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Quotes

Dr. Emmett Brown: Tell me, "Future Boy", who's President in the United States in 1985?

Marty McFly: Ronald Reagan.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor? Then who's Vice President? Jerry Lewis? I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!

Marty McFly: Whoa! Wait! Doc!

Dr. Emmett Brown: And Jack Benny is Secretary of the Treasury.

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Mistakes

In the first scuffle between Marty and Biff in the school cafeteria, they both grab a hold of each other's shirts until they were stopped by Strickland, but in the next shot, Marty is not holding on to Biff's shirt. See more...

Trivia

In case there is any confusion a Gigawatt (not Jigawatt) does exist, it means 1 billion watts. So, the power required for the flux capacitor is 1.21 billion watts. Whether it could be channeled down cables that easily is another matter. See more...

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Back to the Future (1985) - 45 with pictures

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Sci-fi

Screenshots of mistakes that have been online for less than a year are only visible to members, but the rest are available to everyone. Don't forget to check out the picture of the day, updated daily, and the top 30 screenshots too.

Where is Back to the Future ranked on the ultimate best to worst list? Cast your vote and find out!

Mistakes
Trivia
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Trivia: In the very beginning of the movie, there's a cute little gimmick. In the first scene when Marty arrives at Doc's place and all the clocks are being shown, they show one particular clock (amongst hundreds), but this particular clock has an hour hand and a minute hand and there is a man hanging off one of the hands - foreshadowing Doc's perilous scene hanging from the clock tower much later in the movie. The man isn't actually Doc, but the silent movie star Harold Lloyd, but still a deliberate inclusion, and worth a look.

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Trivia: The amplifier that Michael J Fox blows up at the beginning is labeled as being a CRM-114. This is a reference to Dr. Strangelove, in which the B-52 crews receive their orders over a CRM-114. It was also the serial number of the Jupiter explorer in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) also directed by Stanley Kubrick.

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Continuity: In 1955, when George walks into his house, Marty thinks of Mystery Science Theatre and looks at the vanishing photograph, and at the dance, after George punches Biff and rescues Lorraine, again Marty looks at the vanishing photo. In these two close-ups the thumb holding the photo looks nothing like Marty's thumb/nail in other close-ups, such as when he powers up the amp at Doc Brown's at the start.

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Continuity: When Marty's been thrown back by the amp, the papers on top of him change between the first and second shot. Precisely a Polaroid photo, a poster/map and a vase are missing.

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Visible crew/equipment: White screens used for lighting are reflected on Marty's sun glasses, when he is boosted backwards by the amp.

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Trivia: In the battle of the bands scene, when Marty introduces The Pinheads, Huey Lewis, who provided "The Power of Love" for the film's soundtrack, plays the second judge from the left, and is the one who eventually says, "You're just too darn loud."

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Continuity: When Biff is grousing to George about who will pay his cleaning bill (for spilling beer on his jacket when he wrecked George's car), there is a picture frame on a stand in the background. It's initially facing fairly rightwards, but in the next shot of the argument, it's facing more towards the camera.

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Continuity: When Marty's coming home at the beginning of the film, he's watching the discussion between his father and Biff who complains about the wrecked car and his reports. In the two shots which show Marty, there's a glass full of candies near to him. When Biff steps to the glass and lifts the lid, half of the candies are gone.

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Continuity: At the beginning of the movie after Biff leaves the McFly home. There is a scene where Marty and George are talking. In one shot George has three pens in his pocket, a few seconds later he has two.

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Continuity: Beginning of film. When Marty arrives at Twin Pines as the Doc requested he cruises up alongside Einstein on his skateboard, saying "Where's the doc, boy?" There's a cut to the truck opening, then back to Marty, and for some strange reason the yellow wheels on his skateboard have turned pink, but the reflection on the wet car park is still yellow. It cuts back to the DeLorean coming out of the truck then back to Marty, and his wheels are yellow again. This doesn't happen in the VHS version.

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Continuity: In one shot of Einstein strapped in the DeLorean, if you look closely in between the steering wheel, you can see that the yellow time circuits on the bottom read the month as "10" rather than "Oct."

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Continuity: When Doc and Marty are watching the DeLorean burn out from across the vacant Twin Pines Mall parking lot, the radio control unit's antenna is seen lowered one shot then fully raised in the next, despite Doc not having touched it.

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Continuity: As the Delorean accelerates towards Doc and Marty in the car park, in a shot from the car's perspective they're a few feet apart, then we cut to a close up, and they're right next to each other.

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Continuity: Near the beginning, right after Einstein time travels, Doc walks up to the time machine and says it's cold. He then opens the door and greets Einstein. In this split second you can see Einstein's stopwatch has a non-illuminated LED display, but in the next shot the face has changed to the bright red numbering.

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Continuity: When Marty is being chased by the Libyans, a few times it cuts away to show the instrumentation in the car. The first time the odometer reads 33064.2 and the trip counter says 88.8; the second time it's goes back a little to 33061.8 and 86.4. A few seconds later we see it as he turns the corner, and it goes down again from 33,061.8 to 32,994.4, the trip counter has gone from 86.4 to 19. In fact it's a completely different set of instrumentation - the bottom of the needle's angled in some shots and flat in others.

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Continuity: At the Twin Pines mall during the chase scene with the Libyans, there is one shot were you get a great look at the driver as he's trying to start the engine. Later on you get another look at the driver as the van is moving and it's a totally different person.

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Revealing: When Marty is being chased by the terrorists, there are several shots where it is too obvious that it is not Michael J. Fox behind the DeLorean's windshield.

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Continuity: When Marty lands on Peabody's farm and rams through the pine tree he then hits a scarecrow which flies over the top of his car. Then as they show it from the inside the scarecrow slams into the windshield - but how can it slam into his windshield if it is already over the car?

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Revealing: When Marty first arrives in 1955, right after Mr. Sandman starts playing, you can see a truck directly behind him. If you look closely you can see that the logo on the truck looks like a Miller Beer logo. That's because it *is* a Miller Beer logo. The "Y" is actually a stylized twirl off the "R".

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Continuity: When Marty is in 1955, he is in shock and walking on the pavement when a car comes by. On the first shot when it comes towards him it has two speakers, on the second shot when it's moving away, it only has one. On the second shot of the car with only one speaker, the A-frame sign is also turned the other way.

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