Back to the Future Part III

Revealing mistake: At the end, when the train destroys the time machine, right at the moment when it hits you can see a small explosion, which was used to trigger the destruction of the time machine. (01:43:03)

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Marty and Shamus are sharing a meal at the dinner table, Shamus passes Marty the plate of rabbit. As Shamus hand moves away to let go of the plate, to the bottom right hand corner of the plate, a purple patch appears briefly where the two M. J. Fox actors interact, an error with the Vistaglide camera tech used back then. Easier to spot on Blu Ray Version, better than DVD. (00:24:10)

kazara1001

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Revealing mistake: During the sequence with the Native Americans chasing the Delorean in the beginning, in one shot looking up at the sky you can see contrails from a plane, obviously not around in 1885. (00:19:25)

manthabeat

Revealing mistake: At the end when Needles tries to race Marty, Marty goes backwards and does a reverse 180. When they show the whole truck right when it's turning, you can see the tracks from the previous takes and the dust that helped the truck spin. (01:47:30)

Revealing mistake: At the very end of this film, Doc appears in his locomotive time machine. In every shot the plate which says 'ELB' changes color. From red to orange. You would say this is a change in light angle, but when the locomotive rises and turns, you can see every angle of this plate and in every angle this plate is red. (01:48:55)

Revealing mistake: In the overhead shot of the train explosion, you can tell which explosion is 'real' and which one is fake - the second explosion appears out of nowhere from the first one. (01:42:00)

Revealing mistake: When Marty is in the cave with the bear, there are two non-consecutive shots from behind the bear. You can see scruffy, fake-looking fur on the bear in those two shots - obviously someone in a black fur costume. The rest of the shots use a real bear.

Revealing mistake: At the festival, after Marty is given the gun he encounters Seamus and Maggie. Due to the Vistaglide camera effect where Marty was later added to the scene, she is unable to look at where Marty is supposed to be. This is very noticeable when Seamus says "buffoon" and Marty turns around and starts to walk, but Maggie keeps staring at where he was. Also when the scene ends and she looks at Marty and warns him to watch for the future, she's totally missing the spot.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the train pushes the DeLorean and hits 70 mph Doc tries to grab Clara. In the wide shots (where we can't see his face) his coat whips, but in the close-ups where we do see his face the coat flutters, revealing that the train was going much faster with the stuntman.

Sacha

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Marty pours the wake-up juice through the funnel into Doc's mouth, in the close-up the funnel is straight, but we can't see Doc. From a different angle where we do see the funnel stuck in his mouth, check the right side of the screen: The funnel is actually skewed (and seemingly it must have a tap) and the liquid is falling out in large amounts to prevent the actor from drinking it. (01:20:04)

Sacha

Back to the Future Part III mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Clara horseback rides towards the train, when she reaches for the handlebar she is replaced by a very obvious stuntwoman who looks nothing like her.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: After the train destroys the DeLorean, its vanity plate is shown spinning around. Just like in the first film, the plate is attached to a steel post stuck into a hole in the train track, which is visible. (01:43:50)

zenee

Factual error: When Marty goes to meet Mad Dog Tannen for the duel, in the background on the right side is the current flag of California. But that flag did not become the state flag of California until 1911, so would not have been around in 1885.

More mistakes in Back to the Future Part III

Jennifer: Excuse me, Doc Brown. I brought this message back from the future and, well, now it's erased.
Doc: Of course it's erased.
Jennifer: But what does that mean?
Doc: It means your futures haven't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is what ever you make. So make it a good one, the both of you.

More quotes from Back to the Future Part III

Trivia: When filming the scene where Marty is being hanged from the clock tower, Michael J Fox agreed to really hang from the rope. Whilst filming, Fox held the rope away from his throat with his hand. At one time he wasn't holding the rope and was really being strangled. The film crew didn't realise, they just thought it was really good acting, until he passed out.

More trivia for Back to the Future Part III

Question: Doc has always been firm about not wanting to create some sort of paradox. Was he not at all worried that eventually someone would go into his barn looking for him and find his giant refrigerator and his model railway with the car that said "TIME MACHINE" on it? I know he stayed behind after he rescued Clara so could have removed all that, but the original plan was he was going to hop into the DeLorean with Marty. We know he definitely left the model railway there as Clara picked the car up which prompted her to go after him.

Answer: Someone would go into his barn and do what? See a sign that says time machine and believe it and then use it? Seems highly unlikely.

lionhead

Answer: Well everyone in that town knows Doc's a pretty smart guy. Chances are he was doing some experimenting with time machines or something. The average person I'm sure would never figure it out anyways or think it was a crazy irrelevant project. Clara only figured it out because Doc told her about the time machine and time travel and thought Doc was lying to break up with her. The story sounded crazy until she saw the model, then saw the machine and realised he was telling her the truth. But the average person in that period knows nothing about the time machine, cars, or rime travel and even if they by some chance figured out Doc was from the future nobody would believe it nor could they prove it.

More questions & answers from Back to the Future Part III

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.