to 1985, conveniently allowing Original Marty to take his place. ---
**Author:** ![Satchmo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/satchmo/32/4223_2.png) [@Satchmo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Satchmo)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2010, 10:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/75 "2010-10-27T22:56:57Z")
> [@tdn](#): > > What’s a re-run? You’ll find out. ---
**Author:** ![BMalion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/e274bd/32.png) [@BMalion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BMalion)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/76 "2010-10-28T10:35:49Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > The only problem is that Doc lives in the garage to his family mansion, which is actually the historical Gamble House in Pasadena. > > Stranger I’ve been there. My friend is a docent and gives woodworking tours. Apparently the outside was all they were allowed to film, when Doc and Marty are inside, it’s a set. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [October 28, 2010, 11:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411/77 "2010-10-28T11:32:53Z")
> [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#): > > And it can be pronounced with a hard G (American pronunciation) or a soft G (Europeans). Where did you get this idea from? I live in Europe and I’ve never heard it pronounced with a soft G, in English or any other language. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/it-was-25-years-ago-today-that-marty-mcfly-went-back-in-time/558411.md?page=3)