As stated the other day, today we’re looking in short at the 7 different roles Tom Wilson had to play in the Back to the Future trilogy. Before we get into that though let’s have a brief look at Tom Wilson as a person.
Thomas Francis Wilson Jr is an American actor who’s best know for his roles in the Back to the Future trilogy. He was born on 15 April 1959 and made his acting debut 24 years later in an episode of Knight Rider in 1983, before going on to take on the memorable role of Biff just 2 years later. Tom has always been said by cast members to be a “genuinely nice guy”, reporting, his natural persona to be as far away from Biff’s as possible, making him a better actor ever still.
At the age of just 25, Tom started in his biggest hit to date, Back to the Future.
Due to Wilson having a main role in the films rather than a leading role, I believe his quality of acting is underrated. I’d even go as far as to say he gave the best acting performance in the whole trilogy. Why? Because he played 7 different characters, these being:
- 1985 (Original) Biff – the one we see at the start of the first film.
- 1955 Biff
- 1985 A Biff – the Biff we see at the end of the first film after Marty changes history.
- 2015 Old Biff
- 2015 Griff
- 1985 Biffhorrific Biff
- 1885 Buford “Mad Dog” Tannen
The shear quantity of characters Wilson played in the film is complicated enough. However all these characters were in a different place of development and a different place emotionally and maturely. So the plan for now is to look at each of the above characters in detail, their scenes and analyse them. This will be done in the order of the list above (the order they appear chronologically on screen).
The first Biff we ever see is the original 1985 Biff at the start of the first film. We only see this Biff for a couple of minutes, but from this we get a lot of information. In the scene, Biff comes in the McFly family home to blame George for the fact that Biff has crashed the McFly’s car. Biff seems to believe there is a “blind spot” in the car that caused the crash. We later discover that Biff was likely drink driving, when he complains that he spilt beer down him in the crash. He then intimidates and bullies George into writing his reports for him. Finally he complains that he had the family car “towed all the way to your house and all you have for me is light beer”.
From this we can understand that this version of Biff is certainly a Bully, and has likely not grown up much since his school days. He appears spoilt in demanding that everything is done for him, when he wants. In my opinion I think this version of Biff is an alcoholic, something I see very rarely touched on. This is down to A) he crashed the car through drinking & B) he then helps himself to more alcohol in the McFly house. Possibly the reason he appears so angry and argumentative in this scene. We don’t need a detective to tell us that Biff lacks respect, we already know that. However I think this alteration of Biff lacks respect the most. We see this with George in the way he physical and verbally intimidates him (i.e pulling of tie, pressuring him). But more importantly, the fact he calls Marty “butthead” in front of Marty’s father. You’ve got to lack some serious respect of both the father and the son to do that. On top of that we must remember that here Biff is, bullying George, in his own home. I mean WOW! That’s even something for a bully.
One thing to remember at this point in Biff’s relationship with George, is that most of Biff’s behaviour towards George is down to jealousy. At the end of the day. Biff has the one thing that George wants. Lorraine. So Biff, has a masses of envy.
The next Biff we see is the 1955 school boy Biff who we assume to be around 17 or 18 years old. We see this version of Biff in both Back to the Future Part 1 & 2. This version of Biff although rude, intimating and simply a bully, is extremely immature.
The first time we are introduced to him is in Lou’s cafe. Where he is again seen bullying and pressuring the teenage George to do his homework for him. Almost identical to the scene in the McFly family home in 1985. The next time we see Biff, is in school, again tormenting George. After this we don’t see Biff again till just prior to the skateboard chase, when he comes into Lou’s cafe, almost acting like he owns George and is deciding his fate for him: “Hey, McFly, I thought o told you never to come in here!” It is possible Biff grew this anger when he saw George talking to Lorraine. This is then followed by Marty tripping up Biff, leading into the skateboard chase.
This is when we see Biff attempting to catch Marty (and presumably hurt him too) with Match, Skinhead & 3-D. This ultimately ends with Biff and his gang covered in manure (the soon to be frequent results for the Tannen family) The next time we see Biff is at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance. We never actually see Biff enjoying the dance, which leads me to believe he was possibly bared from the dance. The only time we see him inside the actual dance is alongside Skinhead, March & 3-D, where the 4 of them are given a disapproving look by Mr Strickland, before quickly evacuating. The next time we see Biff is when he hurls Marty our of his car, has Marty thrown in Marvin Berry’s boot and then gets in the car with Lorraine. It looks at this point almost like Biff is trying to assault Lorraine, though we were always led to believe he wanted a relationship with her. To be fair, Biff has probably never had a relationship with a girl so is unaware of how to behave in this situation. Regardless of that, we then see him once again bullying George when George won’t move. Obviously, this ultimately ends with George knocking out Biff. The moment that changes Biff’s life forever.
