The Cubs just won the world series, although not against Miami and one year later than Back to the Future predicted. Meanwhile, Nike is finally releasing Power Laces, but also one year too late. What’s going on here? One of those could just be pure coincidence, but two? No coincidence here. How’d it happen? Perhaps when Doc and Marty traveled back 100 years to 1885 they accidentally created a ripple effect in time, pushing back key events by one year.

The possibility came to me when I remembered Doc and Marty on Jimmy Kimmel last year.

Is this canon? Most likely not. It wasn’t written by Bob Gale or Robert Zemeckis. The writing is too poor. (Why did Kimmel ask Doc about his personal future when Doc already established that he knew nothing about this timeline or Kimmel, let alone the future of either?) But one quote in the video stuck out to me. Just for fun, let’s assume that quote at least is canon.

I believe we may have inadvertently traveled into an alternate 2015 where human evolution has been stopped by superfluous technology and Biff reigns supreme.

Doc Brown at 7:12



What could have caused an alternate 2015? It would’ve required a change in history. Let’s review Marty and Doc’s journeys after visiting 2015. In order, they visited an alternate 1985, 1955, 1885, then 1985 again. Because of the butterfly effect, the farther back you go in time, the bigger the change will be on the present and future. So logically I surmise that their trip to 1885 is what changed the future.

What did they change in 1885? Much. Doc saved Clara Clayton and had two kids with her that would otherwise never exist. He built several curious contraptions that surely caught some suspicious eyes. He had the hover board and built the Time Train. What if Doc and Clara’s love for science and inventions jump-started a future full of “superfluous technology?” It would lead to a future full of smart phones instead of fax machines. These smart phones and especially Twitter account for Biff’s rise in power to the point of reigning supreme.

This change in priorities for the future shifted some things back. Instead of getting Power Laces and a Cubs victory in 2015 we got them one year later. Expect more from Back to the Future’s 2015 to finally happen for us soon. After perfecting autopilot, look forward to Google and Tesla Motors moving on to flying cars.



