Back to the Future

Continuity mistake: After Marty exits the cafe to make himself a skateboard out of two wooden crates, the crates are half a meter apart from each other, but close in the next angle. Also, the chubby kid holding his friend's crate swaps to holding his between one frame and the other.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: After Marty is looking in awe at the 1950's records store, his hair swaps from messy to brushed backwards right when he walks backwards on the grass.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: After Doc Brown sends Einstein one minute into the future, the rest of the scene until he returns is played out in real time. There are no scene cuts, and any camera angle changes are accompanies by continuous audio which negates any possibility that time has been stretched or compressed. However, it takes Einstein 1 minute 21 seconds to return.

Other mistake: When young George and Marty are in the backyard talking about what will happen at the dance, young George hangs up clothes to let them dry, but if you look closely the clothes are actually already dry.

Character mistake: Before playing Johnny B Goode Marty says it's a blues riff in B, but then plays the song in B-flat.

Continuity mistake: Before Lorraine brings Joey's cake, George leaves a bunch of crumbs on the table and starts to watch TV and do some numbers. After the cake lands on the table, the place is spotless.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Doc syncs his stopwatch and the dog's, he holds them away from their bodies. A frame later his hands are close to his chest and there's dog hair all around.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: After Joey's cake lands on the table, George puts his arm to the right of the cereal package. A frame later it's on the left side and holding a pencil.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: While Marty's 1950s family is having dinner, the milk bottle's level is one mark below the red printed label. A second later it's 5 centimeters above the red mark.

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Doc puts Einstein in the car, the dog turns his head inside the car. A frame later, from a new angle, it's outside the car.

Sacha

Other mistake: Just before Marty starts playing Johnny B Goode on stage, he tells the band members to watch for changes and other guidance advice to start the song. When the song starts, ALL the band members (who have never heard this song before) suddenly play all the chord changes perfectly and even the drums are perfect like the real song. In reality, never hearing that song before, the band would not have had this song perfected like that - every note and instrument sound.

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Suggested correction: This is, of course, done intentionally to make the song sound like it actually is. It's highly unlikely but not impossible that these musicians put it all together just as the actual song sounds. You also have to keep in mind that the idea is given that Chuck Berry came up with the song hearing it through the telephone, so that's why the actual song sounds the same, as he is just mimicking what he heard.

lionhead

Besides which, if this posting were valid, every movie musical in history would be riddled with similar errors.

Deliberate mistake: In the beginning of the movie, we see Marty play his black Ibanez during the band try-outs. Later, we see it on his bed when Doc calls him and when he wakes up the next day in this alternate timeline. We never see him bring it home after school or when he goes home at night before dinner.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: Maybe one of the band members brought it back to his house for him. Maybe he forgot it and picked it up again later, off camera. Maybe he has 2. Maybe the guitar he is using at the try-out isn't his. So many possibilities.

lionhead

Revealing mistake: When Marty begins to slump down due to fading from existence look at the guy playing the piano behind Marty, he's not even pressing the keys on the piano just putting his palms on them repeatedly.

jbrbbt

Continuity mistake: Before Marty kicks the speaker while playing Johnny B Goode, there is a case of Pepsi below it which disappears between shots.

oswal13

Continuity mistake: When Marty stops the Delorean in front of the Lyon Estates sign after escaping the farm, notice the sun - it's overcast and kind of foggy. When he looks at the sign from another angle, it has become more sunny, and later in the day. When the couple with the car passes, it has returned to the same as before.

manthabeat

More quotes from Back to the Future

Trivia: The farm where Marty arrives in 1955 belongs to a man called Peabody, and he calls his son Sherman; the names are a tribute to "Sherman and Mr. Peabody," two cartoon time travellers from a 1960s American TV show.

More trivia for Back to the Future

Question: How is Marty able to play a 1980s videotape on a 1950s television set? Is this just another example of Doc's ahead-of-his-time inventiveness?

Answer: The video camera was in the DeLorean. With the right kind of adapter, which was common enough in the 80s that Doc might've had it on the camera or been able to jury-rig something in the 50s, it would have been possible to connect it into the antenna screws in the back of the TV like an old Atari and play it directly from the camera.

Captain Defenestrator

TVs in the 50s had a two prong antennae connection (two screws in the back that you put a prong antennae into) TVs in the mid 80s also had this. The coax connection (the one wire that screws in) was starting to become common, but, the two prong connection would have been more likely on any given TV at the time, so, whatever wire they used to preview recordings probably had that. very convenient that Marty brought those cords with him.

An old Atari 2600 RF Adapter would be how one would link a video camera to an old-fashioned television. A simple-enough part that Doc could probably make one with 1950s technology.

Captain Defenestrator

Answer: Video tape system back then could output an NTSC video signal, just like broadcast at the time, and up to HD in the 2000s. Usually there was a switch on the video device to change the output frequency between channels 3 or 4. Depending on what was an open channel in your area.

Answer: Doc is smart and eccentric enough to probably have such a thing randomly rattling around in the Delorian as old burger wrappers would rattle around inside a normal car. And Marty could also conceivably have such a thing at his or Doc's domicile for his own video gaming convenience.

dizzyd

More questions & answers from Back to the Future

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