Griff Tannen

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Back to the Future character
Griff Tannen
Griff Tannen
Date of birth	1996
Age (1955)	Not yet born
Age (1985)	Not yet born
Age (2015)	19
Gender	Male
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Brown
Played by	Thomas F. Wilson
Voiced by	Thomas F. Wilson

Griff Tannen is a fictional character, an important antagonist in Back to the Future Part II, played by actor Thomas F. Wilson, who played all of the Tannen family members in different time periods of the Back to the Future trilogy.

Griff Tannen was born in 1996 in Hill Valley, California and is the grandson of Biff Tannen. Based on Griff's surname, it is likely that his father is Biff's son, although he could be the son of Biff's daughter who never married (explaining why Griff has the surname "Tannen"). Either theory could be true, since no mention of Biff's kids is ever made in the trilogy (although both the animated series and a draft script feature a character named "Biff Jr"). The fate of his parents by 2015 is unknown.

Griff is very similar to his grandfather at a younger age. Like most of the Tannen family, Griff is a bully, and bullies people to get what he wants. Unlike Biff though, Griff is a lot more violent and unpredictable. Griff is usually accompanied by his gang of 3, "Data", "Spike" and "Whitey", and is the first Tannen to allow a female into his gang. Not many people stand up to Griff, and he is surprised when Marty McFly, pretending to be his son Marty Jr, does so.

Griff has a car (a heavily modified 1976 BMW 633CSI) which he gets his grandfather to wax for him, and appears to be an expert hoverboarder, having in his possession a "Pit Bull" hoverboard ("Pitboard") which is jet powered. He also has bionic implants, which make him taller - these implants still appear to be illegal by 2015, although proposals are around to legalise them.

[edit] Pre-Back to the Future

Little is known about Griff's life pre-2015. What is possible though is that he heard stories about his grandfather as a youngster, and how George McFly punched Biff in 1955. Griff may have become even more of a bully just to make sure that that fate never happens to him.

According to the machinery sounds every time he moves, it is believed that Griff had an accident in his early teens or prior to his teens, and this caused him to require bionic implants to make him complete again, although the accident remains a mystery (whether it was drugs or a car accident remains unknown).

At some point he met Marty Jr (they could have met at school despite Griff being 2 years older than him) and started bullying him.

[edit] Back to the Future Part II

On the afternoon of October 21, 2015, Griff and his gang met Marty Jr at the Cafe 80's (formerly Lou's Cafe in 1955 and Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center in 1985). They "persuaded" Marty Jr to join them in the early hours of the following morning to rob the Hill Valley Payroll Substation. Marty Jr relucantly agreed, but accidentally set off the alarm. Marty Jr was caught and sentenced to 15 years, whilst Griff and his gang managed to distance themselves by saying they would not hang out with a "low-res like McFly".

Luckily for Marty Jr, Doc Brown arrives from 1985 in his DeLorean time machine and with the help of Marty from 1985, manages to avoid this. Marty from 1985 (aged 17) manages to pose as his future son (since they look very similar!) and says "no" to Griff. Griff, surprised and angered at this, gets his gang to chase Marty around the Courthouse Square after Marty exits the Cafe 80's and "borrows" a hoverboard. Griff smashes his BMW's taillight after trying to hit Marty with a baseball bat as he hovers past.

Marty ended up above the pond in front of the Hill Valley Couthouse Mall, but his board did not have the power to float above the water. Griff got out his Pitbull, which allowed his gang to be pulled, and they tried to get Marty. Marty jumped into the water at the last minute, causing Griff to bump on a rock and hurl him and his gang into the courthouse. He was captured and is arrested in the end after crashing into the Hill Valley Courthouse. Griff goes to jail and thus Marty Jr never goes with him on that robbery.

[edit] Back to the Future: The Animated Series

Griff makes a brief cameo in the episode "Solar Sailors" (set on December 15, 2091). His grandson Ziff gets sent to jail after trying to sabotage Marta McFly's (Marty's great grand-daughter) space cruiser, and it is revealed that Griff is also in jail. Whether he has been in jail for 76 years following the Courthouse incident with Marty Jr, or is in for a separate offence, is unclear, though even in the world of 2015, 76-plus years would be a rather stiff sentence for the crimes perpetrated at the Courthouse Mall. Therefore it is likely that 2091 Griff is in jail for a separate offense.

Also, since the animated series establishes a "Biff Tannen, Jr", it would seem that Griff would in turn be Biff Jr's son, though since Griff was born in 1996, that would make Biff Jr somewhere about 14 or 15 years old at the time of Griff's birth (since Biff, Jr was around 10 or 11 in 1992). Then again, since Biff, Jr was a chip off the old block, so to speak, it is not unfathomable to think that junior possibly engaged in reckless sexual practices as a teen.

Back to the Future Characters

The McFly Family Marty McFly | George McFly | Lorraine Baines McFly | Jennifer Parker | Seamus & Maggie McFly | Dave McFly | Linda McFly | Marty McFly, Jr | Marlene McFly

The Brown Family Dr. Emmett "Doc" Brown | Clara Clayton Brown | Jules Brown | Verne Brown | Einstein

The Tannen Family Biff Tannen | Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen | Griff Tannen

Other Characters Mr. Strickland | Marshall Strickland | Match, Skinhead & 3-D | Goldie Wilson | Douglas J Needles