Rick & Morty’s Darkest Back to the Future Reference Kills Marty McFly
The dimension-hopping, multiverse-saving, crude-talking duo known as Rick and Morty owe a lot to the ‘80s film, Back to the Future, and in a comic book tale centering around the Council of Ricks, the series’ darkest reference to this iconic time-travel movie kills the franchise’s main character, Marty McFly, in a super brutal way!
Part of a series of one-shot issues that delve into other corners of Rick and Morty lore not always fully explored in the show, this particular story follows a handful of different Ricks associated with the group of characters dubbed the Council of Ricks as they set out on a mission to save the multiverse. Wrangling Rick Prime from a drunken stupor to stop Morty Prime from unleashing holy hell on everything across this plane of existence and beyond, it’s not until readers are introduced to the team that will hopefully bring an end to Morty’s madness that the idea of Back to the Future is brought up.
A film reference made when meeting Quantum Rick, the “Getaway Driver” for this dangerous multiversal mission, Rick and Morty Presents: Council of Ricks, written by Jake Goldman and illustrated by Marc Ellerby with a few pages done by Phil Murphy, dials up on the insanity Rick and Morty is known for with a well-placed gag that fans will not see coming. Escaping a situation that sees Quantum Rick running from a pair of space cops, Rick uses his spaceship to warp travel to a world that looks awfully familiar to fans of the Back to the Future franchise, and it’s here, at the moment of Quantum Rick’s arrival, where the bloody death of Marty McFly occurs.
Marty McFly Was Killed By Quantum Rick.
Crashing into a school dance where an “Under the Sea” banner is plastered above a terrified band scrambling for safety onstage — a clear nod to the same-named dance and entertainment that memorably capped off the original Back to the Future film — Quantum Rick looks down from his cockpit to see that he’s splattered the guitar member of the band across the ground in a puddle of blood and body parts. And as Back to the Future fans have no doubt already surmised, the identity of the inferred character in this panel is none other than the Johnny B. Goode-shredding, time-traveling teenager known as Marty McFly!
Furthermore, Rick Prime follows this fun Easter egg up by saying, “Whoa, deja vu. » — a deep-cut reference to the fact that Rick and Morty as characters and as a show began life as an explicit Back to the Future parody called ‘The Real Animated Adventures of Doc and Mharti,” solidifying this inside joke in a way that fans of both franchises can appreciate. Rick and Morty killed Back to the Future’s Marty McFly, and if they had their way again, they’d probably reduce Doc Brown to a red stain on the floor too!
