History Film / BacktotheFuture

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[[caption-width-right:350: ''He was never in time for his classes... he wasn't in time for his dinner... then one day... he wasn't in his time at all.'']]

->'''Marty [=McFly=]''': Wait a minute, wait a minute, Doc... are you telling me you built a ''time machine''... out of a ''[=DeLorean=]?!''
->'''Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown''': The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some style?

The first film of the ''Back to the Future'' trilogy released in 1985, starting the ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture'' franchise. It was directed by Creator/RobertZemeckis, with the screenplay by Zemeckis and Bob Gale.

Marty [=McFly=], a teenager from 1985, accidentally sends himself to 1955 in the time machine his friend [[TheProfessor Doc Brown]] built out of a [=DeLorean=], and requires [[PlotCoupon 1.21 gigawatts of power]] to return home. After initial confusion, the 1955 Doc Brown agrees to help Marty get back home [[LightningCanDoAnything by striking his car with 1.21 gigawatts of lightning]], giving Marty a week to [[GrandfatherParadox make his parents fall back in love at a dance]] and put bully Biff Tannen in his place. [[LateArrivalSpoiler He does it]], and in the process [[TemporalParadox invents rock 'n' roll and skateboarding]].

For tropes found throughout the trilogy, like MisterSandmanSequence, see the franchise page, ''Franchise/BackToTheFuture''. For tropes specific to this film, see below.
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!!This film provides examples of:
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[[folder:Tropes #-E]]
* FiveFiveFive: Doc Brown's phone number in 1955 was [=KL5-4385=], and Jennifer's grandmother's in the present is 555-4823.
* ActivationSequence: The first scene is Marty arriving at Doc's place where he starts activating... something. He switches on the power, activates all the switches, dials up the driver ''and'' the overdrive, causing all the dials to go off-scale high. Then we see that what he's powering up is a giant speaker, which [[GaleForceSound blows him across the room]], and [[AwesomenessIsVolatile blows itself up]], when he tries to play a chord on his guitar.
* ActorAllusion:
** Marty's brother Dave donning a Burger King uniform may have been a tribute to Creator/LeaThompson's early acting gigs as a Burger King spokesperson. Incidentally, in those ads Thompson appeared alongside Creator/ElisabethShue, who would later play Jennifer in ''Part II'' and ''Part III''.
** {{Music/Huey Lewis|And The News}}, playing the audition judge in 1985, tells Marty's band that they're "just too darn loud." [[HypocriticalHumor The band was playing Lewis' own song, "The Power of Love."]] Better yet, the line was apparently [[SelfDeprecation improvised]] by him.
** George tells Marty he'd rather watch ''Science Fiction Theatre'' than go to the dance. Creator/MichaelJFox had to add a J. to his name because a ''Science Fiction Theatre'' actor named Michael Fox was in the Screen Actors Guild.
* ActuallyPrettyFunny:
** George laughs when Skinhead mocks Marty for wearing a "life preserver".
** At a meta level, the real UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan got such a kick out of Doc Brown's disbelief that he would be president that he asked the projectionist to roll back the reel and play it again.
* AllMenArePerverts:
** Marty quickly finds out that George's idea of birdwatching before first meeting Lorraine was ''[[NaughtyBirdwatching watching her undress from a tree with binoculars]]''.
--->'''Marty:''' ''(incredulously)'' He's a peeping tom!
** Marty has a case of MaleGaze when two jazzercise girls walk past him; Jennifer quickly straightens him out.
** In a much more serious case of Biff's rather aggressive infatuation with Lorraine, which she does ''not'' take well to.
* AlmostKiss:
** Marty and Jennifer are playfully flirting in the courthouse square, and are an inch away from kissing...when they are interrupted by: "Save the clock tower! ''Save the clock tower!''", complete with the lady shaking the donations tin in their faces. So much for that moment....
** Moments later when Marty and Jennifer try to kiss again, [[HonkingArrivingCar Jennifer's dad arrives to pick her up]].
** And finally, at the end of the movie when Marty and Jennifer are reunited, Doc shows up once more with the [=DeLorean=].
* AnachronismStew: While the past is set in 1955, the guitar model Marty plays at the prom, a Gibson ES-345TD, was only introduced in 1958. In fact, Gibson didn't even introduce humbucking pickups to their electric guitar line until 1957 (their lap steel models received the pickup early in '56). Until that point, Gibson's electric guitars usually came equipped with P-90 pickups.
* AndTheAdventureContinues: Initially, when no sequels were planned, the ending was this. The adventure ended well, Marty ensured his existence is secured, his family's prospering and he reunites with his boo...and then Doc suddenly returns in the [=DeLorean=] to take them back to the future for more adventures.
-->'''Doc Brown:''' It's your kids, Marty! Something has gotta be done about your kids!
* AndThisIsFor: When Biff's friends toss Marty in the trunk of the car:
-->'''Skinhead:''' ''That's'' for messin' up my hair!
* ArbitrarySkepticism: Marty was in a ''time machine''. Which he knew worked. And when he reached eighty-eight miles per hour, sparks surrounded the car and the view around him suddenly changed. Yet he takes a ''long'' time to realize he's in the past, and keeps saying it must be a dream. [[AmbiguousSituation But then again, he doesn't sound like he believes himself.]] [[JustifiedTrope Justified]], given that Marty only learned time travel was possible a few hours earlier (according to his perception), he'd lived a fairly normal life without any sci-fi experiences up to that point, and he hadn't slept much.
-->'''Marty:''' (anxious; speeding down the road) Alright, alright, okay, [=McFly=]... get a grip on yourself... It's all a dream. Just a... (unsure) very... intense dream...
* ArtisticLicense: When Doc indicates the birth of Christ as December 25, 0000. Of course, it is now accepted by educated people that Christ was born around 4 BC, but the big error is the fact that the Gregorian calendar does not include a year 0, only a 1 BC followed by a 1 AD -- something that the inventor of a time machine should have looked into. In fact, the lack of a way to go back to BC at all is an odd choice on his part.
* ArtisticLicenseHistory: ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' episode "The Man from Space" is shown to be airing for the first time on November 5, 1955. In real life, the episode didn't air until December 31, 1955. The actual episode that aired on November 5 was "The Sleepwalker".
* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: Doc looks up the barrel of his Colt Single Action Army revolver with his finger on the trigger. Good thing it wasn't loaded.
* AsLongAsItSoundsForeign: The Libyan terrorists speak vaguely Arabic-sounding gibberish. They do pepper it with accented English though. At one point, the terrorist shooting, whose weapon (an AK-47) [[ReliablyUnreliableGuns had jammed]], can be heard: "Damn Soviet gun!"
* AttemptedRape: Biff with Lorraine in 1955. George shows up, thinking he was going to stop Marty from acting it out, but instead must actually stop Biff from doing the real thing.
* AutoErotica: Marty's plan to get his parents together involves George finding him "parking" with Lorraine and trying [[DateRapeAverted to take advantage of her]], then pulling him out of the car and pretending to beat him up to make him look like he's the tougher guy. Except Biff turns up instead of George, belligerently drunk, and he wants revenge on Marty for the $300 damage[[note]]Over $3,000 in today’s money[[/note]] his car took in the manure truck incident, so he decides to attempt to molest Lorraine. Hence, George's "rescuing" Lorraine ends up becoming the real deal.
* BaitAndSwitch: After Marty's plan to stage a rape on his mom [[FakeDangerGambit so his dad can rescue her]] fails, Lorraine notices someone coming to the car. Marty (and the audience) assumes it's George coming to do his part of the plan, only for the door to open and for him to be grabbed by Biff, who's pissed about the $300 damage to his car (which he himself was responsible for).
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Back in 1955, Marty [=McFly=] plays Music/ChuckBerry's "Johnny B. Goode" when he steps in for Chuck's cousin, Marvin Berry. While Marty is playing, Marvin calls Chuck up so he can listen in on this "new sound". He also gives the 1985 mayor Goldie Wilson, at that time the black janitor in the malt shop, political aspirations the exact year the Civil Rights Movement started. And of course, Marty ends up being responsible for his parents getting together and being a happier and more successful married couple in the future.
* BigDamnHeroes: Played with. Marty and George's plan is to make it look like this when [[FakeDangerGambit George comes to Lorraine's "rescue."]] But Biff got there first, had his gang take Marty away, and is actually trying to rape Lorraine when George shows up.
-->'''George:''' Hey you, get your damn hands off... ''[realises it is Biff]'' [[OhCrap oh...]]\\
'''Biff:''' I think you got the wrong car, [=McFly=].\\
'''Lorraine:''' George, help me! Please!\\
'''Biff:''' Just turn around, [=McFly=], and walk away.\\
''[George hesitates]''\\
'''Biff:''' Are you deaf, [=McFly=]? Close the door, and beat it.\\
'''Lorraine:''' ''[whispering, frightened]'' Please, George....\\
'''George:''' ...No, Biff. You leave her alone.
* TheBigDamnKiss: George and Lorraine at the dance, complete with "Earth Angel" swelling on the soundtrack, and saving their son's entire ''existence''.
* BigHeroicRun: After Marty gets back to 1985 and [[MyCarHatesMe the DeLorean stalls on him]], he is forced to run to the mall to prevent Doc from being shot. It fails because he gets there just as Doc is shot. Fortunately, Doc survived and wore a bullet-proof vest, thanks to being forewarned by Marty's letter, which he kept and taped back together.
* BigNo:
** Marty after Doc is shot by the Libyans.
** In TV versions, Biff and his goons do this instead of collectively yelling "SHIT!" as they crash into the manure truck.
* BizarreBeverageUse: When Doc shows up at the end, he powers the [=DeLorean=]'s Mr. Fusion with a bunch of trash he finds rummaging in the [=McFly=] trash can, including a partially-full can of beer, which he pours into Mr. Fusion, then dropping the can in as well.
* BizarreDreamRationalization: After getting shot at by Libyan terrorists, then traveling back in time, ''THEN'' getting shot at again by Farmer Peabody, Marty tells himself that this is all just a "very intense dream."
* BloodlessCarnage: There's no blood when Doc is riddled with bullets. [[spoiler:In the changed timeline, it's because he's wearing a BulletproofVest.]]
* BookEnds: In a way. [[spoiler:Marty accidentally time travels to 1955 with the ''Back to the Future'' theme playing in the first 30 minutes, and then he travels back to 1985 in the last 10 minutes or so with the ''BTTF'' theme making a TriumphantReprise]].
* BorrowedCatchphrase: "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." Doc never actually says it in the movie (or the rest of the trilogy), but Jennifer attributes it to him. Only Marty and George ever say it -- in fact, it seems that George has adopted it as his own catchphrase at the end of the movie.
* BrickJoke: Within the first half-hour of the film, Marty is sent back in time while speeding through the parking lot of Twin Pines Mall. Within minutes of arriving in 1955, he drives the time machine through and destroys one of the two pine trees growing on the land of the farmer that owned the plot in that time. At the climax of the film, Marty returns to the mall parking lot, where the sign indicates it is now known as "Lone Pine Mall".
-->'''Old Man Peabody:''' My pine! Why, you... ! You space bastard! You killed my pine!
* BrotherSisterIncest: {{Invoked}}. Lorraine is coming hard onto Marty, kissing him back into a corner, and it suddenly occurs to her that it's like kissing her brother. She is {{Squick}}ed, although not ''nearly'' as much as Marty is, knowing that it's really ParentalIncest.
* BuffySpeak:
-->'''Marty:''' Time circuits, on. Flux capacitor... fluxing.
* BulletProofVest: [[spoiler:When Marty returns to 1985 and tries to reach Doc before the Libyans shoot him, he arrives too late... although Doc eventually reads the letter anyway after taping it back together and was secretly wearing a bullet-proof vest.]]
* BuyOrGetLost: The first place Marty goes after he's in 1955 is the local sandwich shop to try to find a phonebook so he can locate Doc Brown. Despite only being in the place for less than a minute, when he tries to ask the cook how to find a certain street, the cook brusquely asks him if he's going to buy something or not.
-->'''[[FishOutOfTemporalWater Marty:]]''' Gimme a Tab.\\
'''Lou:''' A tab? [[WhosOnFirst I can't give ya a tab unless you order something.]]\\
'''Marty:''' Right. Give me a Pepsi Free.\\
'''Lou''': If you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna pay for it!
