Marty McFly
Martin Seamus "Marty" McFly is a fictional character and the protagonist of the Back to the Future franchise. He is a high school student who accidentally becomes a time traveler and alters history after his friend Emmett Brown invents a DeLorean time machine.
Marty McFly
Back to the Future (1985)
Back to the Future Part III (1990)
- Mark Campbell (singing voice; Part I)
- David Kaufman (The Animated Series)
- A. J. Locascio (The Game)
- Michael J. Fox (The Game, Lego Dimensions)
Martin Seamus McFly
Marty
- Student
- Singer
- Musician
- Lab Assistant for Dr. E Brown Enterprises
George McFly (father)
Lorraine Baines-McFly (mother)
Dave McFly (brother)
Linda McFly (sister)
Stella Baines (grandmother)
Sam Baines (grandfather)
Milton Baines (uncle)
Toby Baines (uncle)
Joey Baines (uncle)
Sally Baines (aunt)
Ellen Baines (aunt)
Biff Tannen (stepfather; alternate timeline)
Jennifer Parker McFly
Marty McFly Jr. (son)
Marlene McFly (daughter)
Seamus McFly (great-great grandfather)
Maggie McFly (great-great grandmother)
William McFly (great-grandfather)
- Vocals
- Electric guitar
- The Pinheads
- Marvin Berry and the Starlighters
1985
1885, 1955, 1985 (alternate timeline), 2015
Canadian actor Michael J. Fox portrays him in the film trilogy, while various actors have portrayed or voiced him in other media. In the animated series, David Kaufman voices him, and in the video game developed and published by Telltale Games, he is voiced by A. J. Locascio, while Fox makes vocal cameos as his future counterparts. Olly Dobson played him in the original stage musical adaptation (the West End production), and Casey Likes currently plays him in the Broadway production.[1]
In 2019, Empire magazine selected McFly as the 12th Greatest Movie Character of All Time.[2]
Biography[edit]
Marty McFly is the Back to the Future protagonist. Born in Hill Valley, California, he is a part of the McFly family of Irish descent. Little is known about the character's life before the first Back to the Future film, except that he set fire to the living room rug when he was 8 years old (in a statement of Marty's to his future parents).[3] Despite never explicitly being explained in the film, Bob Zemeckis confirmed that Marty met his friend Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown when he was around 14 after hearing that Brown was a dangerous lunatic. Marty wanted to go and see what it was all about for himself. He snuck into Doc's lab and was fascinated by all his inventions. When Doc caught him, he was glad to have someone interested in his work, and their friendship began.[4]
In the first film, in 1985, Marty plays guitar with his group The Pinheads[3] and likes listening to Huey Lewis and the News, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Van Halen, and Michael Jackson. In the film, he is also a talented skateboarder and proves to be an excellent pistol shot, a skill he has honed by playing shooting games such as Wild Gunman at his local 7-Eleven.[5][6]
In an alternate timeline shown in Back to the Future Part II, a hand injury has left Marty unable to play the guitar. This injury occurs in 1985 after Marty accepts his school nemesis Douglas J. Needles' challenge to a road race after being labeled a "chicken" and crashes into a Rolls-Royce. In 1885, Biff Tannen's great-grandfather, Buford, goads Marty into a showdown, which Marty wins despite refusing to draw a gun against Buford. Once he returns to 1985, he remembers this event and his great-great-grandfather Seamus McFly's advice and drops out of Needles' challenge, avoiding the collision that would have ruined his prospects for success as a guitarist.
Family[edit]
In the Back to the Future film franchise, Marty McFly is the youngest of three children of George McFly and Lorraine Baines-McFly. He has a brother, Dave McFly, and a sister, Linda McFly. In addition, he has uncles Milton, Toby, and Joey, as well as aunts Sally and Ellen (Ellen was born in 1956, so the first movie did not feature her). Joey served a prison sentence in 1985, and the court denied his parole again. In the first movie, Lorraine is 17 (nearly 18), Milton is 12, Sally is 6, Toby is 4, and Joey is 1. Ellen was born a year later.
Marty's secondary entourage consists of his girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, and best friend, Emmett Brown, a scientist Marty and Jennifer call "Doc." There is an implication that Marty is ashamed of his family and does not spend much time at home, preferring to hang out with Doc, Jennifer, or the guys in Marty's band, The Pinheads.[3] However, Marty's relationships with his family change after he returns from 1955, with him no longer being alienated by his parents and his father working as a local college professor and a successful novelist in the alternate timeline he inadvertently created. Marty meets his great-great paternal grandparents, Seamus and Maggie, too, when stranded in 1885. He also meets their infant son William, Marty's great-grandfather. Through his interaction with Seamus and Maggie, Marty discovers that Seamus had a brother named Martin, thus Marty's great-great-granduncle, who died after being goaded into a fight and killed in Virginia City, Nevada.
By 2015, Marty married his girlfriend Jennifer and had two children, Martin "Marty" Jr. and Marlene.
Aliases[edit]
Marty has had many aliases throughout the Back to the Future series, usually because of meeting his relatives in the past, such as Lorraine mistakenly thinking his name is "Calvin Klein" due to that being Marty's brand of underwear. In the first film, Marty uses the alias "Darth Vader, an extraterrestrial from the Planet Vulcan" while wearing a radiation suit to attempt to coerce George into asking Lorraine out to the dance. In Part III, Marty uses the name "Clint Eastwood" when asked by Maggie McFly and later by Buford Tannen. In Back to the Future: The Game, he uses one of three aliases; "Sonny Crockett," "Harry Callahan," or "Michael Corleone."
Production[edit]
Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty McFly in Back to the Future. His view of the movie clashed, however, with that of the director, Robert Zemeckis. While the film was to become a sci-fi comedy (and box office smash hit), Stoltz had read the script from a more serious angle, apparently focusing on the tragic consequences of going back to live a life that was not one's own. Five weeks into shooting, Zemeckis replaced Stoltz with Michael J. Fox.[7][8]
Influence[edit]
Morty Smith of the American animated series Rick and Morty (originally voiced by Justin Roiland) began as a parody of Marty McFly.[11]
Japanese pro wrestler Kushida dresses as Marty McFly as part of his ring character.[12]
