Continuity mistake: 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. (00:03:15 - 01:23:45)
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:06:10 - 00:07:00)
Suggested correction: There's a time-lapse directly before Marty arrives at school. There was plenty of time for him to remove the watch offscreen.
Continuity mistake: 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. (01:31:20 - 01:36:00)
Continuity mistake: 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. (00:20:05)
Continuity mistake: When Marty McFly is being chased around the town square by Biff and his buddies in the black convertible, an extra set of lights appear under the headlights on the car (goes from a 1946 Ford to a '47/'48). (01:06:45)
Continuity mistake: 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). (00:23:50)
Continuity mistake: 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. (01:03:10)
Continuity mistake: Marty's hairstyle changes when Jennifer kisses him on the town square bench. (00:10:45)
Continuity mistake: Before Doc's time travel demonstration, he shows Marty two synchronized clocks. Here we see Einstein turn his head towards the front of the DeLorean, but in the next frame he's facing the camera instead. (00:20:05)
Continuity mistake: When Biff's gang arrives at the diner for the first time, Skinhead walks behind Marty and plays with a ball. When the shot changes, he is walking behind him again, but this time he is not toying with the ball. (00:38:50)
Continuity mistake: When Marty tells George how to flirt with Lorraine, they both enter the diner and Marty sits on the back of the counter but disappears between shots, only to reappear later on. Also, the extras around him change, although they're all dressed in similarly colored clothes. Check a man in a plaid jacket next to the blonde girl in pink, who disappears when Marty trips Biff. This continuity havoc was due to the combination of Eric Stoltz scenes and new Michael J. Fox reshoots.
Continuity mistake: When young George walks to Lorraine's table to read the poetic lines, the pen in front of her books moves suddenly to being on the right side of the books. (01:04:42)
Continuity mistake: When Marty enters Lou's Cafe for the first time, check a group of people gathered outside next to the doors who say goodbye and leave the place. A shot later, they're all back together, talking. (00:37:46)
Continuity mistake: At the very end of "Earth Angel", after kissing Lorraine, George waves to Marty on stage, who waves back and flexes his right hand, holding it up. It then switches to a wide shot for the end of the song, and Marty's right hand is down on the guitar again.
Continuity mistake: When Marty is holding on to the back of the truck, Biff attempts to hit him with his car. Marty quickly pulls himself to the side of the truck to avoid being hit but in the next shot, he is holding on to the back of the truck.
Continuity mistake: After the DeLorean disappears with the dog inside, flames appear underneath Marty and Doc. In the close-up of their legs, a shot later, the road is spotless and the flames reappear a second later.
Continuity mistake: When Marty is up on stage "disappearing" and yells "George..." (wanting for George to resume the dance with Lorraine and ultimately kiss her), this exact shot of Marty shows him slumping over and appearing very weak, almost on his knees. A split second later showing that same scene (right when George finally walks back to Lorraine) only from the "crowd view", Marty is still standing upright, not slumped, maintaining his composure.
Continuity mistake: In the scene at the beginning of the film where Marty cranks up his giant amplifier, the resulting explosion blows Marty into a shelf which tips over, spilling all of its contents on top of him. In the next shot, despite the shelf having been emptied in the previous shot, papers and file folders continue to fall on Marty.
Continuity mistake: When Marty is playing back the Twin Pines Mall demonstration video for Doc, the camcorder tilts itself between shots, judging by the lens which sits higher above the TV set when Doc starts shouting, "1.21 gigawatts." (00:53:00)
Continuity mistake: After Goldie Wilson arrives at the manure truck scene, we can see onlookers approaching at the street corner in front of Texaco - one of which is the kid who Marty borrowed a skateboard from. But once the shot changes, that same kid is instantly standing on the sidewalk near Marty holding a crate instead. (01:07:35)
