Corrected entry: In the scene where Marty is playing Johnny B. Goode, and someone cuts into George and Lorraine's dance, Marty starts disappearing. Then he comes back, pushes the guy down, and kisses Lorraine, resulting in Marty reappearing. But George did that on his own, without Marty interfering, so why should he have disappeared in the first place? He was always going to come back and assert himself - it's not like the timeline was being changed.
Corrected entry: Who wrote the song "Johnny B Goode"? It can't have been Chuck Berry, because his cousin Marvin held the telephone up while Marty was playing the song on stage, and Chuck heard it first then. It can't have been Marty either, because he heard the Chuck Berry version of the song while he was growing up. So we have a paradox - nobody ever wrote the song. Whoops - end of the universe time. (01:27:16)
Correction: Not a paradox at all - originally Chuck Berry wrote it and Marty heard it, but in the altered timeline Chuck Berry got his inspiration from Marty. Not a paradox, just a change.
Corrected entry: After Marty takes a ride from a jeep to get to the classes he is using his headphones, which disappear outside the school.
Correction: When Marty is holding onto the back of the jeep on the way to school, he is shown wearing headphones. After this, the scene ends and it cuts to the next scene, where he arrives at school (without headphones) and some time has gone by. Enough time would have passed in between scenes for him to put the headphones in his bag.
Corrected entry: Early in the film, Mr. Strickland tells Marty that he is a slacker and that he reminds him of his father because he was a slacker too. However, it is extremely unlikely that Mr. Stickland should even remember who George McFly is. How many school administrators can remember some random student from 30 years prior? It would make more sense if he was George's teacher because teachers can have a close relationship with their students, but as a school administrator, there have literally been tens of thousands of students under his watch during his 30 year tenure at Hill Valley High School. It's not as if George ever did anything to stand out. He was not a star athlete or a valedictorian and never did anything noteworthy in his life in the original timeline. He was not a troublemaker either, so it's not as if he would have spent a lot of time in Strickland's office. He should have been a nameless face in the crowd as far as Strickland was concerned, so hard to believe he would still remember such a random person after 30 years. I have only been out of high school for 13 years myself and if I ran into my old principal in the street tomorrow, I can guarantee that he wouldn't be able to remember me to save his life.
Correction: George did do something to stand out. He did nothing! Strickland hates slackers and clearly remembers them. One of my guidance counselors in jr. high was my father's guidance counselor and knew exactly who my father was based on my last name alone 21 years later. Some people just have very good memories for names and faces.
My Elementary School Principal still remembers me by full name and I it's been 30 years since I was his student so yes, it's possible.
Corrected entry: When Marty travels to 1955 it's about 1:35 am but when he is heading downtown the sun is rising.
Correction: If you look at the time readouts, Marty travels to Nov. 12, 1955 at around 6 am. What time it was at the moment didn't matter.
Corrected entry: When Marty escapes the Libyans at the Twin Pines Mall, hits 88mph and ends up in Old Man Peabody's barn, driving in through a large opening in the barn before crashing. However, the cut to the inside of the barn shows no form of entry other than the closed doors the family are entering. In addition the inside of the barn is very small compared to the outside view. (00:30:10 - 00:31:55)
Correction: He doesn't enter the barn where the family enters the barn. He enters through the back of the barn and goes all the way through, hence why the family are facing the lights from the door they enter through, not the back of the car.
Actually there are no openings behind the car when the Peabodys enter so he couldn't have gone through.
The car spun 45 degrees when it enters the barn and comes to a stop. They enter it through the side so what you see behind the car is the other side of the barn, not the back (or front whatever you want) where he came in, that's on the right side of the car.
