Back to the Future Part III (1990) - 48 mistakes

Continuity: When Doc's about to send Marty back to 1885 from 1955, and Marty's dressed up...when Doc's walking back and forth loading up the car - look at the shadow from the building. You see it changes by several feet in a few seconds as the scene was obviously shot throughout the day.

Continuity: When Marty goes back from 1955 to 1885 and meets the Indians, note that none of the Indians shoots any arrows nor do any arrow hit the car. You can see that when he drives the car back into the cave. But when he gets back to the cave after the Calvary ride, a long arrow sticks out on the side of the car.

Continuity: Watch the scene with the Indians (just as Marty sticks the DeLorean into reverse) and see the differences of how close and far the Indians are from the DeLorean.

Revealing: During the sequence with the Native Americans chasing the Delorean in the beginning, in one shot looking up at the sky you can see contrails from a plane, obviously not around in 1885.

Continuity: When Marty is inside the cave (where he hides the DeLorean), keep a close eye on the huge landscape and very large mountains behind Marty when he is screaming at the bear. The entire background changes when he runs out of the cave to just a few hundred yards of ground before it drops down, where Marty falls into the fence. What happened to the vast landscape and mountains?

Continuity: When Marty is walking into the 1885 Hill Valley, he walks past an A. Jones manure hauler, which is embedded in shadow. In the very next shot, not only is he several more metres down from the hauler, the hauler is in sunlight.

Continuity: When Mad Dog is hanging Marty outside the new courthouse, Doc takes aim stood in bright sunlight (when the camera is behind him), but immediately after shooting him down we see Doc from the front, stood in a large shadow.

Continuity: When Marty is at the shooting gallery at the party and has his go, he points the gun in the wrong direction but still the targets go down.

Continuity: While at the dance Marty is showing off at the shooting gallery. After shooting all the targets he twirls the gun and hands it back to the booth operator with the barrel in his left hand. Very the next frame shows the gun in his right hand.

Other: When Clara is waiting for the train to stop at the train station and the train has steam coming from in front of the wheels, as it passes by the camera it jolts the camera.

Continuity: When Doc and Marty are chasing the train, first their shadow is on the left of them, then in the next shot it's on the right.

Continuity: When Doc and Marty are chasing the train on horseback, Doc gets on the train first and his horse pulls forward. Then when the camera shows Marty on his horse, another horse can be seen in front of him. When Marty jumps on the train, his horse falls back. But in the next shot you can still see the horse as it moves off camera.

Factual error: In the shot where Doc and Marty hijack the steam train, the form of the coupling between the tender and the carriages is a 'buckeye coupling'. Not available in 1885. It's seen before they hijack it, so it can't be an invention by Doc.

Continuity: When Clara first sees the train and starts after it on horseback, it is on her right side. She is at the top of a hill and starts down after the train. In the next shot shown from the front of the train you see the horse appear so the train is on Clara's left.

Factual error: At the end of the train scene just before Marty travels to 1985, the train busts through a road block warning that there's only 1/4 mile of track left before the ravine. Keep in mind that the train is travelling at approximately 70-80 mph by this time. At 70 mph (and not even accelerating) it would only take the train 13 seconds to reach the ravine. The actual time in the movie is at least a minute.

Continuity: When the train is coming and is about to run over the DeLorean, the shadow of the train on the wall shows that it is only the locomotive. When the camera changes view, it is a train with freight carriages.

Revealing: At the end, when the train destroys the time machine, right at the moment when it hits (freeze-frame recommended), you can see a small explosion, which was used to trigger the destruction of the time machine.

Continuity: 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.

Continuity: At the very end Doc comes back to 1985 in the train. When the train is slowing down they cut to Marty and Jennifer on the ground and the shadow of the train is not moving. But when they go back to the train it is still slowing down.

Continuity: At the end of the movie, when Doc and his family leave in their newly built train, the neon lights that flash over the front of the train go from left to right. In the next shot, where the train actually rises from the ground, they go in the opposite direction.