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In Back to the Future, Marty goes back to 1955 and devises a plan for his father George McFly to win over Lorraine in order to ensure Marty's survival.

The plan involved Marty pretending to sexually assault Lorraine then George would step in and stop him. Biff meddles with Marty's plan, by kicking Marty out of the car and then he tries to rape Lorraine. George expects to find Marty in the car and finds Biff and musters the courage to stop Biff and protect Lorraine.

Near the end of the movie when Marty travels back to 1985 we see that Biff is outside of Marty's house waxing George's car. Why would George employ Biff to do this job? I can't imagine Lorraine would be too happy with the idea.

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    Crispen Glover so responsible. The original ending had either Goldie waxing his car or a unnamed black guy waxing the car. Crispen Glover thought it was racist & got them to change it the day of shooting. Look up Crispen interview on YouTube on Opie&Anthony radio show. Ants a huge BTTF fan & asked y sum1 who tried rape his wife was employed & Crispen revealed the OG ending p
    – user38131
    Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 9:32
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    Without injecting my personal opinion into the matter, you need to consider that sexual assault (a more accurate description of what we saw happen) hasn't always been considered as heinous as it is today. This means that it wouldn't have been as big of a deal in 1955 as it is today. Furthermore, the BTTF movie is from 1985 and therefore also is created in a time where these topics were less touchy and not considered the epitome of evil (I'm overstating for clarity's sake). This is why e.g. early James Bond can be considered a male chauvinist today, but not by the old movie's standards.
    – Flater
    Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 8:09

6 Answers 6

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I haven't seen any director commentary, so I can't speak with full authority.

However, I don't think they thought that hard about it. I think it is put in there for dramatic effect.

The antagonist was defeated, and now instead of the big man on campus, he practically begs from George McFly for work. It is a triumph of the little guy over his oppressor.

The movie is full of David vs Goliath moments, and that's when you know the underdog ultimately won.

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  • No offence, but that link is a really bad one. 'Nearly every Rocky and Jackie Chan movie' it says. Jackie Chan and Rocky Balboa, weak, defenceless underdogs??! Yeah right.
    – paddotk
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 11:59
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    @poepje: The main article is accurate. It's community contributed content, so not all of it is going to be accurate. Feel free to go fix those examples :)
    – user223
    Commented Jun 11, 2012 at 16:15
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    @poepje The entire Rocky series is about the underdog.
    – SnakeDoc
    Commented Mar 4, 2016 at 18:10
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    @poepje - compared to Apollo Creed, Clubber Lange, and Ivan Drago? Yeah, definitely in the underdog role. Most people would not consider "can withstand endless brutal beatings" to be a "strength."
    – PoloHoleSet
    Commented Jul 21, 2016 at 14:33
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    And in 30 years, things have time to settle...
    – Déjà vu
    Commented May 3, 2019 at 13:25
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  1. It's not clear that Biff was trying to rape Loraine. Although he was clearly taking liberties he should not have.

  2. McFly subdued Biff in the fight at the dance. After that, Biff learned to take his place behind McFly. The car-waxing scene was really just to prove this.

  3. 30 years had passed. The new, wiser McFly was undoubtedly able to forgive Biff--especially with Biff in his new subordinate role.

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For all we know, in the intervening years, Biff saw the error of his ways, begged forgiveness, and was accepted by the McFlys as a changed man.

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We're talking about a movie filmed in 1985 set in the year 1955. People's attitudes towards consent were different back then. For example, no one, at least not at the time, would say John Travolta was trying to rape Olivia Newton-John in Grease.

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    I don't think this explains why McFly would want to employ Biff, which is what the question asks.
    – hairboat
    Commented Dec 21, 2011 at 20:37
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I don't think he employed him (as in, offering him money for doing it). I think it is more that he commanded him to do it, that is, he's now the one who can get Biff to do things for him, and Biff no longer has the balls to refuse.

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    I suspect it is, I got the feeling that Biff was his employee in some respect. Most adults don't commant (bully) people to wash their cars. It also would have been a poor reflection on George if he was after turning into a bully.
    – AidanO
    Commented Jun 14, 2012 at 10:37
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    I think Biff actually owned his car-waxing business and George was his customer, at one point he is showing off the promotional match-books he got made. The scene was more to show that Biff was now the subservient one.
    – komodosp
    Commented Nov 12, 2018 at 15:46
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Have you ever noticed how feminine Biff's character is in the new 1985? The assumption the audience is being invited to make is that, because he was so completely emasculated in his encounter with George McFly the night of the dance, Biff eventually became a homosexual. This explains why George McFly doesn't consider it a risk to keep him around the house despite his past misdeeds.

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    -1; I don't agree with this assessment at all. If you can offer specific evidence (tropes, allusions in the movie to interest in males, specific manner of dress considered homosexual in 1985, specific behavior considered FEMININE and not just submissive in American culture in 1985, etc) of him being explicitly depicted as homosexual, I'll remove my downvote. Until then I will just assume it is just your personal concepts and stereotypes speaking rather than any evidence in the movie.
    – user223
    Commented Jun 26, 2013 at 21:29
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    [citation needed]
    – T.J.L.
    Commented Feb 12, 2020 at 18:29
  • A reversal of the dominant relationship that Biff had over George had does not make him homosexual now. This is borderline offensive in all honesty ... equating homosexuality to submissiveness.
    – iandotkelly ♦
    Commented Jun 13, 2021 at 14:12

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