Back to the Future movie corrections

George McFly's holding a pen in his right hand, then a cut to a wide shot reveals him not holding a pen as he rests his arm away from his body on the table. Then when the camera cuts back his arm is back in front of him holding the pen. See more...

Trivia

When Marty returned to 1985, Red was on a park bench that had the logo for California Raisins. The California Raisin Board paid the producers $50,000 for this product placement. However, since it was so dark and dirty, and since Red was covering up most of the logo, half their money was refunded. See more...

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Movie Mistakes blog

Back to the Future (1985) - 96 corrections

Directed by Robert Zemeckis, starring Christopher Lloyd, Crispin Glover, Lea Thompson, Michael J. Fox, Thomas F. Wilson (add more)

Genres: Action, Adventure, Comedy, Family, Sci-fi

Comments made in brackets are corrections from other visitors. As such, any aggressive/abusive corrections (and I get quite a few) written as if they're comments I've made myself will be ignored. To submit your own corrections for mistakes, just click the edit icon under an entry, then choose "correct entry". Some entries have "duplicated entry" after them - these are entries which were already listed on the main page, but were submitted again. I occasionally leave these online for a while, just in case they were moved in error, so don't worry about pointing them out to me.

Corrections

At the very end, Marty tells Doc that he'll have to back up as they don't have enough roads to get up to 88mph. The next shot we see shows the avenue stretching off at least a mile into the distance, with plenty of road to reach that speed. Since the DeLorean was able to achieve 88mph in a parking lot, it should be fairly obvious to Marty that there is no issue with them not having enough road. [He's talking about road without intersections. It'd be less than desirable to ram into the side of someone's car at 87 miles per hour.]

Corrected by Phixius

When Marty pulls out of the barn and runs over the pine tree, it's pitch black outside (the sun hasn't risen yet). The subsequent shot shows Marty driving his car and telling himself it's just a dream...now it's complete daylight. Is the Twin Pines Mall/Twin Pines Ranch so far away from Hill Valley that it takes a sunrise's-worth of time to DRIVE from one to the other? Doubtful, since it only took Marty about 15 minutes to skateboard there from his house (and pick up Doc's camcorder along the way). [He wouldn't show up at the exact time he left 1985, he would show up at the time set on the consule which I belive was 5:30am. Also, it gets pretty bright in the morning even before the sun rises. If you look the sky has a grayish look to it that looks like a overcast day before the sun rises.]

When Marty shows the video to the 1955 Doc, the 1985 Doc on the video states their location as the "Twin Pines Mall". Since Marty already knocked down one of the pines, the mall should've already been renamed to "Lone Pine Mall" on the video. [The timestream in the Back To The Future series is demonstrated as being somewhat resistant to changes; when Marty interferes with his parents' first meeting, he doesn't start to fade out for about a week after that happens. When Marty shows Doc the video, not enough time has passed for the effects of the timeline change to appear on the tape.]

Corrected by Tailkinker

When Doc is on the clock tower in 1955 during the storm, a closeup of his feet is shown. He is wearing shoes with velcro straps in this shot. Velcro did not yet exist in 1955, and Doc had not yet traveled into the future. [The concept behind Velcro was conceived in 1941, the idea was submitted for a patent in 1951, and the patent was granted in 1955. Not impossible that Dr. Emmett Brown, a member of a wealthy family and fellow inventor, could acquire some.]

Corrected by Phixius

Towards the end of the movie when Marty is driving down the street in 1955 to go back to 1985, Doc is trying to get the electricity cables back together for the lightning needed to send Marty back to the future. Doc then slides down the cable to connect the cable to the other one over the street. As he's about to connect the cable, the lightning strikes. He then has at least half a second to connect the cable and he does. But the lightning takes at least two seconds to get from the tower to the car. This is way to slow for electricity. Electricity can move around the world four times in a second. [The velocity of electric current depends very much on the insulation of the wiring being used. For instance, in open air (such as lightning) electricity is very fast, but within rubber-insulated wiring, it is slower.]

Corrected by JC Fernandez

When Marty goes back to Nov. 5, 1955, the time is set for 8:30 AM. When he arrives he walks around a bit in amazement and then heads towards Hill Valley. The sign he passes says "Hill Valley 2 miles." When he gets there, look at the clock tower, the time is about 8:30 (give or take). He couldn't have run the two miles in under a minute even without hiding the DeLorean. [No such thing occurs. When he's being chased by the Libyans at the mall, the display reads the destination time at sometime during the 6 o'clock hour (the minutes are not visible). This is the last time we can see the precise time on the time circuit display until the night of the storm. Regardless, in the scene in question, the time circuits are out of power and malfunctioning so they could have given a false reading.]

Corrected by JC Fernandez

In the beginning, when Doc awakens Marty in the beginning he tells him to meet him at "Lone Pine Mall" (the altered name of the mall after the movie) but when Marty arrives at the mall the sign still reads "Twin Pines Mall". How come Doc is referencing the new name that hasn't changed yet? And this scene occurred just before any time traveling took place so it's definitely not a paradox (most likely a script error). [I think you need to check again. First of all, Doc does not "awaken" Marty. Marty is visiting Doc's house, and has been trying out the gigantic loudspeaker (knocking himself backwards). Second, Doc clearly says "Twin Pines Mall", and has done so in every version of the movie I have ever seen.]

Corrected by Twotall

Just after the Libyans arrive, Marty is seen jumping into the Delorean. If you look closely at his face in this shot, you can see that it's not Michael J. Fox. It's actually Eric Stolz, who was originally cast as Marty McFly. [This has already been corrected once. When Michael J Fox took over the role, the costume was changed. Stoltz's Marty wore black Converse shoes in 1985 (as seen in behind the scenes photos), but when Fox took over the role, the character's shoes were changed to white Nikes. The person leaping into the Delorean wears white Nikes - it is definitely NOT Eric Stoltz.]

