Back To The Future screenwriter explains “plot hole” that’s bugged us for years

Back To The Future is a movie franchise dear to a lot of people’s lives. Whether you’re Generation Z or a Baby Boomer, the chances are good that you’ve at least heard of the movies, and if you’re like me, you’ve watched them about a million times.

And if you’ve seen them as often as I have, you may have noticed a plot hole that’s bothered you for years. I never thought to think this one all the through, but it’s felt weird whenever I rewatch the first Back To The Future movie. That film introduces us to Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), a teenager who travels through time back to 1955, thanks to his much older friend, Doc Brown. He ends up crossing paths with his parents before they fell in love and got married, setting off a chain of events that threatens to erase him and his siblings from existence.

Before moving on, let’s all share a collective “eww” in memory of Marty’s mom having a crush on him. I mean, she didn’t know, but it was still a very strange situation.

Eventually, Marty puts the timeline back in order, but what has never made sense is why his parents don’t remember that the dude they knew as Calvin Klein looked a whole lot like their own son. Didn’t that strike them as odd? It’s a question I ask every time I watch the film, and now we finally have our answer.

How did we get it? It began on Twitter, with a debate between Guardians of the Galaxy director James Gunn and Chris Pratt, who plays Star-Lord in those movies:

The Hollywood Reporter saw this and took it one step further by reaching out to Back To The Future screenwriter Bob Gale. Go straight to the source — why didn’t anyone else ever think of that?

So what did Gale have to say? “Bear in mind that George and Lorraine only knew Marty/Calvin for eight days when they were 17, and they did not even see him every one of those eight days,” he reminded us. “So, many years later, they still might remember that interesting kid who got them together on their first date. […] But I would ask anyone to think back on their own high school days and ask themselves how well they remember a kid who might have been at their school for even a semester. Or someone you went out with just one time. If you had no photo reference, after 25 years, you’d probably have just a hazy recollection.”

I mean, he has a point. I barely remember what I wore yesterday, let alone remember people I briefly met from high school. When he puts it like that, it almost feels silly that we considered this a plot hole to begin with.

Gale goes on to say that the only thing Lorraine and George might remember about the guy who “set them up” is his name: Calvin Klein. For all we know, they might assume the clothing designer and the guy from high school are one and the same. “So Lorraine and George might think it funny that they once actually met someone named Calvin Klein, and even if they thought their son at age 16 or 17 had some resemblance to him, it wouldn’t be a big deal. I’d bet most of us could look thru our high school yearbooks and find photos of our teen-aged classmates that bear some resemblance to our children.”

And to think, the answer to this mystery was staring us in the face the whole time.

Great Scott!

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h/t The A.V. Club