Subplots, Part 2: "Back to the Future"

Following up on an earlier thread in comments, I promised to try and find a lecture I did analyzing the movie Back to the Future to explore the subject of subplots. Here it is:

BACK TO THE FUTURE: SUBPLOT BREAKDOWN

BACK TO THE FUTURE (written by Robert Zemeckis & Bob Gale) is a script which makes great use of subplots. The Plotline: Marty McFly (MICHAEL J. FOX) accidentally travels back in time, then desperately tries to get back home. The subplots include:

* MARTY AND HIS MUSICAL ASPIRATIONS: Marty doesn’t have the courage to send off his rock band’s demo tape to the record company.

* MARTY’S FATHER (GEORGE): Man with no backbone.

* MARTY’S MOTHER (LORRAINE): Sexually repressed woman – supposedly.

* GEORGE AND LORRAINE’S ROMANCE: How Marty’s parents hooked up.

* MARTY’S FADING FAMILY: The fate of Marty and his siblings.

* DR. BROWN AND THE LIBYAN TERRORISTS: The fate of Dr. Brown.

Let’s examine each of these subplots, looking for specific examples of the four-beat pattern. NOTE: The numbers refer to scenes in the script.

MARTY AND HIS MUSICAL ASPIRATIONS

Beginning #10: Marty confides he is reticent to send demo tape to record company because of his fear (“What if they hate it?”)

Middle I #78: Marty discovers his father writing a science fiction story, but George never lets anybody read them - "What if they didn't like 'em."

Middle II #138: Marty gets to play rock and roll at the dance with Chuck Berry's cousin, Marvin

Ending #225: Marty retrieves the demo tape from the trash, now having the courage to send it to the record

MARTY’S FATHER (GEORGE)

Beginning #14: George doesn’t stand up to the bully BIFF, when Biff has wrecked George’s car (“Son, I know it’s hard for you to understand, but the fact is, I’m just not a fighter.”)

Middle I #47: George bullied by Biff (in the past)

Middle II #91: When George tries to ask Lorraine out for a date, Biff humiliates George by extorting money from him

Ending #125: George saves Lorraine from Biff by knocking him out

MARTY’S MOTHER (LORRAINE)

Beginning #15: Lorraine weighs in on contemporary social values ("I think it's terrible, girls chasing boys. I never chased a boy when I was your age.")

Middle I #54: Young Lorraine excited by Marty (“I’ve never seen red underwear before.”)

Middle II #100: Lorraine asks Marty out to the “Enchantment Under the Sea” dance

Ending #118: Smoking cigarettes and knocking back booze, Lorraine puts the moves on Marty

THE ROMANCE OF GEORGE AND LORRAINE

Beginning #15: Lorraine tells the kids (for the millionth time) how she and George met (he was struck by Lorraine's father's car), and their ensuing romance ("Your father kissed me for the very first time on the dance floor... and that was when I realized I was going to spend the rest of my life with him." - At the Enchantment Under the Sea school dance)

Middle I #53: Marty knocks George out of the way of Lorraine’s father’s car, disrupting the past

Middle II #104: Marty agrees to be Lorraine’s date to the dance, but only to set up a scenario in which George will act like a hero and win Lorraine’s affection

Ending #134: At the dance, George shoves a rival into the punch bowl, grabs Lorraine, and kisses her

MARTY’S FADING FAMILY

Beginning #15: Marty’s siblings, Dave and Linda, introduced

Middle I #69: Dave’s photo fading, letting Marty and Brown know that Marty’s siblings are being “erased from existence” – if Marty can’t orchestrate Lorraine and George together, his siblings and Marty will never come to be

Middle II #102: Dave is gone from the photo, and now Linda’s image starts to fade

Ending #134: Marty’s photo starts to fade as well, but when George and Lorraine end up dancing together, his image, along with his brother's and sister's, return to normal

DR. BROWN AND THE LIBYAN TERRORISTS

Beginning #23: As Brown is about to do his time travel test, the Libyans appear and gun down the scientist

Middle I #84: Marty stops short telling Brown about how he was killed by Libyan terrorists

Middle II #107: Marty writes a letter to Brown, letting him know that he must take precautions to avoid getting shot by the terrorists in the future

Ending #222: Although shot by the terrorists, it turns out Brown read Marty's letter and wore a bullet-proof vest to survive the attack

These subplots work.

Each of these subplots has at least three beats…

Each of them has a Beginning, Middle, and End…

Each of them intersects with the Plotline…

Each of the subplots tie into the Themeline.

In sum, they all serve and dimensionalize the story, making it more fun, dramatic, and full of action.

By the way, if you are wondering what the theme of the movie is, it comes to us courtesy of a side of Dr. Brown dialogue in scene #11: “That’s the point, Marty. Risk makes life worth living.” The Plotline and all the subplots explore the concept of risk and discovery.

SUB-SUBPLOTS: “BOBs”

If you go through the script more closely, you will discover a series of two-beat bits of business (what I call “BOBs”): Simply a set-up, followed by a comedic pay-off. A few of them include:

*In the Present, we see an election poster, “Re-Elect Mayor ‘Goldie’ Wilson (#10); in the Past, Marty ‘gives’ Goldie, a janitor at the diner, the idea to run for Mayor (#47: “That’s right – he’s gonna be Mayor someday.”)

* In the Present, Marty uses a skateboard (#6); in the Past, Marty gerryrigs a skateboard (#92), which gives the inspiration to some boys to invent “Roller Boards (#95-B).

* The biggest two-part set-up and payoff is the transformation of Marty’s family life: In the Original Present, it is blue collar meets dysfunctional crossed with vodka; when Marty returns from the past to the New Present, everything is different – His parents look great, his brother and sister have fine jobs, the family will be moving into a huge house with a tennis court and swimming pool, all a result of George, inspired in the past by Marty, writing a science fiction book which ends up selling 2 million copies.

Interesting to note that Robert Zemeckis, who co-wrote BACK TO THE FUTURE, revisited this same story conceit when he directed a little thing called FORREST GUMP. Remember how the Protagonist intersected with history, causing events to turn directly through his influence? Almost as if Zemeckis used FORREST GUMP to go BACK TO THE FUTURE. But I digress.

While subplots may seem like a lot of work, they can enhance the quality of your story, as well as make your job easier. There is so much more to the process of creating and managing subplots, but this should give you a good foundation from which you can develop your subplot writing chops.

Subplots are a standard narrative device in 1-hour TV dramas. For example, nearly every episode of "N.Y.P.D. Blue" featured 3 subplots which they interwove throughout. One of my favorite TV series "Northern Exposure typically did the same thing, only each of the three subplots revolved around one central theme.

Possibly the single biggest advantage for a writer in using subplots is that it enables you to bounce around from storyline to storyline, and thereby build and sustain a quick pace which in turn helps to keep the reader's attention.

Subplots exist in most movies. In fact, Avatar has several of them. Anyone care to take a crack at identifying its subplots?