Space-Time Continuum

The Complete Time Travel Chronology (so far)

********* Back to the Future™

Time traveler: Einstein
Departure: October 26 1985 01:20 AM
Destination: October 26, 1985 01:21 AM

Einstein, "the world's first time traveler", takes the DeLorean for its maiden voyage in the parking lot at Twin Pines Mall.

Time traveler: Marty McFly
Departure: October 26, 1985 01:35 AM
Destination: November 5, 1955 06:00 AM (app.)

Marty's accidental arrival in 1955 at Eli Peabody's farm is at an approximated time, as we are only shown the first two digits ("06") of the time circuits in the film. He accidentally runs over one of Old Man Peabody's pine trees while escaping shotgun blasts.
Time traveler: Marty McFly
Departure: November 12, 1955 10:04 PM
Destination: October 26, 1985 01:24 AM

Marty arrives back in 1985 actually eleven minutes before he departed his reality at the beginning of the film. This overlap in time theoretically generates the mysterious "Marty II" character, opening the floodgate into the fourth dimension. We can see that the name of the mall has transformed into the "Lone Pine Mall" after he ran over the pine tree in 1955.

Time travelers: Doc Brown & Einstein
Departure: October 26, 1985 02:15 AM (app.)
Destination: October 26, 2015 02:15 AM (app.)

Doc states at the end of Back to the Future that he and Einstein are going 30 years into the future, because it's "a nice round number". Taking this literally, this will have the pair arriving exactly on October 26, 2015. Upon his arrival, Doc will soon discover that at least one of Marty's kids is in the State Penitentiary, and after a quick visit to the Hill Valley Library, he will decide to backtrack several days or weeks to find out exactly what happened to the McFly family.
Time travelers: Doc Brown & Einstein
Departure: October 26, 2015 ??:?? ??
Destination: October ??, 2015 ??:?? ??

Even from all the knowledge we gain from the events in the second film, we do not know precisely how many different dates Doc travels to in the year 2015. This is obviously left ambiguously for our own interpretations. Nevertheless, logic tells us that Doc travels to a date prior to October 21, 2015 because he states in the second movie that he had left Einstein in a suspended animation kennel in 2015 before he returned to 1985. He knows he will be back soon, so he leaves Einstein in the kennel while he goes back to get Marty's assistance in the future. Since he picks up Einstein on October 21, Doc has to travel to a prior date in order to leave him there. Whatever this date may be, it is likely that he has the hover-conversion and his own body overhaul performed on this date as well. He has a very limited supply of plutonium, and will run out very quickly if he doesn't get the DeLorean hover- converted soon into his time travel adventures. Before this trip, he will still have eight plutonium pellets left for time travel. It is possible that this could also be the exact date that Marty's daughter Marlene gets arrested. Her imprisonment will be sometime during this calendar week. And since Marty had so many problems with the car staying started in the first film, Doc evidently has the car worked on. In the process of having the DeLorean worked on, the time circuits are apparently repaired or replaced. In Back to the Future, we can see that the "AM" LED indicator is on the top of each circuit in the time machine, and the "PM" LED indicator is on the bottom. In Back to the Future Part II and throughout the rest of the series, these LED indicators have been reversed! Even the word "AM" is no longer seen labeled on the circuits, even though there is an LED for the "AM" indicator. Whatever his reason is for working on them or having them replaced, this may actually be the determinant for the malfunction later in the series when the time circuits reset themselves to January 1, 1885.

Time traveler: Doc
Departure: October ??, 2015 ??:?? ??
Destination: October 22, 2015 ??:?? ??

We know that Doc traveled to October 22, 2015 because he knows about Marty Jr.'s imprisonment, plus he has a newspaper from this date when he & Marty later travel to October 21. He evidently talks to someone on this date who had seen young Marty Jr. go into the Café '80s, since Doc already knows in Back to the Future Part II that Marty Jr. goes there to meet with Griff.
Time traveler: Doc
Departure: October 22, 2015 ??:?? ??
Destination: October ??, 2015 ??:?? ??

We understand from Doc's dialogue in Back to the Future Part II that he must have gone to a date between October 25, 2015 and October 31, 2015 because he already knew that Marlene would be arrested in the week to come for trying to break Marty Jr. out of jail. (This entry is here just in case she wasn't arrested on the 26th -- if she happened to have been arrested on the 26th, this is a redundant entry.)
Time traveler: Doc
Departure: October ??, 2015 ??:?? ??
Destination: October 26, 1985 10:35 AM (app.)

