Darth Vader

Darth Vader Biographical information Physical description Gender Male Behind-the-scenes information
	[Source]

George: "Who...are you?"

Marty: "Silence, Earthling! My name is Darth Vader. I am an extra-terrestrial from the planet Vulcan!"

— In George's room.

Marty: "What made you change your mind, George?"

George: "Last night, Darth Vader came down from planet Vulcan, and told me that if I didn't take Lorraine out, that he'd melt my brain."

Marty: "Yeah, well, let's keep this brain melting stuff to ourselves, okay?"

George: "Oh, yeah. Yeah."

— Discussing why George is going through with Marty's plan despite his previous denial

Darth Vader was a fictional character who originated in the 1977 motion picture Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

Alias of Marty McFly

For a full biography, see the article on Marty McFly.

Marty McFly, as "Darth Vader", confronts George McFly.

Marty McFly used the alias "Darth Vader" in 1955 when portraying an alien being in order to convince his father, George McFly, to ask Lorraine Baines to the "Enchantment Under the Sea" dance.

To portray "Darth Vader," McFly wore a radiation suit used for the handling of Dr. Emmett Brown's stolen plutonium in 1985 and employed a Walkman playing the music of Eddie Van Halen as a torture device to ensure George's consent. In addition, Marty carried a hair dryer as a ray gun, threatening to "melt" his brain if he didn't ask Lorraine out. After delivering the instructions, Marty put George out with chloroform, and George slept until the afternoon.

Darth Vader, as portrayed in the film, was a pastiche of science-fiction sources that were well known by the 1980s, but yet to be heard of in 1955. The name of the character would originate with the 1977 motion picture Star Wars, while the alleged homeworld of the alien, Planet Vulcan, would become known beginning in 1966 as the world from which Spock and Sarek hail in the television series Star Trek.

Darth was not unlike an alien on the cover of the Fantastic Story magazine at the side of George's bed. The unnerving experience not only led George McFly to choose to make the effort to pursue Lorraine but also provided inspiration for his first novel, A Match Made in Space, published in 1985.

Behind the scenes

• The "Darth Vader" scene was originally much longer and can be seen in its entirety as a feature on the DVD. The scene was skillfully edited down to less than a minute. The uncut footage showed Marty using the hair dryer like a handgun, telling George to take out Lorraine, then chloroforming George, prior to doing so saying "Now close your eyes and think of me no more". Marty then sneaks out of the bedroom window and removes the hood of his radiation suit, walking on a tree branch then jumping into Doc's car, which ends with Doc asking him how it worked out. Whereas in the cut version George is shown asking "Who are you?", he is also shown shouting for his parents prior to "Darth Vader" using the music again to get him to be quiet. In the commentary, Bob Gale explained that "Darth's" commands, followed in the next scene by George's summary of the experience, were redundant.
• The scene in the film ends with Marty making a Vulcan-like sign after announcing that he is Darth Vader. George's agitated explanation of what made him change his mind summarizes most of Darth's speech, in comic fashion. The deleted footage explains such mysteries as why George wasn't in school that day, why a hair dryer seems to appear and vanish from Marty's belt between shots, and why George thought that "Darth" might be able to "melt" him or his brain.
• A few additional sci-fi references exist in the fourth draft screenplay but never made it into the deleted scene. After "Darth Vader" introduces himself, George begins to think it's a dream. Marty replies, "This is no dream! You are having a Close Encounter of the Third Kind! You have reached the Outer Limits of the Twilight Zone!" After threatening George with the hair dryer, Marty's digital watch alarm goes off and he treats it like a communicator, saying "Silence! I am receiving a transmission from the Battlestar Galactica!" (These and the aforementioned references above were reinstated by George Gipe for the novelization.)

Appearances

• Back to the Future
• Back to the Future novelization

See also

• Darth Vader on Wookieepedia