Back to the Future (1985) - 132 mistakes

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.

Continuity: When Marty is writing the letter to Doc before he goes into the future, the word "disaster" is the only word in the last line. Yet when Doc shows Marty the letter when it has been all taped up, "terrible disaster" is the last line. Also, the handwritring in each letter is different (i.e. Marty's signature). They are two different letters.

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 is standing over his father's bed in 1955 persuading him to date Lorraine, there is a hair-dryer in Marty's belt that seems to disappear between different frames (note the hair dryer's cord leading to Marty's right hand, as he holds it behind his back). Really obvious. [This scene was originally longer, including a part where Marty removed the hair dryer from his belt. Still a mistake, but there's the explanation.]

Visible crew/equipment: When Doc Brown loses his footing on the clock tower as it begins to toll, in the next shot, when he swings about towards the clock the thin black stunt cable attached to his waist, that leads around the neck of the statue, is visible. Do not confuse it with the thick silver electric cable Doc is holding.

Factual error: When Bif is chasing Marty (on the 'skateboard') around the Town Square, you can see sidewalk handicap ramps at the corners. Those didn't come into being until the 70s.

Continuity: In the Cafe of 1955 Marty goes into the phone booth to look up docs name in the phone book, when he finds it the name is on the left hand page yet when he tears it out of the book he tears out the right hand page. One could say he turned the page to tear it right-handed, however when he is asking the waiter if he knew where the address was, he is reading the address on the same side he tore out - check the tears on the edge.

Visible crew/equipment: When the clock tower ledge breaks, Doc Brown slips and loses his grip on the electric cable. In the next shot the stunt wire pulling the thick electric cable towards Doc's pants is visible.

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.

Revealing: When Biff chases after Marty on the borrowed 'skateboard', Marty is wearing a dark grey belt and a red/blue print shirt under his red/beige jacket. However, when Marty is hanging on to the front of Biff's car as they turn a corner (and in another shot), Marty (stunt double) is wearing a light brown belt and solid tan shirt.

Continuity: When Biff and his goon friends are in Biff's car, as they chase Marty on his borrowed 'skateboard', the car's rearview mirror repeatedly disappears and reappears.

Factual error: The electric guitar Marty plays at the "Enchantment Under the Sea Dance" is a Gibson ES335 (or 345 or 355). This guitar model debuted between 1957 and 1958 yet he's supposedly playing it in 1955. It would have been more accurate to have him using a Fender Telecaster (1950) or Stratocaster (1954). The Gibson 335 was not made until 1958.

Revealing: 1955 skateboard chase scene around town square. Note in this scene a metal device has been added between the kicktail and the back truck of the skateboard to create the sparks, then disappears and reappears thoughout the whole chase scene.

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: In 1955, when Marty drives the DeLorean to the 'start here' line that Doc painted on the street, the line and large white lettering are faded and filthy, but when Marty gets out of the car to insert the hook pole, the line and lettering are bright and immaculate. When he finally starts the DeLorean they're back to faded and filthy.

Continuity: When Marty is standing over his father's bed in 1955, Marty puts the headphones on George and then puts the tape in the cassette player. If you notice the hairdryer is on the left side of the belt and is touching his left arm, but when they cut to Marty holding the tape player out in front of him the hairdryer is on the right side.

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: 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.

Continuity: In 1955, when Doctor Brown is watching the video of himself, he sees himself saying that the Libyans are coming. You can hear a significant pause between "They found me" and "I don't know how but they found me." But in the beginning of the film he says the entire phrase without any pauses.

Continuity: When George goes into the cafe to tell Lorraine he is her density/destiny, the people sitting at the bar keep changing with different shots. Best example is just after George refers to his "density" - in the background there's a brunette in a blue jumper at the bar. A blonde woman and a short-haired guy then sit on her left, but then disappear in the shot of Marty sitting at the bar - on the brunette's left there's now another brunette in a pink jumper with a different guy. The brunette's got shorter hair too. In the very next shot the blonde's back with no sign of Marty.

Continuity: When Marty is trying to escape from the van he turns the time circuits on. However, the time circuits were already on - you can see them illuminated when he first puts the car in gear.

