Questions tagged [back-to-the-future]
Back to the Future is the first film (1985) in a trilogy of time travel movies that branched out into an animated TV series, theme rides and video games. This tag can also be used to refer to the Back to the Future franchise as a whole.
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Why didn't Doc Brown send Marty to the future before sending him back to 1885?
After the thunder sent Doc Brown back to 1885, and after Marty received the letter, why didn't the 1955 Doc send him back to the future (either 1985 or 2015) to completely repair the Time Machine and ...
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Does Biff retain any knowledge of the DeLorean at the end of the Back To The Future trilogy?
Bear with me...
At the start of BttF1 we have Biff, who is a bully and dominates George McFly. Lets call this one Biff-1-original. We never see Biff-1-original again, his behaviour and character is ...
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Where is Marty from the alternate timeline Where George McFly is an author that Marty makes at the end of Part 1?
Think about it: Marty goes back to 1955 in Part 1 and helps his parents fall in love again.
Well, when Marty went back to 1985 he created an alternate timeline where his parents are rich. There are ...
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Does Doc Brown sabotage himself in Back to the Future 2?
Back in 1955, Doc Emmet Brown is spotted by his past self as he is working on the cable in the park, at which point, the latter asks the unrecognizable white-haired man to "be a pal and hand my ...
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What was the plutonium for, that was stolen at the start of The Amazing Spider-Man 2?
At the start of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 there is a stolen van with plutonium that bears a passing resemblance (grey, van shaped) to the one Doc Brown has in Back To The Future.
I had assumed the van ...
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At the end of the first Back to the Future movie, how come Marty can witness the original events happening then wake up to visit an alternate family?
At the end of the first Back to the Future movie, Marty comes back ten minutes early, and sees the events from the start of the movie playing out (him running to the DeLorean and going back to 1955). ...
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Were there any DeLoreans remaining after the end of BTTF3?
We saw that there were two DeLoreans in BTTF. One got destroyed by lightning (which was found in the shaft by Marty and repaired by 1955 Doc, but permanently destroyed later) but the other one was ...
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Was the Doc Brown picking up Marty and Jennifer from 1985, from 2015, or from another year?
At the end of the first Back to the Future film, we see Doc Brown picking up Marty and Jennifer in 1985 to come rescue their kids in 2015.
I've always assumed him to be a 1985-ish Doc, who had ...
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Does Back To The Future ever directly (visually) contradict itself?
This question is inspired by my answer here.
In that answer, I speculate that there is only ever a single timeline, and thus, a single Marty. In other words, if we could "freeze" the camera ...
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What happened to Marty in the altered timeline created by his original trip to 1955?
In the first Back to the Future movie, there is an "original" timeline from 1955 to 1985 which includes the events described by Marty's mother about the way George and Lorraine fell in love. ...
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How does Biff come back to the original time line? [duplicate]
If Biff takes the time machine and goes back in time to deliver the Almanac to young Biff, how does old Biff return to his original time line if in the future he altered he became rich? Wouldn't he ...
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1955: When Marty couldn't use the time circuits anymore was the car still actually driveable?
If Marty wanted to and threw caution to the wind could he have driven the Delorean around as a regular car somehow bypassing the time circuits in 1955 to get to Doc's house once he had his number from ...
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Were the crucial parts of the time machine left at the scene by Marty?
At the end of Back to the Future 3 we see the DeLorean getting hit by a train in 1985, seemingly wrecking it beyond repair.
Looking at the scattered parts we actually see the time circuits and flux ...
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What time did Marty arrive in Nov 5th 1955?
What time was on the ‘destination time’ when Marty travels to 1955. I can see it’s Nov 5th 1955 and then the hour is 06 but you don’t see what minutes?
Have looked online and seen a few different ...
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Why does Doc Brown ask Marty to destroy the almanac but lets him have the hover board?
While the Doc urged Marty to destroy the almanac, he allowed him to keep the hover board.
Out-of-universe, I'm guessing this is some kind of convenient workaround to the plot's development.
But in-...
