Back to the Future Part III

Corrected entry: When Doc is explaining to Marty about the ravine and the plan to hit 88 mph, you can quickly see Clara in the background, before they introduce her.

Correction: Clara is waiting at the train station for Doc to meet her which is why she's seen.

Corrected entry: Near the end, when Needles challenges Marty to a street race, the smartest thing for Marty to have done was nothing. By speeding away in reverse, he could have just as easily hit another car behind him, with the subsequent chain of events leading, more or less, to the future that Jennifer witnessed in 2015.

Cubs Fan

Correction: Well, Marty didn't know about that future anyway, as Jennifer never told him she found out what caused his failure. Him reversing is a lot more like a definite change in character for Marty, rather than an attempt to change the future. That's what the scene was about. Next to that, he quickly spins the car around without coming to any intersection, so no immediate danger of running into someone.

lionhead

Corrected entry: When Marty returns to 1985, an overhead shot shows the Eastwood Ravine. The camera pans over to ground level and the ravine is gone. The tracks are on the ground and there is no bridge. (01:42:15)

Correction: We just jump forwards a few seconds - the bridge is visible in the background, we just didn't watch him rolling the entire way into town.

Factual error: In 1885, Hill Valley and its surrounding areas are shown as having a desert climate, when in both 1955 and 1985, the climate is grassland. In reality, Nevada County, California (where Hill Valley is supposed to be located) is and always has been grassland and forests, not arid desert.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Hill Valley is in Hill County, as stated at the activation of the clock in 1885.

Corrected entry: When Seamus McFly goes to comfort his crying baby son William, we can see that he is a very affectionate father. This was practically unheard of in the 19th century. Children were routinely beaten for even the smallest infractions at the time, it was the norm. Since William was only an infant, I doubt he would be beaten, but his father would not be so kind towards him either. His attitude would be more like "shut up kid, what are you crying about now?". The whole concept of being affectionate towards one's children is more of a 20th century idea.

calidude

Correction: And yet people are different, no matter the age or cultural norms. Some people are just nicer than others, it has nothing to do with some preconceived notion of how societal norms were for any given time. When my father was a child, it was acceptable to give a wife a backhand if she "got out of line", but he never did.

rswarrior

Correction: It was not unheard of in 1885. Showing affection to children became a trend as early as the 1850s.

Corrected entry: Doc begins telling Marty about his accident with Rolls-Royce, before stopping himself and telling Marty it's better that he doesn't know. How exactly did Doc find out about the Rolls-Royce incident in the first place? When Doc was in the year 2015, he didn't actually talk to Marty or any of his family or Needles, so who told him about the Rolls-Royce incident? At that point, it had happened 30 years prior, so it's doubtful that a minor car crash from 1985 would still be the talk of the town in 2015.

calidude

Correction: In BTTF Part 2, they are there to rescue Marty's son going to jail, which in turn puts his daughter in jail. Doc said he did some research and found that the McFly family gets destroyed, that he traced the fall of the McFlys to that incident of Marty Jr committing the crime with Griff. He obviously found out about the accident while doing the research. Even Jennifer found out about the accident by overhearing family chatter, so it was no secret amongst the McFlys. Also keep in mind, in part one Doc does go to the future, but he is back before we see what he was up to. Marty did tell Doc to look him up when he gets there, so maybe he did speak to Marty.

jshy7979

Correction: A Rolls Royce is hardly a minor car to have an accident with. They are such a rare car, one being in an accident in Hill Valley would be unusual enough to be news.

rswarrior

Corrected entry: It would have been a lot easier for Doc to construct a rudimentary rocket using gunpowder as the propellant than the highly unlikely solution that he ended up doing. He could have attached two pipes, either side of the car. Gunpowder from bullets, shotgun cartridges etc. Wouldn't even need the railroad wheel conversion although I reckon would be better on rails than a dirt road.

Bodragon

Correction: A rudimentary rocket is in no way a better solution to their problem. It would be highly unstable and unlikely to produce enough thrust. A rocket used to accelerate a car to 88mph would need a much more suitable fuel than gunpowder.

