In the Film Reroll’s first ever episode, we play through Back to the Future 2. It all goes horribly, horribly wrong.
Episode 1 of Film Reroll. Based on the 1989 movie.
The eccentric inventor Doctor Emmett Brown has picked up his young friends, Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker, in his time-travelling Delorean to save their son from going to jail. However, there are many obstacles waiting for them in the far off future of 2015, including an unpleasant Grumpy Old Man, a gang of dangerous delinquents, and a black hole threatening to destroy all of creation...
This was the only Film Reroll episode to be set during the same year it was released until 2019's Blade Runner.
Starring Kara Straitnote as Marty McFly, Jon Miller as Doctor Emmett Brown, Jocelyn "Joz" Vammer as Jennifer Parker and Paulo Quiros as the Dungeon Master.
Followed by Raiders Of The Lost Ark.
WARNING: Everything found below is a Walking Spoiler. You have been warned!!!
Tropes:
- Apocalypse How: The universe is destroyed by all the paradoxes.
- Alternative Character Interpretation: Joz's Fish out of Water roleplaying of Jennifer leads Kara to joke that despite the movie making it look like she's out of Marty's league, he's actually the one "pity-dating this dumb girl".
- Cowboy BeBop at His Computer: When it's mentioned that the Delorean arrived in 2015 at night, only for it to suddenly become day, everyone just assumed there was a Time Skip in the movie; in reality, they arrived during a rain storm, that ended almost instantaneously after Doc parked.
- Changed My Jumper: Defied: Marty and Jennifer simply go around in 2015 wearing their 80's clothes, figuring that fashion is cyclical and that they must have gotten some retro appeal by now.
- *Crack!* "Oh, My Back!": As part of the gong show of Doc tasering Marty Jr. into unconciousness, when tasks with leaving the scene with him before the cops show up, a botched Strength roll results in Doc throwing out his back, which sticks with Jon for the rest of the movie.
- Death by Adaptation: Doc Brown dies after being sucked into a black hole, and the rest of the Universe follows when the paradoxes pile up.
- Disaster Dominoes: When people interact with their Alternate Self, a paradox is created. This tends to lead to more interactions, creating more and worse paradoxes...
- Disney Death:
- At one point, it seems like the two young Jennifers have been erased from time, but they were merely teleported a few minutes into the future. They still don't make it through the campaign alive.
- Jon Miller hopes that this has happened to his character, only to be informed that no, Doc Brown has been Killed Off for Real.
- Downer Ending: The very last Paradox roll results in the entire universe being destroyed.
- Hope Spot:
- Doc and Marty have stopped the latter's son from going to jail, and Doc has also figured out a way to get rid of the black hole and managed to get the earliest Jennifer out of the closet. Then he gets sucked into it, and everything gets worse.
- At the very end of the campaign Marty and Jennifer are seconds away from escaping with their lives and the universe intact when the final paradox roll is triggered.
- Laser-Guided Amnesia: The first effect of the paradoxes is that the past and future versions of Jennifer forget everything that happened the last 20 minutes. It gets worse later, when the past and slightly-more-past Jennifer lose the last 24 hours of their memory, including their knowledge of which one is which.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: The episode was released in 2015, the same year the future portion of Back to the Future Part II takes place in.
- Medium Awareness:
- Doc Brown says that the DeLorean's ability to fly is a new upgrade "for this movie."
- The characters are also aware of the Dungeon Master's existence, though they refer to him as "God."
- Never the Selves Shall Meet: Is in full effect. It's bad when the time travelers talk to themselves from another time, and even worse if they touch. Most of the paradoxes are caused by the characters not obeying this rule.
- Noodle Incident: According to the newspaper, Marty Jr. has been jailed for "shenanigans."
- Not What It Looks Like: Joz-as-Jennifer lying that Marty is a great inventor briefly causes Paulo and the others to assume Joz never saw the Back to the Future films.
- Off the Rails: Things impressively start quickly falling apart once the group enters 2015: Doc accidentally causes some time paradoxes and repeatedly tazes Marty Jr. into potential brain damage, Jennifer tries to kill Old Biff and causes further paradoxes by going to Old Marty’s house, and Marty tries to steal the Almanac. By the end of the campaign, the universe is destroyed.
- The Other Darrin: Marty tells Jennifer that she looks different, creating an In-Universe Lampshade Hanging of the actress switch in the actual movies.
- Point of Divergence: Because Doc never bothered to knock Jennifer out once she's in the Deloreannote , she winds up being one of the key architects for the end of the universe.
- Static Stun Gun: A taser is used to great and hilarious effect by Jon/Doc Brown to subdue Marty Jr.
- Stealing the Credit: Joz Vammer as Jennifer tries to fish for information about her and Marty's future by telling Old Biff that Marty is a great inventor, hoping for him to respond in a way that tells her what Old Marty really does. The other players don't immediately catch on and think Joz genuinely thinks that Jennifer thinks that Marty is a great inventor, and speculate that Marty has been showing Jennifer Doc's inventions and claimed to have built them himself.
- Temporal Paradox: Thanks to Jon/Doc Brown and Jocelyn/Jennifer. Mostly because of Never the Selves Shall Meet.
- Tempting Fate: “I’m trying to keep the game quick.”
- Timey-Wimey Ball: It's almost self-explanatory that a campaign based on a "Back to the Future" movie will have one of these. At one point, there are three Martys and four Jennifers running around at the same time. (This is actually very bad, since time travelers meeting themselves has a high risk of causing paradoxes.)
- Total Party Kill: A bit of an understatement, as literally the entire universe is destroyed.
- What the Hell, Hero?:
- Joz and Kara are mortified with Jon repeatedly having Marty Jr. tazed by Doc.
- Kara holds nothing back in making her frustration clear over Jennifer helping end the universe.Kara: Fuck you, Jennifer.
