Sci-fi film plot maps have to solve a problem the music maps never set me: what to do when the same character walks onto the page twice, thirty years apart. The Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection holds two prints at the moment, Back to the Future and Blade Runner, and they are built on opposite structures.
One film keeps adding lines until the cast is running in duplicate. The other starts with a fixed set and takes them away one at a time until almost nothing is left.
Both are drawn the way I draw a discography: characters as named tube lines, key scenes as stations, in the visual language of the London Underground. A2 (420 x 594mm) and A1 (594 x 841mm), from £42, printed as Giclée art prints, with an optional black wood frame.
Back to the Future Plot Lines Map Art Print
Zemeckis's 1985 film drawn as a loop, from the mall car park to the clock tower and home.
Explore These Art PrintsIn 1955, Every Line Runs Twice, Thirty Years Apart
Back to the Future is the only thing I have plotted where most of the cast appears in two versions of itself. Doc Brown, George McFly, Lorraine, Biff and the Baines family all exist in 1985 and again in 1955.
On a transit map, that is a rare piece of luck, because parallel lines are exactly what the format is built to show. The 1955 set of lines runs alongside the 1985 set, and only Marty crosses between them.
Marty leaves on 26 October 1985, arrives on Saturday, 5 November 1955 and is stuck there for a week. That week is the widest part of the print.
Doc Brown Is the Only One Who Knows He Is Drawn Twice
George, Lorraine and Biff exist as teenagers in 1955 and as adults in 1985, but the film treats those as separate people with separate scenes. Two lines each, and neither version knows about the other.
Doc is different, because he is in on it. The 1955 Doc learns what the 1985 Doc already knows, which makes his the only pair of lines carrying information across the gap in both directions.
The letter is the physical proof of it. Marty writes a warning in 1955, Doc tears it up, then tapes it back together and keeps it for thirty years, so the map has to show a route that a piece of paper travels and a person does not.
The Fading Photograph Is the Film's Own Progress Bar
The photograph in Marty's wallet is the cleverest piece of plotting in the film, and it is why the middle of the map reads as tension rather than a list of scenes. His brother Dave goes first, then Linda, then Marty himself starts to disappear.
Nothing else in the film tells you how badly it is going. There is no countdown clock in 1955 until the very end, so the photograph does that job in three small steps.
When you plot a film, you look for the beats that measure something, and this is one. It is why the print works as an object to stand in front of rather than a poster to glance at.
Twin Pines Becomes Lone Pine Because of Something Marty Does
The mall is called Twin Pines Mall when Doc tests the DeLorean, and Lone Pine Mall when Marty gets back. In between, Marty lands the car in Old Man Peabody's pine grove in 1955 and flattens one of the trees.
That is a station that changes its name due to an event roughly halfway along the route. I know of nothing like it in any other film I have looked at.
It also tells you what the ending is doing. The 1985 Marty comes home to the same place he left, but with different contents: George is a published author, Biff waxes the car, and the family is not the one from the opening.
The Clock Tower Is a Station Twice, and Einstein Gets a Line of His Own
The Save the Clock Tower flyer is pressed into Marty's hand in 1985 as a piece of civic fundraising. In 1955 the same building is a power supply, struck by lightning at 10:04pm on 12 November, and that flyer becomes the timetable Doc works from.
Same building, two functions, two stations. It is the tidiest example on either print of why a transit map suits a time travel film: a station is a place, so a place can hold two meanings at two dates without the drawing breaking.
Einstein makes the first jump, one minute into the future, and earns a very short line for it. Nobody expects a dog to have a route until they see it drawn.
Blade Runner Plot Lines Map Art Print
The 2019 version of Scott's 1982 film, from the Voight-Kampff test to the rooftop.
Explore These Art PrintsBlade Runner Works by Subtraction, Four Lines at a Time
Ridley Scott's 1982 film is set in a Los Angeles of November 2019, and its structure is the reverse of the other print in the collection. Bryant hands Deckard four names: Roy Batty, Leon, Zhora and Pris.
Each of those is a line that runs for a while, then terminates at a station, and the map gets quieter every time one ends. Where Back to the Future doubles its cast halfway through, Blade Runner spends its second half deleting.
Deckard Retires Two of the Four, and the Map Shows Who Does the Rest
Watch the film and you carry away the impression of a man working through a list. Plot it and the arithmetic does not agree with the impression.
Deckard retires Zhora and Pris. Rachael shoots Leon, saving Deckard's life, which means the woman who was being tested in the first act removes one of the four in the third. Roy dies of his own expiry date on the rooftop with nobody's hand on him.
So the blade runner accounts for half his own case, and the film's most famous death is not a retirement at all. That is the finding people stand in front of the print and check.
Roy Batty's Line Only Ever Travels Upwards
Roy is not wandering. He goes to Chew, who made the eyes, then to J. F. Sebastian, who has access to the building, then to Tyrell himself at the top of the pyramid.
Three stops, each one a rung, each one a person used to reach the next. Drawn as a transit line it is the most purposeful route on either of these two prints.
Deckard's line by contrast doubles back constantly, between his flat, the Bradbury, the street market and the police station. One character is climbing and the other is circling, and the drawing makes that plain before you read a single station name. Rachael is the third case: her line begins inside the Tyrell Corporation and is the only replicant line still running when the map ends.
