Michael J. Fox Responded To A Back To The Future Mistake Fans Still Bring Up

"Back to the Future" was a great '80s movie, but unfortunately, it was not designed to withstand the scrutiny of the modern nitpicking world. That's why Michael J. Fox has had to address an apparent plot hole in the film, and not even the one that "Back to the Future" co-writer Bob Gale previously explained away. Basically, in the scene where Marty McFly (Fox) plays some rock n' roll for the Class of '55 high school students, Marty uses a Gibson ES-­345 — a guitar that wasn't available on the market until 1958. Boy, I sure hope someone got fired for that blunder.

In his 2025 memoir "Future Boy," Fox wrote about the slip-up: 

"There's no cinematic Easter egg intended here —­ the film's art department simply picked the ES-­345 because it evoked the iconic wine-red axe that Chuck Berry famously duckwalked across stages all over the world."

Fox continued, mentioning that the '58 version of the Gibson guitar was a delight to play. He added that, the way he sees it, that made this misstep worth it, even if it went on to make "the thousands of 'Future' heads who clock every detail in the movie" a little annoyed. As he put it:

"Both the '55 and '58 versions of the Gibson electric are rare and beautiful instruments; for me, it makes little difference which I played. I've always loved the Gibson E line: big, imposing guitars yet hollow-­bodied and therefore lightweight. Even a little guy like yours truly could sling 'em and fling 'em and still make 'em sing."

If you really wanted to nitpick this movie, you should point to the moment where the teen version of Marty's dad George (Crispin Glover) nearly lets some jerk steal Marty's mother-to-be Lorraine (Lea Thompson) from him at the school dance. Marty watches this unfold, then looks at the picture of himself and his siblings to see that he's being erased from the timeline. But then George stands up for himself and suddenly the picture returns, the timeline back in place. The issue is that Marty himself has zero influence on what happens here. George was always going to return to get Lorraine back, so why would the picture briefly fade just because Marty doesn't know that yet?

But even this plot hole is hard to complain too much about since it's clear on an emotional level what this scene is doing. The whole thing is meant to show George's growth and give him a moment where he stands up for himself without needing anyone else to push him into it. This is also the point where those watching can appreciate George and Lorraine's romance not just for the sake of Marty's continued existence but for the sake of George himself, a man who's no longer agonizingly timid.

Basically, this scene marks George's transformation into a guy who takes the world head-on, something he'd failed to do even 30 years later into the film's original timeline. For such a cathartic "Back to the Future" moment marking major character growth, we can forgive a little bit of timeline-fakeout silliness. Much like the anachronistic guitar Marty plays with, the nonsensical nature of the fading picture isn't worth dwelling on.