"On Marty's right [at the dinner table] was dear old Mom, who was once very attractive and bright. Now, at forty-seven, she was overweight, drank more than was good for her and had more food on her plate than anyone else."
Lorraine Baines McFly is the mother of Dave, Linda and Marty McFly and the wife of George McFly. 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 could stand up for herself and the people she cared about, yet despite this she liked her men to be strong and able to protect her. She liked thinking back to the "old days", often telling the story of how she met and fell in love with George. Lorraine liked 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.
Little is known about Lorraine's life prior to 1955. What is known is that she had been smoking and drinking for a while, and had "parked" in cars with several boys. As such, George was probably not her first boyfriend.
Original history
Lorraine, aged 47, in 1985 before the history was changed
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 or himself and had also turned to tobacco smoking and drinking alcoholic beverages on an everyday habit. She would always tell her children not to park in cars with members of the opposite sex, under the false pretense that she never did that when she was their age.
Altered history
George and Lorraine before the kiss.
Her life changed in 1955 when "Calvin Klein" showed up in town. Unaware it was her future son Marty, who had traveled back in time in the DeLorean time machine and had accidentally interfered with her first meeting with George, as Marty had pushed George out of the way of her father's car and George ran away with his bike. She developed a crush on him. Marty knew he had to get his parents together to prevent himself, as well as his elder siblings, from being erased from existence.
After finding out that Lorraine wanted a man who would stand up for her and protect her, these being qualities which George lacked, he came up with a plan where he would pretend to take advantage of 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, in 1985, Lorraine had told him that she found it terrible when girls did so. Lorraine noticed that Marty was nervous and told him not to be in the situation of dating. Lorraine then kisses him incestuously, much to Marty's shock. However, Lorraine stops kissing him on the sudden realization that the kiss somehow felt wrong (though completely unaware to her, they are mother and son) Lorraine said that doesn't make any sense and Marty clarifies her reasons of the kiss feeling wrong, assuring her that his feelings for her are purely platonic. Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, 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. After initially being overpowered, he became angry when he saw a laughing Biff knock Lorraine to the ground when she tried to help him. An enraged George bashed Biff in the face, knocking him out, and Lorraine fell in love with the newly-confident George. Despite momentarily relapsing back to his old self after Mark Dixon intervened, he quickly rebounded. They kissed for the first time that night and history was back on track. By 1985, she was much healthier and happier than she had been in the original 1985.
By 2015, Lorraine was still happily married to George after more than 50 years.[1] The couple have now retired and appear to be quite wealthy, possibly due to George's writing career taking off after 1985. Like most mothers, Lorraine still worried about her children even when they were adults and left home. By 2015, Marty was stuck in a dead-end job at CusCo and was having marriage problems with his wife Jennifer, and Lorraine wants to make sure everything was okay.
As much as she loved her son though, she felt that his life could have turned out much better and wondered to her granddaughter Marlene if Jennifer married Marty because she felt sorry for him. Ironically, this was why she fell in love with and married George in the unaltered timeline. She blamed a car accident on October 27, 1985 for making Marty's life the way it was, as it caused him to break his hand and destroyed a possible music career.
A third version of Lorraine was created in an alternate 1985 after Biff Tannen had received a sports almanac on November 12, 1955 from his 2015 self (who had "borrowed" the time machine to deliver it to his younger counterpart), and had become rich from betting on sports events. Biff had murdered George on March 15, 1973, though the exact circumstances are not revealed. Biff and Lorraine married soon thereafter, and a likely theory assumed is that Lorraine only married him because he could provide for her children. (Ironically, in 1955 Lorraine told off Biff by saying she would never marry him, not even if he had a million dollars. However, her transition later in life from a carefree teenager to a destitute widow with children caused her to rethink that).
By 1985, Lorraine was still unaware that it was Biff who had murdered George. The marriage was a living hell. Lorraine missed George every day and was often verbally and physically abused by Biff. She was usually alone as her children were sent to boarding schools, and she was living mostly by herself on the 27th floor of their casino hotel, built on top of the Courthouse, and has succumbed to alcoholism to cope with the stress, as she had in the original timeline. Lorraine also had breast implants, which Biff had forced her into getting. Lorraine had tried on numerous occasions to leave Biff, but stayed with him purely so her children would not suffer. Biff often threatened to cut them off or to withdraw his immense political clout, forcing the kids to own up to their own lives and/or get thrown in jail with their scrapes with the law.
It wasn't until 1996 that Lorraine found out that Biff killed George. Enraged, she got back at Biff by shooting him, ending his reign of terror.
Luckily, Marty and Doc Brown went back to 1955 and stopped Biff from using the almanac, so the timeline went back to normal. When Marty managed to avoid the car accident in 1985, the future of the entire McFly family became a lot happier.
1986A
Note: The following section is considered non-canon or is disputed in canonicity.
A version of Lorraine is heard but not seen in Get Tannen, during yet another compromised timeline which the Tannens reign supreme. Marty at first fails to convince her and her husband that he is indeed their son, as, in that timeline, he was run out of town. After Marty convinces Lorraine of a facet of his childhood, she accepts him as Marty and implores her handicapped husband to admit Marty to the McFly residence. The McFly residence, like most houses in Hill Valley, have heavy home security systems and have seen better days. Like the 1985A of the films, this Hill Valley is in a state of anarchy, with the Tannen Crime Family, which includes Biff and two new brothers as well as a never-jailed Kid Tannen, as the de facto leadership. However, lacking the future gambling knowledge of 1985A, Biff Tannen is poorer and appears to not be much better off than most of the frightened natives of the poverty-blighted high-crime community, save for his crime connections. Biff is also less bold, but still vicious. Biff enacts his revenge on George by way of a severe mafia beating rather than outright murder, but does not pine for Lorraine in this timeline, as he accepts that Lorraine married George, albeit in a twisted way.
Marty met her while she was driving into the Courthouse Square and then spoke, learning much about the fate of their family in this timeline in the process. He subsequently described her as "grey".
She said that it was because of George's interfering nature. She was polishing the statue of Citizen Brown in Courthouse Square. She was annoyed by being watched by George's surveillance cameras because she was hiding alcohol which was forbidden.
Non-canon or disputable information ends here.
Behind the scenes
In a scene cut from the film, Biff "disappears" in 2015 after he returns in the time machine following his delivery of the fateful sports almanac to his 1955 counterpart. It is speculated that Biff is shot and killed by Lorraine sometime in 1996-A(presumably with the murder weapon used to kill George), thereby "erasing" his existence come 2015 (this was suggested by Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, although not mentioned in the film itself). In the scene that viewers see however, as soon as the 2015 Biff disembarks from the DeLorean, he appears to have a heart attack and succumbs near another parked car, although due to Zemeckis and Gale's suggestion, Biff appeared to have the same symptoms as Marty when he was fading from existence in the first film.
