FAQ

It wasn't an arrow that ripped the fuel line. It was Marty's driving hurriedly in a desert and likely hit a rock on the underside of the car. Marty's trip was supposed to be very simple; travel to 1885 in a vast open plain (that should have been devoid of people), hide the DeLorean, go get Doc, and head back to 1985. Neither 1955 Doc nor Marty could have anticipated travelling back right in front of a tribe of fleeing Natives being chased down by mounted Calvary.

It's all about the timelines as explained in Part II. When Marty goes back to 1955 the first time, that is the 1955A timeline. Doc goes back to 1885, but it becomes the 1885A timeline, the same timeline Marty is in. Once Marty goes back to 1885, it becomes 1885B and any letter they attempt to send forward would not reach the Marty in 1955A. It's the paradox of time travel.

Obviously, the 1985 Doc who was stuck back in 1885 intended by instruction that Marty return to 1985 once the DeLorean was recovered and fixed up.

As for why the 1955 Doc didn't put a tank of emergency gasoline in the trunk when Marty was going to leave for 1885, along with everything else, good question. Perhaps, the best one can assume is that thinking of such precautions somehow just passed by 1955 Doc's mind. He was so preoccupied with so much other stuff surrounding that event and getting Marty all ready and he did behave in such a hurry to get Marty out of that time as soon as possible that he didn't have time to think every possibility through and get a full check list.

According to the official website. On the "The Most Frequently Asked Questions from Back to the Future by Bob Gale & Robert Zemeckis" section: "We have no plans or desires to make a Back to the Future Part IV. We think we've taken Doc and Marty through an odyssey that's rounded them both out as complete characters and which also suggests they'll both have fine futures; we've developed and executed almost every time travel idea that's ever interested us, and we feel that another Back to the Future would only get stale and hackneyed. After five years, the filmmakers and the cast are all ready to try other things, and we prefer to end the series on a high note!"

Because he wanted to keep it and it had to go with him so when he went back to 1985 he'd still have it. Also, it would be ill-advised to leave a piece of technology from 60 years in the future in 1955. In case someone other than Doc were to discover it.

It's simply part of Doc's process. He feels it necessary to build models that will properly play out the planned scenario. Both to visualise the goal and demonstrate it to Marty. Behind the scenes, it also is beneficial for the audience to understand how the plan is supposed to play out.

Because the DeLorean that Doc stashed in the mine had fried time circuits. And Doc would have drained the fuel tank and fuel lines because regular gas only has a shelf-life of 3-6 months before it starts breaking down and becomes unusable. Not to mention it's corrosive. So leaving it in the tank for 70 years would cause significant levels of damage to the DeLorean causing more problems for Marty and Doc in 1955. So there was absolutely no point in going to use the DeLorean in the mine. Not to mention, pilfering more parts from it would hinder Marty in 1955.

It doesn't directly. However, Marty is Shamus's great-great grandson. So Shamus feels an odd connection and kinship to him that he can't quite understand. Similar to how young Lorraine was drawn to Marty in BTTF1. She mistook her feelings as infatuation and lust until she kissed him and realised it was not that.

The feeling can most likely be compared to deja vu. When you go to a place you've never been or meet someone you know you've never met before, but have an odd recollection of that exact moment/place/person.

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After receiving a letter from Doc Emmett Brown (Christopher Lloyd) explaining that a lightning strike has sent him and the DeLorean time machine back to 1885, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox), still stuck in 1955, seeks out the 1955 Doc in hopes of getting back to 1985. However, when he learns that 1885 Doc is about to be shot and killed by Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen (Tom Wilson), Marty and 1955 Doc rebuild the DeLorean and Marty travels to 1885 where he finds the Doc living as a blacksmith and meets his own ancestors, Seamus (also played by Michael J. Fox) and Maggie (Lea Thompson) McFly.

Back to the Future, Part III is the third movie in the Back to the Future trilogy, all of which are based on screenplays written by American film-makers Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale. It follows Back to the Future (1985) (1985) and Back to the Future Part II (1989) (1989).

Doc indicates in his letter that the unexpected lightning strike shorted out the flying circuits, hence the box on the hood with the components to replace them. Not to mention that the DeLorean has been sitting for 70 years, so numerous parts would need to be replaced due to time, lack of use, rusting, etc.