Now we need to go forward in time to Part 2, but also back in time to before George knocked out Biff. Confusing right! 1955 Biff doesn’t have much of a different attitude in the first film to the second one, though obviously there are a few things to note about his attitude. Things as simple as him tormenting kids, adulting Lorraine again (lifting her skirt up), he’s still in love with Lorraine, he gets in massive confrontation with Mr Strickland and as well as this he disrespects older people. We know the old man he disrespects is himself, but as far as Biff is aware, it’s some random old guy. We also see him in war with Marty over the almanac, which Biff seems to treasure. This again results in Biff covered in manure.
When Marty returns to 1985, he discovers his family are richer and happier. On top of these changes we see a new version of Biff. We must remember this is after Biff got punched by George, so we can assume from this moment, Biff’s live was never the same. He likely didn’t continue being the high school bully leading him to not be the bully we saw in the original 1985.
We don’t see this Biff for very long. To begin with, we see him waxing the McFly car, we then see him acting overly excited over the arrival of George’s new book, and over Marty’s car. We then see him at the beginning of Part 2, where Biff actually sees the DeLorean fly off into the sky, leaving him confused. Finally, we see this Biff at the end of Part 3 briefly, again working on the McFly car.
This version of Biff in my opinion seems rather friendly towards the McFly family. We do know he still has the cheeky side to him (having the potential to still turn volatile) when we see him try to con George. On top of this, he seems to rejoice in the achievements of the McFly family more so than anything. We see this volatile side to him again, when he mistakes Marty for someone else at the end of Part 3 and reprises the “buthead” phase. However, he suddenly switches out of it when he realises it’s Marty. Possibly implying that he is scared of the McFly family, after what George did to him 30 years prior. This could possibly mean that Biff is still the lethal character we see previously, he just behaves differently around the McFlys as he doesn’t want to get on the wrong side of them again.
We see Biff shortly after, well really it’s 30 years later. When we see Old Biff in 2015, we can assume him to be around 77 or 78 years old. However, he is certainly not the same Biff we just saw back in 1985.
This alteration of Biff appears to be a much older version of the first 2 Biffs we saw (1985 A & 2015). We know that at some point between 1985-2015 something went drastically wrong for Marty, as he is said to have thrown his life away. This may be thing that did it for Biff, and made him loose the respect he had previously had for the McFly family. The first appearance we get of Biff is in the Cafe 80s. Here we see him treating Marty (who he believes to be Marty Jr) in the same way he treat George Back in high school and the original 1985. He appears rude and shows physical intimidating behaviour towards Marty in the way that he hits him on the head (the same way he had done before with George). We also know he has memories at this point from 1955. As well as this, we actually see Biff discover the time machine. He works out exactly what is going on and uses it massively to his advantage. This is the time we see the selfish, bully side of Biff again. Back in 1955 we see Old Biff again, appearing however much wiser and educated than his teenage self. He almost seems embarrassed by his past self, for example when Biff tells Old Biff to “make like a tree and get out of here”, Old Biff rectifies himself, telling himself “It’s leave, you sound like a damn fool when you say it wrong!” Its quite ironic to be honest that he is embarrassed by his younger self, bearing in mind he really hasn’t changed that much over 60 years (in this time line at least).
Because Marty did rectify his life and won’t face the same disasters we see in Part 2, we can assume that Biff never looses his respect for the McFly family and remains the polite way he was with them in the 1985 A era.
That aside, we know that this 2015 Biff is certainly a selfish, careless bully. Or more simply: an older slightly more educated and mature version of his teenage 1955 self.
The next time we see Tom Wilson in action is actually as a whole different character. This time we see him as Griff. The grandson of Biff. Griff is a teenager in 2015, so was likely born around the late 90s. Griff’s parents remain unknown to us, as we never see Biff portraying a father figure.
However we do see Griff following the trend of harassing the McFly family with Marty Jr being the latest victim. From my observations I feel Griff is actually quite different to his teenage grandfather. Yes, they’re both self centred and believe they run the world, as well as continuing to harm innocent McFlys. But to me, Griff does seem different to Biff.
We don’t get to see that much of Griff. We see him attempting to pressure a vulnerable Marty Jr in Cafe 80s, then we see him in the hoverboard chase. We then see him get arrested, that being the last we see of Griff. Just like his Grandpa, Griff has a gang that follows him around everywhere, obeying his every move. So we know he must have the same charismatic presence of his Grandfather, however I think he lacks the general meanness and mean spirt of Biffs. Rather, he seems more unpredictable and lethal. He seems potentially dangerous. As intimating as Biff, was we knew he was incapable as a teenager of creating a real disaster. In contrast Griff seems capable of much more violence than his ancestor. In my opinion he also doesn’t seem as confident as Biff appears, almost as if he is forcing something. In all honesty if Griff had Biff, and likely a father just like Biff as role models, he didn’t stand much chance at being any different.
Shortly after this Marty and Doc return to 1985 which is where we see Tom Wilson in action for a 6th time. This time we see him in the Biff Horrific time line, as the man that virtually rules the world.
