Back To The Future Why Uncle Joey Was In Prison

Back To The Future: Why Uncle Joey Was In Prison

Back to the Future’s movies reference Marty’s Uncle Joey Baines as an imprisoned criminal, but why exactly was he in jail in the first place?

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Back To The Future Why Uncle Joey Was In Prison

Marty McFly’s Uncle Joey was known for being a jailbird, but why exactly was he in prison during Back to the Future? As Marty takes his first journey into the past in 1955, he discovers much more about the family of his mother, Lorraine, than he had known before. Marty even gets to greet his mischievous uncle as an infant. Marty’s Uncle Joey is behind the bars of a crib when he meets him in the past, making a quip about how he’ll get used to those in the future. While Joey having a criminal past is mentioned a few times in Back to the Future, the three movies don’t go into length about how he actually landed in prison.

As a movie running just under two hours that jumps between two timelines, Back to the Future’s 1985 story still didn’t have enough time to dive into the life of Joey Baines or the rest of Lorraine’s family. Yet, as the highest-grossing film of 1985 and one of the most popular sci-fi movies to date, viewers were curious to learn more about Marty McFly’s extended family and, particularly, the criminal undertakings of Uncle Jailbird Joey. The reason behind the imprisonment of Marty’s Uncle Joey Baines is never revealed in the films, but a 2017 Back to the Future comics issue penned by film series co-writer Bob Gale – who is considered the gatekeeper of the franchise – explains the circumstances of his crimes.

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Although technically not canon for the films, Gale writes in Back to the Future: Time Served #1 – Volume 5 that Joey was first arrested and imprisoned in 1972, about 13 years before Marty’s 1985 Back to the Future timeline. In June 1972, Joey was keen on joining Biff Tannen’s gang, so Biff decided to use Joey as a patsy for one of his long-awaited schemes. Biff had the idea of breaking into the home of Doc Brown’s mother, Sarah Ellsworth, in an attempt to steal the money that Doc inherited from his father and later was reimbursed after his mansion burned down. Biff assumed that Doc gave the money to his mother, so he devised a plan for Joey to break in and take the money once she moved back to Hill Valley. Marty McFly’s uncle was sent alone, but he was apprehended by the police and arrested for stealing $85,000 from Doc’s mother. Joey was tried and convicted of theft ahead of Back to the Future’s timeline, and he was given a long prison sentence after not revealing that Thomas Wilson’s Biff Tannen was behind it.

The Back to the Future comic issue also reveals that while Marty would brag about Uncle Joey’s theft and imprisonment when younger, he eventually lost his idolization of Lorainne’s young brother. Marty’s relationship with the rest of Lorraine’s family isn’t quite clear, but Back to the Future makes a point in establishing that Joey was Marty’s favorite uncle growing up, only to lose trust in him due to his criminal ventures. Joey is only about 15 years older than Marty McFly in Back to the Future, so it makes sense as to why the two would bond more than the others, especially since Marty also has a somewhat mischievous side to him.

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One of the running gags for Back to the Future’s time travel franchise is that Uncle Joey’s parole hearings always end in denial, thus explaining why he’s been in jail for so long. In a deleted scene from Back to the Future Part II, Lorraine is preparing to throw a party for Joey’s prison release in 2015, but Marty tells her to wait until they know whether or not he makes parole. In real life, on October 22, 2015, the day after Marty travels to the future in Back to the Future Part II, USA Today ran a joke cover about the film, with a section about Joey Baines’ parole being denied again. The piece explains that Joey’s parole has been denied for the 12th consecutive time, but states that Joey is serving a 20-year prison sentence in Folsom for racketeering, not theft. Regardless of what he’s in jail for, Uncle Joey is known for being imprisoned in every future timeline and reality of Back to the Future.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/back-future-uncle-joey-prison-crime-explained/

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