* TheCameo: [[Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews Huey Lewis]] is the teacher who tells Marty that his music was "too darn loud".[[note]][[SelfDeprecation Marty is playing an instrumental version of Huey Lewis' own song, "The Power of Love"]].[[/note]]
* CarHoodSliding: Marty performs one to quickly get into the [=DeLorean=] for the lightning strike coup.
* CelebrityParadox:
** Huey Lewis exists in the ''BTTF'' universe, as proven by Marty's posters in his room -- and so does the audition judge, played by... Huey Lewis. Even better: at the end of the movie, Marty's clock radio plays "Back in Time" by Huey Lewis and the News. The song was specifically written for (and contains a ''ton'' of references to) a little movie called ''Back to the Future''. Marty is even referred to ''by name'' in that song. Granted, the song is cut specifically to avoid any references to the movie.
** When pretending to be an alien to George, Marty references ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Creator/ChristopherLloyd, who played Doc, portrayed Kruge in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''. He also references ''Franchise/StarWars''. Lloyd would appear in ''Series/TheMandalorian'' as Commissioner Helgait, while [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Flea]], who played Needles in the sequels, would later appear in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' as Vekt Nokru.
* ChekhovsBoomerang: Marty's radiation suit. At first, it was to protect him from the radiation of the plutonium in the [=DeLorean=], and gets mistaken for an alien while inside it, but he later uses it to convince George that he's [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial an extra-terrestrial]] named [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]] from the planet [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]].
* ChekhovsGag: The joke about the TV show they're seeing at the Baines' house in 1955. It's seen earlier at the [=McFly=]'s house in 1985, and as Marty watches the same episode in 1955, he notes that he's seen it and it's a classic, to which one of his uncles replies that it's brand new and it's impossible that he could have seen it. Marty says he saw it on a rerun, prompting more confusion from them.
* ChekhovsGun:
** At the start of the film, Marty is conveniently given a flyer by a woman who (along with other volunteers) is attempting to raise money to save the historic clock tower. The scene is played for laughs, but the flyer contains crucial information on how to return to the future, including the exact date and time that the clock tower was struck by lightning. And the only reason Marty probably kept it (and kept it on him, so he had it in 1955 when he needed it) is because Jennifer wrote her grandmother's phone number on it so Marty could call her there.
** Lorraine tells the kids that if her father hadn't hit George [=McFly=] with his car in 1955 before the dance, none of the kids would've been born. She also says that she and George fell in love after they had their first kiss at the dance. It looks like it's just informing us about how the romance has gone out of their marriage. It's not.
** When Marty is leaving Doc Brown's home after the opening scene, he is seen putting his headphones on (connected to a Walkman). He later uses the Walkman to intimidate George.
** Ironically for a light-hearted sci-fi comedy, the film is often used as a perfect example of this trope, since virtually every single thing that happens in the film exists to set up a later event.
* ChekhovsGunman: Dixon, the guy who cuts in on George and Lorraine at the dance, was previously seen kicking George around when he had the [[KickMePrank "Kick Me" sign]] on his back.
* ChekhovsSkill:
** At the beginning of the movie, Marty is practicing his guitar playing, and he's also shown to be good at skateboarding and hitching a ride on the back of a car. All of those skills come in handy to him in 1955.
** The whole scene of the Pinheads auditioning was purely to show that Marty could play guitar in front of an audience, as he will do in 1955.
* ChewingTheScenery: Surprisingly, Marty -- near the end of "Johnny B. Goode". His faces while he goes over-the-top are... interesting. However, the rest of the school doesn't think it's nearly as cool as he does, [[StunnedSilence just staring at him after his guitar solo]].
* CleanUpTheTown: Goldie Wilson, in 1955 a busboy at Lou's Diner, imagines himself as doing this after Marty recognizes him as the future mayor and tells him that. Lou hands him a broom and tells him he can start by sweeping the floor.
* ClockDiscrepancy:
** Marty is at Doc Brown's house and thinks he will be on time for school, only to discover all his clocks are twenty-five minutes slow.
** Doc Brown proves to Marty that the time machine works by synchronizing watches with a digital clock he attaches to his dog, then sending the dog one minute into the future. When the dog shows up again, his clock is a minute slower than Doc's.
* CloseEnoughTimeline:
** Since Marty has to get his parents together but can't recreate the ''exact'' circumstances of their first meeting, he ends up unwittingly changing the timeline. In the old 1985, George was a meek office drone who was still bullied by Biff 30 years later, and Lorraine is a prudish alcoholic trapped in a loveless marriage. Thanks to Marty giving George confidence and helping him and Lorraine get to know each other as people, in the new timeline George is a successful author, his relationship with Lorraine is full of passion and life (which has a spillover effect of improving their children's lives too), and a humbled Biff runs an auto detailing business while deferring to the much more successful George. When Marty briefs Doc of the spectacular success at the dance to Doc, his reaction indicates that Doc suspects this will be happening.
--->'''Marty:''' He ''[George]'' laid out Biff in one punch. I never knew he had it in him! He never stood up to Biff in his life!\\
'''Doc:''' ''[concerned look]'' ...Never?\\
'''Marty:''' No, why, what's the matter?\\
''[[[NoTimeToExplain Doc has no time to explain due to the upcoming lightning strike]]]''
** It also tips Doc off that changing the natural course of time isn't always the catastrophe he feared it would be, and he [[spoiler:later tapes up and reads Marty's letter]].
* ClownCar: Biff's goons make the mistake of insulting Reginald, one of The Starlighters, outside his Cadillac, causing Marvin and three of his fellow band members to exit the car.
* CoincidentalBroadcast: At the beginning of the movie, Doc Brown's TV is automatically turned on just before Marty arrives. It shows a news broadcast about the theft of some plutonium by some [[MiddleEasternTerrorists Libyan terrorists]]. After Marty arrives the audience is shown a box containing plutonium underneath a bed, and it later turns out that the terrorists stole the plutonium in the hope that Doc Brown would use it to create an atomic bomb for them.
* CombatPragmatist: Marty has no problem sucker-punching Biff, or running straight through Biff's convertible when he's about to be rammed into the back of a manure truck.
* ComicallyMissingThePoint:
** It initially sounds as if Marty is amazed by the time machine. Then he adds the phrase, "out of a [[TheAllegedCar DeLorean]]?!"
** In 1955, when Marty tells Doc who he is while using the mind-reader:
--->'''Marty:''' Doc, I'm from the future. I came here in a time machine that you invented, and I need your help getting back to the year 1985.\\
'''Doc:''' My God... Do you know what this means? ''[{{Beat}}]'' It means that ''this damn thing doesn't work at all!''
* ConfidenceBuildingScheme: Played with; Marty concocts a scheme to pretend to take advantage of Lorraine so George can pull a fake rescue and kiss her (not to boost George's confidence per se, but to make them fall in love and eventually become Marty's parents). [[spoiler:However, Biff throws a SpannerInTheWorks by having his goons lock Marty in a car trunk and forcing himself onto Lorraine. George finally stands up to Biff and knocks him out, and Lorraine falls for him for his courage - instead of feeling sorry for George as she did in the original timeline. When Marty returns to 1985, he finds George has grown into a self-confident man and improved their whole family's life.]]
* ContrivedClumsiness: Marty "accidentally" trips Biff when they're in the diner in 1955 Hill Valley.
* ContrivedCoincidence: Doc types in "November 5, 1955" into the time machine, the day he came up with the Flux Capacitor. Marty ends up going back to that day, which also happens to be the exact same day his parents met. It's also lucky for Marty that the dance where his parents first kissed and fell in love happened before lightning hit the clock tower, the only time Marty and Doc knew of when and where lightning would strike, as opposed to after. And they only ''know'' it because Marty happens to have been handed a "Save the Clock Tower" flier that day — that happens to include a copy of a newspaper article from the day the lightning hit; which he happens to have kept only because Jennifer happened to use it to write down her phone number for him, and happens to decide to show to Doc because Doc ''happens'' to bother asking how things are between him and his girlfriend back home...
* ConvenientSlowDance: "Earth Angel", where George and Lorraine kiss just before Marty gets erased from history.
* CoolCar: Enforced with the [=DeLorean=]; the page quote shows why.
* CringeComedy: Lorraine's unrequited crush on her (future son) Marty ''oozes'' this.
* CueTheFallingObject: After Marty flies backward after effectively destroying a large amp by turning it up too high, a small part of the amp breaks off and falls to the ground.
* CurseCutShort: Some TV versions invoke this trope when Marty travels back to 1955. When Mr. Peabody shoots at Marty through his closed barn door before he drives out, Peabody shouts, "Take that, you mutated son of a bitch!" Whereas in some TV prints, Peabody's line is cut short to:
-->'''Mr. Peabody:''' "Take that, you mutated son of a--"\\
''(Marty bursts out of the barn)''
* DamselInDistress: Invoked and then played straight -- Marty's plan is to stage an [[AttemptedRape Attempted]] DateRape of Lorraine ([[{{Squick}} his own mother]]) so that George can intervene and win Lorraine's affections. However, when Biff interrupts the staged attempted rape and tries to actually rape Lorraine, it's up to George to save the day, which he does, achieving an even better result, because the show of assertion against Biff was for real and did wonders for George's self-confidence.
* DanceOfRomance: George and Lorraine fell in love at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance.
* DateRapeAverted: {{Invoked}} with FakeDangerGambit, then [[DoubleSubversion doubly subverted]]: Marty sets up a plan to pretend to go too far with Lorraine in their car date; cue George stepping in, grabbing Marty off her and being the hero. Two things cause the plan to go awry: 1) Marty very understandably can't go through with it ([[SpringtimeForHitler in fact Lorraine is far more eager to advance things than he is]]), and 2) Biff enters the scene, gets his goons to remove Marty from the picture and then turns back to Lorraine and [[NightmareFuel begins trying to rape her for real]]. Then George steps in and thwarts him, [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome also for real]].
* TheDayTheMusicLied: During the climactic time-travel sequence, the ThemeMusicPowerUp is heard as Doc is about to connect the cables to the clock tower... and is interrupted when Doc realizes he doesn't have enough cable because part of it is stuck under a broken tree branch.
* DeadpanSnarker: Lou, the owner of the diner where Marty meets the George in 1955, starts out by making snarky comments about Marty's jacket. Then there's his exchange with his employee, Goldie Wilson:
-->'''Goldie''': I WILL be mayor [someday]. I'll be the most powerful man in Hill Valley, and I'm gonna clean up this town!
-->'''Lou''': Good. You can start by sweeping the floor.
* DeathGlare:
** Marty gives one to Biff after stopping him from attacking George by [[ContrivedClumsiness tripping him up]] - which almost immediately turns into an OhCrap when he realizes that Biff is [[DavidVersusGoliath twice his size]].
** Strickland has one of these just after "Calvin" finishes "Johnny B. Goode" at the dance.
* DelayedRippleEffect: Marty has a week to get his parents together before he'll be erased from existence.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: Even if it's a family-friendly film, it doesn't shy away from depicting the overt racism of America in TheFifties. Even Biff's overt sexual harassment of Lorraine doesn't raise many eyes.
* DepartmentOfRedundancyDepartment: The reason the "Darth Vader" scene was shortened. In the full-length scene, "Vader" tells George that he will melt his brain if he doesn't take Lorraine to the dance -- information George relays to Marty in ''the very next scene''. The version in the film has the "Darth Vader from the Planet Vulcan" line before cutting to George telling Marty about it the next day.
* DidntThinkThisThrough: Marty & Doc's plan to get Lorraine to fall for George involves Marty staging an AttemptedRape with [[FakeDangerGambit George intervening and "saving" her]]. However, once the realization hits Marty that he has to actually hit on Lorraine, he can't bring himself to do it and is only able to nervously ask her if she wants to "[[UnusualEuphemism park]]." Then the plan gets completely derailed when not only does Lorraine say yes, but she reveals that [[OfCourseImNotAVirgin she's a pretty rebellious teenager by 1950s standards]].
