Corrected entry: In the beginning scene, when Doc Brown sends his dog one minute into the future, a minute later, they see the DeLorean again. But the reality is that they wouldn't, because the car would have also still been a minute ahead of them.
Corrected entry: In the first scene from 1955, November 6th, where Marty watches the mix of people in Courthouse Square, there is a shot where a boy in mustard yellow pants, standing next to a man, under a tall tree, is "bouncing" down the sidewalk on a pair of spring-laden shoes. These shoes were called "rocket shoes", and were not invented until the late fifties/early sixties, not 1955.
Correction: There were a few different versions of these sprung shoes from different makers, and went by similar names like moon shoes, satellite shows, and rocket shoes. They were all inspired by the space race going on in the 50s and 60s. And they do date from at least 1955, since there is a 1955 pair on display in the Brooklyn Museum.
This correction slightly contradicts itself. If the ones you could find from 1955 were in New York then they must have been released to the public in the same year in the Northeast States. However, Hill Valley is in California, a western state. This means that the product probably wouldn't be there until 1956 onward.
True, but the fact is that they still existed. We don't know what that character did offscreen before the date shown in the movie. He could have gone on a vacation to New York and bought the shoes there for all we know.
Without you providing a specific company and evidence of a spring shoe sold (either nationwide or California) the mistake is valid since the shoes you mentioned were patented in 1968.
Correction: The original poster claimed the shoes were not invented until well after 1955, so I gave an example of ones from 1955 that demonstrated the claim was wrong. Also, your logic is off since 1) that doesn't mean they were only first invented in 1955, just that they were provably invented BY 1955, and 2) being in a New York museum doesn't mean they were only released in the Northeast in that year. There is no contradiction in my post.
There's no evidence that any type of spring shoes were invented and sold by 1955. Unfortunately when you just Google things like "satellite shoes" or "rocket shoes", you get results from sellers like on Etsy who claim they're from the 1950's or 1950's inspired, but no date is ever given. And the Brooklyn Museum never makes a claim the shoes they have are from 1955. In fact, they say the shoes that have were patented in 1968. So, no, you didn't actually give an example of a spring shoe from 1955.
Corrected entry: When Marty pushes the car behind the billboard there's a speed limit sign on the road that says 65mph. The national speed limit in 1955 was 55 mph.
Correction: The National Maximum Speed Law (i.e. the national speed limit) which prohibited speed limits higher than 55 mph, wasn't enacted until 1974. Prior to 1974 states had control of setting speed limits.
Corrected entry: After Marty takes a ride from a jeep to get to the classes he is using his headphones, which disappear outside the school.
Correction: When Marty is holding onto the back of the jeep on the way to school, he is shown wearing headphones. After this, the scene ends and it cuts to the next scene, where he arrives at school (without headphones) and some time has gone by. Enough time would have passed in between scenes for him to put the headphones in his bag.
Corrected entry: When Marty travels to 1955 it's about 1:35 am but when he is heading downtown the sun is rising.
Correction: If you look at the time readouts, Marty travels to Nov. 12, 1955 at around 6 am. What time it was at the moment didn't matter.
Continuity mistake: When Marty arrives in 1955, he puts the DeLorean behind the sign, and walks into Hill Valley. When Marty and the 1955 Doc come back later, the DeLorean is facing the other way round to what it was at the beginning (you can tell because at the start Marty pushes the BACK of the DeLorean AWAY from the Lyon's Estates billboard, but when they come later, the FRONT is facing TOWARDS the billboard). (00:35:05 - 00:51:15)
Corrected entry: The DeLorean has 'Good Year' tyres - this is a deliberate mistake to create an in joke, as the brand is actually 'Goodyear'.
Correction: All the shots of the tires I see are correct. Goodyear's brand has the winged shoe between the "d" and "y" so that it looks like it's "good year." This is what the DeLorean has.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the film, when Marty gets to the Doc's place he is wearing a watch, so he could easily know about the right hour in spite that the clocks are wrong.
Correction: 3 possibilities from the top of my head: 1. He wears the watch but never checks it, it's just a fashion statement for some people, next to that he just entered a home with a wall full of clocks, no need to check your watch as well. 2. The watch isn't working (it's digital). 3. The watch could be on the wrong time as well.
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: In the scenes where Marty enters the Lyon estates, if you look close you can see a stop sign, but if you watch the next two movies the stop sign has been removed. (00:11:50)
Suggested correction: I watched the films and the stop sign is still present.
Corrected entry: At the beginning of the movie, when Lorraine is telling her children about the dance, she turned to George and said it was the same night as the terrible storm. At the courthouse, the storm was fierce - wind, thunder, and lightning. At the dance, however, it was a pleasant evening. No evidence of a storm whatsoever.
