Back to the Future (film)/Characters
 | Some or all of these characters need descriptions. A list of tropes is not a description. Please provide at least a few words telling how these characters differ from other characters with the same tropelists. |
Characters from Back to the Future (film) include:
Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Action Survivor
- Badass: Particularly the way he handles 1955 Biff Tannen.
- Berserk Button: "Nobody calls me chicken!" This ends up getting him into an accident the day he returns from 1885.
- Book Dumb
- Buffy-Speak
- Marty: (looking at a bathysphere) It's some kind of... deep-sea diving thingy.
- Bully Hunter
- The Call Knows Where You Live
- Catch Phrase:
- "This is heavy!"
- "Holy S**T!!"
- (evereytime he tries to distract his enemies) "Hey, what the hell is that?!"
- "Here goes nothing." (In the video games)
- Character Tics: His, erm...unusual sleeping position.
- Chekhov's Skill: Skateboarding, guitar shredding, and (later) arcade shooters.
- Compressed Vice: See Berserk Button.
- Cool Loser
- Dawson Casting: Michael J. Fox was 24 years old at the time of part I, and 28 in parts II and III.
- Deadpan Snarker
- Fake American: Michael J. Fox is Canadian.
- Fatal Flaw: Again, see Berserk Button.
- Fan Service: A split-second shot of him in purple Calvin Klein underwear. Plus in the third movie you get a nice shot of his butt.
- Fish Out of Temporal Water
- Flanderization: Into The Ditz in Back to The Future The Animated Series.
- Future Loser: Part II reveals that Future Marty gave up guitaring and ended up a lowly Salaryman, stuck working for his high school enemy (à la George).
- Future Badass: If the ending to the Telltale game can be trusted.
- Guile Hero: He uses his wits as much as his physical ability to solve his problems.
- Hard Head
- The Hero
- High School Hustler
- I Know Mortal Kombat: Learned how to sharpshoot from playing an arcade game.
- Indy Ploy
- Kid From the Future: In Part I.
- Loser Son of Loser Dad: In the first film, Strickland sneers that Marty comes from a long line of failures.
- Name McAdjective
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: In the game, he mess up the timeline so much that he prevents the events of the movies from ever happening. Creating the Alt!1986 Citizen Brown timeline.
- Only Sane Man
- The Other Marty: Trope Namer, referring to Eric Stoltz.
- This Is Wrong on So Many Levels: Marty often reacts like this when stuff happens with his Young Mother and Grandmother too in the game, for different reasons
- Playing Cyrano
- Supporting Protagonist: Word of God views him as this in the first and third movies.
- Tragic Hero: Narrowly subverted; his Fatal Flaw nearly causes him to break his hand and ruin his rock star dreams in a race with Needles or get shot by Buford, but he learns to overcome those flaws and therefore doesn't fall into tragedy.
- The Watson
- Young Gun: Subversion in Part III.
Emmett "Doc" Brown (Christopher Lloyd)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Absent-Minded Professor
- Age Lift / Dawson Casting: Christopher Lloyd was only 48 when he filmed the role for the 71 year old Doc Brown. Probably done on purpose so when Marty goes back to 1955 and meets the 41 year old Doc Brown they look the same (except for aging make-up in 1985, which was dropped in the other parts as Brown underwent a rejuvenating process).
- Badass Longcoat: In Part III.
- Bungling Inventor: Strictly speaking, the DeLorean is the only invention of his that works.
- Can't Hold His Liquor: All it takes is a single shot of whiskey, and he's out like a light.
- Catch Phrase: "Great SCOTT!!"
- Cool Old Guy: The guy's built a Time Machine out of a rather poor car, for starters.
- Einstein Hair: How did he get his hair to stick out like that? Hill Valley 1931 Science Expo. In the last eps of the game : Young Emmett is driving his invention, a flying rocket powered car, which explodes. When Emmett is seen out of the expo, his hairs are like his movie counterpart, which he didn't have before. He comments that after when happened, he's banned of the expo for at least 50 years.
- Fan of the Past: Particularly the Old West.
- For Science!
- Gadgeteer Genius
- Gentleman Adventurer
- Going Native
- Hawaiian-Shirted Tourist: Played with. Doc is rarely seen without a tacky luau shirt, and he is a tourist.
