Thirty-nine seconds of cringe.
That’s the only way to describe a single deleted scene from Back to the Future that thankfully found its way to the cutting room floor. In one view, the missing 40 seconds simply takes the movie’s existing discomfort to another level. In another light, the scene somehow manages to add a new layer of ick.
The scene in question begins with an anxious Marty outside the high school, contemplating a scheme he’s concocted with Doc Brown that involves young McFly putting the moves on his own mother. “You look a little pale,” observes Doc. “Are you okay?”
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Of course he’s not okay! Wasn’t there any other way to get back to the future than by attempting to seduce teenage Lorraine? It’s bad enough that she’s already scoped out his Calvin Kleins.
“I just don’t know if I can go through with it,” confesses Marty. “Hitting on her.”
“Nobody said anything about hitting her!” exclaims Brown, introducing assault into the equation. “It’s just taking a few liberties with her!”
Just in case Marty wasn’t sure what Doc meant by “a few liberties,” the old man gives his protege a leering wink. Steal a kiss, cop a feel — what’s a few liberties among family?
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The film’s intact scenes certainly implied that Marty would feign romantic interest in his mom, but Doc Brown’s cut dialogue takes the ball over the goal line. It’s not enough to get Lorraine in the car and make daddy jealous. Marty definitely will need to get a little handsy.
The young man is understandably creeped out. “You know,” he says, “this is the kind of thing that could screw me up permanently.”
Well, yes, exactly. Did George McFly’s health insurance cover the type of therapy Marty would require when he returned to the film’s present day?
But trauma isn’t what’s on the young man’s mind. “What if I go back to the future and end up being… gay?”
Oh, great. Let’s add a layer of gay-panic frosting on top of Doc Brown’s incest cake. It’s pretty emblematic of 1980s comedy to suggest that flirting with homosexuality was worse that getting busy with one’s mother.
The good doctor, however, doesn’t understand. “Why shouldn’t you be happy?” This 1950s version of Brown flashes a big grin since he still uses the Flintstones’ “We’ll have a gay old time” connotation of the word.
Marty doesn’t have the energy to explain. “I’ve got to go pick up my mother.”
Ugh.
It would have been progressive if mid-1980s Bob Zemeckis axed this scene because it was so problematic, but I have another theory: Bad jokes. The 30-second set-up scene seems to exist for a couple of dumb Marx Brothers misunderstandings. First, Doc hears “hitting on my mom” as “hitting my mom” and assures Marty he means nothing of the sort. Then when Marty shares his fear of becoming gay, oblivious Doc doesn’t understand the insinuation.
If bad comedy writing is why Zemeckis made the cut, he was right — the generational jokes don’t land. Lucky for him, the edit saved him from future cringe as well.