Correction: "Same night" doesn't mean "at the exact same time". The dance and the storm both happened the same evening.
Correction: The school is some distance away from the courthouse, and the storm simply hadn't arrived there yet.
Corrected entry: When Lorraine follows Marty back to Doc's in 1955 and Doc goes to answer the door, he says to Marty (before opening it) that it's his mum. Lorraine must have heard them through the door yet she never questions it.
Correction: Two possible reasons she never asks about it. First, she simply did not hear him. You're assuming she did, but there's no evidence of it. Second, asking questions would be tantamount to admitting to eavesdropping. It's rude to eavesdrop and so Lorraine would hardly give herself away by asking questions about something she wasn't supposed to have heard in the first place, and which would have sounded nonsensical anyway.
Correction: Besides, even if she did hear him, so what? She knew she obviously wasn't "Calvin's" mum. She would have assumed his mum looked like her and Doc mistakenly thought that was who was at the door. But if she still decided to question it, I just gave an explanation that they would have used.
Corrected entry: When George walks in to Lou's, he orders a chocolate milk. How could Lou have made a chocolate milk in less than three seconds?
Correction: George is a regular, so it's possible Lou knew what he wanted. I've walked into bars and before I can sit down, my beer of choice is sitting in front of me.
Correction: Some soda shops have milk machines (I had one at the cafeteria in the dorms at college), one side is regular milk, the other is chocolate. Lou probably made the batch of chocolate milk that morning, and all he had to do was push a lever and fill the glass.
Factual error: When Marty hits his head on the DeLorean's steering wheel, the car's horn honks. This is inaccurate to the design of real-world DeLoreans, as a DMC-12's horn button is actually located at the end of the turn signal lever rather than in the steering wheel. (01:39:27)
Suggested correction: You can't see his left hand and he could have accidentally pushed it when he hit his head. Or Dr. Bown customized the steering wheel so the horn is in it, like he customized the entire interior of the car.
I thought the point was that the car was so unreliable that when hit his head on the steering wheel, the horn went on. Makes sense to me. I own a DeLorean by the way.
Trivia: The town hall building is also seen in the Voyagers TV show.
Suggested correction: The Town Hall building is in over 100 movies and TV shows since it is a building in Courthouse Square at Universal Studios. It has also appeared in Gremlins, The Twilight Zone, To Kill a Mockingbird, Knight Rider, Leave It To Beaver, Parenthood, Saving Mr. Banks, and Psycho II, to name some of a few of the more commonly known. I don't think its common appearance makes this trivia relevant.
I'd say it makes it more relevant. Just add the multiple appearances of the building.
Corrected entry: The DeLorean is an actual registered vehicle in California, with license plate 3CZV657.
Correction: Which one? There were 7 DeLoreans used in "Back to the Future."
Corrected entry: On the DVD version, in the scene where Doc gets shot and then later reveals to Marty that he was wearing a bullet proof vest. A vest does not work in the way shown in the movie. It doesn't repel bullets (as shown in the "impact points" in the vest he displays), it absorbs them. Read how a vest works from howstuffworks dot com and you'll see what I mean. In addition, it looks like he is wearing only a Threat Level 2a class vest. An AK47 or similar weapon with a 7.62mm round would go clean through the vest, through Doc, and out the other side thus killing him and ending the story. The only style of vest that can withstand that sort of impact is a Threat Level 3 class vest (the style that specialized units in the military wear). This style is very bulky and is extremely difficult to conceal like Doc did. In addition, it has a ceramic plate in it which would have shattered upon the first impact and failed to protect against multiple impacts from that kind of weapon, and definitely not show "impact points" of twisted metal.
Correction: Doc is a brilliant scientist as well as an inventor. He had the time and the ability to invent his own special material that works like no other material known to man. If he can invent a time machine, I'm sure a bulletproof material would be easy for him.
As he stated in 1955, none of his inventions had ever worked. When he heard about and was shown the Delorean, he was amazed because it worked. I don't think that he would have been able to invent a jacket that repels bullets that great.
He is still a brilliant inventor/engineer that eventually makes the DeLorean run on bio-fuel and makes a train fly. Surely he can invent himself a vest.
Unless he is super paranoid I don't think he thought he would be shot.
Correction: After 30 years it's possible for him to invent the vest. Also, from what I see, the vest hasn't repelled the rounds, as we can see where they've hit as the rounds have impacted the vest.
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.
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.
Correction: That's not how it works, at least in this movie. Einstein jumped a minute ahead instantly, Doc and Marty "catch up" after a minute of their normal time. Einstein isn't permanently a minute ahead of everyone else on the planet forever.