Never thought about that, but I suppose biff winning a few times wouldn't necessarily change the outcomes of sporting events that are not in his orbit.

I don't think Biff would have been smart enough to pull off a huge amount of sports book betting without word getting out that he had some sort of "in".

He would have for sure been shut down in Vegas.

Purely from a time travel perspective, it doesn't make sense that it would change.

It's an item from what is now an alternate universe.

But that's not consistent with the rules of the movie (family pic, newspaper).

Would Biff betting on a game become enough of a factor to influence the outcome of the game? If the media, fans, and players knew that Biff had put a bunch of money on the Mets would it cause enough pressure and attention to cause the ball to go through Buckner's legs?

The same logic applies to all those. Otherwise the picture of Marty's family would cease to exist also.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

---

The same logic applies to all those. Otherwise the picture of Marty's family would cease to exist also.

---

I'm confused. Not sure we're saying the same thing, but we're kind of saying similar things?

I just mean that it makes no sense to me that the book would change the results. The alternate universe that it originated in still exists somewhere out there in higher order dimensions. I don't think the book would disappear.

But if you follow that logic, then the picture and the newspaper would also remain unchanged, and that's inconsistent with the rules of the movie.

In "Back to the Future Part II," Biff Tannen uses the Grays Sports Almanac to alter history by giving it to his younger self in 1955. This act creates an alternate timeline where Biff becomes wealthy and powerful. However, the almanac itself doesn't change or update with each altered event. Instead, it remains a static record of sports statistics from the original timeline.

The mechanics of time travel in the "Back to the Future" series suggest that changes to the timeline don't retroactively alter existing objects. For example, when Marty and Doc return to 1985 and find it transformed into a dystopian version due to Biff's actions, the physical items they brought with them from the original timeline remain unchanged. Similarly, the sports almanac retains its original content, even though the events it describes may have unfolded differently in the new timeline.

This concept is further illustrated by the fact that photographs and newspapers in the series change to reflect alterations in the timeline, but objects that have traveled through time, like the almanac or the DeLorean, do not. Therefore, the almanac doesn't update dynamically with each change; it serves as a fixed artifact from the original timeline, providing Biff with the information he needed to amass his fortune in the altered 1985.

In summary, while Biff's use of the almanac creates an alternate timeline with significant changes, the almanac itself remains an unchanging record of sports events from the original timeline.

Two things.

1) Infinity War established that "BTTF is bull****".
2) As time passes from 1955 when young Biff gets the almanac to 1985, early events influence later events. As such, it would stand to reason that later contests would either have increased probability of differing from those in the almanac, or in extreme and/or in later almanac years, not occurring altogether.



Edit autocorrect

BenTheGoodAg said:

---

Brian Earl Spilner said:

---

The same logic applies to all those. Otherwise the picture of Marty's family would cease to exist also.

---

I'm confused. Not sure we're saying the same thing, but we're kind of saying similar things?

I just mean that it makes no sense to me that the book would change the results. The alternate universe that it originated in still exists somewhere out there in higher order dimensions. I don't think the book would disappear.

But if you follow that logic, then the picture and the newspaper would also remain unchanged, and that's inconsistent with the rules of the movie.

---

Got it. Yeah I think we're on the same page.

By the rules of this movie universe, the book would update similar to the picture and newspaper.

Screen Rant, 4 days ago

https://screenrant.com/back-to-the-future-2-sports-almanac-does-not-change-why-explainer/

My bad, thanks. I was bourboning.

So we are using some lame ass Marvel movie to understand time travel mechanics?

Captain Winky said:

---

So we are using some lame ass Marvel movie to understand time travel mechanics?

---

I'm not doing any thing other than pointing out the correct "lame ass" Marvel movie that said Back to the Future was bull***** If you don't like those movies, I'm sure you can find something else that is more your speed.

BMX Bandit said:

---

Why wouid Biff winning on, say Jets in Super Bowl III have any effect on later games?

---

If you believe in the butterfly effect, it's definitely possible.

BMX Bandit said:

---

Why wouid Biff winning on, say Jets in Super Bowl III have any effect on later games?

---

That one bet would not. But the more bets he made, the more likely future outcomes could change.

Rex Racer said:

---

BMX Bandit said:

---

Why wouid Biff winning on, say Jets in Super Bowl III have any effect on later games?

---

That one bet would not. But the more bets he made, the more likely future outcomes could change.

---

How?

The same team still won

That's great work.

Biff could be like the English tennis fan who made the massive Federer bet way back at the beginning of his career and cleaned house.

In 2003, right after Federer won Wimbledon for the first time, this English guy bet $1,500 on 66/1 odds that Federer would win Wimbledon 7 times total before 2020. His seventh win was in 2012. The guy had passed away by then and left the bet's winnings to a charity in Oxford. It paid about $101,000.

Based on the logic presented to us in the movie, the Almanac would change if what he was doing were to affect any sporting results because the almanac is a relic from the future.

Again... based on the Back to the Future mythology with which we were presented in the movies.

ETA: I guess, unless anything he did were to cause the company that made the almanac to go out of business early, then it would probably disappear on him or turn into some other product that company ended up making.