Tear Jerker / Back to the Future Part II

• When Marty finds 1985-A George's grave, he is absolutely devastated.
  Marty: No! [crying] OH, PLEASE, GOD, NO!
  • What makes it really sad was that Marty had just spent the last few days (from his perspective) bonding with his father, getting to know him better and learning that they were more alike than he'd originally thought.
• The lightning causing the hover-converted DeLorean, with Doc but not Marty in it, to immediately jump out of 1955, leaving Marty stranded 30 years behind his time again, most likely in despair because he doesn't seem to have a way back (at first, anyway).
  • Even sadder, Marty doesn't immediately think that he's trapped in the wrong time. His first words are "He's gone." He doesn't care he's trapped in 1955. He's distraught that he might have lost his best friend forever.
• The scene when Marty receives the letter from Doc can cause some to get misty-eyed. The music doesn't help, either; it's not sad, it more or less causes Tears of Joy.
• The scene when Jennifer finds out that Marty had a car crash thirty years ago, from racing Needles when he called him a chicken. This crash broke Marty's hand, which left him unable to play guitar very well, and forever crushed his dream of becoming a rock star. Then we see 2015 Marty silently playing his guitar.
  • The song 2015 Marty is playing? "The Power of Love" from the first film.
    • Worse, by 2015, Marty has turned into a bitter and pathetic man who is vastly different from his seventeen-year-old self that we have all grown to love.
    • This becomes even more awful when you look at this from Jennifer's perspective. She was excited to find out she and Marty are married, but is panicking about not being seen in her future home. But then she finds out that she never got her dream wedding; Marty cheaped out and they got married in one of those little white chapels. Worse, she overhears that her boyfriend's life ends up going down the toilet, she sees firsthand just how much he has changed for the worst in the future, she witnesses his "chicken" problem ruining his life AGAIN as he's fired, and she hears his guitar playing, which was his passion in 1985, sounding terrible. Oh, and the cherry on the cake? 2015 Lorraine, Marty’s own mother, says herself, to her own GRANDDAUGHTER no less, that she thinks Jennifer only married her son out of pity. Dear God, talk about worrying about the future! Fortunately for both Marty AND Jennifer, this timeline ends up never happening thanks to Marty's Character Development in Part III.
    • Along with all the above, having his children being sent to jail probably only strain their marriage, even leading to a possible divorce. But even though 1985 Marty has prevented that, there's no telling that the lives of the future McFly family got any better (except perhaps when Marty chose not to race Needles in Part III).
• When 1985-A Biff is about to kill Marty, he says, "Besides, they couldn't match up the bullet that killed your old man!" "You son of a...," indeed.
• Seeing 1985-A Lorraine as an all-out Broken Bird/Iron Woobie. She's an even worse alcoholic than in the original timeline, and she's stuck in an abusive marriage to 1985-A Biff because he murdered 1985-A George, only staying with him because he'll cut off her children and possibly send them all to jail if she leaves. Especially hits home when 1985-A Biff slaps 1985-A Lorraine so hard she fell to the floor just for saying that 1985-A George was the better man than 1985-A Biff, and she's completely helpless.
  • Not helped by Marty going ballistic when 1985-A Biff does this.
    Marty: [restrained by Biff's mooks] YOU SON OF A BITCH!!
  • The way she quietly acquiesces to 1985-A Biff's will after he threatens to cut them all off, telling Marty that it was her fault for getting 1985-A Biff angry, and how he "takes care of them" while fixing herself a drink. Compared to the over-the-top Crapsack World of 1985-A, it's a distressingly realistic example of someone who has suffered years of Domestic Abuse.
• In the alternate timeline, Marty discovers his house is owned by a different family, which he learns the hard way when the furious Papa Wolf bursts in and tries to attack him with a bat. It's implied the family has also been a victim of Biff's caprices, thus one can't blame the father for how he reacted to some random stranger breaking into his house and being near his kids.
  • There's also the implications that discrimination against African-Americans is still as rampant as it was in the 1950's.
• When Marty realizes that his actions in 2015 are responsible for the hell on earth that's 1985-A, his entire demeanor completely changes as he blames himself:
  Marty: He must have been listening when I— [realizes] It's my fault. The whole thing is my fault. If I hadn't bought that damn book, none of this would have ever happened.
• It's a small moment but Marty gets a quick look at 1955 Biff's daily life when he spies on him going to pick up his car from the shop following that whole business with the manure in Part 1. Young Biff walks out of his house with his head down and his grandmother screaming her head off asking where he's going. Where his parents are we don't know, but it's a safe bet that he doesn't live with them. Biff then runs into some kids playing ball and decides to bully them by throwing it on someone's roof, yelling at them "Go get it!" During all of this, he just looks unhappy, like his life is just a series of upsetting events and annoyances and spreading misery around is how he copes. While this doesn't justify his actions by any means, it does make one wonder if he would have turned out better had he grown up in better circumstances.

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