Corrected entry: The camera that Doc Brown used was a JVC GR-C1, (produced in March 1984) (Also, this particular camcorder was the first built in camera also to feature a tape deck built in).
Chad_BronsonCorrected entry: When Doc is on the clock tower attempting to reconnect the cable, he pulls it and disconnects the other end (indicating the cable has just enough slack to touch the ground from point A and then be inches short of point B). Doc then connects the cable and then ties the cable around the clock hands. The other end of the cable is only held by a fallen branch, if he were to really propel down the cable, he would have gone completely vertical down. When he lands, the cable would have been shorter due to him tying it to the clock hands. Also a shock of 1.21 gigawatts would have landed him in the hospital if not the funeral home.
Correction: Several "mistakes" in one entry, that alone should have gotten this entry rejected. The cable is more than long enough in a more or less straight shot from one end to the other. The branch is keeping from being a straight shot. That's why, even though it's wrapped arond the clock hand, it's still long enough after Doc disentangles it form the branch. If all of Doc's weight, and whatever more leverage he gained by pulling against the clock hand, wasn't enough to move the branch, him rapelling down the cable wouldn't have moved it either. It was stuck in place. The jolt he got wasn't a full 1.21 gigawatts either. The cable was surely insulated and he was wearing gloves, also certainly insulated, if I remember that small bit correctly.
Phixius
Corrected entry: "Back to the Future" was originally going to be called "Space Zombies from Pluto."
DeathGawdCorrection: Untrue. There was an MCA entertainment exec, noted for his often odd studio notes, who suggested (during post-production) that this should be the title of the film (as this is the title of the comic young Peabody shows to his folks when Marty arrives in 1955). But it was never given serious consideration and was certainly never a used title.
JC FernandezCorrected entry: In the beginning of the movie. From when Doc is shot by the terrorists to when Marty drives away to 1955, a few times the area where Marty is standing at the end of the movie (when he watches the scene again) is visible, yet "Marty" isn't standing there.
Correction: Marty has changed history in subtle (name of the mall changes) and not-so-subtle (hip parents; Doc survives) ways. The scenario may simply have played out a little differently this time around.
JC FernandezCorrected entry: The first time Doc is shot by the terrorists, his gun (which he threw) is visible near the front of the terrorists' van. However, when the scene is shown again at the end of the movie, the gun is nowhere to be seen.
Correction: That doesn't mean anything. The first part was from before Marty changed the past, while the second part is from after his meddling with history. Any of a number of things could have changed. Doc may have very easily acted differently having know what was to happen. If you can find an example of this using conflicting shots that are both before or both after Marty's trip to the past, then you'd have a valid mistake.
Garlonuss Corrected entry: The license plate of the time machine is spinning on the road in the middle of the fire tracks - further down the track than where Doc and Marty stand. But the car (and therefore the license plate) was never there. It had already 'jumped'. Otherwise the license plate had to pass through Marty.
Jacob La CourCorrection: Having just watched the scene in question, I can confirm that that is incorrect. It may be confusing because they turn their bodies to look at where the car would have been. They then turn back forward to the last place that they saw the car which is what Marty was then focusing on. After it shows the plate spinning, the next shot shows Marty and Doc facing the camera, and also the plate.
KneverCorrected entry: At the very end, Marty tells Doc that he'll have to back up as they don't have enough roads to get up to 88mph. The next shot we see shows the avenue stretching off at least a mile into the distance, with plenty of road to reach that speed. Since the DeLorean was able to achieve 88mph in a parking lot, it should be fairly obvious to Marty that there is no issue with them not having enough road.
Correction: He's talking about road without intersections. It'd be less than desirable to ram into the side of someone's car at 87 miles per hour.
Phixius Corrected entry: When Marty pulls out of the barn and runs over the pine tree, it's pitch black outside (the sun hasn't risen yet). The subsequent shot shows Marty driving his car and telling himself it's just a dream...now it's complete daylight. Is the Twin Pines Mall/Twin Pines Ranch so far away from Hill Valley that it takes a sunrise's-worth of time to DRIVE from one to the other? Doubtful, since it only took Marty about 15 minutes to skateboard there from his house (and pick up Doc's camcorder along the way).
Matty BlastCorrection: He wouldn't show up at the exact time he left 1985, he would show up at the time set on the consule which I belive was 5:30am. Also, it gets pretty bright in the morning even before the sun rises. If you look the sky has a grayish look to it that looks like a overcast day before the sun rises.
Corrected entry: When Marty shows the video to the 1955 Doc, the 1985 Doc on the video states their location as the "Twin Pines Mall". Since Marty already knocked down one of the pines, the mall should've already been renamed to "Lone Pine Mall" on the video.
Correction: The timestream in the Back To The Future series is demonstrated as being somewhat resistant to changes; when Marty interferes with his parents' first meeting, he doesn't start to fade out for about a week after that happens. When Marty shows Doc the video, not enough time has passed for the effects of the timeline change to appear on the tape.
Tailkinker Corrected entry: Towards the end of the movie when Marty is driving down the street in 1955 to go back to 1985, Doc is trying to get the electricity cables back together for the lightning needed to send Marty back to the future. Doc then slides down the cable to connect the cable to the other one over the street. As he's about to connect the cable, the lightning strikes. He then has at least half a second to connect the cable and he does. But the lightning takes at least two seconds to get from the tower to the car. This is way to slow for electricity. Electricity can move around the world four times in a second.
AidanNCorrection: The velocity of electric current depends very much on the insulation of the wiring being used. For instance, in open air (such as lightning) electricity is very fast, but within rubber-insulated wiring, it is slower.