Continuity: In 1955, when Marty drives the DeLorean to the large 'start here' line that Doc painted on the street, in the first shot its front is up to the line completely covering the word 'here', with some distance to the last 't' in 'start'. Its position changes in following shots, such as when Mart tries to start the stalled car in the exterior shot, the DeLorean's front end is farther back with the word 'here' perfectly visible.

Continuity: While being chased by the terrorists Marty passes the J C Penny's store, drives a little farther and passes it again. Just before the Libyans aim their rocket at Marty, their van changes from about 100 yards from the store to right in front of it in less than a second.

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: 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.

Continuity: After Marty borrows the improvised skateboard from the boy, in the first close-up of his feet his tied looped laces are extremely short, but when he climbs over Biff's moving car and then lands on the skateboard, the length of his tied looped laces is significantly longer. It shortens again thereafter.

Continuity: When Biff's car slams into the manure truck, in the first shot the side of the truck is adjacent to the car's back passenger door, but in the next overhead shot the side of the truck is adjacent to the front windshield.

Continuity: When the clock tower tolls at 10:00, Marty rushes to the DeLorean and as he drives off there are two huge cable spindles at the curb's red edge, near the cloth (lying on the street) that covered the DeLorean. In the next overhead shot, with Doc Brown on the ledge, the cable spindles are gone down below.

Revealing: When the DeLorean is struck by lightning near the end of the film, if you look closely, you can see that there is no one in the car. You may have to look closely, but you don't need to zoom in to see it. Also, since they never re-shot this scene, you can see it in all three Back to the Future films.

Continuity: 1955 Skateboard Chase Scene around Town square. After Marty falls over the couple, a shot of Biff's car shows all the passengers standing up, yet in the very next frame everyone is sat down.

Continuity: 1955 Skateboard Chase Scene around Town square. Thoughout the whole chase scene two visible different stunt drivers are used to drive the two different models of Biffs' Ford.

Revealing: In the 1955 skateboard chase scene around the town square, note how the skateboard used throughout the whole chase scene changes at least 4 times. Namely different wheels, trucks and the trucks' wooden mountings.

Continuity: While Doc is waiting for Marty to get back from the dance, he looks at the watch on his left hand, his pocket watch, and the watch on his right hand. When he looks at the watch on his right hand, he is wearing it on the inside of his wrist. Then, as he is running around the car, he has no watch on his right wrist at all. Moments later, as he is pointing down the street, it is on the outside of his right wrist. When they are checking the alarm clock, he holds it in front of the alarm clock to check the time, and the watch is still on the outside of his right wrist.

Continuity: In the cafeteria, when Mr. Strickland is glaring at Marty and Biff, the table Marty was sitting at with George is behind him. When Biff leaves there is a close-up of the table and both the lunch tray and Marty's jacket have changed positions significantly from the previous shots (George had already left).

Continuity: After the dance, when Marty arrives at the clock tower in Doc's car (across the street from the DeLorean), he parks precisely midway between the two stores. As the clock tolls, Marty jumps into the DeLorean, and, in the overhead shot as Marty drives off, Doc's car is directly in front of the store with the blue awning.

Continuity: At the clock tower, after the tree limb falls, Doc Brown grabs the loose, messy bundle of rope and instructs Marty, but in the next shot when Doc runs up the stairs, the rope is tied up in a rather tidy bundle. This rope bundle changes yet again as he rushes up and then reaches the top.

Continuity: In 1955, when Doc Brown pulls Marty's letter out of his coat pocket, he either holds the envelope at its short side edge or at its long top edge, depending on the angle of the shots.

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: 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.

Continuity: As Marty drives the DeLorean towards the clock tower, if you look carefully you can see that he drives past the 'Bluebird Motel' billboard at least 3 times (which is where he started from) and drives past that small building with the slanted grey roof in the square about 4 times.

Continuity: At the dance, when Marty is parked with Lorraine, Biff reaches into the car and grabs the front of Marty's shirt/tie, but in the next exterior shot, Biff now has got hold of the back of Marty's suit.

