So what action triggered the ending?

[Pak-Man]

Beyond here, there be spoilers!

So at the end of the game, Marty vanishes. Which of the events that took place in the first episode would have led to that?

My theory: When Marty served the subpoena to his grandfather, it led to him testifying against Kid Tannen, which probably led to him getting gunned down by the mob.

Any other theories?

[Javi-Wan Kenobi]

I think exactly the same

[sVybDy]

Well, it's obviously an interference with Marty's bloodline, and it's obviously related to the subpoena. But it doesn't have to mean that Artie gets gunned down.

Perhaps Artie goes into witness protection and never meets his future wife. Or, if he's already married, George McFly grows up somewhere other than Hill Valley and never meets Lorraine Baines.

Maybe Artie testifies against Kid Tannen and sends him to the slammer, and gains the same confidence that George McFly gained when he knocked out Biff in 1955. Because of this, George McFly is raised with confidence. Lorraine only seems to fall for guys who are thrust into her life by accident or fate, so Lorraine would never have any interest in this George McFly, and Marty would never be born.

Maybe Artie is intimidated by Kid Tannen and ends up lying under oath, and Kid Tannen walks, but Artie is later tried for perjury and sent to prison himself. No time for making babies when you're kept under lock and key.

Maybe Artie testifies against Kid Tannen and sends him to the slammer, and because he's the only guy in the operation with any brains, assumes control of Kid's criminal empire, and George is raised as an apprentice thug to someday take over the family business, but is killed on a street corner in his youth during a drug deal gone wrong.

[Secret Fawful]

Do you guys think it has anything to do with the fact that I traveled back in time and had nasty, torrid sex with younger Lorraine?

[mathman77]

Maybe Marty did the "nasty in the pasty" and became his own grandfather.

But my money is on the subpoena

[plrichard]

The only thing I don't understand is that wasn't Young Doc going to serve the subpoena to Artie anyway? Do we have any reason to believe that Young Doc wasn't going to get it to him?

[Gman5852]

Originally Posted by plrichard

The only thing I don't understand is that wasn't Young Doc going to serve the subpoena to Artie anyway? Do we have any reason to believe that Young Doc wasn't going to get it to him?

Well Marty was the one who figured out how to give Artie the subpoena, and it used a tape recorder which emmet shouldnt have.

[plrichard]

Ah, I didn't think of it like that. That means that potentially Tannen found out about the subpoenas and got Artie into hiding before Young Doc could deliver it.

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by plrichard

Ah, I didn't think of it like that. That means that potentially Tannen found out about the subpoenas and got Artie into hiding before Young Doc could deliver it.

OR, perhaps the chase that Marty so rudely interrupted would have resulted in one or more of Kid's gang being brought into custody which would have been the key to bringing Kid down, not Artie being the key.

[plrichard]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

OR, perhaps the chase that Marty so rudely interrupted would have resulted in one or more of Kid's gang being brought into custody which would have been the key to bringing Kid down, not Artie being the key.

But that wasn't supposed to happen, was it? Wasn't history somehow changed, resulting in the final chase scene?

EDIT: Sorry, I thought you were talking about the end when Marty was chasing. That's true, the subpoena wouldn't need to be served if Tannen had been caught.

[Andorxor]

Getting Edna Strickland interested in Doc,leads to their marriage in 1948 and their son Quintus Brown will marry Martys mom instead of his dad.

[plrichard]

Originally Posted by Andorxor

Getting Edna Strickland interested in Doc,leads to their marriage in 1948 and their son Quintus Brown will marry Martys mom instead of his dad.

Fact.

[PrivateJoker]

Vanishing was always instantaneous, so running Kid Tannen off the road seemed to have caused it. (Maybe it made him angrier?)

[chucklas]

Originally Posted by PrivateJoker

Vanishing was always instantaneous, so running Kid Tannen off the road seemed to have caused it. (Maybe it made him angrier?)

No, in the movies vanishing was not. The picture of marty's family slowly vanished over time. His brother was the first to go...etc. The only thing instantaneous was when the problem was fixed.

It would have made more sense for things to have been instantaneous, but then the movies could not have worked.

[great_escaper]

I like to think of it as a time wave, as soon as history has been changed, a ripple begins moving around the timeline, away from the point history has been changed, towards the future. The speed of this wave is determined by what actions happen in the past, the less likely an event is of occurring, the faster the wave, or the more rapidly the changes occur.

I think this is why Marty didn't disappear instantly in the first film, whilst he was in 1955, the time wave was travelling along the time line at quite a slow speed, due to Marty and his siblings birth looking likely. It reached the year Dave was born first, as it is an older point in time than Marty's birth.

In this case, it may have been anything from the time Marty arrived in 1931, with the changes being wrought still being avoidable up to a unknown point, therefore the timewave was moving pretty slowly away from 1931, you can still look at the picture of George Mcfly after the newspaper has changed, and Marty comments that nothing has changed, at that point, the wave hasn't reached George's birth, it's only at the end, that the wave has probably rewrote the circumstances of George's birth.

Bare in mind, this is all mostly speculation on my point.

[techie775]

Originally Posted by mathman77

Maybe Marty did the "nasty in the pasty" and became his own grandfather.

But my money is on the subpoena

Nice futurama reference.

[techie775]

It's also possible doc never got the the guts to serve that subpoena to arthur with out marty's interference in the original time. But since Marty did, just like when Marty got hit by the car instead of George in part 1 we a whole different time line were arthur never has george. In BTTF 1 Marty didn't go away all right away, first dave did, then linda then he started to ( as we saw in the Enchantment under the sea dance ) so I guessing in act II we'll be trying to fix it before we fade away.

[plrichard]

Eh...past nastification is unlikely if you ask me.

[Shoxir]

My guess is that by giving Artie the subpoena, Marty prevented him from meeting Sylvia, his wife. If you remember, if you told Doc that you ran into your grandpa, he mentioned that he continues to lead a happy life with his grandmother, Doc can't remember the name and Marty tells him it's Sylvia. To me, that's foreshadowing XP

[PrivateJoker]

Originally Posted by chucklas

No, in the movies vanishing was not. The picture of marty's family slowly vanished over time. His brother was the first to go...etc. The only thing instantaneous was when the problem was fixed.

It would have made more sense for things to have been instantaneous, but then the movies could not have worked.

No. I'm talking about the character in their own specific time period that they happen to be in. Remember in BTTF he started vanishing at the dance when some random guy cut in to dance with his mom, which in some way threw his existence into jeopardy. Also note that the picture of Marty's dad does not fade or vanish as far as we know.