In Back To The Future, Marty calls to Doc's house to try to get his help, explaining that he's from the future. Doc flat out refuses to believe him, responding with sarcasm and incredulity, laughing at the notion of a celebrity president of the US, before running out of his house and down to his workshop / garage and slamming the door in Marty's face.
But why? While this might be an appropriate response from your average scatterbrained scientist, Doc had just that very day come up with the idea for time travel! Surely he should be completely open to the idea that someone could visit him from the future, especially with it so fresh in his mind.
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6Because it's more likely that Marty's a crazy person. – Valorum 9 hours ago
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3Also, the Doc is suffering from concussion and may well be hallucinating... – Valorum 9 hours ago
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6I know that lotteries exist, but I still hang up when someone calls to tell me I won money. – Misha R 1 hour ago
3 Answers
If I remember correctly, Doc was perfectly willing to believe Marty until he said that Ronald Reagan was US president in 1985. In the 50s, Reagan was just a second-rate actor, as evidenced by the poster for Bedtime for Bonzo at the cinema Marty walks by before meeting Doc. It is this that makes Doc incredulous and sarcastic: "Who is vice-president, then? Jerry Lewis?" (quoted from memory). It isn't until Marty tells Doc how he got his head injury that Doc changes his mind again.
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4That’s not how I remember it. Marty: “Doc. I came here in a time machine that you invented. Now I need your help to get me back to the year 1985.” Doc: “Do you know what this means!? It means that this damned thing [the mind reader] doesn’t work!!” Doc doesn’t believe it at all from the start. He’s just stuck on his disappointment about another invention that doesn’t work. – Todd Wilcox 2 hours ago
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@ToddWilcox I'm not sure that line means he doesn't believe Marty. He's just so focused on the mind reader that he didn't consider the other consequence, that time travel is real. – Barmar 27 mins ago
When Doc finally believes and sees the DeLorean and the real flux capacitor, the first thing he says is, “It works!! I finally invented something that works!”
None of his inventions have been successful before, so he has no reason to believe Marty when Marty opens with the claim that the time machine he came in was invented by Doc.
Also, the second piece of evidence (Doc completely ignores the first piece) Marty tries to use to prove his claim is the photo of him and his brother and sister. Because the future is already changing, his brother has started to fade, which Doc interprets as evidence that the photo is a fake. That’s when he asks who the president is.
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His attempts at reading Marty's mind were actually pretty good near hits. – Michael Richardson 30 mins ago
Occam's Razor: the simplest solution is usually the correct one.
So what's more reasonable / plausible? Marty is from the future or Marty's is high / crazy or playing an elaborate prank on Doc Brown?
Doc is a man of science; he's skeptical by nature. It's only when Marty shows him hard evidence and relating the story of the flux capacitor does he start believing. A story only Doc knows or so he thought...
In the movie, I also vaguely remember Doc Brown alluding to the kids in town playing pranks on him. So, Doc initially concluded that the kids in town were messing with him again.
