Back to the Future is possibly the greatest time travel movie of all time, as well as one of the best movies of all-time generally. But a new fan theory has given a whole new perspective on its hero Marty McFly.
We’re nearly 40 years on from Back to the Feature’s cinematic debut in 1985, but new revelations (i.e. internet speculation) have seen the film now viewable through an entirely different lens: that the hero is actually an unintentional gay icon after he traveled back to the 1950s.
The fan theory was posited by /u/Pasta-hobo on /r/fantheories and has been met with both acclaim and utter disbelief, but somehow it’s brilliant nonetheless. The theory espouses that after he traveled to the past, George and Loraine both assumed Marty was gay because of, well, a lot of factors. Probably most humorously is because he didn’t want to have sex with his mother. Oh, and calling George his “dad” several times.
It’s still insane, though. Commenters have declared it both incredibly stupid and also strangely inspired: for once it’s a fan theory about something other than Marvel or Star Wars! Also here’s an unholy comment nobody needs to see.
Overall though, there’s a very clear retort to one of this theory’s arguments that gay people weren’t known of: there’d been public knowledge of gay people since way back into the 1800s. Hell, even during the Second World War there was major acknowledgment of gay people existing.
It’s a bonkers theory, but it now adds so much to any future rewatch of Back to the Future. Release the “Marty McFly threw the first brick at Stonewall” sequel, now!
The Back to the Future trilogy is available to stream on Netflix.
