Netflix's New Time Travel Movie Criticizes An Iconic Back To The Future Detail (But Repeats The Same Mistake)

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Time Cut

Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future

Warning! This post contains spoilers for Netflix's Time Cut.

Surprisingly, a new time travel horror movie on Netflix takes a jab at one of the most crucial details from the first Back to the Future film. However, despite being critical of Back to the Future's portrayal of time travel, the Netflix film repeats the same mistake. Although it has been close to 4 decades since the first Back to the Future movie's release, the movie is considered one of the most entertaining takes on time travel and remains an inspiration for many modern-day sci-fi flicks.

In more ways than one, a new Netflix time travel movie also draws inspiration from Back to the Future and walks viewers through a coming-of-age drama that unfolds across two interconnected timelines. Even after seemingly drawing inspiration from Marty McFly's adventures in the Back to the Future movies, the Netflix film dares to be critical about one scene from the Robert Zemeckis movie. While it is understandable where the criticism comes from, the Netflix horror movie ultimately falls into the same trap that Back to the Future does.

Time Cut Takes A Jab At Back To The Future's Photo Fading Scene

The Netflix Movie Implies Back To The Future Oversimplifies Time Travel

Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future's fading photo

In a scene from Netflix's Time Cut, a character tries to explain the butterfly effect to a time traveler who has traveled to the past from the future. The character cites Back to the Future's photo-fading scene as an example, in which Marty starts vanishing from the photo of him and his siblings the more his mother falls in love with him in the past instead of his father. According to the Time Cut character, Back to the Future's portrayal of the rippling impact of one's actions across time has been oversimplified.

The Sweetly Slasher standing behind the Field sisters in Time Cut

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Highlighting how changing the past can have a devastating impact on the future and even trigger something as extreme as World War III, the character implies they will end up changing a lot more than just a few photographs if they try to alter the past. Given how Back to the Future's portrayal of the butterfly effect is not as intense as it should be, the criticism makes sense to some extent. However, it also seems like Time Cut undermines the true meaning behind the Back to the Future photo-fading scene.

Back To The Future's Photo Fade Is Deeper Than Time Cut Lets On

It Represents The Slow Decay Of Marty's Future

Time Cut tries to downplay the significance of the Back to the Future scene, but it is far deeper than the Netflix movie lets on. By showing how Marty gradually disappears from the picture with his siblings, the movie perfectly captures the relative probability of his own existence in the future. The scene underscores the fragility of time and identity, showing how Marty's existence is not as immutable as he thinks. Instead, his future is tied to a complex web of choices and relationships from the past, and any changes to them significantly impact the likelihood of his own existence.

Despite The Criticism, Time Cut Avoids Exploring The Butterfly Effect

Time Cut Never Explores Rippling Consequences Of One's Actions Across Time

Even after being critical of Back to the Future's "oversimplified" take on time travel and the butterfly effect, Time Cut does not escape the same narrative pitfalls it tries to rail against. The main character, Lucy, in Time Cut, travels back in time and saves people from a vicious serial killer. Unlike Marty, who only tries to save his parents' marriage, Lucy alters the course of history by ensuring her sister, who was supposed to be dead in the future timeline, survives her encounter with a serial killer in the past.

Movie	Rotten Tomatoes Critics' Score	Rotten Tomatoes Audience Score
Back to the Future	93%	95%
Time Cut	19%	34%

According to the movie's logic, Lucy's decision to save her sister should have resulted in some of the most drastic and chaotic changes to the timeline. Yet, in Time Cut's ending moments, when she returns to the year she had traveled from, she only notices minor, easily explainable changes to the world around her. Owing to its family-friendly story and limited runtime, Time Cut would not have been able to explore the depths and complexities of time travel. However, it seems unfair that it subtly attacks Back to the Future when it ultimately offers a similar oversimplification.

A teenage girl goes back in time to the early 2000s to save her sister from a dangerous killer.
Marty McFly, a 17-year-old high school student, is accidentally sent 30 years into the past in a time-traveling DeLorean invented by his close friend, the maverick scientist Doc Brown. In 1955, he meets his parents when they were his age, and must step in to make sure they wind up together before he gets back to 1985.