It's also a joke aimed at the early days of electronic components and how, in the intervening years between 1955 and 1985, components like these underwent a lot of research and development to miniaturize them or were replaced with better tech. Think about smart phones, which are the successors to the first electronically operated computers: the oldest computers filled entire rooms and could only do a fraction of what a smartphone can, which currently allows it's owner to do pretty much anything with respect to gathering and making use of information.

Some of the parts that the 1955 Doc uses look like vacuum tubes, which were invented to generate and distribute electricity in home appliances like televisions. They were eventually replaced by the transistor, which did the same thing but was smaller and more efficient and -- very importantly for home appliances -- didn't generate as much heat. Transistors were eventually replaced by microprocessors, which we know as computer chips, which have been the tech used to this day. When Doc was building the time machine and the time circuits, he probably started in 1955 with vacuum tubes and transistors but as the technology of microprocessors became available, he altered his design to make use of them.

In the end, it's a funny inside joke that the component Doc has to build to replace the fried microchip was several hundred times larger -- it looks goofy sitting on the hood but it worked.

The writers said that this was just due to McFly men being attracted to the same kind of women. It has, in fact, been observed by scientists that men often marry women who resemble their mothers, and women marry men who resemble their fathers. One example of this is Jennifer's resemblance to a young Lorraine. They also said they did not think it would be right to not give Lea Thompson a role in the movie.

The main thing to keep in mind is the fact there are 3 timelines to remember here. (1) The original timeline with no Marty or Doc in 1885. In this timeline, Clara turns up at the station. There is no one to meet her. She hires a buckboard and heads into town. Horse gets spooked by a snake and Clara falls into the ravine. The ravine is named "Clayton Ravine" out of respect. This is the timeline Marty and Doc know as they were from a future after these events. (2) The first alternate timeline with only Doc in 1885. Doc is asked by the mayor to meet Clara from the station. They fall in love. Doc gets shot in the back by Buford and dies. Clara lives on in this timeline, erects the tombstone, and has inscribed on it "Erected in eternal memory by his beloved Clara". This is the tombstone Marty finds in 1955 and of which he takes a photo. That tombstone would not exist in 1955 until the very second Doc gets sent to 1885, which is why it was not seen before. (3) The second alternate timeline with Marty and Doc in 1885. This timeline is a mix of the first two. Doc is asked to meet Clara and he agrees. This time Marty turns up, and Doc forgets about meeting her while they look at the railroad trestle site. Clara hires a buckboard and heads into town. Snake, ravine, etc., but this time Doc is there to "save" her.

It was only called Clayton Ravine in the original timeline where did not include Doc or Marty. In the timeline that only included Doc he met her at the train station and they fell in love. In the timeline that included both Doc and Marty he did not meet her at the train station but ended up saving her from going over the ravine. Because Marty (known as Clint Eastwood) vanished there, when he returns to 1985 it is named Eastwood Ravine.

Those were the tires removed from the 1955 DeLorean (the white sidewalls) so Doc could fix the rail car wheels to it.

As the train hurtles down the track, pushing the DeLorean ahead of it, Clara attempts to climb forward to the engine cab. Already in the DeLorean, Marty yells to Doc to hurry up just as Doc hears the train whistle and Clara calling his name. Realizing that Clara will be killed when the train falls into Clayton Ravine, Doc climbs back to help Clara. Suddenly, the third "presto log" goes off, pushing up the speed of the train but also causing both Clara and the Doc to almost tumble off the side. Marty sees what is happening and sends the hoverboard to Doc, who uses it to rescue Clara, and they both steer clear of the train just as it it reaches 88 miles per hour and goes over the ravine. The DeLorean continues on to 1985 while the train plummets into the ravine. Back in 1985, the DeLorean rolls to a stop on the tracks which are now situated in Eastwood Ravine. Marty is forced to leap from the car just as another train barrels down the tracks, destroying the DeLorean just like the Doc wanted. After retrieving his Toyota 4x4 and waking Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue), who remembers the events of 2015 as a bad dream, Marty heads back to the railroad tracks. Along the way, he is challenged to race Needles (Flea) in his Bronco. Even after being called "chicken", Marty foils Needles by driving in reverse when the light changes, explaining to Jennifer that he's no longer dumb enough to take the dare. As Marty and Jennifer examine the wrecked DeLorean, the grade crossing suddenly begins to clang, but no train is in sight ...until a vintage steam-engine, piloted by Doc, flies up. Doc introduces Marty and Jennifer to the family Clara and their sons Jules (Todd Cameron Brown) and Verne (Dannel Evans). After giving Marty the photo of them in front of the clock, Doc prepares to fly off with the family. "Where are you going now?" Marty asks. "Back to the future?" Doc replies, "Nope...already been there!" In the final scene, the train turns into a hover train, rises into the air, circles around, and flies at the camera.