American police may be so lackadaisical that they don't attend the scene of a car racing noisily around a car park, followed by a loud crash of a van hitting a shed, but I find it hard to believe that they don't investigate continuous machine gun fire from the same area. There are occupied building all around the car park, and there is plenty of time for them to turn up. [They'd have to receive a call from someone to be made aware of the situation. If the neighbors thought it was just some teenagers screwing around with firecrackers, which is more likely (because how often to Libyan terrorists open fire right next door?), the police wouldn't exactly rush to the scene lights blazing and sirens blaring. There's very few minutes from when the Libyans start firing to when Marty goes back to 1955, and who knows how far away the nearest police cruiser is.]

Corrected by Phixius

When Marty is being chased by the terrorists, he disappears through time, and the terrorists crash their van into the photo-booth, which presumably stops them dead in their tracks. But really, how would trashing that small booth make the bad guys irrelevant from that point onward? They weren't killed. So realistically they'd all get out of their crashed van and proceed to wreak more havoc. Yet in the time it takes Marty & Doc Brown to gather up all their stuff and drive away in Doc's van, the terrorists don't lift a finger to chastise them or confiscate the remaining plutonium. [There are any number of explanations: 1. The Libyans may have been rendered unconscious in the crash, which while not explosive *did* knock the vehicle to its side and at least one Libyan was unrestrained. 2. The parking lot was the site of machine gun fire and multiple explosions, and the Libyans may have fled the scene before the police arrived.]

Corrected by JC Fernandez

When back in 1985 Marty's mom asks if this is the night for the big date, Marty answers "How can I go to the lake when the car is wrecked?" His family reacts by going out and checking George's BMW. Seconds later we see that Marty has his own truck - shouldn't they have been checking on that instead? And if it's because he talks about the car (i.e. the BMW) instead of the truck, they should have wondered why he was going to take his fathers BMW up to the lake instead of his truck. [They're probably used to hearing Marty refer to the truck as "the truck," whereas George's car is "the car." Once they heard Marty say the car was wrecked, they didn't have time to think logically and conclude, well, the car may be wrecked but you're taking the truck. More likely they were startled and wanted to go check on the car right away to find out what Marty was talking about.]

Even with Marty's brief instructions, it is near impossible that each backing band member (each, and as a whole) could have pulled off a near perfect rendition of Johnny B. Goode, not ever having rehearsed, known or heard the song, etc. [1. It is NOT a perfect rendition. 2. "Near impossible" is not impossible. 3. This posting renders every musical ever made impossible.]

In the parking lot when Marty begins to film, Doc says the date and exact time according to his watch. Marty then looks at his watch. Apparently his is off because he shakes his wrist and puts the watch to his ear to see if it is still working. However, he is wearing a digital watch which wouldn't tick or likely have broken parts to rattle. [Character mistake not a movie mistake. I often look at my wrist when asked the time even though I do not wear a watch.]

In 1985, when Marty's mum is talking about Jennifer, she mentions that she's never sat in a parked car with a boy before. But as Marty and his mum are sitting in a car in 1955, she says, "It's not like I've never parked with a boy before", which means she has. [Lorraine was obviously lying in 1985 about never being in a parked car with a boy, the same way a parent might lie to their kids about when they lost their virginity if they lost it in high school in hopes of deterring their kids from going out and having sex early themselves.]

In 1985 When Doc is recording himself as he sees the terrorists come with their trucks. Marty is supposed to say, "who, who found you?", or something like that. But as Doc is watching the tape in 1955, Marty never says anything. [Doc stops and rewinds the tape before Marty says anything.]

During the first Lou's cafe scene in 1955, Marty asks for a Tab, then a Pepsi-Free, then "something without any sugar in it." Pepsi-Free was "free" of caffene, not sugar (Diet Pepsi was "free" of sugar). Marty knows this because he is seen with both Diet Pepsi and Diet Pepsi-Free in 1985. Of course, had Marty asked for Diet Pepsi in 1955, Lou would not have been able to say "Hey, you want a Pepsi, pal, you're gonna pay for it." [Marty simply changed his order. He was just naming his preferred drinks, not necessarily the ones that don't have sugar.]

Time

In the scene in the beginning at the mall when Marty is being chased by the Libyans, the tripmeter on the Delorean goes from about 17 miles to 87 miles in a matter of seconds. [The inconsistency of the trip counter has already been submitted.]

Corrected by Jazetopher

When the wrecked car is being backed into the driveway, it is after dark. But when Marty walks into the house and hears Biff complaining about the blind spot, look out the back glass doors. It's daytime back there. [It is not after dark. It is just getting dark, it is still light outside like a summer evening between 9 and 10pm. Same as in the background when Biff is complaining.]

Near the end when Biff is waxing the BMW, it is close to the garage door. But when the family goes back inside less than a minute elapses and suddenly Biff brings in the book shipment and then gives Marty the keys to the truck. When Marty goes out the front door, the BMW has now suddenly moved to the far side of the driveway. There wasn't time for Biff to finish waxing, accept the book shipment, and move the BMW in less than a minute. [It is never stated that Biff finished waxing the BMW. As for the movement of the car, if he was moving it when the delivery person arrived, all he had to do was get out of the now-moved car, sign a form, and bring in the box. You could do this in a minute.]

Corrected by Jazetopher

Seeing as Marty changed his future, shouldn't the photo of himself, his brother and sister be different? [Not really. The events of that day, leading up to the picture being taken, could have been the same.]

Corrected by Rlvlk

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Back to the Future (1985) - 96 corrections

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