Revealing: When Biff chases Marty out of the cafe in 1955 and Marty 'makes' the skateboard, there is an odd shot of a tree. When Biffs car drives through the grass, the big tree in the shot is shaking violently. All the trees are completely still during the chase before and after this shot. Looks like a big wind fan was pointed directly at it, but very out of place.

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

Other: Beginning of film. Twin Pines Mall. When Marty escapes the Libyans at the Twin Pines Mall, hits 88mph and ends up in Old Man Peabody's barn, note how the car drives 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.

Continuity: When the Doc is trying to pull the cable to connect it the cable is stuck and when he pulls the cable hard the other connection breaks off. Watch when it breaks off you cn see that after Doc pulled it the cable gave him more length and would surely get Doc's arm to the other cable but when they show the Doc a second after he hasn't moved one bit.

Continuity: When Marty is being chased on the skateboard in 1955 he skids rounds a corner and you can see that this scene had been shot before as there are skid marks there from previous takes.

Factual error: Marty McFly goes back in time to visit his mum-to-be and finds her watching an episode of The Honeymooners. The date is given as November 5, 1955 and yet the episode of the show - The Man From Space - was not screened until December 31, 1955.

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.

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: When Doc points out that Einstein's watch is in sync with his, the LED display changes from being off in a wide shot to on in the closeup.

Continuity: During the Johnny B. Goode song, the mike cable's position keeps changing depending on the shot, despite no-one touching it.

Audio problem: Lorraine comes to see Marty in Doc's garage in 1955 to ask him if he will go to the dance with her. Just before Lorraine moves to the other side of the car from where she walked in, she begins to say something to Marty. The problem is that her lips don't move when she talks, I guess the right clip ended up on the editing room floor.

Continuity: In the chase scene with Marty and the Libyans, Marty is driving away from them. He changes into second gear but in the next shot he shifts into second gear again without changing back.

Revealing: Right before the white smoke shoots out of the time machine after Einstein came back from the future in the beginning of the film, you can see the 2 fire extinguishers built in to shoot out the "smoke".

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: When Marty gets out of the DeLorean to look at the "Lyons Estates" markers it is supposed to be a little past sunrise. The shadows should be very long, but all of the shadows are small. The scene must have been shot much closer to noon.

Continuity: When the lightning bolt hits the clock tower in 1955 and sends the DeLorean back to 1985, Doc Brown gets up and looks at the clock tower. What happened to that awful lightning storm of only a few seconds earlier? Not even a trace of wind is present in Doc's hair.

Visible crew/equipment: When Marty crosses the park in front of the court house and the camera pans around following Marty while showing the town, watch one of the building in the middle background. Part of the building is grey and has 2 windows and is supposed to have a slanted roof but if you watch closely, it appears that building is in fact only a wall with nothing behind it.

Revealing: When Biff and his gang are chasing after Marty in their car around the Courthouse Square, in the shots that takes place in the Courthouse yard, you can see that it's Biff's stunt double that's driving.

Visible crew/equipment: In the scene in the beginning where Marty meets up with Doc for the first time, Doc shows Marty how the DeLorean works with the remote control with Einstein in the car. In the shot that switches to see Doc put the car in reverse on the remote control, you can clearly see a crew member manually steering the car in a dog costume (You can even see his hands turning the steering wheel).

Continuity: When Marty and George are in the cafe talking about Goldie Wilson being mayor, George's head is turned facing Marty, but the next second his head is turned the other way.

Continuity: When Marty arrives in 1955, he puts the DeLorean behind the sign, and walks into Hill Valley. When Marty and the 1955 Doc come back later, the DeLorean is facing the other way round to what it was at the beginning (you can tell because at the start Marty pushes the BACK of the DeLorean AWAY from the Lyon's Estates billboard, but when they come later, the FRONT is facing TOWARDS the billboard).

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.

Continuity: Cafe 1955, when Marty enters for first time. The arrangement of the coats on the rack to the right hand side of the cafe doors change upon Marty's initial entrance and returning to the counter after using the phone booth.

Continuity: Whilst George McFly is pegging out the laundry, Marty is explaining his plan as to how he can make Lorraine fall in love with him. At the start of the scene, both of Marty's breast pocket flaps are untucked. After putting the bag down, one tucks itself in, then they return to normal when Marty says "let's go over the plan again".