-->'''Marty:''' Do you mind if we... "park"... for a while?\\
'''Lorraine:''' That's a great idea, I'd love to "park".\\
'''Marty:''' [[OhCrap Huh...?!]]\\
'''Lorraine:''' Well, Marty, I'm almost 18 years old. It's not like I've never "parked" before.
* DirtyCop: While Doc is rigging the lightning rod, a cop comes along and asks him if he has a permit for his "weather experiment". Doc instead hands him an undisclosed amount of money so the cop would leave him alone. The extended cut shows him handing over $50, which, given that's around $530 in today's money, is being very generous. (Given the relative wealth of Doc in 1955, the [[RichesToRags relative poverty]] of Doc in 1985, and the general demeanor of Doc at any point in history, he may have spent a lot of money doing this over the years.)
* DisneyDeath: Doc Brown in the revised timeline, thanks to a warning from Marty, manages to avoid getting shot to death by wearing a bullet-proof vest.
* DivingSave: Marty pushes George out of the way of Lorraine's father's car, by accident.
* DrawAggro: Doc runs into the terrorists' view and tries to shoot at them in order to get their attention off Marty. In the original timeline, it costs him his life.
* DysfunctionalFamily: The entire [=McFly=] family, but especially George and Lorraine, at the beginning of the movie.
* EarlyInstallmentWeirdness:
** A prominent plot point in the sequels is that Marty intensely dislikes being called a "chicken" and that this insult can be used to manipulate him into doing reckless things. This character trait never shows up in the first movie, although there is one slight moment:
--->''[After telling Lorraine that she shouldn't drink]''\\
'''Lorraine:''' Anyone who's anyone drinks.\\
''[Marty reluctantly takes a swig out of the flask and spits it out in disgust]''
** The [=DeLorean=] needs to hit [=88mph=] and then sustain that speed for a few seconds before it travels in time. In all future installments, the time-traveling kicks in the instant the car hits the required speed. This might be due to it using Mr. Fusion as its power source instead of plutonium, also making this the only instance in the franchise where the latter is true.
** Additionally, in this film, the [=DeLorean=] breaks down twice during the climax of the film, true to how [[TheAllegedCar unreliable the car was in real life]]. In the next two films, the car's engine does not break down in the same way again.
* EarlyPersonalitySigns: Marty's Uncle Joey is in prison in 1985. When Marty goes back to 1955, he sees Uncle Joey as a baby. Turns out the infant Uncle Joey loves being in his barred playpen and cries whenever he's taken out.
* EasilyForgiven: While Biff in the altered timeline appears to have become a harmless, eager-to-please GentleGiant who is barely recognizable as the bully he used to be, both George and Lorraine seem to be remarkably grudge-free about him trying to kill their friend and rape Lorraine.
* EatingLunchAlone: George in 1955 tends to eat by himself in the cafeteria and focus on writing his ideas for a science fiction book down on paper.
* EmergencyTemporalShift: After seeing the Libyan terrorists shooting Doc Brown, Marty [=McFly=] finds himself next in the firing line and is forced to escape via the newly-completed [=DeLorean=] time machine -- traveling from 1985 to 1955.
* EskimosArentReal:
** In 1985, Goldie Wilson is running for re-election as mayor of Hill Valley. In 1955, when Marty sees Goldie is the busboy at Lou's, he gives him the idea to become mayor. Goldie's employer, the owner of the cafe, scoffs at the idea of a "colored mayor". There had been a number of African American mayors prior to 1955, though it should be noted that said mayors oversaw small rural frontier towns, and it wasn't until the 1967 elections of Richard B. Hatcher of Gary, Indiana and Carl B. Stokes of Cleveland, Ohio that there were African-American mayors running large cities.
** Doc doesn't initially believe that an actor like Ronald Reagan could become president, though he comes around to it when he sees Marty's "portable television studio" (really a video camera) and realizes the president has to look good on film.
* EstablishingCharacterMusic: The first time we see Marty [=McFly=], he walks into Doc Brown's laboratory, plugs in his guitar, and begins shredding. This quickly establishes him as a laid-back, average teenager.
* EurekaMoment:
** Marty has one when he reads the flyer given to him by the woman campaigning to save the clock tower and realizes that the bolt of lightning can be harnessed to give the time machine enough power to send it back to 1985.
** In 1955, just before Marty's arrival. Doc was hanging a clock in his toilet when he slipped and fell and [[TapOnTheHead banged his head on the sink]].
--->'''Doc:''' And when I came to, I had a revelation. A vision! A picture in my head. A picture of ''this!'' ''This'' is what makes time travel possible: the Flux Capacitor!
** After Doc tears up Marty's letter about his future, Marty laments that he doesn't have enough time to warn him. He then realizes that ''can'' give himself enough time by setting the destination time on the time machine back by 10 minutes.
* EvilRedhead: Dixon, the [[EvilLaugh cackling]] punk who cuts in on George's dance with Lorraine.
* ExactWords: George won't try to ask Lorraine to the dance, telling Marty "neither you nor anybody else on this planet is going to make me change my mind." So that night, Marty pretends to be "Darth Vader", an "extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan".
* ExpoSpeakGag: Doc treats getting George and Lorraine together in a way akin to someone [[WildlifeCommentarySpoof narrating a nature documentary]] and describes the school dance as a "rhythmic ceremonial ritual".
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes F-N]]
* FaceFault: Marty falls over in shock when he sees his parents completely changed by the end of the movie.
* FacePlant: When Marty makes some small talk with 1955!Lorraine, Lorraine's mother calls them down, causing Lorraine to tussle around to avoid Marty getting into a CaughtWithYourPantsDown scenario. This is the result.
* FailedFutureForecast: Doc assumes that radiation suits are used in 1985 because of fallout from the atomic wars, and presumes that plutonium may be available in pharmacies by then.
* FakeDangerGambit: Subverted: Marty's plan to get George and Lorraine together goes wrong, requiring George to be a real hero. In the {{novelization}}, George worries that Biff was in on the plan and had faked being knocked out, until Marty confirms that Biff was serious.
* FalseStart:
** George, with Lorraine in 1955. It was meant to go down as normal until Marty pushed George out of the way from being hit with a car.
** Later, as George is stumbling his way in wooing Lorraine at the cafe, it seems like he'll succeed until Biff shows up.
* FeedbackRule: The mic gives off a slight feedback whenever Marty speaks into one, first during his audition with his band and then later at the HighSchoolDance.
* FeetFirstIntroduction: Marty. You don't even get to see his face until he takes off his sunglasses a minute and a half later.
* FirstContactFarmer: Marty crashes into a pine tree, a scarecrow, and a barn upon arriving in 1955. He crawls out of the [=DeLorean=] and tries to apologize to Farmer Peabody. However, he's wearing a radiation suit and the farmer's son has already identified the car as a spaceship, so he just winds up having to drive away for his life when Farmer Peabody goes for his gun.
* FirstKiss: George and Lorraine have theirs during the Enchantment Under the Sea Dance, while the band plays "Earth Angel". Marty has to fill in for a band member who injured his hand to ensure that it happens.
* FistOfRage: George clenches his fist when seeing Biff mistreating Lorraine.
* FiveSecondForeshadowing:
** There's a shot of the [=Delorean=]'s time circuit readout just before Marty reaches 88 mph and travels back in time, giving a pretty good indicator of what's going to happen next.
** While Doc is explaining to Marty how difficult it would be to generate 1.21 gigawatts of power, Marty pulls out the Save the Clock Tower flyer to show Doc something written on the back, giving the audience a good look at the headline about the clock tower being hit by lightning. This helps the audience keep up when, a moment later, Marty realizes that the lightning hitting the clock tower could be his ticket home.
** When Marty, having arrived back to 1985 and after witnessing Doc getting shot all over again, rushes to his friend's lifeless corpse and turns him over, there's no blood oozing from the bullet wounds. This indicates that Doc had worn a bulletproof vest.
* FlorenceNightingaleEffect: Lorraine fell in love with George after her dad hit him with his car. Marty accidentally ends up replacing his father in her affections when he pushes George out of the way. Marty is naturally [[{{Squick}} not okay with this]], and inadvertently keeps making himself even more attractive to her. Especially after he defends her from Biff in the school's lunchroom. Doc [[DiscussedTrope calls out the trope by name]] to explain to Marty what's going on. [[invoked]]
* FlyingCar: Doc Brown apparently did a lot of work on the [=DeLorean=] in the future and this is one of the upgrades he made. The final shot of the film shows the car's [[HubcapHovercraft wheels]] turning to face downwards for levitation before ''it takes off to the air'' and to the future.
* {{Foreshadowing}}:
** Early in the movie, Jennifer and Marty see a black 4x4 Toyota pickup truck, and Marty says how great it would be to drive it up to the lake. At the end of the movie, after Marty has altered history, he discovers that his family now owns the very same truck and they are fine with Marty and Jennifer driving it up to the lake.
** 1955 Doc commenting on how Marty's 1985 photo is obviously a forgery, since the top of his brother's head has been cut off.
** One of the clocks seen at the start of the film shows a man hanging off of the minute hand (on the surface, a tribute to Creator/HaroldLloyd in the climax of ''Film/SafetyLast''). Doc is later hanging off the clock tower face towards the end of the film. Also, the clocks are slow, with Marty being told of this, which sets up that he is going to go back in time later.
** Marty's skateboard at the beginning hits a case of plutonium when Marty enters the garage. [[spoiler:As revealed later, Doc had stolen it from the Libyans who later shoot him dead]]. Before that, Doc's TV was automatically turned on, which shows the news talking about a stolen case of plutonium.
** The following exchange at the beginning:
--->'''Strickland:''' Now let me give you a nickel's worth of free advice, young man. This so-called Dr. Brown is dangerous. He's a real nutcase. You hang around with him, you're gonna end up in big trouble. [...] No [=McFly=] has ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!\\
'''Marty:''' Yeah, well, history is gonna change.
** Biff in 1985 telling Marty to say hi to Lorraine for him may seem like a clumsy attempt to [[PetTheDog be nice]], but it's meant to foreshadow that in her better days, Lorraine was very good-looking and that Biff has a VillainousCrush on her.
** Upon being rejected for the Battle of the Bands, Marty says "I'll never get to play in front of anybody..." Guess what Marty does at the dance in 1955?
** While recollecting how they first met, Lorraine has no idea what George was doing when he got hit by her dad's car. She presumes it was bird-watching ''but'' he doesn't confirm this. Later, Marty learns first-hand that what he was ''really'' doing [[NaughtyBirdwatching was something other than bird-watching]].
** The [=McFly=] family is watching the episode of ''The Honeymooners'' where "Ralph dresses up as the man from space". The Baines family in 1955 watch the same episode when Marty is with them. It also sets up Marty being mistaken for a "man from space", first of all in front of the Peabodys when Marty first arrives in 1955 [[spoiler:and later when he turns up in George's bedroom to coerce him to take Lorraine to the dance]].
** When Marty gets to 1955 and crosses the street in front of the movie theater in the town square he is nearly hit by a car. Guess what happens a few scenes later?
** After the chase around the town square, Lorraine tells Marty that a man should stand up for himself to protect the woman he loves. George later does exactly this on the night of the dance, standing up to Biff for the first time in his life to save Lorraine.
** When Marty tells Doc near the end that he never saw his dad stand up to Biff in his life, Doc's concern is piqued. Astute viewers can cue in that the 1985 that Marty will return to may not be quite the same in noticeable ways...
** When Doc [[PaperDestructionOfAnger tears up the letter]] Marty wrote to his future self, he shoves the pieces in his pocket instead of throwing them away.
** When Marty and Doc test the plan to send Marty back, the test car drives through the movie theater at the end of the block after being electrocuted. Guess what happens when Marty comes back to 1985.
** The first time we see Doc get shot by the Libyans, he gets shot dozens of times and actually gets knocked backward as he falls. The second time we see this, he falls much faster in a staged-looking manner. It turns out in the revised timeline that Doc was wearing a bulletproof vest and was [[PlayingPossum playing dead]], thus his second fall was fake.
** "If Grandpa hadn't hit him, then none of you would have been born." And that's precisely the scenario that Marty creates later on.
* ForWantOfANail:
** Conversed. Lorraine tells Linda and Marty at the beginning that if her father hadn't hit George with the car, none of them (including Dave, who had left earlier in the scene) would have been born.
** While most nails are avoided (this time) it's amazing what one moment of bravery and a single punch to a bully's face can do...
* FreezeFrameBonus:
** In the first movie, 1955-Doc has no less than ''four'' separate watches (one's even built into his clocktower model as the clock).
** In the opening scene, when Marty shows up at Doc's house, all the clocks were showing the time around 7:53. [[https://i2.wp.com/media.caps.pictures/198/5-backfuture/full/backtothefuture-movie-screencaps.com-321.jpg Except one, which was showing the actual time around 8:18]], when Marty pushes his skateboard to the side.
* FromTheMouthsOfBabes: "It's already mutated into human form! Shoot it!"
* FunnyBackgroundEvent:
** Stella keeps removing Milton's coonskin hat while Marty is taking in the surroundings of the Baines' dining room.
** When Biff says "Make like a tree... and get out of here", one of his goons turns his head towards him, and [[EyeTake his eyebrows slowly try to crawl their way up to his hairline]].
** The Starlighters' saxophone player actually seems to enjoy Marty's segue into heavy metal during "Johnny B. Goode", and manages to keep up with him right until the end (when even he's looking on in disbelief).
** In Lorraine's bedroom when Marty is struggling to get his jeans on, Lorraine can be seen in the mirror just before running out of the door - her face at the sight of Marty in his Calvin Kleins is [[GoodBadGirl quite revealing]].
* GaleForceSound: Marty hooks up an electric guitar to a ludicrously huge speaker. He plays a single chord and is physically [[BlownAcrossTheRoom hurled backwards]] by the sound (the speaker is destroyed in the process).
* GarageBand: Marty [=McFly=]'s band, the Pinheads, which auditions for the Battle of the Bands competition.
-->'''[[Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews Audition Judge]]:''' Hold it, fellas. I'm afraid you're just too darn loud.
* GeorgeLucasAlteredVersion: Initially, this was released as a stand-alone film, and the ending was just a case of AndTheAdventureContinues. The "To be continued" text was added later in the video releases before being removed on the DVD release.
* GivenNameReveal: One of the black musicians, the one who cut his hand by accident, is named Marvin. No big deal. But when we discover that his full name is Marvin Berry, and that he's talking in the phone with his cousin Music/ChuckBerry, then suddenly he ''is'' a big deal.
* GrandfatherParadox: Marty accidentally creates one not by killing his own grandfather, but by taking his father's place as his mother's object of affection. His objective in the film to direct his mother's attention over to his father in order to save himself and his siblings from non-existence.
* GrievousBottleyHarm: During the skateboard chase, Biff's cronies throw bottles at Marty.
* GrumpyOldMan: Sam Baines really isn't that happy with Marty jumping in front of his car. A younger version of one since he's only 45 but acts like a Grumpy Old Man all the same.
* HarsherInHindsight: In-Universe. 1955 Doc is very happy to discover that someday he will have the chance to travel to the future. Marty is very troubled when he said that: as far as he knows, the terrorists killed him in the initial sequence, and never had the chance to actually use the machine himself.
* HazmatSuit: Marty dons a radiation suit to handle the plutonium fuel for the [=DeLorean=], and wears it during his trip into the past.
* {{Headdesk}}: At the climax, when the Delorean won't start, Marty headbutts the steering wheel in frustration [[PercussiveMaintenance and the engine roars to life.]]
* HereWeGoAgain: The ending was supposed to be this trope as they'd never planned any sequels. The film's main problem (that Marty accidentally erased himself from history while stuck in 1955) resulted because he used the [=DeLorean=] TimeMachine; just when the problem is solved and everything is perfect, Doc arrives and whisks them off in it again with Jennifer in tow.
* HeroicResolve: George, when Biff shoves Lorraine down to the ground, gains the guts to send his fist into his bully's face, knocking the jerk out in one punch.
* HeroicSacrifice: Doc draws the Libyans' attention to give Marty time to run, and gets shot for it.
* HeroStoleMyBike: Marty borrows the base of a kid's makeshift scooter, which he uses as an improvised skateboard during the ChaseScene. He returns the board afterwards.
* HomeworkSlave: When we first see George [=McFly=] in 1985, his boss (and SchoolyardBullyAllGrownUp) Biff Tannen is ordering him to make Biff's paperwork so Biff can present it to their boss (and look good to get a promotion). When Marty [=McFly=] goes back in time to 1955, he encounters George and Biff when they were teenagers and Biff is bullying George to make his homework.
* HonkingArrivingCar: Early in the film, Marty and Jennifer are suddenly interrupted pre-kiss by a honking horn and a male voice shouting, "Jennifer!" Jennifer acknowledges her dad has shown up to give her a ride home.
* HopeSpot: Twice over with the same issue in the climax:
** After his EurekaMoment of setting the [=DeLorean=]'s time circuits to give him a ten-minute head start to prevent Doc's shooting, Marty starts doing a final checking over of the [=DeLorean=] before he speeds off to the clocktower... and no sooner does he mention that the engine is running, [[TemptingFate it conks out.]]
** Once back in 1985, Marty attempts to gun it towards the mall, only for the [=DeLorean=]'s engine to give out once again. However, what makes things all the more dire this time is that no sooner does Marty try forcing the car to start, [[OhCrap the Libyans' van speeds past him]].
* HypocriticalHumor:
** When Marty goes over the plan with his father-to-be George to court Lorraine at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance while George is doing laundry, Marty mentions that he will "take advantage" of Lorraine to make her angry at him and George, holding a ''bra'', asks him "Do you mean you're going to touch on her...?" Marty exclaims "no" and then ''grabs the bra and throws it on the ground''.
** Compare Biff's repeated "Don't be so gullible, [=McFly=]" prank to Marty's "[[LookBehindYou Whoa, whoa, Biff, what's that?]]" tactic in the diner. It must be a generational thing as Biff's grandson seems to have wised up to the misdirection.
* IKnowWhatWeCanDoCut: Marvin Berry declaring that the school dance is officially over -- unless Marty "knows ''someone'' who can play a guitar?" Cut to Marty on-stage.
* IdiotBall:
** Doc and Marty have just reloaded the [=DeLorean=] time machine's plutonium chamber. Doc prepares to time travel 25 years into the future, but he sees the terrorists' van approaching. Instead of getting in the [=DeLorean=], Doc goes for his unworkable pistol, and this gives the terrorists enough time to drive up and kill him. Marty escapes to 1955 in the time machine, and ends up nearly erasing himself from existence.
** After Doc tears up the letter warning him about the Libyans killing him, Marty realizes that since he has a time machine, he can go back early and warn him. Instead of going back an hour early to give himself ample time to warn Doc, Marty [[RaceAgainstTheClock only gives himself ten minutes]], severely limiting his ability to warn Doc on time. Even if he can get to the mall on time, he's really cutting it close.
* ImMrFuturePopCultureReference:
** Lorraine thinks Marty's name is "Calvin Klein" as "it's written all over [his] underwear". Marty says his name is Marty, but Lorraine (and Biff, if ''Part II'' is anything to go by), thinks his name is "Calvin Marty Klein".
** "My name is [[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]! I am an [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial extra-terrestrial]] from the planet [[Franchise/StarTrek Vulcan]]!"
* ImprovisedLightningRod: Doc Brown uses the Clock Tower as a lightning rod to gain the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity the [=DeLorean=] needs to get back to the future.
* ImprovisedZipline: Doc Brown uses the heavy-duty electrical cable attached to the clock tower as a line to reach the ground quickly and fix a break in the line.
* InsecureProtagonistArrogantAntagonist: WordOfGod describes Marty [=McFly=] as a SupportingProtagonist to his future father George in 1955, as Marty teaches the [[ExtremeDoormat extremely weak-willed]] George to stand up to Biff Tannen.
* InSpiteOfANail: Played with. The new 1985 is identical in most respects... but not entirely. The [=McFly=] family turned out differently, Biff Tannen turned out differently, Hill Valley's shopping is now done at the ''Lone'' Pine Mall, and of course, Music/ChuckBerry got the idea for "Johnny B. Goode" from a sample he overheard during a telephone call from his cousin Marvin.
* IronicEcho: In 1985, Marty tells Doc that "You don't just walk into a store and-and buy ''plutonium!''" Then in 1955, Doc tells Marty "I'm sure in 1985 plutonium is in every corner drug store, but in 1955, it's a little hard to come by!"
* IShouldWriteABookAboutThis:
** And indeed, George does, based on "Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan" visiting him at night in 1955. [[CelebrityParadox One hopes]] that Creator/GeneRoddenberry and Creator/GeorgeLucas didn't sue (or possibly George [[NoCelebritiesWereHarmed specifically avoided using his 'alien' tormentor's real name]] out of fear).
** In the {{novelization}}, while Marty visits Doc after visiting George's house for the first time, Doc remarks, "If you get back, maybe you could make a movie out of this."
* ItWillNeverCatchOn: Every other minute.
** In-universe, teen George and Lorraine don't think they'll end up together, and both George and Marty fear the public won't like their art (science fiction writing and Marty's band's rock music, respectively).
** Marty's would-be grandfather thinks he's an idiot and tells Lorraine that if she ever has a child like him, he will disown her.
** Doc Brown in 1955 on the idea of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan as President in 1985: "Ronald Reagan? The ''actor''? Then who's Vice-President? Creator/JerryLewis?" He comes around to it when he sees Marty's "portable television studio" (read: a camcorder), realizing that the President has to look good on TV.
** Diner owner Lou on janitor Goldie Wilson's aspirations to run for mayor: "A colored mayor? That'll be the day."
** When Marty says that his family owns two TV sets, Lorraine's mom says that he's joking because nobody does.[[note]]In 1955 a television set cost as much as a used car does today, and most homes did not own multiple television sets until the late-1960s, when many households bought their first color TV and the old black-and-white set ("the spare") was then relegated to another room.[[/note]]
* ItWorksBetterWithBullets: Doc's Colt Single Action Army revolver doesn't fire because he didn't load it.
* IWantMyJetPack: Parodied. The 1955 Doc thinks 1985 will feature everyone wearing radiation suits due to "the atomic wars" and that plutonium will be "available in every corner drug store." He's clearly imagining 1985 as the {{Zeerust}} future that people thought they were headed for in the 1950s. Ironically, the sequel would later recreate this trope for a new generation, what with its portrayal of the then-future year of 2015.
* IWasNeverHere: George has changed his mind, and asks Marty for help to date Lorraine. What made him change his mind? A visit from Darth Vader hailing from the Planet Vulcan! Marty suggests he keep this particular turn of events to himself.
-->'''Marty:''' Let's just keep this brain melting stuff to ourselves, OK?\\
'''George:''' Oh, yeah, yeah...
* {{Jerkass}}: Sam Baines, Marty's future grandfather, has hints of being this. He is more interested in setting up a new TV set than eating dinner with the rest of the family (though he does join them with the TV once he gets it going). He also calls Marty an idiot behind his back despite having only just met him, and warns Lorraine he'll disown her if she has a kid who acts like that.
* JerkassHasAPoint: As painful as it is to admit a [[{{Jerkass}} jerk]] like him is right, Biff isn't wrong for saying George's insurance should cover the damages to George's car. After all, George ''did'' give Biff permission and it does kind of fall on George that he allowed someone as careless as Biff to use his car.
* JockDadNerdSon: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Marty is a cool guy who rides a skateboard and plays guitar, while his dad George is an awkward nerd who gets bullied by [[JerkJock Biff]] and is obsessed with science fiction.
* JustInTime: Doc is able to connect the wire for the lightning strike at the last second.
* TheKeyIsBehindTheLock: Marty gets locked in a car trunk, along with the keys to the trunk.