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How did Marty know Doc originally? [duplicate]
It's clear that Marty first met the 1955 version of Doc by tracking his house down in the phone directory. However, earlier in the film, they are shown to have quite a strong relationship. Doc is ...
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In-universe, why does Doc Brown program the time machine to go to 1955?
The night on the first part at the Two Pine mall and when all the ruckus happened, Doc Brown already programmed the time machine to go to Nov 05 1955.
Why so? I mean, I don't recall if there is a ...
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Why didn't Doc believe Marty was from the future?
In Back To The Future, Marty calls to Doc's house to try to get his help, explaining that he's from the future. Doc flat out refuses to believe him, responding with sarcasm and incredulity, laughing ...
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Why does the recording about Twin Pines Mall not change the same way the newspapers and photographs change?
Background
In Back to The Future, the mall where Marty and the Doc first meet to test the time machine is called Twin Pines Mall. In this scene, the Doc reminisces about the location and recalls when ...
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How many references to time are there in the first 10 minutes of Back to the Future?
I just have to list how many times the references to TIME in the first ten minutes of Back to the Future. How many are there?
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Why didn't Doc Brown send the letter to his house in "Back to the Future Part III"?
We all know how the movies happen at the end of Back to the Future, Part II and the beginning of Part III. Western Union delivers it at some road next to a sign for future housing development. Marty ...
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Why didn't Marty's "you're fired" note fade away as soon as 2015 Biff changed the timeline in 1955?
In Back to the Future 2, Marty gets fired for doing something illegal. Several notes reading "you're fired!" were faxed to him. At the end of Back to the Future 3, Marty avoids the car crash and thus ...
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Was the “future” world predicted in Back to the Future 2 intended to be genuinely predictive?
The Back to the Future series of SF films are also arguably somewhat comedic as well. In Back to the Future Part II, Marty travels to the year 2015 and we, the audience, get to enjoy a spectacle of ...
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Does the DeLorean have a spare tyre?
I can't remember seeing a spare wheel for the DeLorean in Back to the Future (any of them).
Doc pulls his suitcase out of the front trunk but there isn't much room in the trunk space. Bearing in mind ...
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Biff To The Future Time Travel Paradoxes
In the comic book series Biff to the Future, Doc Brown and Mr. Strickland go back in time, Doc to stop Biff’s parents from getting married and Strickland for reasons I can’t tell. Also, Biff goes to ...
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Had Doc Brown been looking for Marty all week?
During the opening scene of BttF, Doc calls his own lab to tell Marty about the experiment he wants to show him that night.
From a transcript:
Marty: You know, Doc, you left your equipment on all ...
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Did Doc Brown confess to stealing the locomotive?
At the end of Back To The Future Part III we see that the ravine has been named "Eastwood Ravine". Given that in the original and some subsequent timelines, the ravine was named after someone (Clara) ...
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So what was the secret behind the stainless steel of Doc's Delorean? [duplicate]
"If your going to build a time machine why not do it with some style besides the stainless steel construction made the flux dispersal.....watch out!" He never got to finish his statement what was he ...
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Did Doc Brown replace the stolen plutonium?
The second voice we hear in "Back To The Future" (after a radio commercial for Toyota cars) is a TV newsreader describing an alleged theft of some plutonium which was now believed to be a simple ...
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Was the Twin Pines Mall scene at 1:15am for in-universe or out-of-universe reasons?
Was the scene in which Marty travels from Twin Pines Mall in 1985 to the Peabody Farm in 1955 always meant to take place at 1.15 in the morning (1985 time), or was this a consequence of Eric Stoltz ...
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Did Michael J. Fox write his own music for BttF?
In the original Back to the Future, Marty McFly tends to get carried away while playing his guitar, causing confusion and/or disapproval from any nearby squares.
The examples given of his ...
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Was the joke about Japanese electronics cut from Back to the Future?
I just rewatched Back to the Future the other day. I hadn’t seen it in years, and I swear there was a small scene cut from the movie. It was when Marty was hooking the camcorder to the TV at Doc's ...
