Robert Zemeckis famously directed both the Back to the Future trilogy and The Polar Express. The latter is a CGI motion-capture Christmas movie that follows a boy on a magical train to the North Pole. But what if both stories are set in the same universe as a stunning new fan theory argues?
But now that Marty has changed the timeline by asking 1955 Doc for his help once again, he’s created a new past for Emmett Brown.
Young Doc discovers, alongside Marty, that he will be shot 30 years in his future in 1885.
He also documents the discovery of the buried DeLorean in the mineshaft, taking photographs of it all. including his tombstone.
So when Marty arrives in 1885, the Doc he stumbles upon there is the older version of the 1955 young Doc he’s just left behind.
So it makes little sense for Older Doc to be surprised that he will be shot by Buford Tannen.
Let alone not knowing Marty would come back to get him, when 30 years in his past he assisted the teenager in sending him back to 1885 to save his older self.
Surely Doc couldn’t have forgotten all this considering how extraordinary all the events are and his responsibility to make them happen when 1985 comes around for him.
The only possible explanation for this not being a plot hole is that Doc is pretending he doesn’t know to ensure the time travel events run smoothly and a paradox does not occur.