- Hot-Blooded: Even more so when he's 17.
- If My Calculations Are Correct
- Indy Ploy
- Intergenerational Friendship: It's a credit to the actors that we, as viewers, don't question why a skater punk and some old guy would hang out together.
- The original script had a line by Marty explaining that Doc hired him to clean his garage. Marty, being a music aficionado, was impressed with Doc's vintage record collection. The rest is history.
- The screenwriter decided it wasn't necessary to explain how they first met. Doc is a local pariah and a weirdo, and Marty is clearly a rebel. It's inevitable that Marty would snoop around Doc's garage at some point.
- Large Ham: What would you expect from Christopher Lloyd ?
- Mad Scientist
- Older Than They Look: he's nearly one hundred years old in the game, yet still look like a man in his sixties. justified by the fact that he took advantage of future medicine to rejuvenate himself and increase his lifespan.
- The Professor
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Especially in the animated series.
- Sophisticated As Hell
- Symbol Motif Clothing: He's wearing a shirt decorated with locomotive trains in Part II.
- Took a Level in Badass: In Part III.
Lorraine Baines-McFly (Lea Thompson)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Broken Bird / Iron Woobie: In 1985-A.
- Former Teen Rebel: The first time we see her she is chastising her female daughter for acting rebellious and is apparently acting like that for Marty's entire life. He is completely caught off-guard by her shameless behavior when he meets her in the 50s because she has been lying all the time about being well-behaved as a teenager to her kids.
- Guess Who I'm Marrying: Biff in 1985-A.
- Happily Married: To George.
- High School Sweethearts: With George.
- Hot Mom: In the "improved" 1985.
- I Was Quite a Looker: Very much. She does retain much of her good looks once the timeline is altered.
- Lady Drunk: In the original 1985. Even more so in 1985-A. And in the Citizen Brown timeline in the game
- Ms. Fanservice: At least in 1955.
- Playing Gertrude: Lea Thompson is just nine days older than Michael J. Fox. It's Played With, since most of the time we see her is when she is seventeen.
- Shameless Fanservice Girl: Played for Laughs. Marty's plan to hitch her with his father is to make it look like he will rape her to frighten her away from him. However, by the time he tries to intimidate her she is almost eager to have sex with him, botching the whole plan from stage one.
- Three Faces of Eve:
- Original 1985: Sour.
- 1955: Sweet.
- "Improved" 1985 / 2015: Sweet and Sour.
- 1985-A: Sour and Spicy.
George McFly (Crispin Glover, Jeffrey Weissman)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Extreme Doormat: Before taking a level in Badass.
- Fake Shemp: In the sequels, especially Part II.
- Flashback with the Other Darrin: It may not be particularly noticeable most of the time due to clever camera work and tech, but the shots with George in Part II that aren't stock footage are played by Jeffrey Weissman.
- Happily Married: To Lorraine.
- Hollywood Nerd: To the nth degree, before time got altered.
- The Other Darrin: Since Glover refused to participate in the sequels, this was practically forced.
- The Peeping Tom: In the Citizen Brown timeline of the game.
- Playing Gertrude: Glover is actually 3 years younger than Michael J. Fox. (averted with Weissman, who is 3 years older)
- The Southpaw: An early draft had George discover he could punch very strongly with his left hand. The final film has George's desire to protect Lorraine cause him to unleash his inner strength, but close observers might notice he knocked out Biff by punching him with his left hand.
- Took a Level in Badass: Marty basically helps him rise to this point. As soon as Lorraine is shoved to the ground, the kid gloves come off.
Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Arch Enemy: To the McFly Family in general, but most Marty in the first movie.
- The Caligula: In 1985-A.
- Can't Get Away with Nuthin': That's two coats of wax, Tannen!
- Catch Phrase:
- "Hello ! hello ! Anybody home ?!"
- "Butthead"
- "Hey McFly!"
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: In 1985-A, liberally mixed with Complete Monster.
- Defeat Equals Friendship: Played with, while there have been scenes where it showed Biff can still be the same mean Butthead, there are moments of respect that stand out regarding him and George and to an extent the McFly Family:
- For starters, in the first when Marty first finds out he got the dream truck he always wanted, it was Biff that personally detailed the car and handed him the keys. In the second movie, he even excitedly wanted to show Marty his new matchbooks he had printed out. Showing he at least valued Marty's opinion on things.
