Gaffes

When Doc climbs aboard the running train on his horse and helps Marty climb up, Marty's hat falls off. In the next shot his hat is still on his head.

When Marty is backing into the cave, there is no arrow sticking out of the DeLorean.

After the scene in the saloon with Mad Dog and Marty, Mad Dog has a soiled shirt due to the spittoon. In the following scene when Mad Dog and his cronies are chasing Marty on their horses, Mad Dog has a clean shirt.

When Clara is on the train to leave town, she pulls a cord to trigger an emergency stop. Her hands are clad in dark brown leather gloves. However, right after she gets off the train and begins running, her hands are not gloved. She is then seen wearing these same gloves throughout the remainder of the film.

When Clara is showing the craters of the Moon to Doc, the camera pans down and you can clearly see the telescope is pointing to the right side of the sky, not to the Moon.

Black bears do not live in the desert or the scrub lands. They are found in wooded areas, grasslands, mountains or where moisture is found, along with edible vegetation and other food sources.

Steam locomotive-pulled passenger cars in 1885 did not have emergency pull cords, the engineer was the only one who could stop the train and even then it took a while. Emergency pull cords worked off of the air brake system developed in later years. So Clara could not have pulled the cord that brought her train to a screeching halt.

When Doc Brown and Marty have transported the DeLorean to the drive-in theater and are preparing to launch it toward the screen and into 1885, Marty shows Doc Brown that he is ready by enthusiastically slamming the transmission's gear lever to the left and down. The director got the shot he wanted, not realizing that for the car's shift pattern, moving the lever that way would put the DeLorean into reverse.

In Part II, Lorraine says that the owner of the Rolls Royce pressed charges against Marty. When that event plays out here, the Rolls Royce is running a stop sign, and fails to yield to cross-traffic, as he should when entering a three-way intersection. Marty would only be liable for damages to his own car (since he was racing), as would the other driver.

In the scene where the Colt salesman talks Marty in to trying out the pistol, Marty fires off six quick (and accurate) shots and immediately hands the weapon back to the salesman by the barrel. The barrel would have been too hot to touch, and would likely have severely burned Marty's hand.

In Retour vers le futur 2 (1989), Doc Brown opens a case with money from different time periods for monetary emergencies. One is marked 1875 ten years earlier which means Doc Brown possibly already had the 80 dollars that he owed Buford Tannen and therefore could have paid off the debt. But Doc didn't pay Tannen out of principle, not because he didn't have the money. The fact that he later tells Marty: "Now I wish I'd paid him off." implies that Doc indeed could've afforded to do so, if he wanted.

A great deal of discussion frequently centers on why, once the gasoline problem was discovered with the Delorean, Doc Brown could not have simply gone back to the Delorean he boarded up in the abandoned mine which should still be there with a tank of gas. This assumes that Doc hadn't used the gas from that car previously for some other purpose or that he hadn't drained all of the car's fluids since he knew the car would be sitting in an underground cave for several decades.

When trying to reach 88mph on the train, they unhook all of the wagons in order to lose weight, but they leave the firewood wagon which is the heaviest. They didn't need firewood because they used presto logs. The reason they leave the tender on is because in addition to the firewood, the tender also carries the water that the locomotive needs to make steam, which is what powers the locomotive. Without steam, burning anything in the boiler, especially the high temp presto logs would just cause it to explode.

When Clara comes to visit Doc at his barn with her "broken" telescope, in theory there's nothing actually wrong with it even though she says it was damaged. What she describes, rotating a knob one way makes the image fuzzy and the other way makes it clearer, implies that's a properly functioning focusing system.

This was most likely a ruse just to give her a reason to go visit Doc Brown.

Marty McFly's mother Lorraine Baines McFly is only related to the McFly family via marriage, so there is no apparent reason that Marty's great-great-grandmother Maggie would look exactly like Lorraine.

There is no reason not to think so, either, because over that many generations, one of her descendants could well have married one or another generations of Baines and been Marty's mother.

Moreover, even if this were not so, it could be coincidental that Lorraine Baines resembles Maggie McFly and is indicative that McFly men are attracted to a certain "type" of woman.

When Clara pulls the train's emergency stop cable, there is a shot of the train stopping from head on that is obviously filmed in reverse, as the steam disappears into the train.

