Neat Back to the Future Articles

[J-Proof]

BTTF has a lot of flaws, but I still loves the movies =)

As the columnist noted, the first two BTTFs were fine, they were explainable using BTTF science. But BTTF III was the most illogical and messed up one.

Like he pointed out, BTTF III is entirely based on Marty and Doc getting back home to 1985 from 1885. Doc wound up in the past because he was sitting in a time machine that got struck by lightning. Marty winds up in the past by taking a time machine as well. The big issue is that Marty's fuel line breaks in 1885 and he can't get back to the future without regular fossil fuels - hence the train hijacking etc.

ILLOGIC: Doc /has/ a time machine /without/ a broken fuel line but we never see it. It's the same time machine that got struck by lightning and sent him to the wild west in the first place! Sure, his time components are busted from the lightning, but he still has the fuel! They should have just emptied the gas tank of Doc's Delorian and placed the fuel into Marty's delorian and zapped back to the future before Doc got shot, effectively leaving the ravine's name as Clayton Ravine!

FURTHER: As the columnist explains, every time leap to the future results in no time rift. As we see, Einstein disappears and reappears one minute later in the first BTTF. However, a jump to the past causes multi-dimmensional rifting and effectively results in duplicate worlds etc etc (the columnist explains it much more in depth). But basically, for every time Marty and Doc and Jennifer go into the past, there should resultantly be duplicates of them in different dimmensions. Fun? Dang straight!

Anyway - illogic/logic aside, the movies rock. And who wasn't cracking up when Biff spits the manure out of his mouth?? Golden! I would definitely /not/ have liked watching the BTTF saga that the columnist was envisioning. I mean, screw that =)

[Tarantulas]

BTTF has a lot of flaws, but I still loves the movies =)

ILLOGIC: Doc /has/ a time machine /without/ a broken fuel line but we never see it. It's the same time machine that got struck by lightning and sent him to the wild west in the first place! Sure, his time components are busted from the lightning, but he still has the fuel! They should have just emptied the gas tank of Doc's Delorian and placed the fuel into Marty's delorian and zapped back to the future before Doc got shot, effectively leaving the ravine's name as Clayton Ravine!

Doc no doubt would have drained the fuel system of the car completely since gas left sitting in the fuel system of a car for 70 years would likely damage the rubber hoses and fuel injection system of the vehicle.  If the gas was anything other than unleaded, it contains alcohol which would have dissolved the rubber gaskets that help control the mix to the injectors during its stay in the cave.  While this is something that Doc's 1955 counterpart would have likely been able to fix, it still would have taken some time.

In 1885 they did have a fuel line, which they either made or robbed off the Delorian in the cave which is how they were able to get the whiskey into the gas tank and fed into the fuel injector (which blew).

The "rotting rubber" theory of mine is further backed up by the fact that the Delorians tires had mostly dry rotted away when we first it in the cave.  Doc even sprung for some white walls as further proof.

What did Doc do with the gas?  Since he likely may have needed to get his life rebooted in the old West, he may have used the gas as fuel for fires or some other purpose... or ruptured the same line when he landed after being struck by lightening.  Keep in mind, there is a pretty big gap of time in between Doc getting stranded in 1885 and Marty arriving 10 or so days before his "death".

The Shonash / Clayton / Eastwood ravine thing is exactly the same as the Twin / Lone pines thing... it's a minor footnote but yet an important change aka butterfly effect (and not the crappy Aston thing... the "Delicate Sound of Thunder" thing).

But yeah, it's just a movie, I should really just relax...

FURTHER: As the columnist explains, every time leap to the future results in no time rift. As we see, Einstein disappears and reappears one minute later in the first BTTF. However, a jump to the past causes multi-dimmensional rifting and effectively results in duplicate worlds etc etc (the columnist explains it much more in depth). But basically, for every time Marty and Doc and Jennifer go into the past, there should resultantly be duplicates of them in different dimmensions. Fun? Dang straight!

Anyway - illogic/logic aside, the movies rock. And who wasn't cracking up when Biff spits the manure out of his mouth?? Golden! I would definitely /not/ have liked watching the BTTF saga that the columnist was envisioning. I mean, screw that =)

Yes, these movies do rock.  I loved them as a kid, and I still do now.  I'm a huge fan of the series.