JC FernandezCorrected entry: When Marty goes back to Nov. 5, 1955, the time is set for 8:30 AM. When he arrives he walks around a bit in amazement and then heads towards Hill Valley. The sign he passes says "Hill Valley 2 miles." When he gets there, look at the clock tower, the time is about 8:30 (give or take). He couldn't have run the two miles in under a minute even without hiding the DeLorean.
Correction: No such thing occurs. When he's being chased by the Libyans at the mall, the display reads the destination time at sometime during the 6 o'clock hour (the minutes are not visible). This is the last time we can see the precise time on the time circuit display until the night of the storm. Regardless, in the scene in question, the time circuits are out of power and malfunctioning so they could have given a false reading.
JC FernandezCorrected entry: In the beginning, when Doc awakens Marty in the beginning he tells him to meet him at "Lone Pine Mall" (the altered name of the mall after the movie) but when Marty arrives at the mall the sign still reads "Twin Pines Mall". How come Doc is referencing the new name that hasn't changed yet? And this scene occurred just before any time traveling took place so it's definitely not a paradox (most likely a script error).
Correction: I think you need to check again. First of all, Doc does not "awaken" Marty. Marty is visiting Doc's house, and has been trying out the gigantic loudspeaker (knocking himself backwards). Second, Doc clearly says "Twin Pines Mall", and has done so in every version of the movie I have ever seen.
TwotallCorrected entry: Just after the Libyans arrive, Marty is seen jumping into the Delorean. If you look closely at his face in this shot, you can see that it's not Michael J. Fox. It's actually Eric Stolz, who was originally cast as Marty McFly.
Movie_Freak 1Correction: This has already been corrected once. When Michael J Fox took over the role, the costume was changed. Stoltz's Marty wore black Converse shoes in 1985 (as seen in behind the scenes photos), but when Fox took over the role, the character's shoes were changed to white Nikes. The person leaping into the Delorean wears white Nikes - it is definitely NOT Eric Stoltz.
Corrected entry: American police may be so lackadaisical that they don't attend the scene of a car racing noisily around a car park, followed by a loud crash of a van hitting a shed, but I find it hard to believe that they don't investigate continuous machine gun fire from the same area. There are occupied building all around the car park, and there is plenty of time for them to turn up.
Correction: They'd have to receive a call from someone to be made aware of the situation. If the neighbors thought it was just some teenagers screwing around with firecrackers, which is more likely (because how often to Libyan terrorists open fire right next door?), the police wouldn't exactly rush to the scene lights blazing and sirens blaring. There's very few minutes from when the Libyans start firing to when Marty goes back to 1955, and who knows how far away the nearest police cruiser is.
Phixius Corrected entry: When Marty is being chased by the terrorists, he disappears through time, and the terrorists crash their van into the photo-booth, which presumably stops them dead in their tracks. But really, how would trashing that small booth make the bad guys irrelevant from that point onward? They weren't killed. So realistically they'd all get out of their crashed van and proceed to wreak more havoc. Yet in the time it takes Marty & Doc Brown to gather up all their stuff and drive away in Doc's van, the terrorists don't lift a finger to chastise them or confiscate the remaining plutonium.
Correction: There are any number of explanations: 1. The Libyans may have been rendered unconscious in the crash, which while not explosive *did* knock the vehicle to its side and at least one Libyan was unrestrained. 2. The parking lot was the site of machine gun fire and multiple explosions, and the Libyans may have fled the scene before the police arrived.
JC FernandezCorrected entry: When back in 1985 Marty's mom asks if this is the night for the big date, Marty answers "How can I go to the lake when the car is wrecked?" His family reacts by going out and checking George's BMW. Seconds later we see that Marty has his own truck - shouldn't they have been checking on that instead? And if it's because he talks about the car (i.e. the BMW) instead of the truck, they should have wondered why he was going to take his fathers BMW up to the lake instead of his truck.
Jacob La CourCorrection: They're probably used to hearing Marty refer to the truck as "the truck," whereas George's car is "the car." Once they heard Marty say the car was wrecked, they didn't have time to think logically and conclude, well, the car may be wrecked but you're taking the truck. More likely they were startled and wanted to go check on the car right away to find out what Marty was talking about.
K.C. SierraCorrected entry: In the parking lot when Marty begins to film, Doc says the date and exact time according to his watch. Marty then looks at his watch. Apparently his is off because he shakes his wrist and puts the watch to his ear to see if it is still working. However, he is wearing a digital watch which wouldn't tick or likely have broken parts to rattle.
Correction: Character mistake not a movie mistake. I often look at my wrist when asked the time even though I do not wear a watch.
Mad AdeCorrected entry: In 1985, when Marty's mum is talking about Jennifer, she mentions that she's never sat in a parked car with a boy before. But as Marty and his mum are sitting in a car in 1955, she says, "It's not like I've never parked with a boy before", which means she has.
Corrected entry: In 1985 When Doc is recording himself as he sees the terrorists come with their trucks. Marty is supposed to say, "who, who found you?", or something like that. But as Doc is watching the tape in 1955, Marty never says anything.
Corrected entry: During the first Lou's cafe scene in 1955, Marty asks for a Tab, then a Pepsi-Free, then "something without any sugar in it." Pepsi-Free was "free" of caffeine, not sugar (Diet Pepsi was "free" of sugar). Marty knows this because he is seen with both Diet Pepsi and Diet Pepsi-Free in 1985. Of course, had Marty asked for Diet Pepsi in 1955, Lou would not have been able to say "Hey, you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna pay for it." (00:38:30)
Correction: Marty simply changed his order. He was just naming his preferred drinks, not necessarily the ones that don't have sugar.
Jason Hoffman
Correction: A perfectly legitimate camera for someone to have in the year 1985.
Greenman37