When Marty and Doc are standing by the railroad tracks at the ravine, it is evident that the railroad track is wildly uneven and radically steep, even by the standards of the day in 1865, and is clearly just prop track laid on rough ground. This is most obvious on the track in the foreground when we first see Clara on the runaway wagon. The roadbed would have required extensive grading and leveling before laying track in order to be usable.

On the morning that Marty is supposed to have his shootout with Mad Dog, an automated machine in Doc Brown's shop makes breakfast. One part of the machine cracks some eggs and slides the frying pan over to an open fire. But as this happens, the eggs are pushed over too and you can see that some of the egg whites are already cooking, suggesting that the pan is already hot.

Doc calls Marty by his actual name inside a full saloon. However, no-one gets suspicious or questions it.

When they load the DeLorean onto the rail tracks it come to a halt with a small bounce in the suspension indicating that someone inside the vehicle has stepped on the brakes.

Doc's TV is left on during the night with no station broadcasting on the channel to which the TV is tuned. Suddenly "Howdy Doody" comes on. Stations were/are required to sign on with a legal ID (call letters and city of license). Almost all provided additional information (owner, frequency, transmitting power....) and played the national anthem before programming began.

Doc declines to take Clara back to the future with himself and Marty because of the damage to the time-line. But since Clara was supposed to have fallen into the ravine anyway, this wouldn't be an issue.

Marty tells Doc he will send the hover board to him through the walkies talkie but even if the train noise wasn't too loud Doc doesn't have his walkies talkie as he is holding onto the train with both hands. Yet Doc shakes his head acknowledging he understands.

Doc arrives in his steam powered train/time machine, but before that the crossing guard goes down. The mechanism for the crossing guard is much further down the track, usually 400 feet away, giving cars 20-30 seconds of safe time to cross or stop. Doc's new train would have never triggered the crossing guard.

The library book provides a History of Hill Valley from 1850 to 1930. Had the town been 35 years old by 1885, it would have had to look far more developed than it is when Marty visits it. Its appearance reflects a town more like 5 years old.

After Marty arrives in 1885, he eats dinner at his great-great-grandparents' house. During dinner, Maggie asks to talk to her husband privately in the other room. In that other room, wire hangers are hung on the wall behind them. Wire hangers were invented by Alfred J. Parkhouse in 1903.

Aircraft contrails visible when the horses are pulling the DeLorean.

During the Hill Valley Festival in 1885 where the courthouse clock is dedicated, a sousaphone is seen in the background playing with the band. The sousaphone was not created until 1893 by the J.W. Pepper company.

In one shot during the aftermath of Marty's "shootout" with Tannen, a modern California state flag can be seen hanging from one of the buildings. This design was not developed until 1911, the original having been destroyed in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.

In 1885 the train engineer is wearing a traditional striped hat. This type of hat was invented by George Kromer in 1906. In 1885, railroad men wore the same type of hats as any other person engaged in physical labor.

Towards the end of the film, Mad Dog Tannen is holding Doc Brown hostage trying to lure Marty out into the street for a duel. He tells Marty that if he doesn't face him now, he will shoot Doc Brown. When Marty doesn't come out, Tannen pulls his single action Colt pistol and points it at Doc's head. When he does this we can hear the distinctive clicking sound of the hammer being cocked as he's raising the gun, but his thumb never actually touches the hammer at any point when he draws his pistol.

When the train enters the station with Clara standing next to it, the warning bell can be heard ringing, though it is not seen ringing in the split second in which it is visible.

When Marty is running up the street after Doc Brown in 1955, you can hear the sound of Marty's footsteps. It sounds like Marty is running hard-soled shoes, not the sneakers he's obviously wearing.

When Doc Brown cuts the engine away from the train, the rapid chuff of the exhaust indicates that the drive wheels are slipping, but they can be seen moving at a normal pace.

In 1885 when the camera is pointed at a mirror with Marty in it he is heard talking, but in the mirror you can clearly see his mouth not moving.

When Marty is running away from Buford Tannen and his gang after their first encounter at the saloon, a crewmember in blue shorts and a white t-shirt is running alongside a camera on the left side of the screen.

Towards the end When Marty questions the people in the bar by saying," What...what if I don't go out there?" On Marty's right, a film light on a stand is clearly visible sitting in front of the window.

Towards the end of the town party scene, when Marty and Doc are talking about Martys upcoming duel and the chance that the train may be late, towards the left side of the frame (just to the left of the ornate post) you can briefly see a modern PA system (Bass cab with head on top and 2 tweeters above) at approx 01:01:29.

