This may well be the most obscure reference of the lot – but the barbed wire salesman who counsels the Doc on his broken heart isn’t just a random character. Although not named as such, he bears a clear visual resemblance to Joseph Glidden, the businessman who really did patent barbed wire in the 1870s and became one of the richest men in America as a result. 84. Punch-out It’s a small detail, but a nice touch, that rather than buying a new hat after having it shot off his head by Buford (thanks to Marty’s Frisbee-based intervention), he just continues to wear it, bullet hole and all. 82. “Great Scott!” “I know, this is heavy!” The Doc’s method of rescuing Marty is a reference to yet another Clint Eastwood film – this time it’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly. 72. It’s a refrigerator! Equipment [ edit ] Flux capacitor [ edit ] The Flux Capacitor as seen in a replica DeLorean Time Machine

Different parts from three 1982 DeLoreans were used in the first film. Liquid nitrogen was poured onto the car for scenes after it had traveled through time to give the impression that it was cold. The base for the nuclear reactor was made from the hubcap from a Dodge Polara. Aircraft parts and blinking lights were added for effect. In one of the first scenes, carbon dioxide extinguishers were hidden inside the DeLorean to simulate the exhaust effect. [42] Ultimately, five real DeLoreans were used in the filming of the trilogy, plus one "process" car built for interior shots. In the off-road scenes in the third film, a modified-for-off-road VW Beetle frame was fitted to the DeLorean with the whitewall tires and baby Moon hubcaps. [43] A seventh DeLorean was also used in the filming, but this one was merely a full-sized, fiberglass model used for exterior shots where the vehicle hovers above the set as well as when the actors interact with the vehicle. [44]

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Simpson, Philip; Utterson, Andrew; Shepherdson, Karen J. Film Theory: Critical Concepts in Media and Cultural Studies, Volume 2. Taylor & Francis, 2004. ISBN 0-415-25973-8 The instruction manual for the AMT/ERTL DeLorean model kit also states: "Because the car's stainless steel body improves the flux dispersal generated by the flux capacitor, and this in turn allows the vehicle smooth passage through the space-time continuum". [11] Time circuits [ edit ] Time Circuits from DeLorean used in the first and second films It’s a subtle reference – a longer version of the scene, ultimately cut down, would have made it more explicit – but when the street cop asks the Doc if he has “a permit” for the “weather equipment” under the tarpaulin, he starts rummaging in his wallet. Surely the Doc isn’t the kind of guy who’d bribe an upstanding member of the thin blue line? That’d be as crazy as him being the kind of guy who’d get a bunch of terrorists to steal plutonium for him. Or Marty’s dad being a creepy pervert. Funny the things you overlook in characters. 27. Guitar Heroes

During the second film, because of Biff Tannen's tampering [12] following his theft of the DeLorean, the time circuits began malfunctioning, displaying January 1, 1885, in the destination time display. A bolt of lightning triggers the malfunction to send the DeLorean from 1955 to 1885. Though the vehicle was in mid-air, the spin created by the lightning bolt allowed it to reach 88mph. Doc is trapped in 1885 and repairs were impossible because the time circuit control microchip, which governed the time circuits, was destroyed by the lightning bolt, and suitable replacement parts would not be invented until at least 1947. Doc places repair instructions and a schematic diagram in the time machine to enable his 1955 counterpart to repair it using components from that era — which included vacuum tubes — before boarding it up within a silver mine. He then writes Marty a letter explaining the situation and places it in the custody of Western Union, with instructions to deliver it to Marty in 1955. [ non-primary source needed] Mr. Fusion [ edit ] A replica of the DeLorean time machine's Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor Before, erm, “settling down” with Lorraine, that’s Jayne Mansfield and Marilyn Monroe that Alternate Biff is shown to have dated. 52. Nixon & Vietnam Yep, that’s Huey “Power Of Love” Lewis with the megaphone, judging Marty’s band The Pinheads as being “too darn loud” to perform at the school dance (a line that Lewis himself purportedly suggested). A bit harsh, given that it’s his song they’re covering, but there you go.

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And yes, there’s something of a paradox in the fact that Biff can create a timeline that destroys himself and yet still have that timeline exist – but firstly, the film explains later that it’s a divergent timeline (not a replacement one); and secondly, that’s kind of part of the point, given that the working title for the second film was actually Paradox. 46. The Clue While most of the news stories shown in the papers Doc finds at the library – including the 1973 Wounded Knee Occupation – are genuine events, there’s one false one on the edition that tells of his being committed in 1983: that Richard Nixon is seeking a fifth term as US president, and that the Vietnam war is still going on eight years too late. Given that the diverging point for this reality revolves around Biff’s success, we can only imagine what he did to make those wider world events happen. 53. A Fistful of Dollars The issue of Fantastic Story Magazine that we see next to a sleeping George in the following scene, meanwhile, is also genuine: it’s the Fall 1954 issue. 24. Darth Vader, from the planet Vulcan Having a scene in which a dog sits behind the wheel of a car – as Einstein becomes the world’s first time traveller in the remote-controlled DeLorean – was, according to Bob Gale, a nod to the 1959 Disney film The Shaggy Dog, which sees a sheepdog not entirely dissimilar to the Doc’s pet doing just that. 16. The Scarecrow

Among the channels that Marty Jr. selects when watching TV at home, there’s an advert for a plastic surgery company called Bottoms Up, promoting two breast enlargement options called ‘The Super Inflatable TIT’ and ‘The Headlight TIT.’ Weren’t these supposed to be family films? 44. Product PlacementEl condensador de fluzo: Tus programas favoritos de TVE, en RTVE Play". RTVE.es (in Spanish) . Retrieved March 10, 2023. Ya lo dijo Doc en 'Regreso al futuro': '¡Esto es lo que permite viajar en el tiempo: 'El condensador de fluzo'!".

Along with ‘Honest Joe’ Statler’s, there’s another Hill Valley tradition in evidence in 1885: the Jones family manure dealers. By 1955, they’ve of course become ‘D. Jones Manure Hauling’ (as seen in both the first and second films). There’s no record of whether their services are still required in 1985 or 2015, though we’d like to imagine that an ‘F. Jones Manure’ and an ‘H. Jones Manure’ do exist. 69. The Saloon It might just be a coincidence, but the Hawaiian shirt the Doc changes into in 2015, with a train pattern all over it, could well be a deliberate reference to the time machine that he would eventually build at the end of the third film. Especially as the trains look like they’re flying among the clouds, just as the Doc’s train does… 42. USA Today Nahin, Paul J. Time Machines: Time Travel in Physics, Metaphysics, and Science Fiction. Springer, 1999. ISBN 0-387-98571-9 A conscious echo of the first film’s famous closing line, or sheer coincidence? It can’t be accidental… surely? 67. Maggie McFlyAnd also with the game Mad Dog McCree, which was coincidentally released in the same year as Part III, 1990.) 39. The Hobbit And yep, that’s the future Frodo Baggins, Elijah Wood, as one of the kids Marty encounters at the Wild Gunman machine. 40. Cubs Win World Series Iaccino, James F. Jungian Reflections within the Cinema: A Psychological Analysis of Sci-Fi and Fantasy Archetypes, pp.81–89. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1998. ISBN 0-275-95048-4 In 2021, the time machine was added to the Library of Congress's National Historic Vehicle Register. [1] Operation [ edit ]