Lorraine Baines McFly
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| Back to the Future character | |
 Lorraine McFly |
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| Lorraine Bates McFly | |
|---|---|
| Date of birth | 1938 |
| Age (1955) | 17 |
| Age (1985) | 47 |
| Age (2015) | 77 |
| Gender | Female |
| Hair color | Brown (in 1955/1985) |
| Eye color | Brown |
| Played by | Lea Thompson |
| Voiced by | n/a |
Lorraine Bates McFly is a fictional character, a lead character in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actress Lea Thompson. She did not appear in the animated series.
Lorraine Bates was born in 1938 in Hill Valley, California, the eldest child of Sam and Stella Bates. She has 5 siblings; Milton (born 1942), Sally (born 1949), Toby (born 1951), Joey (born 1954), and one sibling born in 1956 whom we never hear any details of (but Stella is *very* pregnant in November 1955). She gets married to George McFly and by 1985 they have three children; Dave, Linda and Marty.
Lorraine liked the attention of boys when she was in school, and lots of them were attracted to her, including both George McFly and Biff Tannen. Lorraine was not afraid to get what she wanted and often parked in cars with them. Lorraine can stand up for herself, yet despite this she likes her men to be strong and able to protect her. She likes thinking back to the "old days", often telling the story of how she met and fell in love with George. Lorraine likes to play tennis with her husband and they have been tennis club champions for the past 6 years by 1985. Lorraine's best friends at school were Betty and Babs and she could often be found in Lou's Cafe gossiping with them.
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[edit] Pre-Back to the Future
Little is known about Lorraine's life prior to 1955, which is when we first meet her chronologically. What is known is that she has been smoking and drinking for a while, and has "parked" in cars with a few boys before the events of the film. As such, George is probably not her first boyfriend.
[edit] Back to the Future
Lorraine originally met George on November 5, 1955 when her father almost ran him over with his car. She felt sorry for him, before falling in love with him. They had their first date a week later at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance at school. Lorraine and George married and had three kids, Dave, Linda and Marty. By 1985 she was depressed at how her husband could not stand up for her or himself and had also turned tobacco smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages to an everyday habit. She would always tell her children not to park in cars with members of the opposite sex, under the false pretense that she never did that when she was their age.
Her life changed in 1955 when "Calvin Klein" showed up in town. Unaware it was her future son Marty, who had travelled back in time in his DeLorean time machine and had accidentally interfered with her first meeting with George (Marty had pushed George out of the way of Sam Baines' car), she developed a crush on him. Marty knew he had to get his parents together to prevent himself from being erased from existence.
After finding out that Lorraine wanted a man who would stand up for her and protect her (quailities which George lacked), he came up with a plan where he would pretend to park in a car with Lorraine at the Dance, and the wimpy George would "rescue" her from him. Marty was shocked when he found that Lorraine liked parking in cars with boys, as adult Lorraine has said she found it terrible when girls did. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, Biff Tannen showed up instead and tried to force his affection on Lorraine. George arrived and rescued her by standing up to Biff for the first time in his life. After initially being overpowered, he became angry when he saw a laughing Biff knock Lorraine to the ground when she tried to help him, and thus an enraged George bashed Biff in the face, knocking him out, and Lorraine fell in love with the newly-confident George. Despite George momentarily relapsing back to his old self, he quickly rebounded; they kissed for the first time that night and history was back on track. By 1985 she is much healthier and happier than she had been in the original 1985.
[edit] Back to the Future Part II
By 2015, Lorraine is still happily married to George, and the novel reveals that they have been married for over 50 years. The couple have now retired and appear to be quite well off, possibly due to George's writing career taking off after 1985. Like most mothers, Lorraine still worries about her children even when they are adults and left home. By 2015, Marty is stuck in a dead-end job and is having marriage problems with his wife Jennifer, and Lorraine wants to make sure everything is OK.
As much as she loves her son though, she feels his life could have turned out much better, and wonders if Jennifer married Marty because she felt sorry for him (ironically this was why she fell in love with and married George McFly before the first film). She blames a car accident 30 years ago for making Marty's life the way it is (it caused him to break his hand and destroyed a possible music career).
During the course of the film, we also see a third version of Lorraine in an alternate 1985. In this timeline, Biff had received a sports almanac in 1955 from his 2015 self (who had "borrowed" the time machine to deliver it to his younger counterpart), and had become rich from betting on sports events. Biff had murdered George in 1973 (though the exact circumstances are not revealed), but Lorraine was not yet aware by that time that it was Biff who had done so.
Biff and Lorraine married soon thereafter, and a likely theory assumed is that Lorraine only married him because he could provide for her children. The marriage was not a happy one - Lorraine missed George every day, and was often slapped and mistreated by Biff. Lorraine was usually alone - the kids were sent to boarding schools, and she was living mostly by herself on the 27th floor of their casino hotel (built on top of the Courthouse) with only alcohol for company. As she had in the original timeline, Lorraine became an alcoholic. She also had breast enlargements, although Biff may have forced her into this. Lorraine has tried on numerous occasions to leave Biff, but stays with him purely so her kids will not suffer (Biff threatens to cut them off, get them sent to jail, etc).
In a scene cut from the film, Biff "disappears" in 2015 after he returns in the time machine following his delivery of the fateful sports almanac to his 1955 counterpart. It is speculated that Biff is shot and killed by Lorraine sometime in 1996, thereby "erasing" his existence come 2015 (this was suggested by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, although not mentioned in the film itself). In the scene that viewers see however, as soon as the 2015 Biff disembarks from the DeLorean, he appears to have a heart attack and succumbs near another parked car, although now due to Zemeckis and Gale's suggestion, the gunshot appears to now have retroactively been effected on Biff. He acts like he either has a heart attack or got shot.
Luckily, Marty and Doc Brown went back to 1955 and stopped Biff from using the almanac, so the timeline went back to normal.
[edit] Back to the Future Part III
Lorraine only appeared briefly at the end of the film, and she was "back to normal", i.e. how she appeared at the end of the first film. However, Marty managed to avoid the car accident, so the future of the entire McFly family will be a lot happier.
Lorraine did not appear in the ride or animated series.
| Back to the Future Characters | ||
| The McFly Family Marty McFly | George McFly | Lorraine Baines McFly | Jennifer Parker | Seamus & Maggie McFly | Dave McFly | Linda McFly | Marty McFly, Jr | Marlene McFly |
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| The Brown Family Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown | Clara Clayton Brown | Jules Brown | Verne Brown | Einstein |
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| The Tannen Family Biff Tannen | Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen | Griff Tannen |
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| Other Characters Mr. Strickland | Marshall Strickland | Match, Skinhead & 3-D | Goldie Wilson | Douglas J Needles |
