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movie - How could our heroes & old Biff switch timeline while keeping Almanac with young Biff?


In Back to the Future 2, old Biff stole the time machine in 2015 and went back in time to give an Almanac to young Biff. At the point of giving the Almanac to young Biff in 1955, he altered the future making current reality flow in another timeline (with bad future & bad 2015). So, how could he return to good 2015 of the previous timeline?

Plus, when our heroes returned back to 1985, how could they go to the bad timeline?



Answer



Biff didn't return to the good 2015. It is true that we don't see any visible changes when old Biff returns, but it doesn't mean that the timeline is the same. The house where Marty and Jennnifer would live is likely to be inhabited by other people at the time when Biff arrives to 2015.


Also Biff feels extreme pain when he comes back because he changed the future to another timeline in which Biff no longer exists (Lorraine could have shot him somewhere in 90s). In a deleted scene we see what happens next: Biff fades like Marty in the first film and eventually dies. Zemeckis and Gale decided to cut this scene because they thought that it would be too confusing for the audience.


This explanation was given by Zemeckis and Gale in the bonus materials on my DVDs.


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