J. F. Sebastian Is the Interchange, and Gaff Only Leaves Objects
Pris and Roy both reach Tyrell through the same person. J. F. Sebastian is a genetic designer with Methuselah syndrome, living alone with his toys, and on the map he is the interchange where two replicant lines meet the line they have been trying to reach all film.
Without him, there is no route from the street to the top of the pyramid. He is a minor character in the story and a structural necessity on the print.
Gaff is the opposite case. He collects Deckard at the noodle bar in the opening minutes, is waiting in the corridor at the end, and surfaces rarely in between, leaving folded paper where he has been. His line is a bracket around the film rather than a route through it, and that shape took longer to draw than anything else on the sheet.
How a Scene Earns a Station and a Character Earns a Line
A film has several hundred shots. A map holding all of them would be a wall of type instead of something readable from a metre away, so there is a threshold.
A scene becomes a station when it moves the story, or brings a character into it or out of it. A character becomes a line when they run through the film rather than cross one shot.
Sequels are not on either print. Back to the Future maps the 1985 film only, with nothing from 1989 or 1990, and Blade Runner maps Scott's film with no 2049.
Reading the Two Sci-Fi Film Plot Maps Against Each Other
This table comes out of the scene-by-scene passes I made for each print, not from a synopsis. It is the honest answer to which of the two belongs on which person's wall.
| Back to the Future (1985) | Blade Runner (1982) | |
|---|---|---|
| What the lines do | They double, with most of the cast running in 1985 and again in 1955 | They thin out, as four replicant lines terminate one at a time |
| The line that never breaks | Marty, from the mall car park to the clock tower and home | Deckard, from the noodle bar to the rooftop |
| The line that surprises people | Einstein, one minute into the future and back | Gaff, a bracket around the film rather than a route through it |
| Where the map changes shape | Peabody's farm in 1955, where the second era opens up | J. F. Sebastian's building, where the street finally reaches Tyrell |
| The deadline on the print | Lightning on the clock tower, 10:04pm, 12 November 1955 | Roy Batty's four-year lifespan, which nobody can move |
| The object that carries the plot | A Save the Clock Tower flyer, taken from 1985 to 1955 | Gaff's origami, left at three points and never explained |
| Reading distance | Works across a room, because the two eras separate cleanly | Close up, because the lines cross often |
| The viewer it suits | The one who can quote it and has never seen the loop drawn out | The one who argues about the cuts, the unicorn and the ending |
If both films get quoted in the same house, the pair hangs well together. Same format, same paper, same sizes, and the contrast between a route that loops and one that narrows is why they should be seen side by side.
A Present for the Rewatcher: Which Size, Which Finish
Go with Back to the Future for the person who has seen it forty times and has never had the loop laid out flat. Go with Blade Runner for the one who owns more than one cut of it.
In terms of size, A2 (420 x 594mm) suits a hallway, a landing, or a wall above a desk, and reads as an object from across a room. A1 (594 x 841mm) is for someone who will stand close and follow one line at a time, because the station names sit comfortably at that size.
Prices start at £42, every print is a Giclée on archival paper, and the black wood frame is optional. For a fortieth or a fiftieth birthday, I would go A1 and framed, and for a film both people in a household love, I would go A1 every time.
Questions I Get About the Sci-Fi Plot Map Prints
Why are there only two prints in this collection? Because plotting a film properly takes a slow rewatch with a notebook and several passes, and I would rather add one a season than list titles I have not sat down with. More science fiction is in research.
Which cut of Blade Runner does the map follow? It follows the beats the major cuts share, so it holds up whichever version you own: the Voight-Kampff test, Leon, Zhora, Pris, the rooftop. Gaff's origami unicorn is on the print, because that appears in every cut. What changes between the 1982 release, the 1992 Director's Cut and the 2007 Final Cut is the narration, the closing minute and the unicorn dream, and none of those moves a station.
Do these prints give away the endings? They name key scenes, so yes, for anyone who has not seen the films. That is worth knowing if the print is going into a shared room rather than someone's own study.
What is not on these maps? Every minor scene, every walk-on part, and anything from a sequel. Back to the Future Part II and Part III are not plotted here, and Blade Runner 2049 is its own film rather than an extension of this one.
Is Back to the Future readable if you have never seen it? More readable than most, because the two eras separate visually. Blade Runner is the opposite and rewards knowing the film first.
Is this the same rule you use on the music maps? Same principle, different subject. A discography map plots the studio albums in order and, by editorial rule, leaves out live records, compilations and soundtracks, and a film plot map leaves out the scenes that do not move a character in or out.
Will a film map hang next to a music map? Yes. Shared format, shared paper stock and the same two sizes, so a plot map and a discography map sit together without competing.
What if the science fiction film they love is not here? Send me the title. Every one of these starts the same way, with a notebook and a very slow rewatch.
Where These Two Fit Alongside the Rest
Both prints live in the Sci-Fi Movie Plot Line Maps collection. If the shape of a film is what appeals rather than the genre, the Horror Movie Plot Line Maps collection holds The Shining and Jaws, and I have written about how those two horror maps differ in shape as well. If a series rather than a single film is the appeal, the Bond map is the one that does that, and I have listed the 007 films in order.
If it is the drawing rather than the film, the Music Wall Art Prints collection uses the same language for discographies, and my guide to reading one of these maps explains how lines and stations work.
Still deciding between the DeLorean and the Spinner? Tell me which one gets quoted more often in the house it is going to. That is usually the answer.
