Back to the Future Part III (1990) - 14 questions

Question: When Marty and Doc are on the train at the end, and Clara shows up, Doc says that Clara will have to go with them to 1985. Why does Doc say that? Someone submitted a correction saying that Clara is better off in 1885 because she was supposed to die so staying in her own period is better than going to the future, so why would Doc suggest such a thing?

Answer: Simply because, believe it or not, it's hard for Doc to kill someone through inaction. He saved her life when she was supposed to die. But that doesn't mean it'd be easy for him to do nothing now and just let her die when he knows he can do something to save her. And by taking her to the future, he is likely thinking he can avoid any other complications that may arise from the fact that she is still alive when she's already supposed to have died.

Question: I don't know if this is true or just an urban legend, but did Michael Jackson body double (from the waist down) for the moonwalk/dance moves that Marty did during the scene where Mad Dog Tannen shot at his feet?

Answer: There appears to be purely an urban legend. While the repeated use of lower-body shots does suggest that Michael J Fox didn't perform the moves himself, there's no evidence that indicates that it was Jackson himself who stepped in. In the end, the moonwalk is not actually a particularly complicated dance move; if Fox didn't do it himself, it would not have been difficult for the production to locate somebody with a matching build who could do the steps.

Question: When the 1985 Doc is suddenly transported back to 1885 at the end of BTTF 2 and Marty discovers that he has been murdered, because there is a Doc in 1955 that has already been born after the 1985 Doc has died in the West, why did he go to the trouble of going all the way back to 1885 when Doc was still alive? Is there any actual legitimate time travel reason for this, or did he just do it out of instinct to help his close friend?

Answer: According to the letter, Doc plans to live out his life in 1885. But as it turns out, Doc gets murdered a week after sending the letter. Knowing that Doc's plan to live out his life don't come to fruition, and because he's a good friend, Marty travels to 1885 to save him.

Question: When they discover they have no gasoline for the DeLorean, they go through all sorts of trouble to get it up to 88mph. Now it's obvious things fade away and into existence in this movie, as it did with the newspapers and matchbook. Wouldn't it have made more sense to go to the mine where the time machine was buried and write on the wood, "Bring can of gas"? Wouldn't a can of gas then materialize in the trunk of the DeLorean and they could go home?

Answer: There's already been enough meddling with the timeline without deliberately resorting to that sort of thing. If they can get the car up to speed with the stuff they've got available to them in that time period, it's the safest option to take.

Question: Doc Brown shows up at the end of part three with his wife Clara, his two boys, and a time-traveling, hovercraft-converted train. How did he build it? There was nothing in 1885 that could even begin to help him build another time-machine! And don't tell me that he used Marty's 'hoverboard' as parts, because that doesn't wash.

Answer: Time machines don't actually exist, so who are we to say whether or not the parts to build another time machine are available? Doc Brown is an inventor. Besides, he could have used the Delorean stashed in the cave to travel to the future to retrieve the parts he needed for the train, then hid the Delorean back in the cave for Marty to uncover in 1955.

Question: When Marty is in the bar at the morning of the showdown, Seamus shows up there saying something told him that he should be there, as if his future depended on it. Was he right? Did what happened that morning affect Seamus' future?

Answer: Seeing as how Seamus is one of Marty's ancestors and something significant to Seamus' future DID happen that day (Marty didn't get killed), Seamus was definitely right.

Question: On the movie timeline website it says that on November 6 2012 America elected a female President, and that this fact comes from Back To The Future Part III. Where in the film is this mentioned?

Answer: It's actually mentioned in Part II, when Marty and Doc are reading the newspaper. If you look at the headlines on the left side of the page, one of them reads, "President says she's tired of..." As this is in 2015, pending changes to US election dates, she must have been elected on November 6th 2012.

Question: At the end of the movie, Jennifer asks Doc about the note she got from the future that became erased when Marty did not participate in the race with Needles. Doc's answer to her question is that her future had not been written yet, and he goes on to say that no-one's future has been, but if that is so, then how come in the previous movies he could travel into the future with Marty to see Marty's future?

Answer: What they saw was one possible future, not a definitively laid down one - one of the key plot devices in the series is that making changes in the past will affect the future. As such, what Doc's saying is that, while they've seen one possible future, actions that they take in the present can change it for the better (or worse).

Question: Why did Doc faint when he drunk the Liquor?

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 be teling Marty, "Just the one", as we are meant to think Doc has been in the bar all night drinking away his sorrows.

Question: What is the name of the music that plays right after the mayor gives his speech at the clock dedication?

Answer: The song is an acoustic version of the song "Doubleback" by ZZTop. They are also the band playing the song in the movie.

Question: Why does everyone say that using parts of the DeLorean that Doc had buried in the abandoned mine could create a time paradox? Firstly, that is never stated in the actual movie. Secondly, if say Marty and Doc use the part on the buried DeLorean to fix the DeLorean that broke due to the explosion caused by the extremely strong alcohol and then again try to run the DeLorean using alcohol that's not so strong, the 1955 Doc would be able to obtain the missing piece of the buried DeLorean. So, technically, there's a plot hole. Why then does everyone say that that's not possible?

Answer: If they dug up the buried DeLorean and stripped it for parts to repair the other one, then it would become non-functional. As such, with no replacement parts being available in 1955, Marty would not then be able to use it to come back in time to rescue Doc - which he's already done. There's your paradox.

Question: On the time traveling train there is the initials E.L.B, does anybody know what this stands for?

Answer: ELB are the Doc's initials - his name being Emmett L. Brown. Earlier in the film these initials were also seen on a plank of wood in the mine indicating to Marty where the time machine had been buried for 70 years.

Question: Is "Googolplex" an actual word?

Answer: Yes. A "google" is the number 10 raised to the 100th power, or a 1 followed by 100 zeroes. A "googleplex" is an even larger number - 10 raised to the power of a "google", or represented as 1 followed by a "google" zeroes.

Question: How did Doc power the Flux Capacitor on his new time-traveling train?

Answer: Steam, the whole thing is steam powered. He has just modified the train itself, probably making it much more efficient.