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BTTF Time Traveling Mind Effects
When Marty is about to travel back to 1985 in BTTF 1, he emphasizes that Doc read his letter (about Doc getting shot by Libyan Terrorists during Delorean Test, 1985). However, in BTTF 3, when Marty is ...
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Why did Biff not pursue a relationship with Lorraine in the original timeline?
It seems pretty clear to me that Biff was maniacally obsessed with Lorraine, even in the original timeline, and not the kind of guy who takes "no" for an answer.
We know that Biff eventually gave up ...
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How did Einstein get back from the future if he can't drive?
In the first Back to the Future, Einstein, the dog, gets sent forward in time by 1 minute. If you have to reach 88 miles per hour, how did he get back? He can't drive a car, he's a dog.
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Can the time machine go to years with more than 4 digits?
Could Doc Brown travel to see the dinosaurs if he wanted to?
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Clara's lost luggage
When Clara's wagon fell into the ravine, we see clearly that all of her luggage was lost. There was no luggage on her horses or on Doc's horse after he saved her. How does she later have large ...
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Were there two DeLoreans in 1885?
Ok, in November 12, 1955 Marty watches the leap to 1885 of Doc Brown (the lightning bolt), then immediately receives the letter from Doc, and travels back to 1885 to save him.
Marty arrives on ...
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How did Doc travel to 1885 if he wasn't travelling at 88 mph? [duplicate]
In the Back to the Future universe, we know what is needed for time travel: a flux capacitor, 1.21 gigawatts and a travel speed of 88 miles per hour (I know there are more requirements than that but I ...
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Why did Biff come back to the same timeline in the future? [duplicate]
When old Biff takes the DeLorean and goes back to the future, he comes back exactly to the same time and place he left, but according to Dr. Brown's explanation on the blackboard, he should have gone ...
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Was Doc Brown ever blamed for the clock tower?
Towards the end of BTTF, we see Doc Brown be approached by a police officer. Doc explains that he's doing a weather experiment as he's wiring up the two light posts. Later that night the clock tower ...
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Was Doc dead in 2015 in the original timeline?
In Back to the Future Part II, Doc tells a lot about the future of Marty's family. However, he doesn't mention what happened to himself in 2015. Was Doc supposed to be dead in 2015 (if he had never ...
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How could Biff vividly remember the date within 30 years?
In Back to the Future Part II, in 1985A Marty asks Biff about the sports almanac. Not only does Biff remembers the exact date when he got the book - November 12, 1955 - but also tells Marty that he ...
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How did Doc manage to build the time train in the 1880s?
There has already been a question about why Doc built the time train. My question is how he did it.
Doc clearly could not fix the DeLorean to return back to the future. Thus, he hid the car in the ...
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If Marty had faded out, would that have destroyed the universe?
In Back To The Future Part 2, Doc Brown says that if young Jennifer (from 1985) were to meet her older self (from 2015), it could create a paradox that would unravel the fabric of the space-time ...
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Why did the old Biff choose to travel into 1955?
In Back to the Future Part II, it was mentioned that Biff turned 18 in 1958. That's when he placed a bet on races and won his first million. So why did the old Biff give the younger himself the ...
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Wasn't the Gray's Sports Almanac supposed to be thicker? [duplicate]
If there was really such a book that contained all sports results (football, baseball, races etc.) within 50 years, wouldn't it be a little bit thicker than just a magazine size?
Maybe something like ...
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How could Marty not see Biff stealing the DeLorean?
In Back to the Future Part II, when the old Biff steals the DeLorean in 2015, Marty is just a few yards away. He might not have seen it because he was looking at his future house, but he must have ...
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Why did Marty ask Doc if they had made it in BTTF2 after returning to 1985 from 2015?
In Back to the Future Part II, when Marty and Doc return from 2015 to 1985, Marty asks Doc:
Did we make it? Are we back?
Why did he ask that? Did he have doubts that the time machine was working? ...
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How did Doc know exactly at what second the lightning would strike the clock tower?
In Back to the Future, there is a flyer indicating that the lightning struck the clock tower at 10:04pm on November 12, 1955. Based on that information, Doc calculates the distance, acceleration speed ...
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