* KeyUnderTheDoormat: Doc Brown is not particularly security conscious.
* KickMePrank: George is the victim of one at school. His classmates enthusiastically obey the sign until an unimpressed Strickland rips it from his back.
* LactoseOverLiquor: George is about to approach Lorraine at the MaltShop. He needs LiquidCourage and heads over to the bar to order a milk... chocolate.
* LateForSchool: Marty, for the fourth time in a row. He even says, "Damn! I'm late for school!", before hanging up on Doc. He still gets caught by Strickland.
* LetsGetDangerous: Bumbling fretful Doc, when he sees that he accidentally unplugged the ''other'' end of the cable, sucks it up, and ziplines off the clock tower in the middle of a storm.
* LettingTheAirOutOfTheBand: Happens the minute Biff angrily marches in to throw George out of the diner. Apparently, someone in the room had a good sense of dramatic tension to unplug the jukebox at that ''exact'' moment.
* LightningCanDoAnything: Doc and Marty use a lightning bolt to power the time machine in the [=DeLorean=].
* LikeParentLikeSpouse: Lorraine's father Sam is just as obsessed with TV as her husband George is in 1985. The exact same episode, even!
* LittleNo: Marty has a barely audible one as he cries over Doc's "death" at the end of the movie.
* ALittleSomethingWeCallRockAndRoll:
** In one of the most famous examples of the trope, Marty impresses the 1955 Hill Valley high school with a performance of 1958 ''Johnny B. Goode'', and implicitly [[BeenThereShapedHistory inspires]] Music/ChuckBerry himself [[YouAlreadyChangedThePast to write it]]. The audience is not thrilled by his metal-like guitar solo at the end, though.
--->'''Marty:''' I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet...but your kids are gonna love it.
** An earlier involuntary example occurs when Marty "invents" the skateboard to humiliate Biff and his gang.
** Marty uses [[ImMrFuturePopCultureReference references]] to ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Franchise/StarTrek'' (as well as ''Series/TheOuterLimits1963'' and ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' in the extended cut) to scare George into attending the dance with Lorraine. While he finds the experience terrifying, it does inspire him to write a science-fiction novel in the future.
* LivingProp: Dave and Linda basically only exist so that the photo Marty has can visually show the ripple effect results of Lorraine and George never getting together, without actually affecting Marty (until the end at least).
* LookBehindYou: After Marty trips Biff in Lou's Cafe, Biff is about to punch his lights out when Marty nonchalantly points over Biff's shoulder and says, "Whoa, whoa, Biff... what's that?" Biff turns to look, and when he turns back, Marty punches him in the face and runs for it.
* LukeYouAreMyFather: Marty knows past George and Lorraine are his parents, but he does his best not to tell them since telling them would change his future. There are a couple of instances where he accidentally refers to them as his parents before he [[VerbalBackspace backpedals]] and calls them by their names.
* MaltShop: Lou's Diner.
* MamasBabyPapasMaybe: Discussed. When Marty and Doc watch George being literally kicked around in the hallway, Doc suggests that Marty was adopted.
* ManlyTears: Marty towards the end of the movie. After seeing his friend, Doc, killed once, Marty is now praying that Doc read his letter and took precautions so he wouldn't be killed a second time. Marty arrives just in time to see the Libyans shoot Doc again. Running over to him, Marty finds Doc unconscious. Assuming the worst, he begins sobbing. [[spoiler:However, we find out that Doc is fine.]]
* MassiveNumberedSiblings: There are five Baines siblings by 1955, possibly at least one more since Stella is pregnant.
* MassOhCrap: Biff and his gang just before crashing into the manure truck: "'''''[[VisualPun SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!]]'''''"
* MeaningfulBackgroundEvent: When Marty tries to tell Doc about the terrorists, Doc objects by saying no man should know too much about his own future. When he says, "We've already agreed..." over his right shoulder is a man riding a bike, wearing a white hat, [[spoiler:his future self from the second movie]].
* MeaningfulEcho: Two exchanges, thirty years apart, show that things between George and Biff have always been the same.
** In 1985, George and Biff's conversation after Biff wrecks a car George loaned him:
--->'''Biff:''' Hey, did you finish up my reports?\\
'''George:''' Well, I figured, since they weren't due 'till Monday...\\
'''Biff:''' ''[playing George's head like a bongo]'' Hello? '''''Helloooooo?!''''' Anybody home?! Huh?! Think, [=McFly=]! Think! I've gotta have time to get 'em retyped. Do you realize what would happen if I hand in ''my'' reports in ''your'' handwriting? I'll get fired. You wouldn't want that to happen, would ya?\\
''[George hesitates; Biff pulls on George's tie]''\\
'''Biff:''' Would ya?\\
'''George:''' Well no, of course not, Biff. I wouldn't want that to happen. ''[Biff helps himself to some gumballs]'' Now look, I'll uh, finish those reports on up tonight, and I'll run 'em on over first thing tomorrow. All right?\\
'''Biff:''' Not too early. I sleep in Saturday. ''[gestures downward]'' Oh, [=McFly=], your shoe's untied.\\
''[George looks down, Biff taps George's nose]''\\
'''Biff:''' Don't be so gullible, [=McFly=]...
** Marty walks into Lou's Diner in 1955 and after Lou hands him a cup of coffee, the camera pans to show that Marty is sitting next to George, who is occupied eating his breakfast. Suddenly the doors fly open:
--->'''Biff:''' Hey, did you finish up my homework?\\
'''George:''' Well, I figured, since it wasn't due 'till Monday...\\
'''Biff:''' ''[again with the head-battering]'' Hello? '''''Helloooooo?!''''' Anybody home?! Hey! Think, [=McFly=]! Think! I gotta have time to recopy it. Do you realize what would happen if I hand in ''my'' homework in ''your'' handwriting? I'll get kicked out of school. You wouldn't want that to happen, would ya?\\
''[George hesitates; Biff grabs George by his shirt]''\\
'''Biff:''' Would ya?\\
'''George :''' Well no, of course not, Biff, I wouldn't want that to happen... I'll, uh, finish that on up tonight and then I'll, uh, bring it over first thing tomorrow morning.\\
'''Biff:''' Not too early. I sleep in Sunday. ''[gestures downward]'' Oh, [=McFly=], your shoe's untied.\\
''[George looks down, Biff taps George's nose]''\\
'''Biff:''' Don't be so gullible, [=McFly=]...
* MeetCute: George and Lorraine's first meeting, the way it originally happened.
* MenActWomenAre: Marty's original plan to get his parents together is built on the expectations of this trope, i.e. Marty and George acting with Lorraine being a passive "nice girl." It's subverted when Lorraine is the one to act while Marty is passive, which is the exact opposite of what needs to happen to make the plan work. But later, Biff gets involved and the trope is played straight. Thus, it's ultimately a DoubleSubversion.
* MightyWhitey: Marty travels back to the mid-1950s, where he introduces Main/RockAndRoll to the world... a musical style that had been developing over the course of the previous decade, primarily by African American performers, via Main/{{Blues}} and Main/RAndB.
* MistakenForAliens: Upon his arrival in 1955, Marty is mistaken for a space alien, something he later takes advantage of in order to convince George to ask Lorraine out. In fact, the filmmakers specifically chose to use a [=DeLorean=] as the time machine because its gull-wing doors would help sell the idea that it could be mistaken for a UFO in the 1950s. This trope's inclusion was also the inspiration for Sid Sheinberg's infamous suggestion that the film be retitled ''Spaceman from Pluto''. You'll notice that in the final film, the ''Tales from Space'' comic book includes a mention of "Space Zombies from Pluto."
* ModelPlanning: Doc builds an elaborate model of city blocks to demonstrate his plan to Marty, then apologizes for "the crudity of the model". It also catches on fire during the DisastrousDemonstration.
* SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome: In-universe. For the 1955 teenagers (who had never seen films with action sequences, or perhaps ''any'' action in the all-peaceful Hill Valley), the way Marty eludes the bullies and gets Biff to crash into a manure truck is the most awesome thing ever seen. Lorraine is more in love than ever with Marty after witnessing that.
* MuggingTheMonster: Biff's pals threaten Reginald with a racial slur; then Marvin and Reginald's three friends appear. OhCrap...
* MundaneMadeAwesome: George's method of [[BarSlide ordering a milk]]... chocolate. The outtake is even better, where the milkshake glass bounces off George's hand and crashes to the floor.
* MyCarHatesMe:
** The Libyans' VW bus, which refuses to start at the same time their Kalashnikov rifle jams.
--->'''Libyan Gunner:''' Rrrgh! Damn Soviet gun!\\
'''Libyan Driver:''' Gah! Damn German car!
** And of course, the [[TheAllegedCar DeLorean]], which breaks down after Marty arrives in 1955, just before he is about to return to 1985, and just after he does return and needs to get to the mall to save Doc from the Libyans.
* NaughtyBirdwatching: When George is spying on Lorraine in 1955. Lorraine in the original 1985 even assumes that George actually ''was'' birdwatching, which George doesn't deny.
* NewspaperBackstory: The opening scene pans over a bunch of clocks and a corkboard. Pinned onto the board are two news articles, which hint at Doc Brown's life before the film takes place.
* NewspaperDating: While Marty is staring around in bemusement at the 1955 version of his hometown, a man nearby drops a newspaper into a trash can. Marty retrieves it to confirm that he's in the past and learn the exact date.
* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Marty pushes George out of the way of being hit by the car, which keeps his parents from meeting (he himself had to fix that) and he and his siblings almost getting erased from existence.
* NiceJobFixingItVillain:
** Marty's plan to force himself on Lorraine is a terrible one. Marty can't really bring himself to abuse Lorraine and she is very eager to make out with him, so George couldn't have acted as a savior. It's only after Biff shows up and takes Marty's place when it becomes a DamselInDistress scenario.
** Biff pushing Lorraine down and [[EvilLaugh laughing about it]] gives George the [[DateRapeAverted resolve he needs]] to punch him out.
* NoAccountingForTaste: George and Lorraine in the original 1985, at the start of the film. Marty admits to Doc in 1955 that he doesn't understand their relationship at all, as they have nothing in common and his father has always been completely spineless.
-->'''Doc:''' What are their common interests? What do they like to do together?\\
'''Marty:''' ...nothing?
* NoodleIncident:
** Marty setting fire to the living room rug at the age of eight.
** Also, it's briefly implied that Marty and George [=McFly=] aren't the first victims of a Sam Baines hit-and-run accident, given that the moment George rides away on his bike, Sam shouts, "'''''Stella!''''' [[OhNoNotAgain Another one of these damn kids jumped in front of my car!]] Come on out here and help me bring him in the house!" Which makes one wonder whether Lorraine was well-known for never closing her curtains.
** A deleted scene has Doc bribe the cop with a "permit" (actually a $50 bill).
--->'''Cop:''' You're not gonna set anything on fire this time, are you, Doc?\\
'''Doc:''' ''[pause]'' Nah!
** At no point in the film is it answered as to ''why'' Doc has a ''giant speaker amplifier in his house!''
* NostalgiaAintLikeItUsedToBe:
** Downplayed; while the film's portrayal of 1955 is rosier than 1985, the film does a good job in showing both the bright, sunny veneer of TheFifties and the darker, less pleasant aspects underneath, without being totally blinded by rose-tinted glasses.
** When Marty arrives in the 1955 town square, we can see some of the things that have and haven't changed since then. The Texaco station has a team of four uniformed men to service cars, including filling the tank and polishing the engine. Also, much like the 1985 town square has a mayoral campaign van going around blaring "Re-elect Mayor Goldie Wilson!" on loudspeakers, the 1955 version of this scene has a car blaring "Re-elect Mayor Red Thomas!" on loudspeakers, even decked out with similar-looking signs and similar "progress is his middle name" slogans.
* NotHyperbole: At the end of this movie (and the beginning of ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII Part II]]''), when Marty is reunited with Jennifer after being in 1955, she says "Marty, you're acting like you haven't seen me in a week", to which he says "I haven't". For Jennifer, it'd been less than 24 hours since they were together, but for Marty, he really did go a week without seeing her, arriving on November 5, 1955 at 5:00 AM and leaving on November 12, 1955 at 10:04 PM.
* NotUsedToFreedom: Marty's uncle "Jailbird Joey" is more comfortable as a toddler confined in his playpen.
-->'''Marty:''' Better get used to these bars, kid.
* NowYouTellMe: Marty gets BlownAcrossTheRoom when he tries to hook up to the amplifier. Then Doc calls and, among other things, warns Marty not to use the amplifier.
[[/folder]]

