Character Analysis: Marty McFly In Back To The Future

Bam! The sound of the Delorean whips and cracks as the time machine comes into view. Marty McFly has successfully time travelled to the year 1955 and back to his home year, 1985. With the help of Emmett (Doc) Brown, Marty changed history by getting his parents to fall in love, while at the same time, preventing his father’s bully from terrorizing him throughout his life. In Back to the Future, Marty McFly follows the steps of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey.

We’re introduced to Marty McFly in the first scene of Back to the Future, Doc’s workshop. His life is not too bad, his family is average, school is okay, but he is in love with Jennifer Parker. While still in Doc’s workshop, Marty receives an early Call to Adventure. Because he’s busy with other things like school, love, and the school audition, Marty merely brushes the call off as nothing. Principal Strickland later reveals that no member of the McFly family has ever done anything successful throughout the history of Hill Valley. Marty is motivated to prove Strickland wrong, but ultimately gets rejected in his audition to play in the school dance. The members of the school board act as the Guardians of the Threshold by testing Marty’s capabilities. Marty is not ready and will need to partake in a “quest” to prove his worth. This is when the audience realizes that the Ordinary World is too small for Marty and his goals. Marty later confesses that he lacks confidence in his abilities, and doesn’t react well to failure. When Marty gets home, he learns that Biff Tannen, the villain, crashed the family car, the one he needed for his date with Jeniffer. Later Marty skates down to the mall parking lot where Doc was going to conduct a time traveling experiment. The experiment was a success, but the plutonium necessary for the time machine to run was stolen from terrorists, which later come back and murder Doc. Trying to escape, Marty drives the time machine and accidentally sends himself back to the year 1955. Marty literally Crosses the Threshold and finds himself in the “extraordinary world” of 1955 Hill Valley.

Marty later meets the friends and enemies that fill his journey in his road of trials. A younger Biff is revealed and is the same, if not worse, bully that he is in the future. The story unfolds and the Dark Cave moment approaches. Marty is asked to the school dance, Enchantment Under The Sea, by Lorrain, his 1955 mom. The dance is where his parents are supposed to kiss and fall in love, and Marty watches in terror as he and his siblings fade away from his family picture. He plans to take Lorraine out to the dance, behave horribly, and let George, his father, step in and save the day. On the day of the dance, Marty and Lorraine were talking in his car when suddenly Biff opens the door, grabs Marty, and locks him in the trunk of a car. The greatest moment of the Dark Cave was when George uses up all of his courage to face Biff and save Lorraine. On the other hand, Marty will have to stand in for the injured guitarist that hurt his hand unlocking the trunk Biff locked him in. In the final moment of the Reward and Inspiration stage, Marty reminds George and Lorraine about future consequences, connecting the plot of changing history.

Marty arrives at the clock tower to meet Doc and prepares to get back to the future. He tries to warn Doc about his fate, but Doc refuses to even open it. Because of this, Marty decides that because he has a time machine, he can just go back earlier and warn him. After the last moments in 1955, Marty finally returns back to his home in 1985. The car wouldn’t start again and Marty is forced to run back on foot, just in time to witness his mentor’s death again. But this time, Doc read Marty’s letter and decides to wear a bulletproof vest. For the Death and Rebirth stage, Doc learns that rules can sometimes be bent. The pinnacle moment and the Resolution was how both Doc and Marty learned their lessons, and Marty has returned to the Ordinary World. Marty learns about testing his personal limits, and learning how to deal with difficulties and rejection. George also learned to fight for his goals and become a more confident person.