Corrected entry: There is still fuel inside the Delorean which Doc hid in the mining shaft. They could take it without any problems, because it will be found in 1955 and then Doc and Marty can refuel it without any problems.

Correction: Doc knows well enough that leaving fuel in the Delorean before hiding it in the shaft would mess up the engine and would not even be good in 1955, so he likely would drain the fuel before sealing up the mine.

ctown28

Deliberate mistake: In the duel with Marty, when Tannen gets fancy spinning his gun, when he places it in the holster the grip is facing forward. They then use effects to turn the gun so the grip is facing back. (01:26:44)

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: No, the gun is spinning on his finger and goes into the holster with the grip facing towards the back, which is completely consistent with the spin of the gun.

Corrected entry: During the train sequence, when it's pushing the DeLorean, there is a wide shot of the green steam coming out of the train. The steam looks computer generated because it is far too bright and appears slightly away from the train. (01:36:40)

Correction: It may look like CGI, but in fact the widespread use of CGI special effects did not happen until the 1990s. Backdraft, from 1991, was the first use of realistic CGI fire, while Terminator 2 had the first realistic human movements generated by CGI. The train scene in BTTF 3 had some interesting special effects (such as the use of miniatures), but CGI wasn't on the list.

Plot hole: Although Marty rips the fuel line, not all the fuel would have drained out of the tank. Only the fuel that was already in the fuel line would have leaked out, meaning it could simply be patched, bled and the engine would run without a problem.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: A cut fuel line could absolutely drain the tank. Even if not a direct route with respect to gravity, it could still create a siphon effect and drain the tank.

Corrected entry: Doc could not have the copy of the pic of him and Marty at the clock of the tower, because Marty has it in the DeLorean when he comes back to 1985.

oswal13

Correction: The technology existed in 1885 to produce duplicate copies of the same photograph. The photographer who took it would certainly be able to do so there and then. Even if that wasn't the case it's not a stretch that someone of Doc's abilities could manage it so that he and Marty could each have their own copy.

Correction: It's certainly possible that they got more than one photograph taken.

Greg Dwyer

Correction: There are several instances of duplicate (doppelganger) items and characters in the same timeline throughout the BTTF trilogy. For example, the DeLorean itself exists two and even three times within the same timeline. Doc and Marty and Jennifer and Biff all exist as doppelgangers within the same timeline. So, a duplicate photograph should be no problem in a storyline riddled with such inconsistencies.

Charles Austin Miller

This is incorrect... there is only 1 Marty, 1 Biff, 1 Doc, 1 Jennifer and 1 DeLorean. Yes, multiple versions may exist at the same time but in no instance is there a copy of the original person or car. For example, in BTTF II in 1955 there are 2 Marty's at the dance at the same time but the 2nd newer Marty is the same Marty from BTTF I. There should only be 1 copy of the picture, on the other hand, because it has not (to the best of our knowledge) been time traveling. The only explanations (for it to not be a mistake and these are still guesses) could be that they had a second picture taken even though it might be an expensive and time consuming process or Doc Brown could have gone into the future and taken it from Marty and, therefore, the picture could exist twice in 1 time period.

The photo time-travels at least twice in BTTF3: Once with Marty in the DeLorean on the explosive return trip, and again a few moments later when Doc arrives in the steam-powered locomotive time machine. We can reasonably assume that there was another, time-erased meeting between Marty and Doc (possibly in the future) wherein Marty explained how the photo was destroyed, prompting Doc to go back to the Old West and procure the photo again. Same exact photo X2, same scene, just as there were multiple characters and vehicles in the same timelines.

Charles Austin Miller

Corrected entry: Okay, we're going to get a bit deep here. Doc and Marty found Doc's grave in 1955. Doc sends Marty back to 1885 to rescue Doc. Now.....remember....all hinges around the image on the picture. Once the grave stone is broken in the fight with Mad Dog Tannen the image of the grave disappears in the photo. Wouldn't the picture disappear too? No grave in 1885 means no grave in 1955 which means no reason to take a picture in the first place. But then again....once the grave is broken then there would have been no grave in 1955 for Doc to see. Therefore he would have never sent Marty back in the first place. HENCE...once the grave was broken....the timeline is fixed and Doc of 1885 would live happily ever after with Clara, Doc of 1955 would just work on getting Marty home, and Marty would have disappeared from the 1885 timeline and things would have continued from when Doc and Marty are digging out the old DeLorean. Told you it was deep.

