10 Mistakes That Made It Into The Back To The Future Movies

Summary

• Uopn closer inspection, the Back to the Future trilogy is filled with little mistakes here and there.
• Minor continuity errors like an extra walking the same route twice don’t detract from the movie’s appeal.
• Back to the Future’s time travel paradoxes create some potential plot holes, but fans have enjoyed debating these for years.

The Back to the Future trilogy is just as popular as ever, but there are a few errors which fans have spotted over the years. Most fans of the franchise agree that Back to the Future 4 would be unnecessary, but there is still enough love for the characters to make people watch the three movies on repeat. After a couple of watches, some of the franchise’s mistakes become obvious.

The Back to the Future movies have their flaws, but this also contributes to their charm. The sci-fi trilogy is so popular in part because it doesn’t take itself too seriously. Although there are plenty of dizzying time travel paradoxes, Back to the Future never gets too bogged down in the minor details. This means that there are some little mistakes which crept in to each of the three Back to the Future movies, but recognizing them can actually make the franchise more enjoyable, since it feels like discovering some hidden knowledge.

10 The DeLorean’s Odometer Is Inconsistent

Back to the Future

After Doc swindles a group of Libyan terrorists out of some plutonium, they go chasing after him seeking revenge. Marty finds himself behind the wheel of the DeLorean as he tries to flee. The audience knows what’s coming more than Marty does at this point, and Robert Zemeckis uses a series of close-up shots to show the needle of the speedometer creeping up toward 88 miles per hour.

The first shot shows that there are 33,061 miles on the odometer, but seconds later it reads 32994 miles.

The problem with this chase scene is that the numbers on the car’s odometer are completely inconsistent. The first shot shows that there are 33,061 miles on the odometer, but seconds later it reads 32994 miles. Back to the Future‘s iconic DeLorean was actually six different cars which the crew switched in and out for different shots. This could explain the continuity error with the odometer.

Back to the Future

With so many extras on set to make Hill Valley look like a real town, it shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that there is one particularly noticeable continuity error featuring a man in a brown jacket. When Jennifer’s father comes to pick her up from in front of the clock tower, a man rounds the corner behind his car. A moment later, he is seen walking the exact same route, as if he has teleported back in between shots.

The fact that people have even pointed out this moment says something about the lasting appeal of
Back to the Future.

This kind of minor continuity error doesn’t detract from the quality of Back to the Future in any way. Most movies will have similar errors here and there. The fact that people have even pointed out this moment says something about the lasting appeal of Back to the Future. It’s the kind of thing that could easily go unseen if people hadn’t been obsessively watching and rewatching the movie for decades.

8 Marty’s Video Isn’t What He Shot

Back to the Future

When Marty lands back in 1955, he struggles to convince Doc that he has traveled back from 1985 thanks to one of his inventions. Eventually, he shows him a video that they filmed together in 1985 where Doc displays his latest invention: the time machine. Back to the Future shows Doc and Marty taping this exact video earlier, back in 1985, but the footage doesn’t quite match up to the finished product.

In the video, Doc is seen on-screen as he says the words
“Never mind that now, never mind that now.”
However, Marty’s camera is pointing straight down at the ground.

In the video, Doc is seen on-screen as he says the words “Never mind that now, never mind that now.” However, Marty’s camera is pointing straight down at the ground when Doc says these words in 1985. This is just another minor continuity error that can go unnoticed, but it’s still hard to ignore for fans of Back to the Future who have seen the movie multiple times.

7 Marty Would Have Destroyed The Speaker Sooner

Back to the Future

Back to the Future gives a sense of who Marty is early on as he toys with a massive speaker system in Doc’s house. He shows no restraint as he dials everything up as loud as it can possibly go, before plugging his guitar into the amp and blasting himself backwards with the sheer power of the sound. In real life, a sound wave powerful enough to knock someone off their feet would likely do irreparable damage to their hearing, but this isn’t the only issue with this scene.

If this scene followed realistic logic, Marty would have been incapacitated before he even played a single note.

The amp would have unleashed a violent screech as soon as Marty plugged the cable into the guitar. It’s best practice to plug the cable in at both ends before turning the amp on. This avoids making the noise of the cable and the guitar jack making contact. If this scene followed realistic logic, Marty would have been incapacitated before he even played a single note.

6 The Clock Tower Should Be Fixed

Back to the Future

With so many time loops and paradoxes being created left, right and center, Back to the Future has some potential plot holes. At the very least, there are a few mysteries which don’t quite make sense, but trying to straighten out the tangled timeline caused by Doc and Marty’s adventures might be impossible. Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis have explained some of these contradictions, while others are just as puzzling as ever.

With so many time loops and paradoxes being created left, right and center,
Back to the Future
has some potential plot holes.

