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'Back To The Future' writer suggests Doc Brown committed insurance fraud to fund his time travel experiments

Bob Gale teases Doc Brown's mysterious backstory (Image by Universal)
Bob Gale teases Doc Brown's mysterious backstory (Image by Universal)

Back To The Future writer Bob Gale has teased a darker side to Christopher Lloyd’s beloved Doc Brown, suggesting that he committed insurance fraud in able to fund his time travel experiments.

Gale made this rather shocking admission during his recent appearance on Russo Bros. Pizza Film School, which saw Avengers: Endgame’s directors Joe and Anthony Russo joined by its writers Stephen McFeely and Christopher Markus to talk about Back To The Future with its scribe.

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The conversation soon turned to Brown’s backstory, which quickly lead to Gale explaining, “By coming up with the character of this guy [Doc Brown] we asked what was his backstory, how is that he was the guy that invented time travel?”

Franchise Co-Creator, writer and producer Bob Gale attends the Back to the Future 30th Anniversary screening in the Manhattan borough of New York, October 21, 2015. The film franchise is celebrating today's date as in the first sequel, the main characters traveled through time to October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly
Franchise Co-Creator, writer and producer Bob Gale attends the Back to the Future 30th Anniversary screening in the Manhattan borough of New York, October 21, 2015. The film franchise is celebrating today's date as in the first sequel, the main characters traveled through time to October 21, 2015. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

“He is far from what the cliche of the scientist, or even the mad scientist was at the time that we did it. First off, he's kind of a rebel and a hero, because he rips off this plutonium from these terrorists. That's pretty cool. We see all this stuff in this lab and we want to meet this guy.”

It was at this point that Gale opened up about the various Easter eggs in Back To The Future, each of which allude to Brown’s mysterious past.

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“But there are all these other things. Some things you don't even pick up until the second or third time you see the movie. The newspaper article that you see in that opening shot. Did Doc Brown set his house on fire to collect the insurance so that he could continue financing his experiments?”

McFeely was the most surprised by this revelation, asking Gale, ‘Did he!?’ But Gale refused to give a resolute answer, instead only saying, “Maybe he did,” before going on to point out how Brown does a number of unethical things throughout Back To The Future to get his way.