Earlier this year Avengers Endgame referenced Back to the Future a number of times. After all, the sci-fi classic is the go-to movie to understand time travel, right? That’s what Ant-Man thought, but Hulk and Iron Man revealed that scientifically speaking, time travel rules are more like crossing the multi-verse. This allowed for moments like when Nebula killed her past-self since it was her from the past in another universe.
While the more traditional sci-fi rules of time travel, like in Back to the Future, see time travellers being able to change the past.
Even though this is the case, Back to the Future co-screenwriter Bob Gale has confirmed that there are infinite versions of Marty McFly in the trilogy.
Speaking with Games Radar, Gale said: “People wonder [about] the end of Back to the Future – Marty comes back and the world is a little different for him. His father is a famous author, not the nerd that got picked on.
“What does Marty remember about his past? Does he remember the past where his dad was a nerd? Does he have new memories of this?”
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Gale added: “Are there infinite universes? Sure. Why not? That’s the definition of infinity, right?
“It can just go on and on and on and on.
“Is it possible that there’s an entire universe and the only difference between that universe and ours is that I’m wearing a black t-shirt right now instead of a grey one?”
So does this mean that when Marty arrived in the improved 1985 at the end of the first film, he never returned to his original reality?
How this ties in with Marty being on the verge of being erased from existence if there are infinite versions of himself seems a bit of a plot hole, but Gale did appear rather cavalier with his answer.
Meanwhile, Terminator: Dark Fate director Tim Miller has slammed Avengers Endgame’s time travel.
The new Terminator movie plays by the traditional rules of movie time travel similar to Back to the Future.
Miller told San Diego Comic Con: “I loved Endgame, however, time travel with multiple realities loses some stakes. So in the Terminator universe, there is only one timeline.”