[[folder:Tropes O-Z]]
* OddFriendship: Doc is an inventor and scientist in his 60s. His best (and possibly only) friend is a 17 year old boy with little knowledge of or interest in science and technology, except perhaps as it relates to music production.
* OfCourseImNotAVirgin: Lorraine tells Marty, "I'm almost eighteen years old! It's not like I've never [[UnusualEuphemism parked]] before!"
* OhCrap:
** Marty after Doc tells him his clocks are twenty-five minutes slow, making him realize he's late for school again.
** "Oh, my God. They found me. I don't know how, but they found me. '''''Run for it, Marty!'''''"
--->'''Marty:''' HOLY ''SHIT!''
** Marty goes wide-eyed after tripping Biff up in the diner, seeing how much bigger Biff is than himself.
** [[http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_kugf95XVXN1qzvqipo1_500.jpg The look on Doc's face]] when his return home simulation causes some rags to catch fire is utterly priceless.
** Doc Brown's expression when he realizes Marty is being truthful about being from the future doubles as an ExplainExplainOhCrap.
** Doc has two moments following those. First when he learns that the time machine requires 1.21 gigawatts to work, going into a HeroicBSOD about how careless he was when designing it. The only thing that pulls him out of it is when Marty has a EurekaMoment that they can harness a bolt of lightning to generate enough energy to power the flux capacitor. The second is when he learns that Marty interfered in the first meeting between his parents, which has started to [[RetGone erase Marty's siblings from existence]].
** Marty, when Biff, not George, pulls him out of the car on the night of the dance.
** The look on George's face when he discovers it is Biff, not "Calvin", in the car with Lorraine.
** Biff's thugs when the rest of Reginald's bandmates get out of the car [[spoiler:in the trunk of which they just dumped Marty]] on the night of the dance.
** Biff, when he sees in George's face that he's pushed him too far and a left hand is coming his way.
** Marty gets a huge one at the dance when he starts to fade out of the photograph and sees his right hand start to fade away.
** Marty when the Libyans bring out the RPG. This is what prompts him to attempt driving at [=90mph=], causing him to activate the flux capacitor and travel back in time.
* OlderThanTheyLook: According to WordOfGod, Old Man Peabody who owns Twin Pines Ranch is 45 years old, despite the fact that he looks thirty years older. (Actor Will Hare was in his late sixties at the time of filming.)
* OneHitKO: In his defense of Lorraine, George lands just one punch on Biff. As it turns out, that one punch was all he needed.
* TheOner: The opening shot of the film (an EstablishingShot of Doc Brown's laboratory, which sets up a few plot points and {{Foreshadowing}}) goes on for several minutes. It's a quite complicated shot, requiring a lot of technical coordination, even though no actual actors appear onscreen.
* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: Doc is surprised and asks for confirmation when Marty mentions that [[TookALevelInBadass George stood up to Biff, for the first time ever]]. This is a subtle hint about Doc realizing that the status quo timeline has been deeply changed already so reading Marty's letter would be now a less game-breaker thing for him.
* OurTimeMachineIsDifferent: The film's creators justify this by saying that it makes more sense to have a time machine that you can take with you, rather than one that just sits at your destination. Plus the stainless steel construction makes the [[TechnoBabble flux dispersal]] work that much better.
* ParallelPornTitles: In the 1985 town square, the Essex Theater is showing a porno called ''Orgy American Style'', which parodies the title of the old TV series ''Series/LoveAmericanStyle''. Incidentally, [[https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3626382/ a film by that title actually was made in 1973]], although comments from Bob Gale suggest that the ''Back to the Future'' filmmakers were unaware of this fact.
* ParentalBonus: After Marty wakes up from being hit by Lorraine's father's car, Lorraine tells him that his pants are "over there... on [her] hope chest". Many people who were born after the 1950s may not understand what a hope chest is. It's a chest that young girls used to keep in preparation for their marriage. In other words, Lorraine is already fantasizing about marrying the young man that she does not realize is her future son. One assumes that in the original timeline, this also happened with George.
* ParentalHypocrisy: Lorraine scoffs at Marty for parking with his girlfriend Jennifer, saying "WhenIWasYourAge I [[BlatantLies never chased a boy]], or called a boy, or [[SuspiciouslySpecificDenial sat in a parked car with a boy]]". Marty is shocked when he travels back in time and finds that his mother is actually willing to "park for a while" (plus smoking and drinking) although it wouldn't be so bad if she did it with him.
* ParentalIncest: Parodied, in that whilst Marty knows who Lorraine really is, she has no idea as to his true identity. Marty [[{{squick}} seriously]] [[invoked]] tries to avert this trope, and does everything wrong until the night of the dance; everything he does only makes him more attractive to her. He jumps and flees when she makes a pass at him, defends her from Biff's "meat hooks", trips up Biff when Biff goes after George and leads Biff on an over-the-top skateboard chase culminating in Biff's comeuppance in manure. By this time, she ''really'' wants to get to know him. Luckily, she ends up feeling the same way as Marty, equating the experience to "kissing my own brother".
* PedalToTheMetalShot: In the "race-against-the-lightning" climax...primarily to demonstrate Marty's desperation when the car [[PlotDrivenBreakdown won't start right away]]. Also the "aggressively shifting gears" variant several times during the car chase with the Libyans, which actually plays a critical role in stranding Marty in 1955 in the first place (the "time circuits on" lever is close enough to the gear shift Marty accidentally bumps it).
* PercussiveMaintenance: The engine of the [=DeLorean=] stalls at nearly the exact moment before Marty has to start accelerating to go back to the future. As he struggles to start the car again, we see him becoming increasingly frustrated at his lack of success before his frustration gets the better of him and [[PercussiveTherapy he headbutts the steering wheel]], leading the [=DeLorean=] to start up again.
* PetsHomageName: Doc's dogs. His 1985 dog is named Einstein, his 1955 dog is Copernicus.
* PlotBasedVoiceCancellation: When Marty tries to tell Doc about the future while the latter is on top of the clock tower:
-->'''Marty:''' ''[shouting up at Doc]'' On the night I go back, you will get--\\
''[The clock strikes ten, drowning out Marty and startling Doc]''
* PoliceAreUseless:
** Aside from AttemptedRape (though to be fair, the film doesn't imply that anyone ever called the cops about it) above, Biff in 1955 also makes multiple threats of assault throughout the movie, and in one scene attempts to commit ''murder'', and nobody even seems to think that he's doing anything illegal. Some of this is slightly justified by bullying not being taken anywhere near as seriously in the 50s as it is today.
** The one time a cop is shown on screen, he's doing nothing more than inquiring about the Doc's little "weather experiment" and whether the Doc has a permit. Doc bribes him to look the other way while handing him some money. A deleted scene shows him doing this up close.
** No officers turn up to investigate the shootings at the Mall, or the car crash into the movie theater when Marty returns to 1985. The novel does mention sirens in the distance though as Doc and Marty leave the Mall to retrieve the [=DeLorean=].
* ThePowerOfRock: Played with. Marty's rendition of "Johnny B. Goode" impresses everybody -- until he gets carried away with his guitar solo.
-->'''Marty:''' I guess you guys aren't ready for that yet... but your kids are gonna love it.
* ThePrecariousLedge: Doc has to balance on a ledge up on the clock tower. It breaks and sends him [[StockClockHandHang hanging from the clock hand]].
* PrecisionFStrike:
** "If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits eighty-eight miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious ''shit''."
** When Biff and his gang are about to crash into the [[RoadApples manure]] truck, [[MassOhCrap they all yell]] "'''''[[VisualPun SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIT!!!]]'''''"
** Enforced by Marty when he's explaining to George the plan to "save" Lorraine from being molested by Marty.
--->'''George:''' Do you really think I should swear?\\
'''Marty:''' Yes, definitely! Goddammit, George, swear!
* PrimeTimeline: Though it doesn't really take place in a {{Multiverse}}, ''[=BttF=]'' does have a central timeline which Doc and Marty are trying to protect.
* PsychoStrings: The musical score gets screechy as Marty fades from existence.
* PunchCatch: Biff does one of these to George and almost breaks his arm.
* PunkInTheTrunk: Marty gets thrown and locked into a trunk by Biff's goons.
* QuipToBlack: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need [[GlassesPull roads]]." Cue the [=DeLorean=] time machine taking flight towards the camera, after which, it smashes to the credits.
* QuizzicalTilt: Einstein tilts his head when the back of Doc's truck opens and the [=DeLorean=] makes its entrance.
* RealityIsUnrealistic: Some people complain that Michael J. Fox's [[NonSingingVoice singing double]] is a bit too low for Marty's character during his performance of "Johnny B. Goode". However, it's pretty common in RealLife for somebody's singing voice to sound radically different from their speaking voice -- see SingingVoiceDissonance for examples. Also, the song had been recorded before Fox was officially cast.
* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Strickland really dishes it out to Marty at the beginning for being a "slacker", and to the rest of the [=McFly=] family as he drives his point home.
* ReedRichardsIsUseless: It's understandable that Doc wouldn't want time travel technology spreading, but if he patented that nuclear reactor with 1.21-gigawatt output that's small enough to fit in the back of a car, he'd easily become a millionaire and probably revolutionize the global energy market.
* RejectionAffection: Lorraine with Marty.
* ReliablyUnreliableGuns: Marty is saved repeatedly from being shot by Libyans because of their rifle jamming. They are shooting an AK-47, which are [[MadeOfIndestructium famed for their reliability even under the harshest conditions]]. However, we do see them simply trying to clear the jam rather than abandoning the gun immediately. Eventually the terrorist does clear the jam and continues firing. You can also overhear them complaining about how the gun and car are cheap off-brands, so the idea that they were intentionally sold defective products (like the fake bomb Doc gave them) isn't too farfetched.
* ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated: Marty believes Doc to be dead after the terrorists [[MultipleGunshotDeath riddled him with bullets]]. While he is mourning, [[spoiler:Doc comes back to life behind him. Marty slowly turns his head in disbelief but is overjoyed when he realizes what's going on.]]
* RescueRomance: Marty tries to set his parents up by FakeDangerGambit: faking a situation]] where George saves Lorraine from sexual assault (namely, by Marty himself). It goes off the rails when Lorraine is more eager than Marty is, only to be set right when Biff intervenes and genuinely tries to assault Lorraine, and George ends up genuinely saving her by punching Biff out.
* RetGone: Dave, Linda and (almost) Marty in the photograph.
* RetroactivePrecognition: Marty has one when he first walks into Lou's, as he recognizes that the busboy is Goldie Wilson, who will be mayor in 30 years. Marty inadvertently blurts out "That's right, he's gonna be mayor!" when Goldie tries to give George a pep talk about standing up to Biff and "being someone", planting the idea in Goldie's mind.
* RewindReplayRepeat: "They found me... I don't know how, but they found me... '''''Run for it, Marty!'''''" replayed by 1955 Doc Brown who was told not to by Future Boy Marty.
* RiddleForTheAges: What does the [=DeLorean=]'s stainless steel construction do to the flux dispersal? Doc was going to explain before he and Marty hurriedly moved to avoid being hit by the [=DeLorean=] as it reappeared.
* RightPlaceRightTimeWrongReason: Marty finding that George is a peeping tom.
* RippedFromThePhoneBook: When Marty is looking up Doc Brown's house in the phonebook, he tears the page out for reference.
* RubeGoldbergDevice: The film begins inside Dr. Emmett Brown's GadgeteersHouse, where his alarm clock triggers a machine to automatically prepare breakfast for him and for his dog, Einstein. Since Doc hasn't been home for a few days, his kitchen is a mess of uneaten breakfasts.
* RuleOfCool: Doc reasons that if he was building a time machine out of a car, then it might as well have a bit of style. He does have a more practical reason, though; He mentions the [=DeLorean=]'s stainless steel body [[TheUnreveal before being cut off]] by the Delorean's reappearance.
* RunningGag:
** People mistaking Marty's down jacket as a "life preserver" -- Lou, Skinhead (one of Biff's bullies), and Lorraine's mother. In the last case, Marty explains it away as being part of the Coast Guard; Doc [[BrickJoke later predicts]], when using his mind-reading device, that Marty wants him to donate to the Coast Guard.
** Lorraine keeps calling Marty "Calvin Klein", even after Marty corrects her. She eventually comes to believe his name is "Calvin Marty Klein".
** Marty and Jennifer getting interrupted whenever they're about to kiss.
* RunningOverThePlot: Shortly after arriving in 1955 Marty accidentally gets run over by his grandfather's car, which introduces him to his mother (who is instantly smitten with him) and accidentally prevents his parents from meeting. This triggers the main subplot where Marty must work to get his parents back together to stop the GrandfatherParadox from obliterating him from existence.
* ScaryBlackMan: Played with. Biff's gang isn't afraid of Marvin when he confronts them for messing with his car, but when the rest of the Starlighters pile out, it's a different story. However, Biff's gang seems more afraid of the copious amount of pot smoke billowing out of the Starlighters's car than anything else.
-->'''Skinhead:''' Look, I don't wanna mess with no reefer addicts, okay?[[note]]Of course, this '''was''' the era when [[Film/ReeferMadness marijuana smokers were made out to be dangerous psychotics]].[[/note]]
* SelfPlagiarism: George's line to start out his BigDamnHeroes moment ("Hey you, take your damn hands off her") is a variation of what Larry says when he's rescuing Grace ("Take your goddamn hands off her") in Creator/RobertZemeckis' first movie, ''Film/IWannaHoldYourHand''. A lightning strike is also important to the plot of the earlier movie.
* SequelHook: Unintentional, made into one by ExecutiveMeddling. The creators swore that Doc's line that "something's gotta be done about [Marty and Jennifer's] kids" was a joke.
* ShamSupernatural: Marty uses his radiation suit and Walkman stereo to dress up as "Darth Vader" from "the Planet Vulcan". He frightens George and threatens to [[CutHisHeartOutWithASpoon melt his brain]] if he doesn't take Lorraine to the school dance.