Correction: Marty took the picture of the grave BEFORE he went back to 1885 and changed the past, so there's no logical reason why the picture itself would disappear. Obviously, he wouldn't take a picture of nothing, but he had already taken the picture, which is why only the grave disappears.

Correction: For all we know, Marty could have been thinking of going back and convincing Doc to return to 1985 anyway, despite being told not to. The gravestone was probably a way of further motivating Marty's idea, but he could have wanted to go back in the first place after realising that he had no other choice.

Corrected entry: Why didn't Doc Brown think of getting the gasoline he needed from the DeLorean he had hidden in the mine?

Correction: He said in the letter that he sent to Marty that he took it out. He could have used it for experiments or just thrown it out.

Correction: Gas loses its combustibility when it sits for a period of three to six months of not being used.

Corrected entry: When Marty time-travels to 1885 and stashes the DeLorean in a desert cave, a black bear inexplicably appears and chases him. There are no bears of any species that inhabit the desert badlands.

Charles Austin Miller

Correction: The fictional town of Hill Valley, California, is not in any desert badlands. In BTTF III, a railway map shows Hill Valley as being in Northern California, near the Sierra Nevada Mountains, where there's lots of bears.

rswarrior

Correction: They may not live in the badlands, but they do travel through them. Several years ago, a bear in New Mexico made a journey of 70 miles through the desert from the forested mountains to the Pecos River near Roswell.

Corrected entry: After Doc went back to 1885, he put the Delorean in an old mine shaft. When Marty went to 1885 to find him he got a hole in his gas tank, and need gas. Well, all they had to do was get some gas out of the Delorean that Doc came back in. Would had saved a lot of time.

Correction: Oil and petrol are normally removed from a car for long-term storage. Although Doc could have kept the petrol he removed... This issue was also dealt with in the DVD commentary, in which it was speculated Doc didn't want to risk reopening the cave, potentially causing a cave-in and thus a paradox if the car can't be retrieved in 1955.

Correction: Gas becomes useless after sitting for a short period unused. It begins to lose its combustibility from oxidation and evaporation, degrading in three to six months.

Corrected entry: Doc Brown can build a time machine but is unable to figure out how to build a still to extract pure ethanol from Whisky in order to use as fuel for the DeLorean. He stated to Clara that he is a "student of all science" so this should include chemistry. Chemists know how to build a still. Doc, however, tried to fuel the car with strong Whisky without distilling it.

Acteon

Correction: He needed a quick solution and thought the whiskey would work. Apparently his expertise does not include the workings of internal combustion engines or he never would have tried it. Pure ethanol would also probably not have worked in the DeLorean.

BocaDavie

Correction: They did not have time to build anything, they were in a hurry to leave before Doc gets killed.

Correction: He would with no problem be able to get that thing to run on ethanol, just a different air fuel ratio bigger injectors so just make bigger holes in the ones you have. Just to run it one time would be no problem.

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Marty returns to 1985, he goes to his house and gets in his Toyota pick-up. Look closely behind his head when he first gets in the truck, there is no driver-side head rest. But when he picks up Jennifer, when they pull up to the stop sign the head rest is there. (01:45:00)

More mistakes in Back to the Future Part III

Doc: Marty, the idea that I could fall in love at first sight! It's romantic nonsense. There's no scientific rationale for it.
Marty: Come on, Doc. It's not science. You meet the right girl it just hits you. It's like lightning.
Doc: Marty, please don't say that.

More quotes from Back to the Future Part III
More trivia for Back to the Future Part III

Answer: He simply has an absurdly low tolerance for alcohol, and whiskey is not a wise choice if this is the case. It helps set up the joke when Marty asks the bartender, "How many has he had?", and he replies by telling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.

Jazetopher

More questions & answers from Back to the Future Part III

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.