One thing they never addressed was the ice on the Delorian after its first trip... it never had nice on it again after its first "trip".

[MrTorso]

Yes, these movies do rock.  I loved them as a kid, and I still do now.  I'm a huge fan of the series.

I was so mad when Universal screwed up the DVD release with the wrong framing. They did eventually offer replacements but it shouldn't have happened in the first place and they did at first try to play it off like nothing was wrong.

[Shinigami]

Yes, these movies do rock.  I loved them as a kid, and I still do now.  I'm a huge fan of the series.

One thing they never addressed was the ice on the Delorian after its first trip... it never had nice on it again after its first "trip".

They explain it in the making of documentary.  The DeLorean leaves hot and comes in cold.  The simply pay a lot less attention to the cold effect in the second and third movie because it's hard to accomplish, and doesn't add a lot to the movie.  The heat effect on the other hand is a cool visual effect and lets the audience know that the time machine left.

[Tarantulas]

Yes, these movies do rock.  I loved them as a kid, and I still do now.  I'm a huge fan of the series.

I was so mad when Universal screwed up the DVD release with the wrong framing. They did eventually offer replacements but it shouldn't have happened in the first place and they did at first try to play it off like nothing was wrong.

             YOUR JACKET IS NOW DRY!

[Minnesota]

Just read the articles, the first one was incredibly interesting! The two that follow tend to break a little. I didn't like the idea of merging realities, but the idea of Marty I taking over the good life of Marty II's 'hip reality', then Marty II being left with dorky parents, no truck and a dead friend- is utterly brilliant. I will never watch that ending the same again poor Marty II

[Rude]

I will never watch that ending the same again poor Marty II

Actually wouldn't our Marty and Marty II have crashed into each other since they'd be trying to jump back in time to the exact same place at the exact same time? The timeline only split into a different reality after our Marty jumped into the past, so they would actually share the same history up to that point in time, right?

I suppose that won't make you feel any better... what, with them crashing into each other and both dying, or unraveling the space-time continuum or whatever. But at least Marty II won't be stuck with nerds for parents!

-Rude

PS- Why do i get the feeling that we're like, way behind in this whole discussion and that it's probably already been settled for years over on www.bttf.com?

PPS- Are all the boxed sets fixed now? Because after this whole discussion, i'm probably going to have to buy the trilogy on eBay.

[MrTorso]

PPS- Are all the boxed sets fixed now? Because after this whole discussion, i'm probably going to have to buy the trilogy on eBay.[/size]

There are a lot of mis-framed ones out there.

From what I have heard the last release of it is fixed:



If you are getting one used the fixed discs have a small V2 right after the small fine print copyright info on the edge of the disc.

[Tarantulas]

Don't forget that Universal is replacing the discs for free if you call them... google bttf disc replacement

[J-Proof]

Good point about draining the fuel from the tank for other purposes, T-Dawg.

[torgosPizza]

BTTF Timeline on Wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Back_to_the_Future_timeline

I like charts and things.

[Atarian]

Save, print, enjoy.

[PJD]

Am I the only one that thout BTTF 2 sucked ass and BTTF 3 was was better?
I might like that one better than the first one

[Minnesota]

Am I the only one that thout BTTF 2 sucked ass and BTTF 3 was was better?
I might like that one better than the first one

yup, the only one

[darthvedder81]

In my experience the first movie in a series is always the best one. That said, I thought BTTF2 and BTTF3 were about as entertaining of sequels as you could expect to be made. Nothing was going to top the freshness and originality of BTTF1 and to their credit Zemeckis and Gale realized this and just made fun time travel adventures. The characters, acting, humor and witty writing were pretty conistent throughout the series.

BTTF is definately one of my favorite all-time franchises; I was 5-9 when they came out so they left the same kind of impression that "Star Wars" left on kids a decade earlier—okay maybe not that big of an impression!

And for those of you complaining about "paradoxes" and scientific problems with the movies I say get a friggin' life. Movies that have flying DeLoreans in them don't need to be 100% realistic.