In this timeline he is leaving with the McFly family in his Pleasure Paradise, he murdered George and married Lorraine, now he is making her life a misery as well as Dave, Linda and Marty’s. We know he has very little respect for the McFly family at the now. He has become almost a father figure (in title) to Marty. We see him constantly partying with other girls, and still pressuring Lorraine, he forced her to have the breast implants etc. He believes he controls her and everything in his presence. We also know he controls the place so legally is quite a powerful guy. Later on we see him having a generally quite mature conversation with Marty about the almanac. Only for him to then attempt to shoot Marty after this. Biff then believes he has Marty cornered and is going to kill him. Here he discloses the fact he killed George. Marty than jumps off the roof, caught by the DeLorean. Doc then knocks Biff over with the door of the DeLorean (I love that moment). It is then said that Lorraine had enough by 1986, and shot Biff herself.
Even though Biff has the sports almanac at this point, he’s still unaware of time travel and likely doesn’t know how the almanac has the power it does.
So how would we describe this version of Biff. Even though this Biff is probably the rudest and most selfish of the all, he’s probably my favourite. Since the film has come out, Bob Gale has said that the character was inspired by Donald Trump. We can’t totally see the resemblance, not just in appearance but in attitude too.
This version of Biff likes to be in total control of everything and everyone around him much more than the over alterations of Biff. We know he even sent Marty off to a Swedish boarding school. He completely lacks respect for anyone, and is much worse than the Biff we see in the very original 1985. He is more violent than what we saw originally and is quite disloyal to Lorriane, he clearly uses her and is only with her because he was physically attracted to her as a teenager. Rather than caring for her, and her children he pressures them all into things they don’t want to do. And just like before he still hasn’t a little gang around him worshiping his every move, inflating his ego and making it larger than it already is. All in all, this is probably the worst alternate personality of Biff’s making him the most intimidating and unpleasant to be around.
There’s only one left of the 7 Tannen’s Tom played to discuss, and that’s Buford or “Mad Dog” Tannen. Who was an ancestor of Biff (likely Biff’s great grandfather) and is located in 1885.
We get basically a whole film of Mad Dog, and we actually get to learn about him before we see him. As Marty and Doc learn prior to Marty’s a arrival in 1885 that Mad Dog was the one who shot Doc, so we get to see pictures of him when Marty & Doc are in the library back in 1955.
However, the first time we get to see Mad Dog is in the saloon in 1885. We see Tannen flip here when Marty calls him the nickname “Mad Dog” unfortunately getting on the bad side of Buford. This pretty much results in frequent Tannen – McFly chase. However this time, Mad Dog turns out on top, and is planning on hanging Marty, until Doc intervenes. Already, this ancestor of Biff’s seems much more violent and dangerous, than his great-grandson, almost more like Griff here.
Later in the film, we see Marty at the dance along with Doc & Clara. This is when we see Buford terrorising and threatening Doc about his death. Mad Dog then ends up dancing and flirting with Clara, in almost an identical way to how Biff did with Lorraine in 1955. Clara attempts to stand up to Mad Dog but is pushed to the floor, it’s at this point when Doc gets angry. Here we see Marty step in, in an attempt to resolve the situation. He intimidates Marty and persuaded him into a fight through the whole “you yellow?”
We eventually see Mad Dog again in the saloon urging Marty to come out to fight early. Marty attempts to back out and leave unnoticed but Buford is determined to kill someone that day. Instead of Marty, Doc becomes the victim. In the end Marty resumes his place in the battle with Mad Dog, and massively outsmarts him, leading to another McFly victory’s This then leads to the frequently seen Tannen – Manure scene. We can assume that possibly from this point Marty may have changed history again by defeating a Tannen, creating possibly a nicer future generation of Tannen’s than seen in previous timelines, but we don’t know for certain.
Just like Biff & Griff, he also has his little gang that follow him round, worship the floor he walks on, carry out his orders and permanently agree with him. Seems to a Tannen tradition. Possibly Tannen’s aren’t strong enough alone and need backing.
So what’s this Tannen member really like? Well to me he seems far more, aggressive & violent than the future generations and I said previously. He’s capable of causing real carnage and disaster. We know his capable of causing many murders (something we don’t see much in Biff, apart from in the Biffhorrific era). To me he’s the worst of the Tannen line, setting the stone for future Tannen’s almost deciding their fate, giving them little chance to be good people.
One thing all these Tannen’s have in common though is their destructive, careless, selfish, intimidating personality and presence as well as their repetitive bullying. I think too, they all (apart Old Biff) appear uneducated, and slightly child like in many situations.
One closing thought to remember with regards to Tom Wilson’s acting, it’s confirmed (as you probably know) he’s the one behind the “buthead” and “make like a tree and get out of here” phrases. Little fun fact that makes him even cooler.
I hope you enjoyed this little overview off all the different Tannen characters. Thank you for the support. In a few days you can look forward to a full overview of the Space Time Continuum, and all the journeys made.
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