* SharedFamilyQuirks: Marty sits in Lou's and [[HandBehindHead nervously rubs the back of his head]], and the camera pans to show he's sitting next to George, who is doing the exact same thing. They both even do a synchronized head-turn at the sound of Biff entering.
* ShipperWithAnAgenda: Marty tries actively to make George and Lorraine hook up; if they don't, he will be {{RetGone}}.
* ShouldntWeBeInSchoolRightNow: The only time Marty is seen at school in 1985 is towards the beginning. First, getting chastised by Mr. Strickland for arriving late and allegedly being a slacker, and afterwards, being rejected from his school's Battle of the Bands competition.
* ShoutOut:
** The farmer is Old Man [[WesternAnimation/RockyAndBullwinkle Peabody, and his son is named Sherman]].
** In Doc's lab in the beginning, the amplifier is labeled "CRM 114", which was the code name for a radio device from ''Film/DrStrangelove''.
** After Sam Baines hits Marty with the car, he yells [[Theatre/AStreetcarNamedDesire "STELLA!"]].
** In order to convince George to go out with Lorraine, Marty sneaks into his bedroom dressed in the radiation suit and claims to be "[[Franchise/StarWars Darth Vader]]", [[Film/ETTheExtraTerrestrial an extra-terrestrial]] from [[Franchise/StarTrek the planet Vulcan]], who will fry his brain (with Eddie Van Halen) if he doesn't ask her out.
** While playing "Johnny B. Goode", Marty emulates other guitar heroes, duck-walking like Music/ChuckBerry, windmilling like [[Music/TheWho Pete Townshend]], and tapping like [[Music/VanHalen Eddie Van Halen]].
** The time circuits display the destination time, present time, and last time departed in the colors of red, green, and yellow respectively. This is a reference to those same three colors being used for the time display in the 1960 version of ''[[Film/TheTimeMachine1960 The Time Machine]]''.
* ShownTheirWork: The [=DeLorean=] constantly breaking down is more than simply RuleOfDrama. [=DeLoreans=] were infamous for being all-style, no-substance. While they're beautifully designed, their engines and other under-the-hood parts were garbage, and [[TheAllegedCar they'd often break down for no apparent reason]].
* ShutUpHannibal: A downplayed one with the final line of Marty's first scene with Strickland:
-->'''Strickland:''' No [=McFly=] ever amounted to anything in the history of Hill Valley!\\
'''Marty:''' Yeah? Well, history is gonna change.
* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVsCynicism: Very idealistic. Even the DarkerAndEdgier ''Part II'' is mainly optimistic overall.
* SlowElectricity: When the lightning hits the clock, the bolt travels down the cable roughly at walking pace.
* TheSlowPath:
** 1955 Doc regrets having to wait 30 years to talk to Marty about their adventures.
** Regarding Marty's attempts to warn him [[spoiler:of his impending death]], Doc insists that he'll find out through the ordinary progression of events.
* SoundingItOut: Marty sounds out the letter he is writing to Doc about the terrorist attack in 1985.
* SoundtrackDissonance: "Mr. Sandman" by The Four Aces, a cheerful song, is used to underscore Marty's confusion as he arrives in the 1955 Hill Valley during the MisterSandmanSequence. Downplayed, as it represents the (apparent) clean, wholesome, optimistic, friendly [[TheFifties Fifties]] Marty found himself in.
* SouthpawAdvantage: There is George [=McFly=]'s famous [[TookALevelInBadass badassery level up]] scene where he decks his lifelong BarbaricBully tormentor Biff Tannen with a big, left-handed haymaker to protect the girl he loves. In an early draft of the script, [[{{Foreshadowing}} there was a scene where George discovers that his left arm is for some reason much stronger than his right]].
* SpearCarrier: The couple at the dance is amazed at George standing up for himself.
* SpitTake: Marty when seeing Lorraine smoke in the car.
* SpringtimeForHitler: Marty's plan to get his parents together is to pretend to attempt to force himself on his mother, than have George rescue her. Things go awry when she turns out to be very eager to ''*ahem*'' "get to know" Marty.
* SteelEarDrums: Averted during the climax as Doc clutches his head and screams in pain as the Hill Valley courthouse clock chimes a couple of yards away from him.
* StockClockHandHang: The 1955 Doc comes up with a plan to send Marty back to 1985 by channeling the electricity from a lightning strike that's set to hit the clock tower. On the night of the thunderstorm, a bolt strikes a tree branch and disconnects the cables the Doc has set up to capture the lightning. At the last minute, he has to go up onto the clock tower and reconnect the cables. When the platform he's standing on breaks, he grabs onto the clock hands to keep from falling to the ground.
* StoppedClock: The clock tower stopped after being struck by lightning at 10:04 pm on November 12, 1955, giving Marty and Doc a precise time to use the lightning to get Marty and the [=DeLorean=] back to 1985.
* SourceMusic: All songs in the film, with the exception of "The Power of Love", are diegetic. Averted by Silvestri's score proper, which is non-diegetic.
* SweetAndSourGrapes: Towards the beginning, Marty admires a pickup truck, wondering what it'd be like if he had it. When he comes back from 1955, he discovers he has that truck (or another truck like it).
* TapOnTheHead:
** Marty gets knocked out after being hit by a car and wakes up perfectly fine several hours later. This would be a running gag throughout the series, as each film would have Marty being knocked out by a physical blow and waking up in a room with either his mother or a distant relative standing over him.
** George knocks Biff out with a punch to the face, though this is depicted somewhat more realistically as the sequel reveals that Biff is only out for a very short time.
* TechnologyMarchesOn: Lampshaded InUniverse:
** First, when Marty dines with his future maternal family in 1955, Lorraine asks whether his family owns a television set, to which Marty says, "Yeah, you know we have two of 'em...", making her younger brother say "Wow, you must be rich!", to which their mother says, "Oh, honey, he's just teasing you. Nobody owns two television sets!"
** Later, Marty tries to explain his knowledge of an episode of ''Series/TheHoneymooners'' as having seen it as a rerun. In several non-English dubs of the movie, the word 'rerun' doesn't exist (usually because the country concerned had not adopted the policy of re-airing episodes of television shows as of the mid-eighties), so Marty says instead that he saw "The Man from Space" episode of ''The Honeymooners'' "on tape".
** As the 1955 Doc looks at Marty's camcorder, he says "Now this is truly amazing: A portable television studio. No wonder [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan your president is an actor]], he's got to look good on television!"
* TechnologyPorn:
** The [[CoolCar DeLorean]] when Doc introduces it.
** The opening, showing off [[RubeGoldbergDevice various gadgets]] Doc has at home.
* ThemedParty: The high school dance is the ocean-themed "Enchantment Under the Sea". It's decorated with statues of Neptune, mermaids, and bubble machines.
* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodSandwich: Marty gets a cup of coffee at Lou's because it's the only thing they've got without sugar, but as soon as he's about to drink it, he realizes George just left, so he runs off after him.
* ThisIsGoingToBeHuge: Old Man Peabody thought he could win money planting pines, even if he only had starting money for two. In the present day, his land is a strip mall.
* ThisIsMyBoomstick: Without revealing himself to be a time traveler, Marty successfully threatens George, using his futuristic technology, to ask Lorraine to the dance, while posing as 'Darth Vader from Vulcan'.
* TimeSkip: After Marty and George come up with the FakeDangerGambit plan, the film skips ahead three days later to the night of November [=12th=], the night of the lightning storm/HighSchoolDance.
* TimeTravel: Probably the most famous example in film.
* TitleDrop:
** Doc declares he has to send Marty "...back! To the ''future!''"
** And again at the end of the movie when Doc comes back from 2015, to pick up Marty and go back to... you know.
* ToyotaTripwire: Subverted. During the ChaseScene at the town square, Marty almost gets hit by an opening car door but is able to get out of its path in time.
* TrustPassword: Marty tries several that don't work, such as [[UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan who the President is in 1985]][[note]][[ItWillNeverCatchOn Doc refuses to believe an actor could be President]][[/note]], and showing him a photo of his family with his sister in a Class of 1984 sweatshirt[[note]]Doc doesn't believe this because, unbeknownst to Marty, Dave's hair has started to disappear, making it look like it's been poorly doctored[[/note]]. What finally works is the story of how Doc got the (currently very fresh) bruise on his head, and the idea for the Flux Capacitor that came from it.
* TurnOutLikeHisFather: Played with in every possible way. People, especially Strickland, tell Marty he's going to be a [[LoserSonOfLoserDad loser like his dad]], then the past changes and George is not a loser, but Marty is still destined to be a loser, then that future is possibly avoided, presumably letting Marty succeed at a creative pursuit like his dad.
* UnconventionalVehicleChase: Marty transforms a box scooter into a skateboard which he then uses to escape Biff and his gang who chase after Marty in their car.
* UndressingTheUnconscious: 1955 Lorraine removes Marty's pants while he's unconscious in her room, and even thinks [[EntertaininglyWrong his name is Calvin Klein]] at first because it's "written all over his underwear". He has a minor NakedFreakOut when he notices it.
-->'''Marty:''' Where are my pants?!\\
'''Lorraine:''' Over there... on [[ParentalBonus my hope chest]].
* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Marty tries to warn 1955 Doc with a note that he'll be killed by terrorists in 1985, but Doc tells him that it's dangerous to the space-time continuum to do so, and shreds up the note. When Marty returns to 1985, he witnesses Doc getting killed again... or so it seems; Doc then comes out fine and reveals to Marty (and the audience) that he put the note back together and put on a bulletproof vest for the occasion.
* VanityLicensePlate: The [=DeLorean=] has the tag "OUTATIME". And really crappy screws holding it on the back of the [=DeLorean=], because of its habit of popping off and pirouetting on a corner. When Doc returns to 1985 from the future to pick up Marty and Jennifer, the plate is one of a barcode.
* VerbalBackspace: In the [[Literature/BackToTheFuture novelization]], after his "When this baby hits 88 MPH, you're going to see some serious shit" line, Doc realizes that Marty is filming this and quickly rewords his statement without colloquial language:
-->'''Doc:''' When a speed of eighty-eight miles an hour is attained, unusual things should begin happening in this phase of temporal experiment number one.
* WallPinOfLove: George performs this move in the school corridor. He approaches Lorraine and places his hand on the locker next to her. However, it doesn't work as planned since Lorraine is more interested in Marty.
* WeDontNeedRoads: At the end of the film, Doc travels forward to 2015 and does some pretty major work on the [=DeLorean=], including installing a "hover conversion" that is really more of a "flight conversion".
* WhatDoesSheSeeInHim: Marty openly wonders what his mother Lorraine saw in his father George; as far as he knows, they have nothing in common. Her explanation in 1985 is that she pitied him, which 1955 Doc corroborates, name-dropping the FlorenceNightingaleEffect.
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse:
** The Libyans. They come charging in, shooting at Doc Brown from the van, they hit a kiosk and the van tips over. Then Marty, Doc, and the film forget about them completely, even having a joyful reunion at the end without bothering to see what's going on with the homicidally angry terrorists in the van a few yards away. Considering the speed they were going at, they probably were badly injured or killed in the crash.
** What happened to Doc Brown's remaining plutonium? Did he use it all before fitting Mr. Fusion, or did he just throw it in a bin somewhere? (Which, given the general recklessness he displays during the trilogy, is not that much of a stretch.)
** When Doc traveled to 2015, he took Einstein with him, but when he came back, Einstein was missing. In Part II, [[HandWave Doc tells Marty that Einstein was in a suspended animation kennel]] between the trips.
** Biff and his crew, much like the Libyans, get knocked out but are still close to the heroes. The sequel builds on this for its plot.
* WhosOnFirst: Marty attempts to get a Tab, and then a Pepsi Free, at Lou's Cafe in the 50s. "Tab" was introduced in the 60s as a sugar-free soft drink that was the predecessor to Diet Coke, but Lou thinks he means the tab, as in the money that he owes. Pepsi Free was introduced in 1982, and is better known nowadays as "Caffeine-Free Pepsi".
-->'''Lou:''' You want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna have to pay for it!
* WorstAid: Lorraine's parents carry the unconscious Marty inside, remove his clothes, and tuck him into bed, despite the fact that the worst thing you can do for someone with a potential concussion (prolonged unconsciousness after a hard fall is a definite sign of concussion, and Lorraine tells him he's been unconscious for nine hours) is move them. It's also very dangerous to let a severely concussed person fall asleep. They would have been much better off calling an ambulance to move Marty safely via stretcher to a hospital to determine the extent of his injuries...but then, of course, we'd have a very different movie. Although somewhat mitigated by the fact that far less was known about concussions back in the 1950s, especially by the general public.
* WriteBackToTheFuture: Marty tries to write a letter to Doc to warn him of his death in 1985, including putting another note telling him to not open it until that year. Doc tears it up while proclaiming he can't let it influence the future. [[spoiler:He later tapes it back together and reads it.]]
* YouKeepUsingThatWord: At least from 1955 Doc's point of view, as he thinks that Marty's use of the word "heavy" still applies to weight and measurements -- when, from Marty's point of view, he's just using the slang term for something that has a deep, powerful impact, whether philosophical, intellectual, or emotional.
* YouLeaveHimAlone: "Her" instead of "him" is used by George, standing up to the school bully Biff Tannen for the first time to keep him from raping Lorraine. While possessing the resolve, he seems to lack the confidence and the physical prowess, at least for a few minutes...until Biff solves the problem by shoving Lorraine to the ground and laughing about it. Cue UnstoppableRage and a very solid left hook.
[[/folder]]
----
-->'''Marty:''' Hey, Doc, you'd better back up; we don't have enough road to get up to 88!\\
'''Doc Brown:''' Roads? [[WeDontNeedRoads Where we're going]], [[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII we don't need]] ''[[Film/BackToTheFuturePartII roads...]]''

