Who Killed George McFly?
(This is a revised script to my new mini movie based on Back to the Future)
SCENE 1: Loraine’s Street 1955 daytime
(George walks up the street, pauses in front of Loraine’s house, peers through bionoculars, as a car starts behind him, rushes towards him from behind and runs him down)
SCENE 2: Loraine Baine’s Mansion 2007 day time
(Open on a yellowed newspaper with headline of “McFly Murdered” Paper lowered onto face of an elderly Loraine – master shot of Loraine seated and Sam before her)
LORAINE:
Someone murdered the man I truly loved 50 years ago.
I’ve always been afraid to find out who it was because I thought that person would kill me, too.
But I’m dying, Mr. Snoop, and I want to know who did it and why before my cancer kills me.
SAM:
After 50 years, the trail is pretty cold.
The killer might even be dead by now.
LORAINE:
I still need to know.
(She hands Sam a piece of paper with an address on it)
Meet Doc Brown there at that place and time.
I’ve invested a lot of money in something I think might help you find the killer.
(Sam leaves the mansion and is being watched from above. Then we see an elderly Biff in the small chamber at the top of the house watching Sam driving away up the town’s streets)
ELDERLY BIFF:
So old Doc Brown has finally built his time machine, eh?
SCENE 3: MALL: 2007 1:30 a.m..
(Sam approaches Mall parking lot. Looks down on elderly man near a big white truck working on a car. Unseen, a VW van pulls up behind Sam as he goes down to where Doc is working)
SAM:
Miss Baines send me to…
DOC:
No time for talk.
Just get in and let’s go.
I told her I didn’t like the idea of sending anyone back to 1955.
Too dangerous.
Change anything and the whole fabric of the space time continium could unravel.
(Sam is in the Delorian as Doc lectures)
Pay attention.
I’m going to show you how to operate the time machine.
You’ll need to remember it to get back to the future
(the VW van appears behind doc, shoots him. Doc falls. Sam pulls down the doors and guns the gas to get away. When the car reaches 88 miles per hour, it vanishes leaving only a trail of fire where its wheels traveled)
SCENE 4: Peabody farm: 1955 very early morning
(The Delorian appears halts just short of the barn A young boy appears on the porch to the farm house.)
BOY:
Pa, pa, the space man is back
(An older man appears toting a shotgun and starts shooting. Sam guns the engine, but the shots cause the Dolorian to leak gas so that within a few miles, the car sputters to a stop in front of the gates of the yet to be built Lyons Estates. Sam pushed the stranded Delorian behind a billboard and walks down the road)
SCENE 5: Court house square 1955 Day
(Sam walks into town, looks at the Texaco Station, the 1950s cars, the movie theater. A sound truck passes him advertising for the upcoming mayoral election.
Someone is seated on the square taking up a collection to repair the clock tower, rattling a tin can at Sam)
SCENE 6 : Lou’s Café 1955 day
(Sam enters the café and looks around.)
SODA JERK:
Can I help you with something?
SAM:
I could use a phone
SODA JERK (Jerking his thumb)
It’s in the back
(Sam enters booth, looks through phone books until he finds the listing he wants and tears out the page. Outside the book, Young Biff enters the café)
YOUNG BIFF:
McFly!
(George McFly turns on the stool at the counter)
GEORGE:
Now Biff, I don’t have to do your homework any more, remember?
BIFF
I’m looking for that no good Calvin Klein.
He made me wreck my car out by the old tunnel, and I intend to take the price out of his hide.
GEORGE:
I haven’t seen him since the dance, Biff
BIFF:
That’s another thing, McFly.
I owe you for what you did to me at the dance.
SAM
(Eases out of the phone booth and addresses Biff)
Why don’t you think you pick on someone your own size?
BIFF:
Why don’t you mind your own business, Old man.
Or I’ll give you something to complain about.
GEORGE:
Biff – don’t you know you shouldn’t be picking on people.
BIFF:
I’ll do more than pick on him, I’ll give him a knuckle sandwich
GEORGE:
(Points at something behind Biff)
Look, Biff
(Biff looks, GEORGE belts Biff, then addresses George)
Run, old man!
SCENE 7: Courthouse Square 1955 day
(Sam and George exit Lou’s café as Biff recovers. George takes off in the other direction. Sam follows after him until both come to Lorraine’s street. George stops abrubtly as a breathless Sam catches up.)
GEORGE:
What do you want?
SAM:
You’re George McFly?
GEORGE:
What if I am?
SAM:
I’m here to protect you
GEORGE:
From what?
(A car rushes down the street. Sam pushes George out of the way just as gun fire erupts. But Sam gets hit by the passing car and passes out)
SCENE 8: Loraine Baines’ bedroom 1955 dusk
(Sam opens his eyes. He is lying on a bed in a semi dark room)
SAM:
What a nightmare
I dreamed I went back in time
LORAINE:
There, there, you’re nice and safe in good ole 1955
SAM:
(Sits up abruptly)
1955?
(He glances at the newspaper on the bed that says “George McFly saved” then he looks at Loraine)
You’re – You’re that old lady.
But you’re young
I got to get out of here
(He climbs out of bed and rushes away)
SCENE 9 Doc’s Mansion 1955: night
(Sam comes to the door, knocks, and the door opens partly)
DOC:
Who are you and what do you want?
SAM:
I’m from the future, Doc.
I need your help
DOC:
What do I look like, an orphanage for time travelers?
Go away.
(Slams the door)
SAM:
But Doc.
