Back to the Future

Corrected entry: Einstein, Dr. Emmett's dog is the first to travel in the time machine. He travels one minute into the future during which he ceased to exist in the current time only to reappear one minute later. According to this it hence would be impossible for the Doc, Marty and his girlfriend, Jennifer, to travel into the future and see their futures as they would have ceased to exist as of when they left the current time until they reappear in the time they set hence impossible to have continued their normal course of life and exist in the future.

Correction: The series makes it clear that the timeline is highly resistant to changes, and that when you make a change to the timeline, there's a delay before those changes impact the timeline. This is why Marty saw the photo of him and his siblings slowly fading rather than instantly disappearing as soon as he interrupted his parents' getting together. In the second movie, Jennifer and Marty weren't in the future for long enough to start impacting the timeline.

Corrected entry: Between scenes Marty's shoes change, e.g. in the skateboard chase scene he is wearing black converse shoes, but when he is in the time machine travelling back to 1985 he is wearing white Nike trainers.

Correction: Not a mistake. After Marty says "Yeah, I can spend a week in 1955." Doc says "first, we have to get you out of those clothes" - this is so Marty blended in with current fashions of the 50's. When Marty is going back to 1985, he claims that he isn't going back in his 50's clothes - "you think I'm going back in those clothes?.", or something to that effect. It was all done to make Marty less suspicious to the people around him.

Correction: The skateboard chase scene is at least a day before Marty goes back to 1985, maybe even a few days before. He has definitely changed shoes a few times between the 2 scenes mentioned here.

jshy7979

Corrected entry: Right when Marty returns to 1985, and has to run back to the mall, we see him call the drunken bum on the bench "Red". In 1955, "Red" is the first name of the mayor running for re-election in one of the first shots of the town we see. (01:38:20)

Correction: While their names are similar, Bob Gale confirmed on the DVD commentary that Michael J Fox improvised the name on the day and "Red" isn't mayor elect Red Thomas from 1955. It's also a different actor playing the bum vs. on the poster.

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Other mistake: The car that almost runs Marty over has the vehicle registration plate of 6S 48405. Later on, when Marty is hit by Sam, Sam's car has the same plate. (00:35:49 - 00:42:02)

apikachu68

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Trivia: Eric Stoltz was originally cast as Marty. After filming quite a few scenes they realised his acting style was too dramatic for the humor desired, so they cast Michael J Fox (who they couldn't originally get because he was busy with the TV show Family Ties). Filming was on weekends and nights around his TV schedule and using his double at other times.

Stefanie

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Question: How is Marty able to play a 1980s videotape on a 1950s television set? Is this just another example of Doc's ahead-of-his-time inventiveness?

Answer: The video camera was in the DeLorean. With the right kind of adapter, which was common enough in the 80s that Doc might've had it on the camera or been able to jury-rig something in the 50s, it would have been possible to connect it into the antenna screws in the back of the TV like an old Atari and play it directly from the camera.

Captain Defenestrator

TVs in the 50s had a two prong antennae connection (two screws in the back that you put a prong antennae into) TVs in the mid 80s also had this. The coax connection (the one wire that screws in) was starting to become common, but, the two prong connection would have been more likely on any given TV at the time, so, whatever wire they used to preview recordings probably had that. very convenient that Marty brought those cords with him.

An old Atari 2600 RF Adapter would be how one would link a video camera to an old-fashioned television. A simple-enough part that Doc could probably make one with 1950s technology.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Video tape system back then could output an NTSC video signal, just like broadcast at the time, and up to HD in the 2000s. Usually there was a switch on the video device to change the output frequency between channels 3 or 4. Depending on what was an open channel in your area.

Answer: Doc is smart and eccentric enough to probably have such a thing randomly rattling around in the Delorian as old burger wrappers would rattle around inside a normal car. And Marty could also conceivably have such a thing at his or Doc's domicile for his own video gaming convenience.

dizzyd

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