Corrected entry: On the DVD version, in the scene where Doc gets shot and then later reveals to Marty that he was wearing a bullet proof vest. A vest does not work in the way shown in the movie. It doesn't repel bullets (as shown in the "impact points" in the vest he displays), it absorbs them. Read how a vest works from howstuffworks dot com and you'll see what I mean. In addition, it looks like he is wearing only a Threat Level 2a class vest. An AK47 or similar weapon with a 7.62mm round would go clean through the vest, through Doc, and out the other side thus killing him and ending the story. The only style of vest that can withstand that sort of impact is a Threat Level 3 class vest (the style that specialized units in the military wear). This style is very bulky and is extremely difficult to conceal like Doc did. In addition, it has a ceramic plate in it which would have shattered upon the first impact and failed to protect against multiple impacts from that kind of weapon, and definitely not show "impact points" of twisted metal.
Correction: Doc is a brilliant scientist as well as an inventor. He had the time and the ability to invent his own special material that works like no other material known to man. If he can invent a time machine, I'm sure a bulletproof material would be easy for him.
As he stated in 1955, none of his inventions had ever worked. When he heard about and was shown the Delorean, he was amazed because it worked. I don't think that he would have been able to invent a jacket that repels bullets that great.
He is still a brilliant inventor/engineer that eventually makes the DeLorean run on bio-fuel and makes a train fly. Surely he can invent himself a vest.
Unless he is super paranoid I don't think he thought he would be shot.
Correction: After 30 years it's possible for him to invent the vest. Also, from what I see, the vest hasn't repelled the rounds, as we can see where they've hit as the rounds have impacted the vest.
Corrected entry: The DeLorean has 'Good Year' tyres - this is a deliberate mistake to create an in joke, as the brand is actually 'Goodyear'.
Correction: All the shots of the tires I see are correct. Goodyear's brand has the winged shoe between the "d" and "y" so that it looks like it's "good year." This is what the DeLorean has.
Corrected entry: Steven Spielberg makes a cameo as the jeep driver with a green cap who pulls Marty around the street.
Correction: That is not true. The jeep driver is Walter Scott (who is also credited for his role).
Corrected entry: When Marty begins playing "Johnny B. Goode", the guitar tone is suddenly distorted whereas it was clean in the prior song without him ever adjusting the amp or the guitar's volume knob. The guitar also becomes more distorted during the guitar solo.
Correction: Turning a knob on a guitar takes almost no time at all. He could have easily turned it between shots, or when his back was turned toward the camera.
Corrected entry: When Marty travels back to 1955 the DeLorean first strikes a scarecrow, then drives at high speed into a barn and finally crashes through the barn door to escape. Later, when it returns to 1985, it crashes into a movie theatre front before it can stop. After all this mayhem the DeLorean doesn't have as much as a scratch on its nose.
Corrected entry: After Marty returns to 1985, he discovers that he now has the new Toyota truck he wanted, while the rest of his family is forced to share one car. Why would Marty, the youngest of the siblings, who is still in high school, have his own brand new truck while his older siblings and both parents have to share one other vehicle?
Corrected entry: After Marty reunites his parents, he and his siblings all reappear in the photo and all is well. However, in order for Marty and his brother and sister to exist again, it would mean that Marty's parents would have to have sex at the exact same moment all three times to conceive them. Even if they were a few seconds off, it wouldn't be the exact same three kids. Similar maybe, but not exact. Now that George is more successful, he will be doing many things differently in his life so the chances of him and Lorraine having sex at the exact same millisecond all three times to have those exact three kids is beyond astronomical.
Correction: This is purely speculative. There is no way anyone (other than the filmmakers) can say what "should" have happened in the altered timeline. The odds may be astronomical, but the odds are certainly better than the odds of a plutonium-powered, time-travelling Delorean being invented.
Corrected entry: When Marty is trying to prove to Doc that he is from the future, he shows him his driver's license and the photo of himself and his siblings. Doc immediately dismisses them both. Doesn't Doc notice that the quality of the color in the photos is much better than any color film that existed in the 1950's? Wouldn't that grab his attention?
Correction: If he actually took the time to examine it, maybe. Think about it, if someone walked up and told you he was from the future and showed you a document to prove it, would you believe him and examine it or humor the weirdo and get away as quick as you could?