You’re future self send me.
You have to let me in.
(door opens, a hand reaches out and yanks Sam inside)
SCENE 10: Doc’s workshop 1955 Day
(DOC is pacing back and forth in front of the recovered Delorian and the icons of one of the previous efforts to get Marty back to the future.)
DOC:
That’s some story, future man.
The next thing you’ll tell me is that I get killed by terrorists back in 2007.
SAM:
Not by terrorists
I don’t know who they were.
DOC:
Let me see those newspapers again.
(Doc lays out two newspapers on the bench. One from the day before. The other was the older paper that Loraine gave Sam in 2007. But now both headlines read “George McFly saved”
If what you say is true, then George McFly was supposed to die.
But George McFly isn’t supposed to die. He supposed to marry his childhood sweet heart.
Great Scott!
SAM:
What is it, Doc?
DOC:
Somebody has been messing with time.
That somebody tried to kill George McFly in 1955 and kills me in 2007.
SAM:
That’s what I’ve been saying
DOC:
That means that somebody failed because of you, and will likely keep trying until he succeeds.
Come on!
SAM:
Where to, doc?
DOC:
To go save George McFly – again.
SCENE 11: High School 1955 Day
(DOC and SAM are walking through the halls in search of George)
If my theory is right, Old Biff – that’s the Biff from 2015 – never left 1955.
I don’t know who he sent back to 2015 in his place, but he had to do it before he gave the almanac to young Biff, otherwise the time line would have been altered and the 2015 he sent the machine back to wouldn’t be the one he left.
SAM:
But who kills you in 2007
Old Biff wouldn’t live long enough.
DOC:
My guess, it’s young Biff, bitter about our getting the sports almanac back.
In any case, Old Biff changed the course of time after Marty left here for the old west. That means we have to find Old Biff and stop him, so we can change the future back to what it’s supposed to be.
SAM:
But if we change it back, what happens to me?
I have a life, Doc, in 2007.
DOC:
There’s George
(GEORGE comes out the back door of the high school)
SAM:
And there’s young Biff
(Young Biff pounced on George)
YOUNG BIFF:
Where’s that old man you were with?
GEORGE:
I thought we settled this at the café?
Can’t you learn to leave people alone, Biff?
BIFF:
There he is now, and he’s with that quack, Doc Brown.
(Biff moves towards Sam and Doc.)
You gotta a lot of nerve coming here like this
SAM:
I don’t have a lot of time for your nonsense, Biff
I need to know where the old man is – the one who gave you the sports alamanac
BIFF:
I don’t know what you’re talking about
GEORGE: (Stepping between Biff and Sam)
Now Biff, you tell the man what he needs to know.
BIFF:
All right. All right.
To tell you the truth, I’m sick of hearing all his talk about getting his hands on a time machine.
I think he’s crazy
DOC:
Great Scott!
The time machine.
We have to get back to my lab before he gets it.
(Doc runs to his car)
SCENE 12: In the car: 1955 Day
(Doc is driving. Sam is in the passenger seat)
DOC:
Now it all makes sense.
Trapped in 1955 after Marty got the almanac back, Old Biff kills George, then trains young Biff for the day in the future when I finally do build my time machine.
Old Biff knew someone would come back and try to set things straight. At which point, he intended to steal the Delorian.
(As Doc pulls the car into the driveway, the Delorian roars out)
SAM:
There he goes.
DOC:
(Twisting the wheel to turn the car)
We’ve got to catch him before he can get the Delorian up to 88 miles per hour.
(Sam and Doc chase the Delorian into the tunnel)
Sam:
(easing himself out the passenger window so he is seated on the window sill with his legs outside)
Pull up along side
DOC:
You’ll kill yourself
SAM:
Maybe I’m already dead and I don’t know it.
Just do it, Doc.
(Doc pulls up. Sam swings his legs through the open window of the Delorian, hitting Old Biff. They struggle for control of the car. Old Biff finds the control for the doors and the wings open. But before Old Biff can push Sam out, Sam yanks him out the door instead. Biff lands in the back of a truck carrying manure)
OLD BIFF: (spitting out the stuff)
Manure. I hate manure
(As Sam closes the door and takes control of the steering wheel, the car’s wheels spark, and the car vanishes in a trail of flame. Reappearing out of the tunnel in 2007 as a helicopter flies over head).
SCENE 13: Loraine Baine’s Mansion 2007 Day
(Sam pulls the car up in front of mansion where he sees Old Biff (the former Young Biff) polishing a limo in the driveway)
GEORGE: (from off screen)
Remember, Biff, I want to coats of wax.
BIFF:
Anything you say, Mr. McFly.
SCENE 14: Doc’s Garage 2007 Day
(Sam pulls the Delorian into Doc’s drive way to find Doc waiting )
DOC:
You’re sure took your time getting here.
SAM:
To tell you the truth, Doc, I didn’t expect to be here.
Is everything back to normal?
DOC:
It’s all back.
Old Biff vanished from the back of the manure truck as soon as the Delorian did. Everything we back to what it was before. I built the Delorian in 1985, sent Marty back to 1955. George married Loraine. I married Clara. When Clara passed on, I decided to come back here.
I want to die in my own time.
SAM:
I know what you mean.
I should go see what’s happened to my life.
What about the Delorian?
DOC:
I’ll destroy it.
No use giving Biff any more ideas.
SAM:
(Walking away)
If you need me, Doc, just call
(fade out to theme music and credits)