Back to the Future (1985) - 132 mistakes

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.

Continuity: At the beginning, when Michael J Fox is cranking up the amplifier, the dial marked "Primary power" initially rises from 100 - 120, then when he turns the "overdrive" knob, it's back at 110 and goes to max.

Continuity: After Marty has been thrown into the bookshelf after the amp explodes, he is lying on the floor with his left leg bent at the knee. In the very next shot however, he has not moved but both legs are straightened and on top of each other.

Continuity: After the shelves fall on top of Marty, the rubbish on top of him changes between shots.

Continuity: Marty is hitching a ride on the back of a jeep, a wide shot shows him going past and beyond the 'Lou's Aerobic Fitness Center' next to the Texaco garage, there's a cut to his skateboard then back to a medium shot of him going pass the same fitness centre again, this time waving to the people inside.

Continuity: When Marty is riding his skateboard to school in the beginning, he waves to a driver and you can see his wearing a watch on his left hand. However, look at his left hand when he meets up with Jennifer, and you'll see that it's gone.

Audio problem: When Marty's band is auditioning at the beginning of the movie, the drummer's hands are inconsistent with the drumming sounds. Especially obvious when they get cut short and we hear a mini drum roll, which the drummer definitely doesn't play.

Continuity: After the scene where Marty and his band are rejected from the school tryouts, Jennifer and Marty are sitting down and a lady comes by and asks them for change to save the clock tower. After they attempt a kiss, Jennifer's dad calls for her from the car. In the background, an African-American man is standing looking in the window of a building, and then walking right. In the next shot, he has moved all the way to the left and is walking right.

Continuity: Marty's hairstyle changes when Jennifer kisses him on the town square bench.

Continuity: Marty has a brainwave about how to generate the power needed to get back to 1985, and shows Doc the flyer he was given, which Jennifer had written "I love you" on the back of, with her number. Problem is that after Doc grabs the flyer, we can see the back of it, and it's totally blank.

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.

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.

Continuity: George McFly's holding a pen in his right hand, then a cut to a wide shot reveals him not holding a pen as he rests his arm away from his body on the table. Then when the camera cuts back his arm is back in front of him holding the pen.

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.

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.

Continuity: When Doc and Marty are at the Twin Pines Mall and Doc is telling Marty about the car etc, he says "never mind that now, never mind that now..." and Marty has the camera facing the ground, yet later when Doc in 1955 is watching the video, you can see him saying that on the video.

Continuity: When Marty arrives at the Twin Pines Mall at the beginning of the film, he drops his skateboard behind the DeLorean. When Doc starts the car with Einstein in it, the skateboard disappears.

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."

Continuity: When Doc starts up the DeLorean watch the remote when he says to Marty "not me, the car, the car." The counter is static at 00 but the car is moving.

Continuity: At the beginning of the film, when sending the DeLorean into the future, the wide shot shows the DeLorean heading for Marty and Doc then disappears leaving a trail of fire. Notice the cut as the car park goes from being dry to wet with puddles.