Continuity: When Marty is at the "Start" line waiting for the alarm clock to ring, he moves up his return time and the engine stalls out. Next we see Marty turning an ignition key with several other keys on a chain like the ones used on ceiling fans with the little balls and a plastic fob with the paper insert that reads 555-1138 Out-A-Time on it. After Marty arrives back In 1985 in town square, he pauses and gets out for a moment. While returning the the car he puts the DeLorean in drive and again the car stalls out. Again we see Marty restarting the DeLorean, we see a different set of keys. The key mysteriously changed in the time travel to an after market type with a thin wire ring on it, no key fob and the other keys are missing.

Continuity: When the DeLorean sets off for the lightning strike, you can see it leaving tracks and spray on a wet road, later there is a close up of one of the wheels, which shows the road to be dry. Throughout this scene the road appears to alternate between wet and dry, during what is supposed to be a storm.

Continuity: As Doc turns the plutonium jar on the back of the DeLorean, the little thing sticking out of the jar slides greatly down, without any motion of moving.

Continuity: As Doc reacts to the icy DeLorean, the door Doc was about to pull open barely has any ice on it, but when Doc opens the door with his foot, more ice is on it, then melts after Einstein runs back into Doc's truck.

Continuity: When Marty gets hit by the car and wakes up in Lorraine's bedroom. She constantly calls him Calvin. Marty says "Calvin, why do you keep calling me Calvin"? When he says this he puts his arm on his lap. In the next shot behind him when Lorraine replies, his hand/arm is by his side.

Continuity: When Marty was recording, Doc never hesitated between "reaction" and "to", then when they are watching the tape, he hesitates a little.

Continuity: When we first see the machine in action, the travel is shown from three different angles. In the second, a line of fire passes directly between Doc's legs, but in the third angle, they pass to the left of both of his legs.

Continuity: In the scene where Marty tells George his plan for getting Lorraine to go to the dance with him, Marty's shirt is sometimes tucked in and sometimes not.

Continuity: Before his parents kiss, Marty's right hand begins to disappear. As he slumps to the floor both hands are visible holding his guitar.

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: In the scenes where Marty enters the Lyon estates, if you look close you can see a stop sign, but if you watch the next two movies the stop sign has been removed.

Continuity: Towards the very end of the film when George and Lorraine are unpacking George's new book, you will notice in the close-up of Lorraine's hands that they are actually someone else's for that shot. They are very aged and much larger than her real hands, which you can compare right away when the camera goes back to full view.

Continuity: When Marty is at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and is about to disappear, he puts up his right hand and it starts to disappear. On the very next shot of him, he is putting down his left hand.

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: When Goldy (or Golby?) says, "Mayooorr", George is facing Marty. Then when Goldy starts saying, "Now that's a good idea," George is facing Goldy, without any motion of turning.

Continuity: The time machine is gone for 1 minute and 20 seconds - not just 1 minute.

Continuity: When Marty rides to the mall he is riding his skateboard, but after Doc comes out in the car, it's gone, then at the end of the film when Doc drops off Marty he has it again.

Continuity: In the scene after Marty returns to 1985 he jumps out of the DeLorean to verify he's back and then jumps back in the car to go save Doc at the mall. In the shot where he's putting the car in gear, you can read part of the yellow "Last Time Departed" display on the time circuits as "1985, 1:20AM", and in the shot where he's trying to start the car, you can read "Oct". It should read "November 12, 1955, 10:04PM" since that was the time he just left. On top of all that, the display appears to relate to when Einstein traveled a minute into the future (you can see when Doc shows Marty the time circuits after he lets Einstein out that the "Last Time Departed" is "October 26, 1985, 1:20AM"), not when Marty traveled back to 1955 (October 26, 1985, 1:35AM). You could argue that the "Last Time Departed" display is not working properly, but Doc uses Marty's last time departed (October 26, 1985, 1:35AM) to set Marty's destination time when he's returning to 1985.

Continuity: Lorraine Baines' hands are on her hips, a brief cut to Marty and back and she now holding a cup and saucer at chest height. You could argue she had enough time to pick it back up, but this would seem odd as she's only just put it on the table.

