When Marty goes back to 1885 and finds his relatives, he wakes up to see his great great grandma, who looks like Marty's mother. Why would Marty's ancestors on his fathers side look like his mother?
This is true, and the makers of the film have since acknowledged that Marty's great-great-grandmother and his mother aren't related despite the fact they are both played by Leah Thompson. However, I think the point they were trying to make is that all the McFly men go for the same kind of woman.
What about Biff's Relatives? If Mad Dog spent the rest of his life in prison (and I bet he did if Marshal Strickland had anything to do with it), how could Tannen have children? Even if he got a hooker pregnant, the child would have her last name.
I don't recall Mad Dog ever talking about the wife and kids during the movie. His only encounter with a female in the movie was his dance with Clara.
I think the thing with Marty's anscestors is kind of a joke that runs throughout the trilogy. Leah Thompson and Michael Fox are both of his anscestors, and Michael also plays his(Marty's)future daughter. I think it was done totally on purpose, knowing that they wouldnt look the same. Just like the same person who plays Biff plays every generation of himself. I know there is such thing of family resemblence, but 3 generations of Biff wouldnt look identical.
I think the usage of Michael J. Fox as all of his relatives (except the mother figures) and Leah Thompson as the mothers was a way to save money too. Think about how much extra it probably would have cost to have each relative a different person. Not to mention the fact that if the relatives didn't look similar (i.e. at least a family resemblance) the public would have more of a problem. At least with them all being the same person, the public can consider it to be an "artistic" choice.
Buford Tannen could have eventually gotten out of jail and given up his life of violence and crime to settle down with a family. Maybe after Marty beat him in the fight, he became a wuss, just like Biff did after George McFly punched him in the first movie.
Hill Valley of 1885 was a very small town. Eighty years is four generations. Let's say then that the residents of Hill Valley included Marty's great-great and great-great-great grandparents. That's sixteen of the former and thirty-two of the latter. Forty-eight, practically the entire population. And lets say each of them had four children, and so on. That comes to about 20,000 in the third and forth generation down. One of them is probably his mother. So provided that the population of Hill Valley is sufficiently small and doesn't breed with outsiders (possibly down to the geographical separation caused by (i) the hill and (ii) the valley - bear in mind that Marty needs a 4x4 just so he can go to the lake! - there's every chance that his mother would be a descendant of a paternal ancestor.
the animated anicdotes on the dvd say that despite maggie not being related to loraine, the mcfly men all like the same type of woman, hence loraine's doppleganger.
if you watch the special features of the DVD, everyone involved said that they needed to have Leah Thompson to make the "safe and sound" joke that they had in both previous movies (every time Marty wakes up from his numerous concussions), and that the scene wouldn't have been right if they had a different woman playing that role.
Plus, yes, what others have said about those McFly's and their women
Do you guys really think a man like "MAD DOG" could have been a virgin at that age? With his ego and attitude, he obviously had his way with many women... For all we know ther could be dozens of mini-Biffs out there... 8^)
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