- In the second movie, when Marty was posing as his son, he initially thought Biff was talking about George when he was insulting his father. Which Biff quickly dismisses, showing even if he was mostly afraid of George, he still had high respect for him compared to Future Marty.
- In the Third Movie, he reverts to his old persona, when he mistakes Marty for someone trying to steal his Truck. Upon clearing up the misunderstanding he goes back to his nice guy persona. Even complimenting the cowboy clothes.
- Evil Is Petty: Exhibit A -- Stealing a ball from some neighborhood kids and hurling it onto a nearby roof. And then he strolls away cackling to himself.
- Freudian Excuse: His grandmother sounds like a case.
- In the Telltale game, his father is revealed to be a notorious bootlegger.
- Future Loser: The altered timeline had him waxing cars, most often for the McFly family, in contrast to his supervisor job in the original timeline.
- I Hate Past Me: "It's LEAVE!! 'Make like a tree and leave.' You sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong!"
- In the Blood
- Jerkass
- Jerk Jock: 1955!Biff is a textbook example.
- Malaproper: "Now why don't you make like a tree and get outta here."
- Large Ham
- Mean Character, Nice Actor: Tom Wilson is actually a very nice guy who based Biff on his own experiences being bullied.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: In 1985-A, to George McFly.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: Word of God says the 1985-A Biff was inspired by Donald Trump. The portrait in Biff's office was even based on one of Trump.
- Our Founder: Has a wax statue of himself standing in 1985-A's museum.
- Outdated Outfit
- Schoolyard Bully All Grown Up: In the original timeline, he's still at it, holding power over George.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Money: In 1985-A.
- Villainous Crush: For Lorraine.
- Villain with Good Publicity: In 1985-A.
- You Killed My Father: He killed George, Marty's father, in 1985-A.
Jennifer Parker (Claudia Wells, Elizabeth Shue)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- The Chick
- Flashback with the Other Darrin: It's even the page image!
- Guest Star Party Member: Her most significant role was in the second film. Which involved her running around her future home in a controled panic.
- Girl Next Door
- The Other Darrin: From Claudia Wells, to Elizabeth Shue, and back again.
- Shallow Love Interest: Her character, Backstory, or anything else aren't explored very much over the course of the three movies.
- Static Character: Through no fault of her own, she comes off as this.
- Three Faces of Eve
- Jennifer is Sweet in 1985.
- She's implied to be Sour in 2015.
- She's definitely Spicy (and later Sweet, when she warms up to Marty) in the Telltale game's "Citizen Brown" timeline.
- Tsundere: Type B
Clara Clayton (Mary Steenburgen)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Actor Allusion: Mary Steenburgen had also starred as a woman who fell in love with a time-traveler in Time After Time.
- Damsel in Distress
- Geeky Turn On: "You've read Jules Verne?", "I adore Jules Verne!"
- Schoolmarm
- Three Faces of Eve: Clara is Sweet and Sour.
- Woman Scorned
- Determinator: She's crazy determind enough to climb all the way to the trains engine room, dispite all the explosions!
Vice Principal Gerald Strickland (James Tolkan)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Bald of Evil: "Jesus, didn't that guy ever have hair?" (Nope.)
- Blond Guys Are Evil: The last remnants of his hairline in '55.
- Bow Ties Are Cool
- Catch Phrase: "Slacker!"
- Dean Bitterman
- Knight Templar: Particularly in the alternate 1985 created by the almanac.
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"EAT LEAD, SLACKERS!!" |
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- Pet The Dog: While he does still berate George and call him a slacker, the first thing he does is get the "Kick Me" sign off his back and telling him to shape up. Implying in George's case, it's more out of Tough Love.
Buford Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson)
A description of the character goes here.
Tropes exhibited by this character include:
- Badass Mustache
- Berserk Button: Do not call Buford "Mad Dog." Just don't.
- Hair-Trigger Temper
- Identical Grandson: A bit tricky to pin down the usual features of a Tannen through that mustache, but he has 'em.
- Jerkass: Well, he's a Tannen. What else would you expect at this point?
- Malaproper: "I'll hunt you and shoot you down like a duck."
- Back to Back to the Future (film)