MovieChat Forums > Back to the Future Part III (1990) Discussion > Shouldn’t the older Doc already know abo...

Shouldn’t the older Doc already know about his imminent death in 1885?

posted 4 years ago by TMC-4 (20268)
6 replies | jump to latest

To backtrack, at the end of Back to the Future 2, when the older Doc from 1985 was sent back to 1885, Marty meets with the younger Doc from 1955. There, they see the gravestone of Doc who appears to have died in 1885 to Buford Tannen over a duel.

As I said previously, if the younger Doc in 1955 will end up growing to the older Doc who is sent back in 1885, shouldn’t the older Doc already know about his imminent death in 1885? For that, couldn't Doc have easily paid Buford Tannen off and call off the duel which will lead to his death?

[–] strntz (12664) 4 years ago

Or do a better job shoeing Mad Dog's horse..

If you really want to get into "what ifs", all Doc had to do when Marty showed up in 1955 the very first time with the time machine is just change the time and place of his first test at the mall to avoid the Arabs and the attack that led to Marty trying to escape them in the DeLorean. Once Doc changed his future plan in his head, Marty would immediately disappear back into the future and Doc would then forget Marty was ever there.

[–] hurricane (1962) 3 years ago

But that would be a paradox.

If he forgot Marty was ever there, he'd have no reason to change the date.

[–] strntz (12664) 3 years ago

Stop thinking 4th dimensionally!!

[–] wearsalan (5554) 3 years ago

Or start

[–] strntz (12664) 3 years ago

So true. We can only speculate about movie time travel since actual time travel as we see in fiction is, well, fiction.

All kidding aside, I think my answer was correct. If Doc made a decision back in 1955 to change the time or location of his experiment in 1985, the incident with the Libyans wouldn't have happened, Marty wouldn't have gotten into the DeLorean and gone back to 1955, Marty would disappear at that moment and Doc would *at that point in time* forget that 1985 Marty ever came back.

[–] wearsalan (5554) 3 years ago

True