Back to the Future

Continuity mistake: When Biff and gang are chasing Marty on the skateboard, they eventually crash into the rear of a manure-hauling dump truck. When the car swerves left in an attempt to miss it, it will obviously pull somewhat to the left. In the shot just before impact, you can see that just the rear half of the car should impact the truck, but in the next shot the car rests perfectly centered behind the dumps open load. (01:07:25)

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After Goldie Wilson arrives at the manure truck scene, we can see onlookers approaching at the street corner in front of Texaco - one of which is the kid who Marty borrowed a skateboard from. But once the shot changes, that same kid is instantly standing on the sidewalk near Marty holding a crate instead. (01:07:35)

ryguy_1983

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Biff and his friends are chasing Marty on the skateboard, just before they hit the manure truck there is canvas covering the fertilizer which disappears in the next shot. (01:07:45)

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: Whilst George McFly is pegging out the laundry, Marty is explaining his plan as to how he can make Lorraine fall in love with him. At the start of the scene, both of Marty's breast pocket flaps are untucked. After putting the bag down, one tucks itself in, then they return to normal when Marty says "let's go over the plan again". (01:09:55)

Continuity mistake: When Marty takes a swig from the bottle, we see the motion of Lorraine's hands as she lights a cigarette. She finishes lighting and then grabs it with her left hand. In the next shot where Marty spits alcohol all over the place, Lorraine is busy lighting her cigarette a second time. (01:18:10)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: At the dance, when Marty is parked with Lorraine, Biff reaches into the car and grabs the front of Marty's shirt/tie, but in the next exterior shot, Biff now has got hold of the back of Marty's suit. (01:20:10)

Continuity mistake: After George lays Biff out, Marty pulls the family photo from his pocket. The way he holds it suddenly changes, judging by the position of his index finger as the shots change. (01:23:45)

ryguy_1983

Continuity mistake: When Marty is at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance and is about to disappear, he puts up his right hand and it starts to disappear. On the very next shot of him, he is putting down his left hand. (01:25:35)

Continuity mistake: Before his parents kiss, Marty's right hand begins to disappear. As he slumps to the floor both hands are visible holding his guitar. (01:25:35)

AidanN

Continuity mistake: Enchantment under the sea dance: In addition to the comment about Strickland's hands covering his ears twice note some of the people around him have either moved or disappeared. (01:25:55)

Paul Andrews

Continuity mistake: When Martly finishes his rambunctious guitar solo at the dance the camera pans the crowd. In the distance on the left we see Mr Strickland uncovering his ears. After this they show a close up of him uncovering his ears again. (01:25:55)

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Michael J Fox's parent kiss and the family picture (with everyone standing on the grass) gets fixed, Michael places the photo on the guitar, gets very happy and starts playing the guitar enthusiastically. Seconds later, a brief shot of the guitar shows the picture with Marty only, his brothers are missing. (01:26:18)

Sacha

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: During the Johnny B. Goode song, the mike cable's position keeps changing depending on the shot, despite no-one touching it. (01:27:30)

Sacha

Continuity mistake: When Marty puts the letter in Doc Brown's jacket pocket he puts it in the right one (from the way the pocket is slanted, plus we see the buttons right next to it) but when Doc pulls it out it is in the left one. (01:29:40)

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: While Doc is waiting for Marty to get back from the dance, he looks at the watch on his left hand, his pocket watch, and the watch on his right hand. When he looks at the watch on his right hand, he is wearing it on the inside of his wrist. Then, as he is running around the car, he has no watch on his right wrist at all. Moments later, as he is pointing down the street, it is on the outside of his right wrist. When they are checking the alarm clock, he holds it in front of the alarm clock to check the time, and the watch is still on the outside of his right wrist. (01:31:15 - 01:32:30)

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: After the dance, when Marty arrives at the clock tower in Doc's car (across the street from the DeLorean), he parks precisely midway between the two stores. As the clock tolls, Marty jumps into the DeLorean, and in the overhead shot as Marty drives off, Doc's car is directly in front of the store with the blue awning. (01:31:20 - 01:36:00)

Super Grover

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Doc finds Marty's letter in his pocket, the big hook fastened to the DeLorean's passenger side is seen facing the sky. Pretty soon Marty slides across the hood and into the DeLorean, but now at this point it's facing the ground instead. (01:33:35 - 01:35:50)

ryguy_1983

Back to the Future mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Biff and his goon friends are in Biff's car, as they chase Marty on his borrowed 'skateboard', the car's rearview mirror repeatedly disappears and reappears, and the side mirror changes from round to square repeatedly. (01:06:50)

Super Grover

More mistakes in Back to the Future

Marty McFly: Calvin? Why do you keep calling me Calvin?
Lorraine Baines: Well, that is your name, isn't it? Calvin Klein? It's written all over your underwear.

More quotes from Back to the Future
Back to the Future trivia picture

Trivia: In the battle of the bands scene, when Marty introduces The Pinheads, Huey Lewis, who provided "The Power of Love" for the film's soundtrack, plays the second judge from the left, and is the one who eventually says, "You're just too darn loud." (00:07:40)

More trivia for Back to the Future

Question: Right when Marty gets back to Doc before he goes back to 1985, he's praising his dad's actions of the night. One line that's bothered me ever since I can remember is "My dad laid out Biff. He's never stood up to Biff in his life." And then the Doc pauses for a second and gets a strange look on his face and says, "Never?" To that, Marty says, "No, why?" and the Doc shrugs it off saying, "Nevermind." What's Doc thinking? The best I can come up with is that he's wondering what effects it'll have on the future, but that's a rough guess. If anyone out there knows, I'd be happy to hear it.

DenizenZERO

Chosen answer: I think that is *exactly* what he is thinking. He realizes that by standing up to Biff, George may have irrevocably changed his personal future, and therefore affected Marty's future as well. This is exactly the sort of thing Doc was so eager to prevent by refusing to hear any information about the future.

Phil C.

Answer: It would have had to be something that would have happened anyway without the interference, otherwise Marty wouldn't have originally existed.

terry s

Answer: In the novel Marty adds that George is also thinking about college now. Doc says that this might delay Loraine and George having kids for awhile and adds that Marty might find himself like 10-14 years old when he gets back to 1985.

More questions & answers from Back to the Future

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