Act 1, Sequence 1: Back to the Future

FADE IN:
The screenwriter introduces Marty McFly, a teenager who likes to

skateboard, play the electric guitar, and hang out with Dr. Emmett Brown. Marty arrives at Doc’s lab in search of the scientist. Doc asks Marty to test one of his newest inventions at the shopping mall later that night. Marty accepts, but then has to rush off to school, as he is late. However, when his girlfriend Jennifer tries to help him sneak in, the principal, who tells Marty that no McFly has ever amounted to anything in Hill Valley, catches them both. Marty assures the principal that history is about to change. Nevertheless, Marty and his band fail to qualify to play at the big dance and a dejected Marty frets that he might become a failure just like his father.

Jennifer tries to encourage him but has to go to her grandmother’s house. She writes her grandmother’s phone number on the back of a leaflet about the lightning strike on the town’s tower clock so he can call her later. The clock tower incident is an important part of Hill Valley’s history, and there are those who want to preserve the clock in its non-functioning state. At Marty’s home, the story introduces Marty’s loser brother, sister, father, and alcoholic mother. The old high school brute named Biff bullies George McFly, and Lorraine McFly tells the children about the night she knew that she was going to marry George when they kissed on the dance floor. Later that night, Marty is woken by a phone call from Doc, and he makes his FIRST CRITICAL DECISION to go to the mall and assist Doc in his experiment.