When the old version of Biff Tannen arrives back in 2015 after a time travel trip in Back to the Future Part II, he seems ill for no apparent reason, and only a deleted scene explains just what happened to old Biff. Back to the Future Part II is the second film in the Back to the Future trilogy, following the adventures of Marty McFly and Doc Brown jumping through time with a DeLorean time machine. The main antagonist of the films is Biff Tannen, played by Thomas F. Wilson (as well as his ancestors and descendants, also portrayed by Wilson).
In Back to the Future, Biff is introduced in 1985 as a middle-aged man who pushes around Marty’s father, George. In 1955, he’s a high school bully who makes fun of George and harasses Marty’s mother, Lorraine. When Marty and Doc travel to the far future of 2015 in Back to the Future Part II, they meet a bitter 78-year-old Biff. He overhears Marty’s plan to use a 2015 sports almanac to make money in the ’80s. After Doc convinces Marty not to do this, “Old” Biff instead grabs the almanac and steals the DeLorean. He goes back to 1955 and gives his younger self the almanac. This creates an alternate Back to the Future timeline, in which Marty and Doc end up, where 1985 Hill Valley is run by a rich Biff, who killed Marty’s father and married his mother.
The last time Old Biff is seen in Back to the Future Part II, he lands the DeLorean in 2015 and stumbles out of the car, sweating and groaning in pain, as though sick or injured. The head of his cane breaks off in the car, which Doc finds later. Old Biff’s behavior when exiting the time machine is never explained and the films don’t return to 2015. But a deleted scene available on the Back to the Future Part II DVD reveals what was happening to Old Biff after his time travel trip. The Back to the Future multiverse proves time travel, and specifically meddling in your own timeline, has many consequences. Old Biff faces the worst one. In the deleted scene, he is leaning against a car, out of view of Marty and Doc as they prepare to return to 1985. Old Biff gets sicker and sicker until, just after the DeLorean jumps through time, he fades from existence. Marty almost met this same fate in Back to the Future before he managed to get his parents together. The scene makes for a great callback to the first film and shows how quick time travel can go south. It is also ominous foreshadowing for what Marty and Doc are about to encounter in 1985.
Back To The Future 2 Proves Biff Shouldn’t Have Messed With The Timeline
The apparent integrity of the missing scene raises the question of why it was cut in the first place. It may be that director Robert Zemeckis and writer/producer Bob Gale decided that seeing Old Biff fade with no spoken explanation would be too confusing. Its exclusion leaves the question of why he was acting so ill when exiting the DeLorean, but the scene also opens up several more questions. Unless Biff had lost his riches and power by 2015, the entire timeline should have technically vanished, not just Old Biff. This would have been hard to show on screen. Biff’s vanishing also opens the question of how the broken head of his cane survived in the DeLorean. Although, it could be that things in the time machine remain static even if time changes.
However, the scene contradicts Doc’s time travel explanation just a few scenes later. He draws the main timeline on a chalkboard, then creates an off-shot to represent the altered timeline. This implies two parallel versions of time, not one that is constantly rewritten. Therefore, Old Biff could still exist, just in a parallel version of the timeline. Ultimately, the scene’s inclusion in Back to the Future Part II would have raised more questions than answers, explaining its removal.
