When you feel like you’ve seen something before we call that deja vu, but what about when it happens a third time? Deja vu vu? Dejaja vu? Dedeja vu? Whatever you call it, having an identical experience–three separate times, across three different eras in American history–is heavy.

In this video edited by Daniel Rappe, that we came across at The Playlist, he shows how Back to the Future trilogy writer Bob Gale along with director and co-writer Robert Zemeckis made Mart McFly‘s experiences in the 50s, an alternate 1985, and the Old West, all feel familiar to both the character and the audience. Each movie contains a sequence where Marty got knocked out, only to wake up (believing he had been dreaming about time traveling) to his mother (or a relative that looks just like his mom, even though that doesn’t make sense), only to end with the father figure coming home.

I’ve seen these movies roughly 88 times each, and it never occurred to me before right now that Marty most definitely suffered long-term brain damage as a result of having three serious concussions in the span of about a week. Couple that with the untold toll on the human body when traveling through time and space and who knows if he ever recovered physically.

And even if he did, he was probably emotionally scarred from having his mom hit on him while only wearing purple underwear.

Another video like this could be made exploring the use of the square where the clock tower was, as similar incidents, sequences, and shots happened in all three time periods there as well.  Spoiler alert: manure smells terrible, no matter the decade.

What other recurring motifs are contained in the Back to the Future trilogy? Share your favorites with us in the comments below.

Image: Universal Pictures