1985A

Biff's casino in place of the courthouse

1985A, also known as Biffhorrific 1985, was an alternate version of 1985. The altered timeline it belongs was created after Biff Tannen took the Grays Sports Almanac and stole the DeLorean time machine in 2015, then headed back to 1955 to hand it over to his younger self. As a result, Biff became "the richest man on Earth" by betting on everything from horse racing to boxing and winning due to the answers in the almanac.

He founded BiffCo, a company that dealt with toxic waste reclamation. He bought out police departments, and even altered the state of international history, by prolonging the Vietnam War and getting Richard Nixon elected to his fifth term. Biff constructed his Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise Casino & Hotel on the site of the courthouse in downtown Hill Valley.

In this reality, Biff was responsible for the death of George McFly in 1973, and married Lorraine Baines McFly after the three kids were born. Hill Valley, now known as "Hell Valley", had been reduced to rubble, where biker gangs and criminals made their home. Hill Valley High School burned down in 1979. Red the Bum was still a bum in this altered timeline, much as Joey Baines was still in prison.

The designation "1985A" was given by Doc Brown in a crude blackboard chart as he explained his theory to Marty McFly.

New locations

Lorraine in this new reality.

• Biff Tannen's Pleasure Paradise Casino & Hotel was a 27-story tall hotel built on the site of the Hill Valley Courthouse after gambling was legalized.
  • A display for the Biff Tannen Museum was located to the right of the hotel entrance.
• Oak Park Cemetery was where George McFly was buried in 1973, and was within sight of the Biffco refinery. Marty and Doc both knew the location of the cemetery, suggesting that it also existed on the site in 1985.
• Strickland residence – Mr. Strickland, formerly the principal of Hill Valley High School, lived in a rundown home within a short distance of the ruins of the school and, armed with a shotgun and wearing a flak jacket, was fighting a one-man war against the armed teenage gangs – 'slackers' – who were driving around the street, terrorising the neighborhood and even killing some of the residents. He believed Marty McFly (who he did not recognize, due to history having been changed) to be the slacker responsible for stealing his newspapers.

The counterpart in 1985A to 1985's Courthouse Square was a set of businesses around the Paradise Casino.

Among those that were recognizable were:

• "Dee Dee's Delight", on the site of Gaynor's Hideaway. The tavern advertised that it had "nude barmaids".
• A Biffco toxic waste reclamation station, at the site of Sherwin-Williams.
• "Hell Hole", a specialized club, was at the site of the Bail Bonds and the Pawn Shop.
• "Bangkok", another club, was at the site of the closed Elite Barber Shop
• At the site of the closed Bluebird Motel was a place advertising a peep show, and hardcore pornography; a pawn shop was in the right side of the building.
• "Bad Rap Bail Bonds" was located in the building with the open stairway (a lawyer's office in 1955)
• "Tanya's", a house of prostitution, was on the site of the Goodwill Industries store (formerly Ruth's).
• "PIG Mart", a store that sold adult books and "love tools" was at the site of Statler Toyota.
• "Hill Valley Theater of Live Sex Acts" was at the site of the Essex Theater.
• The "War Zone" occupied the site where Lou's Cafe had been in 1955.
• "Time To Shoot", which advertised "24-hour photos" was next door, located at the site of Blast from the Past, where Marty had purchased the almanac.

Alternate timeline of events

• 1955
  • Saturday, November 12th: 2015 Biff arrives with the sports almanac and gives it to his younger self, creating the alternate timeline.

• 1958
  • Wednesday, March 26th: Biff Tannen, now at the legal age of 21, wins his first million on a horse race using the sports almanac.

• 1959
  • Wednesday, October 14th: Biff Tannen wins another large sum of money at a sports event. He is seen smiling on the cover page of the next day's edition of the newspaper.
  • Dates unknown: Biff Tannen wins again and again, gaining the nickname, "The Luckiest Man On Earth."

George McFly is murdered.

• 1973
  • Thursday, March 15th: George McFly is shot and killed on his way to pick up an award. He was against BiffCo's policies.
  • Date unknown: Biff Tannen marries Lorraine and becomes stepfather to Dave, Linda and Marty McFly, shipping Marty off to boarding schools overseas.
  • Date unknown: The 22nd Amendment is repealed, presumably due to lobbying by the alternate Biff, so that Richard Nixon not only avoids impeachment over Watergate, but can run for more than two terms as President of the United States.

• 1979
  • Date unknown: Biff Tannen's lobbying is successful as the state legalizes gambling.
  • Date unknown: Hill Valley High School is burned down.

• Unknown year
  • Date unknown: The legal drinking age is reduced to fourteen years.

Doc is committed.

• 1983
  • Sunday, May 22nd: Doc Brown is committed to Mental Ward B at the Hill Valley Hospital after being declared legally insane. Richard Nixon announces he will run for a fifth term in office and promises to end the Vietnam War by 1985. BiffCo's representatives announce that the company is going to build a new dioxin plant in Hill Valley.
    • Newspaper was July edition in Back to the Future Part II novelization

• 1985
  • Saturday, October 26: Doc, Marty, Jennifer and Einstein arrive back from 2015 at 9:00 PM and eventually find out that things have changed. Marty meets the alternate versions of his mother and Biff.
  • Sunday, October 27: Marty finds out the truth about Biff and the almanac and narrowly escapes an enraged Biff and his goons. Marty and Doc head back to 1955 at 2:42 AM to put history back on track.

• 1996
  • Date unknown: Lorraine found out that Biff had killed George, and shot him out of revenge. This causes the 2015 Biff to be erased from existence.

Behind the scenes

• The elaborate set of Courthouse Square in 1985A was visible for no more than 60 seconds in Part II. Photos of the various locations were not released until 2010 as part of the blu-ray edition of the trilogy.
• Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale have both said that director Frank Capra was one of the persons whom they admired, and the "Hell Valley" sequence is reminiscent of "Pottersville", the alternate reality in Capra's classic 1946 film, It's A Wonderful Life.
• Downtown Hill Valley in 1985A and downtown Hill Valley in 1985 have many of the same types of businesses. In both timelines, a person downtown can buy alcohol, watch X-rated films, purchase "adult" books and toys, pawn their possessions, and arrange for a bail bond to be released from jail, although it's more pronounced in 1985A.
• Doc Brown comments "I can't imagine hell being much worse". Ironically, the center of this particular hell is called "Paradise".
• The graphic novel Watchmen takes place in an alternate history 1985; like in the Bifhorrific timeline, the Watergate scandal was not revealed, and Nixon was under his fourth term, being the US President instead of Ronald Reagan well into the '80s.

Appearances

• Back to the Future Part II
• Back to the Future Part II novelization

Sources

• Back to the Future: The Official Book of the Complete Movie Trilogy (on Biffhorrific 1985)