Marty McFly never tells his parents he traveled through time to bring them together in Lorraine assumes his name is Calvin Klein, because it’s written in his underwear, and he just rolls with it. He pretended Doc Brown was his “Uncle Doc” and he made sure his parents fell in love without revealing he came from the future.
But Marty didn’t do a flawless job of hiding his tracks. He may not have outright said that he came from the future, but he did use some of his knowledge of the future to ensure that George would ask Lorraine to the school dance. When that stuff came to in the years that followed, it must’ve tipped George off. Neither version of George ever revealed on-screen that he figured out his son was a time traveler who visited him in 1955, but based on all the evidence, he had to have known.
After Watching Star Trek & Star Wars, George McFly Must Have Become Suspicious
Something Must've Clicked When He Heard "Vulcan" And "Darth Vader" Again
When Marty failed to convince George to ask Lorraine to the Enchantment Under the Sea dance, he had to resort to desperate measures. He broke into George’s house in the middle of the night, woke him up by blasting a Van Halen guitar riff, and told him he was Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan. This inspired George to finally ask Lorraine to the dance and get Marty’s existence back on track. But when Star Trek and Star Wars came out in the decades that followed, George must’ve been reminded of the bizarre interaction that changed his life.
1 Clever Back To The Future Line Predicts The Second Movie's Entire Plot
A throwaway line that Doc Brown says to Marty McFly in the first Back to the Future movie slyly foreshadowed the almanac storyline for the sequel.
George was a huge sci-fi fan — he was almost going to skip the dance so he wouldn’t miss the new episode of his favorite TV show, Science Fiction Theater — so he definitely would’ve watched Star Trek and Star Wars when they came out. He surely wouldn’t forget his close encounter with an alien, especially since it had such a huge impact on the trajectory of his life. So, something must’ve clicked in his mind when he heard “Vulcan” and “Darth Vader” again after all those years.
George's Writing Career Means He Must Have Considered Time Travel As An Explanation
George's Debut Novel Is Called A Match Made In Space
When Marty went back to 1955 and met his father, he was surprised to learn that George enjoyed writing sci-fi stories, because he didn’t know his dad ever did anything creative. The timid George from the original timeline was too nervous to show his work to anyone, so his writing career never got off the ground. After Marty imbued his dad with some confidence, he returned to an alternate 1985 in which George was a published author. The first edition of his debut novel arrived in the mail, and it seemed to hint that he knew about the time-travel element.
According to the novelization of Back to the Future Part II, A Match Made in Space was eventually adapted into a movie.
George’s debut novel is called A Match Made in Space and the cover art shows a young man and woman being brought together by a spaceman in a yellow suit, who looks suspiciously like “Darth Vader from the planet Vulcan.” Based on that cover alone, it seems as though George’s book tells the story of how an alien’s intervention introduced him to his wife. Just the fact that he wrote this novel suggests that he already considered time travel as a possible explanation for the strange events of his final days of high school.
Marty's Similarity To Calvin Klein Might Have Been George's Final Clue
George Must've Noticed That His Son Turned Out Exactly Like His High School Friend
If all those clues weren’t enough evidence to convince George his son was a time traveler, the fact that Marty grew up to look and sound exactly like Calvin should’ve tipped him off. George and Lorraine only knew Calvin for a few days, but he had a profound effect on their lives. He could tell they were meant to be together, even when they couldn’t see it themselves, and he went to painstaking efforts to make them fall for each other. They owe their marriage to this mysterious stranger.
If George wasn’t able to figure out that Calvin was a time-traveling Marty based on all those clues, then he wasn’t paying attention.
Marty doesn’t grow up to resemble Calvin until 30 years after George and Lorraine met him, but Calvin undoubtedly made a lasting impression on them. If George wasn’t able to figure out that Calvin was a time-traveling Marty based on all those clues, then he wasn’t paying attention. Back to the Future never outright confirms that George recognized Marty as Calvin, but it is the subject of a great Family Guy cutaway gag.
Back to the Future
- Release Date
- July 3, 1985
- Runtime
- 116 minutes
- Director
- Robert Zemeckis
Cast
Michael J. FoxMarty McFly
Emmett Brown
WHERE TO WATCH
Back to the Future follows teenager Marty McFly as he is inadvertently sent back to 1955, where he disrupts his parents' meeting. With the assistance of eccentric inventor Doc Brown, Marty must restore the timeline by ensuring his parents fall in love and find a way back to 1985.
- Writers
- Robert Zemeckis, Bob Gale
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