We have no other clues hinting that Doc made any further time travels past this mysterious date in 2015. He may have made several more stops in and around 2015 in order to trace the events surrounding Marty's kids and the downfall of the McFly family, but we do not know this for sure. Marty wakes up at 10:28 AM, and discovers his family has now changed for the better. Doc arrives in Marty's driveway approximately seven minutes later and picks up Marty & Jennifer for another adventure.

Time travelers: Doc, Marty & Jennifer Parker
Departure: October 26, 1985 10:38 AM (app.)
Time traveler: ********** Back to the Future™ Part II
Destination: October 21, 2015 04:29 PM

Doc takes Marty & Jennifer to the future to do something about their kids! 

Time traveler:	Biff Tannen

Departure:	October 21, 2015	07:15 PM (app.)
Biff puts two-and-two together, and discovers that Doc built a time machine out of a flying DeLorean. He steals the car for his own personal ambitions of making his life more lucrative by giving his younger self the Grays Sports Almanac.

Destination:	November 12, 1955	12:00 PM (app.)
Departure:	November 12, 1955	06:38 PM
Destination:	October 21, 2015	07:20 PM (app.)
Biff returns to 2015 after his 1955 meeting with himself, only to arrive in extreme pain. He slumps behind a parked car and fades from existence (see The Secrets of the Back to the Future Trilogy VHS special).

Time travelers:	Doc, Marty, Jennifer & Einstein

Departure:	October 21, 2015	07:28 PM
Destination:	October 26, 1985	09:00 PM
Thinking that the McFly family is now fine and that everything in the space-time continuum is back to normal, everyone returns to 1985, unaware of Biff's tampering of their timeline reality.

Time travelers:	Doc & Marty

Departure:	October 27, 1985	02:42 AM
Destination:	November 12, 1955	06:00 AM
After discovering the destruction of their reality as they remember it, Doc & Marty return to 1955 in attempt to reverse the damage to the timeline caused by Biff.

Time traveler:	Doc

Departure:	November 12, 1955	09:45 PM (app.)
This departure estimation includes about twenty minutes from the time Doc disappears from being accidentally hit by lightning, for Marty to run from Lyon Estates into Hill Valley (two miles away) and show up at the clock tower just seconds after his other self returns to 1985.

Destination:	January 01, 1885	12:00 AM
Doc suddenly drops in on the Old West, and spends eight months setting himself up as a blacksmith while he tries to repair the DeLorean. Once he finds that it is hopeless with the technology in the 1800's, he buries the time machine and sends a letter via Western Union to Marty in 1955. The letter instructs Marty where to find the DeLorean and how to repair it for his return to 1985.

********** Back to the Future™ Part III

Time traveler:	Marty

Departure:	November 16, 1955	10:00 AM
Even though we are not shown the time circuits when Marty is in the drive-in parking lot, we are later shown this date & time when Marty is in the DeLorean shortly before the train pushes him into the future. Marty heads off into the past to rescue Doc from being shot in the back by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen.

Destination:	September 02, 1885	08:00 AM
Departure:	September 07, 1885	08:25 AM (app.)
The actual time that Marty leaves 1885 is somewhat puzzling. Doc and Marty board the train sometime shortly after 8:00 AM, and at one fleeting glimpse during the sequences where Marty is looking at the temperature gauge, we can see that the "Present Time" indicator displays a time of 8:18 AM. Later when Marty is sifting through the DeLorean scraps at the site of the train collision, he happens upon the time circuits. As they flicker their last "bit" of life, we can barely see that the "Last Time Departed" indicator shows Marty's departure from 1885 to be at 09:00 AM!! This must be yet another malfunction of the time circuits, as it's virtually impossible that 42 minutes surpassed during the final train sequences at the end of Back to the Future Part III.

Destination:	October 27, 1985	11:00 AM
Marty returns to 1985, and the DeLorean is accidentally destroyed by a speeding locomotive.

Time travelers:	Doc, Clara, Jules & Verne Brown

Departure:	Circa 1895
Their departure from the past is estimated to be somewhere around the year 1895, since it appears that Jules is about ten years old. After Doc & Clara got married and had two children, Doc spent several years designing a new time machine out of second steam locomotive.