Back to the Future establishes early on that the clock tower in Hill Valley stopped in 1955 when it got struck by lightning, but Doc and Marty reroute the lightning to strike the DeLorean. Presumably, this would mean that the tower should avoid any damage, but it’s still shown to be broken when Marty returns to 1985. It’s possible that the tower was struck by another bolt of lightning in the same storm.

5 One Of The Scores On The Radio Is Incorrect

Back to the Future Part II

A large chunk of the plot of Back to the Future Part II revolves around a sports almanac that Biff acquires from his future self. This allows him to make a huge fortune from sports gambling, which he uses to turn Hill Valley into a dystopian slum in service of his massive ego. When 2015 Biff tries to convince his younger self to take the almanac, he finds out just how stubborn he truly is, and he has to prove the almanac’s worth.

The radio broadcast claims that Texas A&M’s football team beat Rice 20-10, but the real score was 20-12.

Most of the scores that are heard over the radio are real scores from real games. This is a nice touch, but it makes it more noticeable that one score is slightly off. The radio broadcast claims that Texas A&M’s football team beat Rice 20-10, but the real score was 20-12. The other problem with the almanac is that it’s quite a slender magazine, and there’s no way it could possibly contain the result of every football game, horse race, boxing match and baseball game over a 50-year period.

4 Back To The Future Distorts Another Popular Movie

Back to the Future Part II

Fans of the Western genre will probably have picked up on some of Back to the Future‘s hidden jokes in Part III, but there are subtle references to Clint Eastwood in both other movies in the trilogy. In Part II, Biff is watching Eastwood’s 1964 classic A Fistful of Dollars in his hot tub before Marty comes to interrupt him. It’s only a minor background detail, so it would be easy to miss.

Back to the Future Part II
and
Part III
were filmed back-to-back, so there are a few clues that Marty’s next adventure is set to take him back to 1885.

Showing A Fistful of Dollars is a nice nod to the Western genre ahead of Part III. Back to the Future Part II and Part III were filmed back-to-back, so there are a few clues that Marty’s next adventure is set to take him back to 1885. However, the scenes of A Fistful of Dollars are shown in completely the wrong order. Each time the movie cuts back to show the movie in the background, it has either jumped backward or too far forward.

3 The Two DeLoreans In 1885

Back to the Future Part III

One of the most notorious supposed plot holes in the Back to the Future trilogy comes from the fact that there are two versions of Doc’s time machine which exist in 1885. Since so much of Back to the Future Part III‘s narrative revolves around Marty’s struggles to return to his own time period, it would make sense for Doc to try to use parts from his own DeLorean to help him.

One of the most notorious supposed plot holes in the
Back to the Future
trilogy comes from the fact that there are two versions of Doc’s time machine which exist in 1885.

Both DeLoreans are broken, but Doc and Marty don’t even try to figure out if they can mix and match parts from the two cars to end up with one working model. This would have solved the movie’s big problem a lot quicker, but there have been several conflicting fan theories put forward to explain away this potential plot hole. It’s possible that Doc’s DeLorean had become even harder to salvage than he first thought.

2 The Train Would Have Hit The End Of The Track Much Sooner

Back to the Future Part III

As the steam train pushes the DeLorean along the tracks, it smashes through a sign hanging overhead which states that the track ends in a quarter of a mile. At this time, the DeLorean’s speedometer reads 80 miles per hour, and it’s still accelerating. This means that the car should have reached the end of the track in less than 12 seconds, but it takes over a minute in the movie.

If the train had actually reached the end of the line in the time that it should have done, Clara would still be hanging upside-down with her dress slowly ripping.

There simply wouldn’t have been enough time for Marty to toss the hoverboard to Doc, and for him to safely whisk Clara away to safety. If the train had actually reached the end of the line in the time that it should have done, Clara would still be hanging upside-down with her dress slowly ripping, and Marty would not have even passed the hoverboard back yet. It’s one of Back to the Future‘s most exciting scenes, but it only makes sense if the sign is ignored.

1 Marty’s Headrest Magically Reappears

Back to the Future Part III

When Marty finally makes it back to 1985, he gets in his Toyota to go and pick up Jennifer. When he arrives at Jennifer’s house, the headrest on his seat has suddenly appeared behind him. On the surface, this seems like just another inconspicuous continuity error that doesn’t mean much, but it’s linked to a much larger filmmaking quirk that can be seen in countless movies and TV shows.

This is linked to a much larger filmmaking quirk that can be seen in countless movies and TV shows.

When filming scenes in a car, plenty of movies and TV shows remove the headrests. This gives the director more freedom to shoot from behind and to the side, it gives actors a chance to move their head in any way they want to, and it stops headrests from being too visually distracting. This may explain why Marty’s headrest is missing at one point in Back to the Future Part III before magically reappearing.