Back to the Future Part III

Continuity mistake: When Marty walks around the old town and watches the manure guy work, a huge shadow covers the whole place. An instant cut later, it's all sunny, revealing it was shot at a different time of day.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Doc realises that his name has disappeared from the tombstone, the date on the tombstone remains, but in the next shot, it disappears. (01:07:47)

apikachu68

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:45:00)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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. (00:18:59)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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 Cavalry ride, a long arrow sticks out on the side of the car. (00:18:10 - 00:20:00)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:43:00)

Continuity mistake: When Doc drinks the 'wake up juice', he runs out and puts his head in the horse trough full of water. However, after a shot to Mad Dog Tannen, his shirt is mysteriously dry again. (01:20:05)

Continuity mistake: When Marty is being chased by the Indians, a wide shot with the DeLorean at the bottom of the screen coming towards us and the Indians following reveals the entire background for a mile or two. However, there are no cavalry visible anywhere despite the fact that they pass over the cave in the following shot only five seconds after the last Indian does. (00:19:15 - 00:20:20)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Marty is shot by Buford, he is thrown off his feet and lands on his back. As he does, his poncho flips up, showing his shirt all the up to the middle of his chest. The stove door he is supposedly using as a bulletproof chestplate is conspicuously missing. (01:27:20)

Continuity mistake: In the last fifteen minutes of the film Marty wears his Wild West clothes, including his brown woolen poncho. The front of the poncho is unmarked, completely intact. Shouldn't it have a bullet hole in it? (01:43:50)

Continuity mistake: When Marty is about to go back to 1885, he starts driving and you see him pass the building: then when it shows the car's tires, you can see he passes by the same building again.

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:34:09)

Continuity mistake: When the DeLorean is being pulled by horses, the clouds in the sky change in the next shot. (00:38:50)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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. (00:16:35)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: 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. (00:33:48)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Doc and Marty first see each other in 1885, just before they hug, Doc puts his hand on Marty's shoulder, in the next shot it's on his arm. (00:35:15)

Continuity mistake: 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. (01:48:55)

Continuity mistake: Doc comes back from the past. Jennifer walks to stands next to him. In the following shot, she is still approaching Doc to give him the paper from 2015. (01:50:05)

Continuity mistake: When Marty arrives in 1885 and runs into the Indians, he comes to a slow rolling stop. But the digital speedometer on the dashboard shows that he is still traveling about 70 miles per hour. (00:18:55)

Cubs Fan

Factual error: When Marty goes to meet Mad Dog Tannen for the duel, in the background on the right side is the current flag of California. But that flag did not become the state flag of California until 1911, so would not have been around in 1885.

More mistakes in Back to the Future Part III

Jennifer: Excuse me, Doc Brown. I brought this message back from the future and, well, now it's erased.
Doc: Of course it's erased.
Jennifer: But what does that mean?
Doc: It means your futures haven't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is what ever you make. So make it a good one, the both of you.

More quotes from Back to the Future Part III
More trivia for Back to the Future Part III

Question: Doc has always been firm about not wanting to create some sort of paradox. Was he not at all worried that eventually someone would go into his barn looking for him and find his giant refrigerator and his model railway with the car that said "TIME MACHINE" on it? I know he stayed behind after he rescued Clara so could have removed all that, but the original plan was he was going to hop into the DeLorean with Marty. We know he definitely left the model railway there as Clara picked the car up which prompted her to go after him.

Answer: Someone would go into his barn and do what? See a sign that says time machine and believe it and then use it? Seems highly unlikely.

lionhead

Answer: Well everyone in that town knows Doc's a pretty smart guy. Chances are he was doing some experimenting with time machines or something. The average person I'm sure would never figure it out anyways or think it was a crazy irrelevant project. Clara only figured it out because Doc told her about the time machine and time travel and thought Doc was lying to break up with her. The story sounded crazy until she saw the model, then saw the machine and realised he was telling her the truth. But the average person in that period knows nothing about the time machine, cars, or rime travel and even if they by some chance figured out Doc was from the future nobody would believe it nor could they prove it.

More questions & answers from Back to the Future Part III

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.