Destination:	October / November, 2015
This estimated arrival is for sometime in the year 2015 so that they can receive a hover-conversion for the train, either before October 21, 2015 or after October 31, 2015. Logically, they wouldn't want to accidentally bump into Doc's other self from Back to the Future Part II, but this date must be somewhere around the dates in the series of the other events in 2015.

Departure:	October / November, 2015
The Brown family departs the 21st century after receiving the hover-conversion for the train.

Destination:	October 27, 1985	03:00 AM (app.)
The family goes back to 1985 to pick up Einstein and anything else that Doc will need from his lab to take back with him to the 1800's. Doc wouldn't have wanted to run into his other self, so he would have needed to arrive after the last time he was in 1985. The family would arrive during the early hours of the morning when it's dark outside so that the train won't be seen. Since we later see Doc & family arrive in the train on the tracks, it is safe to assume that he leaves the train on the tracks for several hours while they load the necessary items from the lab into the train. We can also assume that Doc's lab is located somewhere very near the train tracks. During the night, it's likely that there won't be any trains traveling on the tracks during that time, so they can take a couple of hours to load everything and depart before sunrise.

Time travelers:	Doc, Clara, Jules, Verne & Einstein

Departure:	October 27, 1985	05:00 PM (app.)
They hurriedly travel down the tracks and jump ahead in time about seven hours to arrive at the destruction site of the DeLorean in order to find Marty. Doc knew up front that Marty would have also arrived at this location earlier, so it's a logical assumption to begin looking for him at the last known location of the DeLorean. It just so happens that Marty & Jennifer are there when the Browns arrive.

Destination:	October 27, 1985	12:00 PM (app.)
The Browns arrive at "Eastwood Ravine", where the DeLorean was destroyed, to supposedly say a final farewell to Marty.

Departure:	October 27, 1985	12:03 PM (app.)
Destination:	Circa 1895
The family presumably goes back to the late 1800's, sometime after the time they originally departed. Doc says he isn't going to the future, because he's already been there.

********** Back to the Future™...The Ride

Assumptions to note: The date used for when Back to the Future...The Ride takes place is based upon the very first time that time travel volunteers were able to board Back to the Future...The Ride -- the exact day that the first ride officially opened to the public in Orlando. The time on this date that Biff and the time travel team arrive in 1991 is taken from the time circuits display inside "The Jules Verne Train" which now resides beside The Institute Of Future Technology in Orlando. The DeLorean used in Back to the Future...The Ride appears to be the same exact time machine from the three movies, which is puzzling since we saw it get destroyed. If this is the same time machine that Doc always has had, he must have intervened in the collision of the DeLorean with the locomotive, which would then alter the ending of Back to the Future Part III. An intervention would entail another time travel trip from an unknown time period, causing a multitude of problems and some major paradoxes, so let's assume that he built a duplicate car. He couldn't have rebuilt the car from the parts after the wreck on the train tracks, as seemingly they were all destroyed beyond repair. This being the case, he will have to acquire the futuristic parts from 2015 yet once again. Building a new time machine will require Doc to return to the future for another "Mr. Fusion" and hover conversion since we see the home energy reactor atop the new DeLorean, and we know the car can now fly again. Let's assume that this date is October 21, 2015, the same day that we actually see him traveling in during Back to the Future...The Ride. Since he likely has the hover conversion and the installation of the Mr. Fusion performed on the original DeLorean prior to October 21, there will be no conflict with him having two DeLoreans converted on separate days. Doc's creation of two new DeLoreans (the new DeLorean and the eight-passenger DeLorean) and the entire construction and founding of the Institute Of Future Technology helps account for Doc's six year hibernation between late 1985 and mid 1991.

Time travelers:	Doc, Clara, Jules, Verne & Einstein

Departure:	Circa 1895
The family leaves the late 1800's for good after Doc realizes that he has so much more left to do in the 20th Century. We know that Einstein comes back with Doc, because Einstein is seen in the Institute during Back to the Future...The Ride. This being the case, we can safely assume that the rest of the family came back with him to the present time.

Destination:	October 28, 1985
They arrive in the 20th Century sometime between October 27, 1985 and May 2, 1991. It is likely that they arrive sometime late in October of 1985, as it will take several years for Doc to get the Institute of Future Technology up and running. He also won't want to give the appearance that he is dead or missing, so he will likely return shortly after his last departure in 1985. This pattern is demonstrated each and every time that Doc or Marty return to 1985 -- they always return only a few hours after they left. This insures that they are not reported missing while they were gone, plus they do not run the risk of running into their other selves. And since Doc had a body rejuvenation in 2015, the difference in his age since he had last been seen will not be noticed.