* FiveFiveFive: Doc Brown's phone number, as well as Jennifer's grandmother's. The latter's is 555-4823.

* FiveFiveFive: Doc Brown's phone number, as well as Jennifer's grandmother's.

* QuipToBlack: "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need [[GlassesPull roads]]."

** When pretending to be an alien to George, Marty references ''Franchise/StarTrek''. Creator/ChristopherLloyd, who played Doc, portrayed Kruge in ''Film/StarTrekIIITheSearchForSpock''. He also references ''Franchise/StarWars''. [[Music/RedHotChiliPeppers Flea]], who played Needles in the sequels, would later appear in ''Series/ObiWanKenobi'' as Vekt Nokru.

** Marty uses [[ImMrFuturePopCultureReference references]] to ''Franchise/StarWars'' and ''Franchise/StarTrek'' (as well as ''Series/TheOuterLimits'' and ''Series/TheTwilightZone1959'' in the extended cut) to scare George into attending the dance with Lorraine. While he finds the experience terrifying, it does inspire him to write a science-fiction novel in the future.

** Although, it is likely said permission was extorted from him (making it - and the insurance - invalid), and driving whilst intoxicated is also something that invalidates insurance.

** George knocks Biff out with a punch to the face, though this is depicted somewhat more realistically as Biff is only out for a very short time.

** In the opening scene, when Marty shows up at Doc's house, all the clocks were showing the time around 7:53. [[https://i0.wp.com/caps.pictures/198/5-backfuture/full/backtothefuture-movie-screencaps.com-321.jpg?strip=all Except one, which was showing the actual time around 8:18]], when Marty pushes his skateboard to the side.

* ArbitrarySkepticism: Marty was in a ''time machine''. Which he knew worked. And when he reached eighty-eight miles per hour, sparks surrounded the car and the view around him suddenly changed. Yet he takes a ''long'' time to realize he's in the past, and keeps saying it must be a dream. [[AmbiguousSituation But then again, he doesn't sound like he believes himself.]]

* AutoErotica: Marty's plan to get his parents together involves George finding him "parking" with Lorraine and trying [[DateRapeAverted to take advantage of her]], then pulling him out of the car and pretending to beat him up to make him look like he's the tougher guy. Except Biff turns up instead of George, belligerently drunk, and he wants revenge on Marty for the $300 damage his car took in the manure truck incident, so he decides to attempt to molest Lorraine. Hence, George's "rescuing" Lorraine ends up becoming the real deal.

%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, this example of GCPTR was removed. Please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.

[[caption-width-right:350: ''[[Music/HueyLewisAndTheNews That's the power of love!]] '']]

[[caption-width-right:350: ''He was never in time for his classes... he wasn't in time for his dinner... then one day... he wasn't in his time at all.'']]

** Ironically for a light-hearted action comedy, the film is often used in film studies as a perfect example of this trope, since virtually every single thing that happens in the film exists to set up a later event.

-->'''Marty''': (anxious; speeding down the road) Alright, alright, okay, [=McFly=]... get a grip on yourself... It's all a dream. Just a... (unsure) very... intense dream...

* BulletProofVest: [[spoiler: When Marty returns to 1985 and tries to reach Doc before the Libyans shoot him, he arrives too late... although Doc eventually reads the letter anyway after taping it back together and was secretly wearing a bullet-proof vest.]]

* ConfidenceBuildingScheme: Played with; Marty concocts a scheme to pretend to take advantage of Lorraine so George can pull a fake rescue and kiss her (not to boost George's confidence per se, but to make them fall in love and eventually become Marty's parents). [[spoiler: However, Biff throws a SpannerInTheWorks by having his goons lock Marty in a car trunk and forcing himself onto Lorraine. George finally stands up to Biff and knocks him out, and Lorraine falls for him for his courage - instead of feeling sorry for George as she did in the original timeline. When Marty returns to 1985, he finds George has grown into a self-confident man and improved their whole family's life.]]

->'''Mr. Peabody:''' "Take that, you mutated son of a--"
->''(Marty bursts out of the barn)''

---> ''[After telling Lorraine that she shouldn't drink]''\\

** When Marty goes over the plan with his father-to-be George to court Lorraine at the Enchantment Under The Sea dance while George is doing laundry, Marty mentions that he will "take advantage" of Lorraine to make her angry at him and George, holding a ''bra'', asks him "Do you mean you're going to touch on her...?". Marty exclaims "no" and then ''grabs the bra and throws it on the ground''.

** Doc Brown in 1955 on the idea of UsefulNotes/RonaldReagan as President in 1985: "Ronald Reagan? The ''actor''? Then who's Vice-President? Creator/JerryLewis?". He comes around to it when he sees Marty's "portable television studio" (read: a camcorder), realizing that the President has to look good on TV.

--> '''Doc:''' What are their common interests? What do they like to do together?\\

---> '''Cop:''' You're not gonna set anything on fire this time, are you, Doc?\\

--> '''Marty:''' Better get used to these bars, kid.

-->'''Skinhead:''' Look, I don't wanna mess with no reefer addicts, okay? [[note]] Of course, this '''was''' the era when [[Film/ReeferMadness marijuana smokers were made out to be dangerous psychotics]]. [[/note]]

* UnspokenPlanGuarantee: Marty tries to warn 1955 Doc with a note that he'll be killed by terrorists in 1985, but Doc tells him that it's dangerous to the space-time continuum to do so, and shreds up the note. When Marty returns to 1985, he witnesses Doc getting killed again...or so it seems; Doc then comes out fine and reveals to Marty (and the audience) that he put the note back together and put on a bulletproof vest for the occasion.