The Indians wear traditional clothing of the tribes living in the Great Plains region.

Often times, Hill Valley is seen in a crimson soiled desert. But *if* Hill Valley is supposed to be in central California (as the Train ticket booth guy said that the train goes to San Francisco which is false because no railroads went to San Francisco directly in 1885) the landscape of Hill Valley should be more green and the mountains a bit more higher.

Trains going to Hill Valley in 1885 are marked "Central Pacific." Clara asks the ticket agent where is the end of the line? The agent says "San Francisco." The CPRR did not go to San Francisco. It ended in Oakland and a ferry connection was required to reach San Francisco.

Back to the Future III takes place in September 1885. In some shots, the surrounding hills are green. In other scenes, the hills are brown. Since Hill Valley is (fictionally) located in California, California hills are only green in the winter-spring, and always have gone brown by September.

When Marty arrives at the Hill Valley railway station, the camera lifts up over the station to show the town, and the Town Hall can be seen under construction up the hill. However in all the future scenes the town square in front of the Town Hall, and all the immediately surrounding land, is flat - there is no hill.

Doc has no problem possibly changing future events by stranding several train passengers and not only stealing the locomotive but also destroying it.

However, this isn't a plot hole; the plot of the film isn't broken because of this. In fact this is required for the plot to happen. Doc may have been so focused on changing events that he knew would be affected that he didn't have time to consider possible outcomes of things that might not be affected.

The dress Clara wears to the festival shows a bit of cleavage which would be considered improper for a school teacher in that day and age.

However, this isn't a plot hole. The amount of cleavage Clara displays has no impact on the plot in any way.

The lightning bolt strikes the DeLorean while it is airborne. Doc's subsequent letter states among other damage, the flying circuits were destroyed during the strike. If so, the DeLorean would have plummeted to the ground, probably destroying it, as well as injuring Doc Brown.

The entire tense situation of Doc Brown needing to escape from being murdered by Tannen could have simply been solved by both Doc and Marty leaving Hill Valley. It was already historically known that Buford Tannen would eventually be arrested and imprisoned as an outlaw (he is in fact arrested immediately after his fight for Marty) meaning Doc and Marty could have simply taken a lengthy trip, waited for Tannen to be imprisoned, and then returned to Hill Valley and worked on getting home with no time constraints.

However, this isn't a plot hole; the plot of the film isn't broken because Doc and Marty don't leave town. It's the opposite, it's a plot device.

When Marty decides to not race his friends, thereby preventing the accident that ruined his life, "You're fired!" disappears from the paper that Jennifer was holding, meaning Marty's future has been changed for the better. In retrospect, since Marty never receives the call nor winds up getting fired, this fax should never have occurred, meaning the entire sheet of paper should have vanished instead of just the writing on it.

The 1955 Doc states that his future self might have landed in the Dark Ages and been burned as a heretic. However, it's shown throughout the trilogy that the DeLorean can only travel through time and not space, so the 1985 Doc would have landed in California during the Dark Ages (circa 1000-1500 A.D.), which at that point was sparsely populated by loosely organized hunter gatherer Native American tribes with no concept of heresy.

When Marty sees the unfinished ravine train tracks in 1885, he tells Doc that they can scratch that idea. Doc explains to Marty that the rest of the tracks across the ravine will exist in 1985, at which point they will be able to safely cross the ravine. However, Doc knows the ravine will be an active railroad track, but never seems to consider the possibility they could arrive back in 1985 and strike an oncoming train. This is almost exactly what happens when Marty arrives back to 1985.

There is no reason whatsoever for Marty to go to 1885 to save Doc, because the 1955 Doc is now aware of his fate in 1885 and can simply avoid Buford or avoid the lightning strike when he lives out those events 30 years later. Furthermore, if they decided to immediately prevent Doc's murder anyway, they could simply go back to the previous night and either warn Doc of the lightning strike or of his fate with Buford.

Marty obviously realizes the 'Western' clothes 1955 Doc Brown gives him are not authentic, but asks Doc if they are. Doc answers in the affirmative despite seeing real Western clothes in the pictures of Mad Dog Tannen and himself in the previous scene that look nothing like what he gave Marty.

Doc gives the distance from the switch track to the ravine as three miles. The locomotive takes over six and a half minutes to get there. Assuming uniform acceleration from 0 to 88mph this would indicate a distance between four and five miles.

However, it wasn't established that there was uniform acceleration.