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: When Michael J Fox's parent kiss and the family picture (with everyone standing on the grass) gets fixed, Michael places the photo on the guitar, gets very happy and starts playing the guitar enthusiastically. Seconds later, a brief shot of the guitar shows the picture empty: just the green grass, no people in it.

Continuity: When Marty is playing at the dance the picture on the guitar disappears in some shots.

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: When Marty is being chased on the scooter turned skateboard, he is hanging onto the corner of a blue truck. Biff tries to smash him between the two, and the camera shows him pulling himself along the side of the blue truck, then hanging off the back corner again.

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 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?

Other: When the Libyans shoot at Doc Brown and the bullets hit his van they leave no bullet holes, just impact sparks.

Continuity: When the JVC recorder is first played the screen on the TV is a blue colour. Later when Doc is playing the Lybian part again and again the screen seams to be a brownish colour.

Continuity: When Marty leaves the Peabody farm and turns onto the paved road, it has solid white lines marking the sides of the road. A few seconds later, Marty is shown driving down a road without white lines on the sides, even though he's apparently only driven a short distance down the road.

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: Enchantment under the sea dance: In addition to the comment about Strickland's hands covering his ears twice note some of the people around him have either moved or disappeared.

Continuity: In the escape from Biff on the skateboard, Marty collides with a couple near some steps. His skateboard is left at their feet, but after a cut his skateboard's now behind the woman's head in an ideal place for Marty to grab it. The papers thrown in the air suddenly multiply and appear on the ground (under the people, which means they must have dropped the papers first before falling over!).

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 the cafe, the menu in front of Marty changes after Biff leaves. It starts looking like an ice-cream menu, with swirly lines at the top, but just before the future mayor comes into shot, the design on the front changes completely.

Continuity: When Marty is running through the car park you can see a person in the background in one of the shots but they disappear in the next shot, then re-appear again.

Factual error: When Doc is having the DeLorean do the burn out to get the car up to speed, the car is spinning its wheels up to 65 mph and Doc releases the brake. Now the car takes off, but the car would lose most of the speed the tires had built up as it is starting from essentially a dead stop even though the speedometer still shows 65 mph. Think of it this way, the back tires may be moving at 65 mph but the front tires are not. There is no physically possible way for a car to jump from 0 to 65 mph instantaneously using only its tires no matter how fast they were rotating. Even an F/A-18 needs a catapult to get that kind of speed so quickly.

Continuity: Right when the movie begins, a machine opens a dog food can and then pours it in the dog's bowl. When pouring the food, the can isn't moved around at all, but after the food drops, the label is missing a piece.

Continuity: School Cafeteria 1955, Biff groping Lorraine Baines. Between Marty trying to convince George McFly that Lorraine fancies him and pulling Biff off Lorraine, note the dis/reappearance of the child in a blue/red t-shirt and a man in a blue shirt/tank top sat at the table behind George.

Continuity: After Doc send Einstein back in time it shows fire trails on the pavement. Marty's leg is right in a flame, yet he doesn't seem to feel any pain at all.

Visible crew/equipment: When Marty is riding past the cafe on his skateboard and all the chicks are waving at him, you can see the reflection of the camera lorry and crew behind him.

Revealing: Marty finds Doc's name in the phone book; when he sees the name, then runs his fingernail over to the phone number. Look closely at the phone book; it has several creases across the same place where Michael J. Fox ran his fingernail from previous takes.

Continuity: Doc sends Einstein (the dog) one minute into the future, but he's actually gone for 1 minute 17 seconds.

Continuity: When Marty is using the phone to call Doc while he is in the diner, his watch (which is on his left arm) starts beeping and the guy behind the counter gives him a strange look. Marty rips out the phone book page and asks the guy behind the counter where XXX Riverside Drive is. Marty is no longer wearing the watch which he just had on seconds earlier.

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.

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".

Continuity: After the clock tower's ledge breaks and Doc's hanging off the edge, we see a shot from below, then of Doc looking straight up at the clock, which changes to 10:03. But look at the clock in the below shot: the minute hand ticks over behind him, then moves again in the close-up.

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.

