![]() When everything heads back toward a true Western motif, he’s a territorial scourge, a deadly threat to Doc Brown, and the only out of place element in Marty’s manipulation of a train, some special tracks, and some sticks of supersized TNT. In Back to the Future Part II, he was and is, again, the bare-knuckle instigator from the past, but he is also a dangerous millionaire in the historically altered 1985 and his own criminal kid (Griff) in the Hill Valley of 2015. He is constant motion – chasing, conniving, calculating. In the original Back to the Future, he was George’s dictatorial supervisor in the present, his romantic (or perhaps, borderline abusive) rival in the past, and the main obstacle for an out of place Marty to overcome. If you think about it, Biff is the entire franchise’s fulcrum, the turning point for almost every event in the McFly’s life. Eventually, Biff would sire an offspring who resembled the terminator’s mentally challenged human brother, a hoverboard riding reject with a gang of equally stunted cohorts running ramshackle over Hill Valley just like his Ike-era relative did. In the sequel, he spun off into a gambling cheat success, eventually becoming a Las Vegas like tycoon with an even more terrifying temper (and an anti-McFly murderous streak). In the first film, he was an uncooked meatball trying to weasel his way into Lorraine’s fragile heart. In the guise of Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen, the mega-mean spirit of Biff struggles against the less than understanding ways of vigilante frontier justice. Remember, as far back as the old West he’s been chasing and harassing the McFly clan. In doing so, he will set everything right as well as, perhaps, make amends in his own personal destiny.Īll throughout? All Biff. There, he must prevent another death as well as find a way to use ancient, antiquated “technology” to get back to his own time. Before he can return to the present, however, the DeLorean is sent even further back in time – to the Old West…with Doc inside! Marty gets an ancient telegram from his mentor, finds the dusty car in a cave, uses the ’50s version of the Doc to get it going, and heads to the Hill Valley of 1885. Desperate to put things right, Marty goes back to the ’50s, finds the moment when old Biff gives his younger self the Almanac, and steals it back. He has killed George and married Lorraine. The 1985 everyone knew is then altered irretrievably. Unfortunately, the book falls into the hands of old Biff, who takes it back to his ’50s self. Picking up a Sports Almanac with the winners of every athletic event for 50 years in it, Marty sees a chance to get rich. Going forward in time, our hero thwarts a potential robbery but can’t keep an adult version of himself from getting fired. Next Doc returns to the present (the mid ’80s) with bad news about Marty and Jennifer’s future “kids”. With Biff in hot pursuit, he must reunite them at the school dance where a first kiss seals their fate. ![]() After accidentally going back to 1955 in Doc’s (Christopher Lloyd) machine, he draws his mother (Lea Thompson) away from his geeky dad (Crispin Glover). ![]() Fox) to keep his entire parental precepts in place. The main narrative element in all three films is the attempt by a teenage Marty (Michael J. While many have marveled at Robert Zemeckis amazing triptych of films (now out on Blu-ray in a magnificent 25th Anniversary Blu-ray release) for their excitement and entertainment value, the truth is that they’d barely have any of the aforementioned attributes if it wasn’t for Biff. He’s the threat to the plot’s promise, the angry buzzcutted fly in the Mc-ointment. Wilson in what has to be the most starting compilation of familial facets ever to exist in one actor, Biff (and his various ancestral offshoots) is the mandatory villainy in Back to the Future‘s past/present adventures. And of course you could argue that George and Lorraine, the shapeshifting Jennifer, and any number of ancillary characters are just as imperative to the trilogy’s success as any other.īut the truth is, it’s really all about Biff. He builds the flux capacitor which allows for movement across the space/time continuum, as well as concocting various ways to get the 1.21 gigawatts of power into the pod’s - read: DeLorean automobile’s - power core. After all, he manages to save his own fragile existence by fostering the relationship between his disinterested teenage parents. Don’t get the wrong idea – Marty McFly and his journey back in time are pretty important to the overall scope and storyline.
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