Notice! This article contains spoilers for Netflix’s Time Cut.
A new Netflix time travel film reminds viewers of the greatest tragedy of the original ending of Marty McFly’s story in Back to the future. Toward Back to the futureIn the concluding moments, everything seemingly ends well for Marty when he not only mends the foundations of his parents’ relationship, but also ends up saving Doc. Before the film’s credits begin to roll, Marty discovers that his father is successful, accomplished, and admired by his mother. Even his mother seems happy, while his brothers are still around.
Although the film features a twist when Doc emerges and insists that they must travel to the future to save their children, everything seems to go in Marty’s favor in the film. Back to the futureis ending. Altering the past could have sent many disastrous ripples into the future, but Marty appears to escape unscathed, with his life being much better than it was before he went on his time travel adventure. However, a closer look at the ending of a new Netflix horror film suggests that Marty’s ending is more tragic than the film lets on.
Time Cut Shows Why Marty McFly’s Back to the Future Ending Is Really Sad
Marty fixed his schedule, but at a terrible cost
Like Marty McFly from Back to the futureNetflix’s Lucy Time cut returns to your future timeline after making some significant changes to the past. However, as she reveals in the film’s final moments, she realizes that her parents are not the people she grew up with after she returns home in the future timeline. By changing the past, she ends up erasing her own existence, which fixes many things, but also leaves her without the life and relationships she once knew. Therefore, to live a better and purposeful life, she returns to the past, hoping to create a new positive future.
It’s hard not to see how Marty met a similar fate in Back to the futureis ending. Unlike Lucy from Time Cut, he manages to avoid being erased in the future. However, he also ends up in a future where his parents are completely different from the people he knew. Their marriage was failing, but at least they were the people he grew up with. After changing his past and returning home, he technically finds himself living with strangers, shaped by a different set of experiences than the ones he had with them growing up.
The Back to the Future ending still makes more sense than time cuts
The Time Slash Ending Has a Major Time Travel Paradox
Marty’s storyline mainly revolves around restoring his timeline and preserving his existence. Lucy’s search for Time cutin contrast, it forces her to erase her existence from the future so she can save her sister from being murdered by a serial killer. Because of this, even if Marty ends up in a house full of strangers in the future, he at least gets to exist and live without the burden of sacrifice that Lucy faces in Time cutis ending.
Film |
Rotten Tomatoes Critics Score |
Rotten Tomatoes audience score |
Back to the future |
93% |
95% |
Time cut |
23% |
34% |
Since the purpose of Marty’s time travel was to ensure his existence, Back to the futureThe ending makes a lot of sense and avoids creating major paradoxes. The same cannot be said about Lucy’s ending in Time cut. The Netflix sci-fi film makes it hard not to wonder how Lucy managed to “exist” in the future when she had already erased her existence from the past.