No. They appear to be unrelated antagonists. During the scene between old Marty and old Needles in 2015 (right before Marty gets fired), a lot of information about Needles is displayed on screen. One of those is his name: Douglas J. Needles, not Tannen. It states that he has two children, both girls (Roberta, 23, and Amy, 20). Since the information next displayed is his food preferences, it is safe to assume those are his only children.

Doc had obviously found another way to make the train work ("It runs on steam!"), not necessarily via the flux capacitor. In the many years he spent in the past, he could have had time to invent an alternative way to do it. Alternatively, Doc could have just created a basic time machine, gone to the future, and then used future technology to modify it and make it into what we saw at the end of Part III. The DeLorean was only a "prototype". The train was powered very differently. So Doc could have developed a new way to make time travel possible vastly different to how the DeLorean worked. Additionally, in Part II, Doc tells Marty that he went to a rejuvenation clinic and got a "whole natural overhaul" where he "added a good 30-40 years to his life." It is quite possible that Doc lived long enough to acquire the time train's parts once the means to manufacture them has become available in the 20th century. Then he simply could have returned to some point after Marty left 1885 to give himself the required parts.

However, the most likely way that he managed to turn a locomotive into a time machine is to use the DeLorean that he had first arrived in. Remember, the DeLorean was buried in the abandoned mine for Marty to find in 1955. When Doc was left behind in 1885 with Clara, he could have gone back to the DeLorean that he had first arrived in and taken out the flux capacitor and all the other necessary parts to create a time machine. He could have then used these parts to convert a locomotive into a time machine and traveled into the future. He would need to go far enough to at least be able to obtain all the parts necessary to build a new flux capacitor and replace all the other parts he had taken. Next, he would then have to go back to the abandoned mine at some point in time before 1955 so he can replace the flux capacitor and anything else. As long as he does this before 1955, the DeLorean is ready for Marty to find. He could also have used parts from the hoverboard to help him.

There are a couple of factors to base a timeline on: (1) According to the Back to the Future Wiki (Futurepedia), Doc and Clara married on December 15th (about 14 weeks after Marty's departure). Their son Jules was born sometime in 1886 and Verne in 1888. When they appear in 1985, they look to be about 9-10 and 7-8 years old respectively, and (2) The locomotive used, the Sierra No. 3, was first manufactured in 1896. This would suggest approximately 11 years had passed between the events of Sept. 7, 1885 and the Brown family finding Marty in 1985. Assuming Doc would troubleshoot the technology in his workshop and then choose the very newest engine model of the day to create the finished time machine, this timeline holds plausibility.

A factor overlooked is the major difference in the technology levels between 1955, when the flux capacitator was devised, and 1985 when it was successfully built. Doc had 30 years to make it work. In 1885, Doc brown had the full knowledge of how to create a flux capacitator that worked, but lacked the means and technology for make a time machine that would work. It makes sense that he would take his time and build a machine capable of a one way trip to at the very least 2015. From there it could have taken him 3-4 years to perfect his Steam Powered Time Machine,and then in an instance return to the moment he left. This also explains why it has the hover wheels like the DeLorean. Since he was at that point capable of moving freely, then we can never know the exact amount of time of it took. Another overlooked factor is that in 1885, after Marty finally returns home in the 1955/1885 modded DeLorean, Doc still had the 2015 modded DeLorean in storage somewhere. Though it has been stated in the films that the lightning overloaded the time circuits, it can be assumed that he would at the very least have a non-working flux capacitator on his hands that he could continue to tweak in order to make it work again. He was smart enough to draw up a schematic of what would work in 1955, so we can speculate that he would know what to attempt to build himself in the 1885 shop.