Time traveler:	Doc

Departure:	April, 1991
Destination:	October, 2015
Since we know that Doc takes the regular DeLorean to 2015 during Back to the Future...The Ride, perhaps for a hover- conversion and a Mr. Fusion installation, we can safely assume that this has already taken place with the eight-passenger DeLorean at an earlier date. We know that the eight-passenger DeLorean can also fly and is fueled by Mr. Fusion, so apparently Doc has also taken this new invention to 2015. This would probably have occurred late April of 1991, just a few days or weeks before he takes the regular DeLorean to 2015. The eight-passenger DeLorean is a new invention, as Doc reveals to the time travel volunteers, so its completion has been recent.

Departure:	October, 2015
Destination:	April, 1991
After receiving the hover conversion and the Mr. Fusion installation on the eight-passenger DeLorean, Doc returns to late April 1991 and begins his plans to send a time travel expedition to late 1955.

Time travelers:	The time travel team

Departure:	May 2, 1991		11:00 AM (app.)
Destination:	November 16, 1955
We know from some of the dialogue that a time travel team of two to four people previously went to 1955 for an experiment. Logically, they will travel to a date after the events of the three films in 1955 in order not to disrupt any of those prior events. This places this date to be between November 16 and December 31, 1955. The purpose of this trip more than likely is to make sure that the timeline in 1955 is now back in place and that nothing is wrong with the way Marty & Doc left it. It is believed that they will arrive soon after Marty left 1955 for the last time on November 16, perhaps later on that evening.

Time travelers:	The time travel team & Biff

Departure:	November 16, 1955
Destination:	May 2, 1991		12:38 PM
Biff stows away in a time travel vehicle, which logically is either the eight-passenger DeLorean or the "Jules Verne" time traveling train. Doc has the regular DeLorean with him in 2015, and besides, it's a two-seater! Biff is evidently undetected by the time travel team that goes to 1955, and is mistakenly brought back to the future, where he causes extreme problems for Doc and the personnel at the Institute. Since up to four people can sit in the front seat of the eight-passenger DeLorean, Biff can stow away in the floor-board of the back seat. Since this would be very difficult to accomplish without being detected, and an adult human cannot fit into the trunk of a DeLorean, it is likely that he instead stows away on the train where there would be more hiding places.

Time traveler:	Doc

Departure:	May 2, 1991
Destination:	October 21, 2015	06:15 PM (app.)
When we first see Doc, he is already in 2015 flying in the DeLorean. Since it is obvious that Doc has built a duplicate DeLorean, he must be there for a Mr. Fusion and a hover- conversion. When we meet up with him, he is flying along a very familiar stretch of "highway" in Hill Valley, 2015, so perhaps he is testing out the new hover-conversion. The next time we see Doc, he is outside the Texaco station and is adding fuel to the Mr. Fusion chamber. Fusion Industries is just around the corner, so at this point, Doc must have just gotten the Mr. Fusion installed. Before he heads back to 1991, he tells the time travel volunteers that he will meet them back at the Institute to send them one day into the future. We know that this point in time can only be a few hours after he and Marty had originally traveled to 2015, because Doc goes into the Blast From The Past store during the pre-show as he describes the problems that Biff has previously created. During his summary of prior events, he reaches into the store and picks up another Grays Sports Almanac out of the store window. As he describes the problems surrounding the Almanac, he goes out to the same back alley, and throws the Almanac away in the same garbage can. Then he quickly looks behind the screen door to make sure that Old Biff isn't watching this time! (Meaning that Biff's death must have been reversed after the timeline was restored!) This also means that the store had an additional Almanac to sell, and put it in the store window for sale shortly after Marty purchased the first one in Back to the Future Part II! The time that Doc returns to 2015 on this date is very late in the afternoon, because the LED indicator on the time circuits is lit up as "PM", and it is still daylight outside. Unfortunately, the exact time is not shown to us during Back to the Future...The Ride. But from the time trips made in the second film, we know that this time must be somewhere between 04:29 PM and 07:28 PM. We know that it is dark outside when Doc & Marty go to Hilldale to get Jennifer, so it must have taken place at least an hour earlier. An estimated time is 06:15 PM, which would be nearly two hours after Doc & Marty arrived in 2015. The fact that Doc is wearing the same clothing he was wearing later on that day in Back to the Future Part II, and that Doc gets rid of another Almanac goes to prove that this scene takes place after Marty has already been to the store. If Doc were to throw away the Almanac before Marty had been there, it would completely change all of the events in the two sequels!

