Eric Stoltz Was Right About Back to the Future's Ending

Eric Stoltz may have been fired from Back to the Future for reading too much, but he has his own take on how tragic the ending was.

Back to the Future nearly cast Eric Stoltz as Marty McFly, but as audiences know, the role ended up going to Michael J. Fox. Eric Stoltz's time as Marty McFly was cut short, in part because he read "Back to the Future"'s ending as tragic. Back to the Future has a bleak ending, with the film ending with Marty McFly traveling from 1955 back to 1985. Along the way, Marty actually adjusts his future, going back to the 1985 version where his family is now better versions of themselves, changing the entire dynamic he's always known. Eric Stoltz's interpretation of Back to the Future was that it had a tragic ending, which differs from director Robert Zemeckis' take.

Eric Stoltz's Back to the Future role began production on the film before Michael J. Fox's iconic role as Marty McFly. Stoltz was fired from Back to the Future - replaced by Fox after the creators opted to go a different route with Marty's approach to the character. One of the reasons why Stoltz was fired was because the way he interpreted and portrayed Marty was too intense and that's not the way the movie is Despite Back to the Future's frustrating ending, the writers intended to play the story anyway. In an interview with Netflix's The Movies That Made Us, the Back to the Future creators were interviewed about Stoltz's time as Marty McFly, in which they discussed how his frustrated interpretation of the Back to the Future ending was How it caused him to lose the role. Stoltz's explanation is that Universal Studios' Back to the Future was a tragedy because Marty returned to the future with a whole new life, making him an outsider in the family. Reading might have gotten Stoltz fired, but he had a point.

Why Back To The Future's Ending Is Secretly Heartbreaking

When Marty returns home, he is largely a stranger to his own life; he knows his family is not what it used to be, and while he can piece the pieces together, he has no idea what his new life has been like for the past 17 years. What life is like. Before Dr. Brown brought him back to 1955, life as Marty knew was a bit sad - his father was still a coward, his mother had become a serious alcoholic, his brother worked in a fast food restaurant , his sister is just desperate have a boyfriend. After Marty uses time travel to return, the McFly family back in the future is full of love and connection, they are all thriving and full of confidence, which will change the whole dynamic of his life growing up-Marty himself will not be the same as before . Life seems to be better now after he repaired his parents' relationship in the 1950s, but he never actually experienced a better upbringing in the "Back to the Future" finale.

Not only that, Marty will be living with this new version of his parents for a short period of time, as he will soon be graduating high school. There's no guarantee he'll ever meet Doc or Jennifer, or that he'll be the same chipper Marty McFly, considering his life is completely unrecognizable. Essentially, the Back to the Future ending was frustrating because it ended Marty's time-traveling adventure by effectively removing all the family he'd ever known. He had a "better" life for himself and his family, but he never really experienced it. In this way, Eric Stoltz's interpretation is correct, the ending of Back to the Future sad.

What If Eric Stoltz Had Played Marty McFly In Back To The Future

It's hard to imagine Marty McFly without a Michael J. Fox profile, but Eric Stoltz ended up doing a fair amount of footage as the role before being fired. Since Stoltz always thought Back to the Future had a bleak ending, had he stayed on in the role, the trilogy would have ended very differently. For starters, Stoltz's Marty McFly was more serious and affected. He'll take Doc's near-death experience with the Libyan more seriously, and that frustration will drive his actions forward. Marty Mcfly's "chicken" flip-flop would have carried more weight, considering the negative consequences the word had on him in 1955, forcing him to forge a whole new life for himself.

In Eric Stoltz's Back to the Future, scenes like Biff trying to force himself to Marty's mother take a more pronounced dark turn, and any lightheartedness is immediately sucked out of the film. When one considers how frustrating Back to the Future's ending was, it also plays into how Stoltz's performance will change the sequel. Back to the Future II includes a heist where Michael J. Fox playing the role felt like some lighthearted banter. With Eric Stoltz, the weight of the crime is much greater. Finally, in Back to the Future III, 1885 Doc's death isn't seen as a setback, but a much worse blow.

In a way, Marty's return to his life in 1985 as the same teenager he was before is a plot hole. Significant changes have taken place in his family, affecting their demeanor, life goals, personalities and dynamics, all of which affect Marty's personality. He grows up to be the most adaptable and popular member of the family, but Back to the Future alternate timelines show that's no longer true. Stoltz's assertion that "Back to the Future" had a depressing ending is intrinsically true; Marty would be damned not to know who he really is, which would be the equivalent of retrograde amnesia, self-importance from the past. I don't have any memory of my life before I came back. Even if Eric Stoltz's interpretation of "Back to the Future" is correct, it will not be enough to prevent him from being replaced.

What Eric Stoltz Did Instead Of Back To The Future

Despite his loss in Back to the Future, Eric Stoltz has had many other films. this Actors had very active careers, especially in the 80s and 90s. Most recently, he played Judge Meachem in The Good Fight. Instead of making Back to the Future, he made three other films in 1985. The first had him playing Mark's new kid, the second was The Mask, where he played Rocky Dennis, and finally Code: Emerald, where he appeared as Andy Wheeler. His next show was Some Kind of Wonderful, where he played the role of Keith Nelson. He got his big break in The Fly 2, where he played the leading role of Martin Brundle. Finally, he also made a big splash as Vahlere in the 80s. Though not Back to the Future's Marty McFly, Eric Stoltz's films Persona and Say Anything are cult classics of the day, and he's had a successful career as well.