Marty: "where are you going Doc, back to the future?" Doc: "No, already been there." So Doc does not go to the future, he clearly does not stay in the present. Judging by Doc's letter he sent to Marty at the end of Part II, Doc was more than happy living in 1885. Keep in mind he wrote this letter before meeting Clara, so it stands to reason he would go back to where he was most happy and live with Clara and his kids. Another, more fanciful, theory is that Doc took his family to the moon. Doc and Clara had a short conversation in the movie where they discuss their favorite authors and the possibility of someday traveling to the moon, which leads to this being a possibility. While the idea that they're flying a train to the moon may seem ridiculous, keep in mind that a flying DeLorean in Part I seemed very far-fetched and fantastic too, until Part II come along and explained it.

Not necessarily. For example, early in the film, Marty took a photograph of Doc's tombstone as it appeared in Doc's original 1885 storyline. After Marty goes back in time to help him, the tombstone does not disappear, but the writing fades away. This suggests that the future is not "set in stone" (pun intended), but is still unresolved. It is not until that particular tombstone is destroyed when Marty defeats Tannen that it vanishes from the photo. In much the same way, some parts of the future will likely not change: the company that Marty worked for in the original 2015 will still exist, and he may still work for them—and on a cellular level, that piece of paper will still be manufactured. However, the fact that Jennifer even has that particular piece of fax paper in her possession leads one to assume that some event in the future occurs that causes her to retain the paper, regardless of whatever changes in the past are made. Ultimately, Marty and Jennifer will not make enough changes in their life to completely separate them from the original 2015 timeline and the fax paper still exist and is in Jennifer's possession.

By the end of the first movie, Marty is just one week older. He entered 1955 on November 5th at 6:00 A.M., and then left November 12th at 10:04 P.M., which totals one week, 16 hours, four minutes. Marty re-enters the timeline 10 minutes earlier, thus making him one week, 16 hours, 14 minutes older than he was on October 26th, 1985, at 1:24 A.M. when he left. At the start of Back to the Future Part II, Marty, Jennifer, and Doc travel to October 21st, 2015, spending less than a day there. Then they go back to the alternate 1985 for just a few hours. We know that the two events take about a day for Marty and Doc from the dialog upon their arrival in 1955, "This is heavy, Doc. It's like I was just here yesterday." "You were here yesterday, Marty. You were!" Marty spends all of November 12th getting the book back. So, at the end of that movie, Marty has aged two more days. In Back to the Future Part III, Marty and Doc spend November 13th finding and fixing up the DeLorean. Then on November 14th, Marty travels back to September 2nd, 1885. Marty is there with Doc until the morning of September 7th. Adding up the time spent in all three movies and approximating a bit, Marty spent a total of about 16 days outside his own timeline.

Given that Mr. Strickland would have then been at least 100 years old in the first film, this is highly unlikely. The boy is likely to be Mr. Strickland's future grandfather, and the emphasis on discipline is likely to be a family tradition. Principal Strickland's grandfather was a marshal so the family must have a long history of being involved in disciplinary work.

The itv version is missing 33.32 seconds due to 6 cuts and features 2 segments with muted/changed audio to remove some cussing. There is additional time difference due to a longer black screen at the beginning of the DVD and marginal cuts before each commercial break in the itv version (mostly under 1 second).

Perhaps he figures that he could prevent that later on by going back to 1885 to drop off some gasoline and a set of instructions for his past counterpart. It's also possible that he and Clara have been constantly fixing the timeline after inventing the locomotive time machine.

There's simply no good reason to stick around. Doc isn't aware that Clara is leaving town and probably wants to try and put her behind him. Also, he'd planned everything out ready to leave that day. Putting off leaving would either mean bringing the DeLorean all the way back to town to hide again, only to have to take it back out to the train track at a later time to set it up again, or leaving the DeLorean out in the open on the tracks and risking it being discovered.