Departure:	October 21, 2015	After 12:00 PM
Destination:	October 21, 2015	Before 12:00 PM
While researching this chronology, I noticed that the time circuits show that Doc was planning to go to another time during the morning of October 21, 2015, sometime before noon. When Doc first speaks to the time travel volunteers via "HoverCam", he tells them he is traveling in the year 2015. He points to the time circuits, showing us briefly the date portions of the "Destination Time" and "Present Time" time indicators. Both indicators display the same date: October 21, 2015. The only difference between the two is that the Destination Time indicator barely shows the "AM" LED being lit and the Present Time indicator's "PM" LED being lit. The only thing that I can think of that Doc would have done that morning would be to check on Einstein at the kennel. He couldn't come and take Einstein away, because his other self has to pick him up later that afternoon, and that would cause a paradox. So, it is unclear as to why Doc would have traveled to the morning of October 21. 

Departure:	October 21, 2015	Before 12:00 PM
Destination:	May 2, 1991		12:50 PM (app.)
Doc comes back to the Institute and greets the time travel volunteers as they enter the Institute. He tells them all of the wonderful accomplishments at the Institute, including his new crowning achievement of the eight-passenger DeLorean. Biff comes out of hiding, traps Doc like a rat in his own office, and steals the DeLorean for "a little joy ride".

Time traveler:	Biff

Departure:	May 2, 1991		01:00 PM (app.)
Destination:	October 25, 2015	03:40 AM (app.)
Biff steals the DeLorean, which appears to be the same exact DeLorean from the three films, but apparently it is a new reproduction of the Doc's original car.

Time travelers:	The time travel volunteers

Departure:	May 2, 1991		01:05 PM (app.)
Destination:	October 25, 2015	03:42 AM
Doc convinces eight volunteers, who happen to be visiting the Institute, to go after Biff since he himself cannot go, and all the security personnel are "tied up" at the moment.

Time traveler:	Biff

Departure:	October 25, 2015	03:44 AM
Destination:	October 25, 8888	03:44 AM
Biff escapes the chase in 2015 to the Hill Valley Ice Age. The year of this date is approximately 1 million B.C., and since the time circuits cannot register the year this far back into the past, the year is displayed as "8888" on the Present Time indicator.

Time travelers:	The time travel volunteers

Departure:	October 25, 2015	03:44 AM
Destination:	October 25, 8888	03:44 AM
The time travel volunteers experience temporal displacement just seconds after Biff does. They accelerate to 88 mph at the exact moment that they crash through the clock tower, destroying the clock dial!

Time travelers:	Biff & the time travel volunteers

Departure:	October 25, 8888	03:46 AM (app.)
Destination:	May 2, 1991		01:04 PM (app.)
The time travel volunteers bump Biff's DeLorean at 88 mph during the wild chase in the Ice Age era, causing a time vortex, and instantly transports both time vehicles simultaneously back to the original travel departure: The Institute of Future Technology. They all arrive one minute before the time travel volunteers originally left the Institute, which is why Doc warns the volunteers to be careful and not bump into their other selves on the way out!

Time travelers:	Doc & Biff

Departure:	May 2, 1991		02:00 PM (app.)
Destination:	November 16, 1955
Doc is the logical candidate to take Biff back to 1955 where he belongs. It is likely that he sedates Biff with the Sleep-Inducing Alpha-Rhythm Generator to keep him under control, and will hopefully make Biff think the whole experience was just a dream. But as we know from Jennifer's sleep inducement, the memories of time travel will likely remain!

Time traveler:	Doc

Departure:	November 16, 1955
Destination:	May 2, 1991		02:15 PM (app.)
This completes all of the time traveling that we know about, other than the separate adventures in Back to the Future - The Animated Series, which we won't include here since they really do not apply. Everyone, other than Clara and the boys who originally grew up in the 1800's, would be back in their original timeline after Doc returns to 1991. Now, millions of Back to the Future fans worldwide await Universal Studios to continue the most successful and entertaining time travel story in history! Will the DeLorean ride again? Only time will tell!

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