Corrected entry: If everything that happens in the past, determines what happens in the future,and there in between, then wouldn't it make more sense for the picture of the family, when it starts to come back, to have them dressed differently? Such is the case when they are in the new family scene, when they come back.
Correction: This is a question, not a mistake. There's no reason why they couldn't be wearing the same clothes in the altered timeline.
Corrected entry: When Marty shows Doc the flyer from 1985 about saving the clock tower, this gives them the time that the clock will be struck by lightning, 10:04pm on that coming Saturday (11/12/55). However, the main problem here is that the time is only given in hours and minutes, and since lightning moves at the speed of light, an entire lightning strike lasts only fractions of a second. Doc and Marty have no clue as to what second the lightning will strike during that minute, and it isn't given a thought. In reality this would cause a tremendous dilemma if the Delorean had to pass at a precise second. And since the clock on the tower lacked a second hand, they would need a sychronized watch to determine the second the strike occurs, even if they knew it. In the movie it is assumed the strike occurs at 10:04:00, which is fine, but for more realism they could've added a second hand to the clock to eliminate this plot hole. It would have been stuck in place as the other hands after the lightning strike.
Correction: A second-hand isn't necessary. The second within the minute that the lightning strike occured could have been been determined by an examination of the inner workings of the clock (which stopped functioning after the strike). Such a noteworthy piece of trivia would likely have been included in the Hill Valley Preservation Society's flier. In fact, Doc states as much - that according to the flier the clock is struck at precisely 10:04pm.
Even if they examined the insides of the clock and reported the precise second of the lightning strike in the flier (which is itself improbable), they would only know the time down to the nearest second (and that's assuming the clock tower kept perfect time). 88 miles per hour is about 129 feet per second-at that speed, even being off by a few milliseconds would cause the lightning to miss the DeLorean entirely.
Corrected entry: In the beginning of the movie. From when Doc is shot by the terrorists to when Marty drives away to 1955, a few times the area where Marty is standing at the end of the movie (when he watches the scene again) is visible, yet "Marty" isn't standing there.
Corrected entry: The first time Doc is shot by the terrorists, his gun (which he threw) is visible near the front of the terrorists' van. However, when the scene is shown again at the end of the movie, the gun is nowhere to be seen.
Correction: That doesn't mean anything. The first part was from before Marty changed the past, while the second part is from after his meddling with history. Any of a number of things could have changed. Doc may have very easily acted differently having know what was to happen. If you can find an example of this using conflicting shots that are both before or both after Marty's trip to the past, then you'd have a valid mistake.
Corrected entry: At the very end, Marty tells Doc that he'll have to back up as they don't have enough roads to get up to 88mph. The next shot we see shows the avenue stretching off at least a mile into the distance, with plenty of road to reach that speed. Since the DeLorean was able to achieve 88mph in a parking lot, it should be fairly obvious to Marty that there is no issue with them not having enough road.
Corrected entry: When Marty pulls out of the barn and runs over the pine tree, it's pitch black outside (the sun hasn't risen yet). The subsequent shot shows Marty driving his car and telling himself it's just a dream...now it's complete daylight. Is the Twin Pines Mall/Twin Pines Ranch so far away from Hill Valley that it takes a sunrise's-worth of time to DRIVE from one to the other? Doubtful, since it only took Marty about 15 minutes to skateboard there from his house (and pick up Doc's camcorder along the way).
Correction: He wouldn't show up at the exact time he left 1985, he would show up at the time set on the consule which I belive was 5:30am. Also, it gets pretty bright in the morning even before the sun rises. If you look the sky has a grayish look to it that looks like a overcast day before the sun rises.
Correction: According to the films, the future is never set. For instance, in the third film, at first it's Doc's name on the tombstone, then no one's name, then Marty's name starts to appear, then finally the tombstone disappears altogether. This happens in response to how Doc and Marty act and make decisions. The same idea applies to the dance- when it looks like George is just going to walk away, Marty's existence is in danger, but when George changes his mind and returns to Lorraine, the future has changed, and Marty's existence is secure.
Krista