Back to the Future‘s Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) and Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) are one of the most iconic duos in cinemas, and here’s how they became unexpected friends in the first place. The idea of such an odd pairing being at all affiliated never seemed to make all that much sense.
In 1985, the Robert Zemeckis-directed and co-written movie was released, kicking off the Back to the Future trilogy that ran to 1990. The movie became a massive hit and aside from its exciting premise, that’s largely in part of Doc and Marty’s relationship, which was clearly strong enough to explain some strange quirks. For instance, when Doc called him to the parking lot in the middle of the night, Marty willingly met up with him at such an odd time without any questions asked — even staying after he learned that Doc Brown stole Plutonium from Libyan terrorists. The fact that he also still partook in their future shenanigans after he almost got trapped in 1955 indicates that he genuinely liked hanging out with him.
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As great as the pair’s relationship, however, it was never revealed in the movies how they became friends. By the time Back to the Future starts, their connection is already established with Marty casually popping in at Doc’s place. It’s also suggested that despite getting flak for his decision to be associated with the eccentric old man, he continues to do so. While they worked well together, it’s still curious how they got together in the first place. Doc Brown and Marty are as different as possibly imaginable, and it doesn’t seem like they have anything in common. As it turns out, their friendship was accidental as co-writer Bob Gale revealed to Mental Floss what he and director Robert Zemeckis decided on their backstory.
For years, Marty was told that Doc Brown was dangerous, a crackpot, a lunatic. Marty snuck into Doc’s lab, and was fascinated by all the cool stuff that was there. When Doc found him there, he was delighted to find that Marty thought he was cool and accepted him for what he was.
The same explanation goes on to explain that Doc actually employed Marty on a part-time basis to help him out with experiments, which goes some way to explain his willingness to turn up at the Mall so late. This explanation works as it fits well with both characters’ personalities. Marty was never depicted as a snob: even as he watched his father get harassed by Biff (Thomas F. Wilson), he didn’t really chastise George for not standing up for himself. When he was transported to 1955 and learned that his mother wasn’t exactly self-righteous in her younger years, Marty didn’t think of her as a hypocrite. Given that, it makes sense that he also didn’t judge Doc Brown despite everything he’d heard about him from other people. On the flip side, Doc Brown getting excited about the idea that someone found his experiments interesting checks out with his reaction in 1995 upon realizing that Marty wasn’t lying when he told him that he successfully built a time machine in the future.
While Zemeckis and Gale’s explanation of Doc Brown and Marty’s relationship is deemed acceptable, there’s also the idea that the former may have stealthily sought the latter knowing what lay ahead in their shared future. Since Back to the Future‘s rules of time-travel stipulate that the real present time can be changed if things were meddled with in the past, Doc had to find a way to get close to Marty to set those events in motion. It’s a cool concept that also fits into what’s established in the trilogy; it’s arguably also more exciting than what’s supposed to be canon. Nevertheless, at this point, no one cares much about how they became friends, the important thing is they did. Now, if only they would reunite for a fourth film.