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

Continuity: Just as Marty is going to be set back to 1985, the camera keeps showing shots of Marty, and the lightning poles coming closer and closer to him. Now Marty is supposed to be going 88MPH and mostly every shot just as the lightning is about to strike is basically the same distance from the lighting poles to the car.

Continuity: When George and Marty are talking outside the diner and George opens Marty's coke bottle for him, George's hair is all stringy and hanging down in his face. But when it cuts to another angle, it's neatly combed over to one side.

Continuity: When Marty puts the letter in Doc Brown's jacket pocket he puts it in the right one (from the way the pocket is slanted, plus we see the buttons right next to it) but when Doc pulls it out it is in the left one.

Continuity: When Marty is filming the Doc in the parking lot, Doc says that he needs '1.21 gigawatts' to power the time machine. Marty then says 'Doc, you don't just walk into a store and buy plutonium.'. However, when Marty and the Doc of 1955 are listening to it on his TV, the Doc keeps talking after he says '...of electricity I need'.

Deliberate "mistake": The 45's advertised as new releases on the record store sign actually came out at different times throughout 1955. A true selection of new releases from early November 1955 would have most likely included minor hit singles that 80's moviegoers wouldn't have recognized. The songs listed were some of the biggest hits of that year and were obviously chosen for their ability to help set the musical tone of the time.

Continuity: After Einstein comes back Doc Brown is demonstrating to Marty how to set the time machine. He simply pushes the buttons on a key pad. To set it for July 4, 1776 he punches 3 buttons. To set it for December 25, 0000 he punches 6 buttons. To set it for November 5, 1955 he punches 12 buttons. Later, when Marty is resetting the time machine to go back 10 minutes early he punches 7 buttons (all not including the ENTER button on the keypad).

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: After Doc accidentally unplugs the cable and is sending Marty back, he unplugs the cable 15 seconds later and it shows Doc, and the clock's hand change. A split second later the clock's hand changes again.

Revealing: When Doc is using a remote control to drive the DeLorean, they show a close-up of the controller. The controller's power meter (the dial with a needle in the middle) shows no power - it's right over to the left. How's he driving with no battery?

Continuity: Inconsistent mileage progression on the DeLorean at the beginning of the movie has already been noted. However, mileage when Marty is going back to the future is also inconsistent, both in those scenes and with the beginning of the movie. As Marty is driving toward the cable, the mileage is shown as 33051. Just as Doc begins to slide down to reattach the cable, the odometer is visible again and shows 33044. These scenes were obviously filmed out of sequence, and were filmed before the beginning scenes (32994, 32064, etc) of the movie.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Doc Brown leaves Marty at his house, he then backs up the DeLorean, turns the car around and passes in front of Marty doing 35 mph at the most, but just as he leaves the frame you can hear the swishing noises the car makes when it travels through time. No way could Doc have reached 88mph.

Continuity: When Lorraine gets George's book out of the package, the bracelet she is wearing on her right arm is down by her wrist in the close-up. In the next shot as George takes the book from her, that bracelet has moved up her arm and is hidden under her sleeve, so when she puts her arm down and then places her arm around George's waist we see that the bracelet has slipped back down to her wrist. (It doesn't disappear, it changes positions between shots.)

Revealing: At the end, the DeLorean hits the left dustbin and comes to a halt - you can easily see that it's not Christopher Lloyd driving, it's someone with a much bigger build, wearing an awful white wig.

Revealing: When Marty McFly is being chased around the town square by Biff and his buddies in the black convertible, the car starts out as a 1946 Ford. In the shots where the car comes dangerously close to Marty, the front end of the car is a 1947-48 (parking lights on the '46 are rectangular and just to the inside of the headlights; on the 47-48, they are round and BELOW the headlights).

Continuity: When Martly finishes his rambunctious guitar solo at the dance the camera pans the crowd. In the distance on the left we see Mr Strickland uncovering his ears. After this they show a close up of him uncovering his ears again.

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.

Visible crew/equipment: In the opening scene, when the TV turns on as the news comes up, you can see a man with a white shirt in the reflection of the TV.

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

Visible crew/equipment: At the end of BTTF they all pile into the DeLorean which reverses up to the camera where the matte box and what looks like the top of the cinematographer's head are reflected in the chrome number plate.