Lorraine Baines McFly

Categories: Back to the Future characters

Lorraine Baines McFly is a fictional character, a lead character in the Back to the Future motion picture trilogy, played by actress Lea Thompson. She did not appear in the animated series.

Lorraine Baines was born in 1938 in Hill Valley, California, the eldest child of Sam and Stella Baines. She has 5 siblings; Milton (born 1942), Sally (born 1949), Toby (born 1951), Joey (born 1954), and one sibling born in 1956 whom we never hear any details of (but Stella is *very* pregnant in November 1955). She gets married to George McFly and by 1985 they have three children; Dave, Linda and Marty.

Lorraine liked the attention of boys when she was in school, and lots of them were attracted to her, including both George McFly and Biff Tannen. Lorraine was not afraid to get what she wanted and often parked in cars with them. Lorraine can stand up for herself, yet despite this she likes her men to be strong and able to protect her. She likes thinking back to the "old days", often telling the story of how she met and fell in love with George. Lorraine likes to play tennis with her husband and they have been tennis club champions for the past 6 years by 1985. Lorraine's best friends at school were Betty and Babs and she could often be found in Lou's Cafe gossiping with them.

Pre-Back to the Future

Little is known about Lorraine's life prior to 1955, which is when we first meet her chronologically. What is known is that she has been smoking and drinking for a while, and has parked in cars with a few boys before the events of the film. As such, George is probably not her first boyfriend.

Back to the Future

Lorraine originally met George on November 5, 1955 when her father almost ran him over with his car. She felt sorry for him, before falling in love with him. They had their first date a week later at the Enchantment Under The Sea Dance at school. Lorraine and George married and had three kids, Dave, Linda and Marty. By 1985 she was depressed at how her husband could not stand up for her and had also turned tobacco smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages to an everyday habit. She would always tell her children not to park in cars with boys, since she apparently never did that when she was their age.

Her life changed in 1955 when "Calvin Klein" showed up in town. Unaware it was her future son Marty, who had travelled back in time in his DeLorean time machine and had accidentally interfered with her first meeting with George (Marty had pushed George out of the way of Sam Baines' car), she developed a crush on him. Marty knew he had to get his parents together to prevent himself from being erased from existence.

After finding out that Lorraine wanted a man who would stand up for her and protect her (quailities which George lacked), he came up with a plan where he would pretend to park in a car with Lorraine at the Dance, and the wimpy George would "rescue" her from him. Marty was shocked when he found that Lorraine liked parking in cars with boys, as adult Lorraine has said she never did it! Unfortuantely, bully Biff Tannen showed up instead and tried to force his affection on Lorraine. George arrived and rescued her by standing up to Biff for the first time in his life. George punched Biff, knocking him out, and Lorraine fell in love with the newly-confident George. They kissed for the first time that night and history was back on track. By 1985 she is much healthier and happier than she had been in the original 1985.

Back to the Future Part II

By 2015, Lorraine is still happily married to George, and the novel reveals that they have been married for over 50 years. The couple have now retired and appear to be quite well off, possibly due to George's writing career taking off after 1985. Like most mothers, Lorraine still worries about her children even when they are adults and left home. By 2015, Marty is stuck in a dead-end job and is having marriage problems with his wife Jennifer, and Lorraine wants to make sure everything is OK.

As much as she loves her son though, she feels his life could have turned out much better, and wonders if Jennifer married Marty because she felt sorry for him (much as she had with George in the original timelime in the first film!). She blames a car accident 30 years ago for making Marty's life the way it is (it caused him to break his hand and destroyed a possible music career).

During the course of the film, we also see a third version of Lorraine in a third 1985. In this timeline, Biff had received a sports almanac in 1955 from his 2015 self and had become rich from betting on sports events. Biff had murdered George in 1973, although Lorraine did not know it was Biff.

Biff and Lorraine married soon afterwards, and a theory is that Lorraine only married him because he could provide for her children. The marriage was not a happy one - Lorraine missed George every day, and was often slapped and beaten by Biff. Lorraine was all alone - the kids were sent to boarding schools, and she was left alone on the 27th floor of their casino hotel (built on top of the Courthouse) with only alcohol for company. As she had in the original timeline, Lorraine became an alcoholic. She also had breast enlargements, although Biff may have forced her into this. Lorraine has tried on numerous occasions to leave Biff, but stays with him purely so her kids won't suffer (Biff threatens to cut them off, get them sent to jail etc).

Luckily, Marty and Doc Brown went back to 1955 and stopped Biff from using the almanac, so the timeline went back to normal.

Back to the Future Part III

Lorraine only appeared briefly at the end of the film, and she was "back to normal", ie how she appeared at the end of the first film. However, Marty managed to avoid the car accident, so the future of the entire McFly family will be a lot happier.

Lorraine did not appear in the ride or animated series.