133
votes
Accepted
Why was Pepsi free in 1985?
"Pepsi Free" was a caffeine-free version of Pepsi introduced in 1982. This product would have been familiar to Marty in 1985, but unknown to a soda jerk in 1955, hence the joke.
In 1987, ...
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79
votes
Accepted
Why did Marty McFly need to look up Doc Brown's address in 1955?
In the beginning of the movie, when we see all the clocks, there is a shot of framed newspaper clippings (the mansion burned down on August 1, 1962). Marty has probably read this at some point.
Doc's ...
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53
votes
How was the DeLorean perceived in 1985?
In regards to the movie:
So how was Doc Brown's reveal of a DeLorean perceived by 1985 audiences? Was it seen as a joke? An eccentricity of Doc Brown? A symbol of luxury or frivolity or stupidity?
...
- 26.2k
44
votes
Did Doc Brown always know that Marty would end up travelling back to 1955?
I think that, in the beginning of the film, Doc really doesn't have the letter. Marty's actions in the past changed our present, which is visible by the changes in the characters of Marty's family ...
- 9,728
39
votes
How did Marty meet Doc in 1955 after Doc has travelled to 1885?
The Doc Brown in 1955 is younger than the Doc Brown in 1885, by 30 years. The Doc Brown in 1955 will still live for another 30 years before traveling back to 1885 and being shot by Buford.
- 2,428
33
votes
Accepted
What is the story with the fire in Doc Brown's house?
Bleeding Cool addresses this:
In the Blu Ray commentary for Back To the Future, producer Bob Gale says:
The opening shot, when the camera is going through Doc’s laboratory, there’s a ...
- 48.7k
29
votes
In Back to the Future, how did Marty get the timing right with the lightning strike?
What makes you think the lightning could strike before the clock tower was grounded (by Doc plugging the cables back together, the metal poles beside the road providing a path to ground). Things to ...
- 549
29
votes
Is Rick and Morty satire/parody of Doc Brown and Marty McFly?
Yes. This is discussed by the creator of Rick and Morty in the Back To The Future documentary that was released recently.
See the Wikipedia article on Rick And Morty.
The series has its origins in ...
- 11.1k
27
votes
Why did Marty McFly need to look up Doc Brown's address in 1955?
He knows where Doc Brown lives in 1985. There's no guarantee that he lived in the same house 30 years ago. Indeed, it seems that he didn't, because once Marty finds his address, he has to (try and) ...
- 22.1k
21
votes
Accepted
Did Doc Brown always know that Marty would end up travelling back to 1955?
In the original timeline, when the movie starts and Doc tells Marty to meet him at the mall, he doesn't yet know if the experiment will work. Time travel in Back to the Future works by changing ...
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20
votes
In Back to the Future, how did Marty get the timing right with the lightning strike?
There's no logic explanation for this, it's just a plot hole created by the need of giving more tension on the end of the movie.
Maybe if the horizontal wire could stretch a lot while the car runs ...
- 419
19
votes
Accepted
In Back to the Future, how did Marty get the timing right with the lightning strike?
We know that the timer went off several seconds before Marty floored the accelerator. We know that Marty quite literally hooked the line at precisely the correct time. Therefore the only valid ...
- 306
17
votes
Would the Post Office really deliver a letter decades after postage like in Back To The Future?
Maybe, but the Post Office wasn't involved.
The package wasn't delivered by the United States Postal Service, it was delivered by Western Union, a private company. Speaking as a former postal employee,...
- 2,150
14
votes
Accepted
Did Doc Brown warn Marty to never travel to 2020 or what year did he warn about?
No, there is no such dialog similar to that. The meme is not based on any specific Back to the Future reference outside of the fact that it's a movie about time travel.
Doc does give Marty several ...
- 8,553
12
votes
In Back to the Future, how did Marty get the timing right with the lightning strike?
It's a paradox. Predestination Paradox to be precise. The Lightning only strikes the Clock Tower because of the changes Doc and Marty make in order to harness the power of the Lightning Strike. The ...
- 67.8k
11
votes
Why does Marty see another duplicate of himself when he returns?
Back to the Future characters operate on the basis of keeping the timeline mostly intact. Doc, in particular, is very very concerned with ensuring that future events do not affect past events, or it ...
- 67.8k
11
votes
Accepted
Where does Doc get all of his money
He appears to have inherited it.
When explaining to Marty where the flux capacitor came from
I had a revelation! A vision! A picture in my head! A picture of this! This is what makes time travel ...
- 4,054
10
votes
In Back to the Future, how did Marty get the timing right with the lightning strike?
For an in-universe explanation: There may be sufficient capacitance in the system to allow the lightning charge to be stored for one minute.
Doc Brown only knew the the lightning strike to +/- one ...
- 209
9
votes
Did Doc Brown warn Marty to never travel to 2020 or what year did he warn about?
Yes, but not 2020.
In Back To The Future Part 2 at the end after lightening struck Doc's DMC and transports him back to 1885, Marty receives a letter from Western Union written by Doc 70 years ago ...
- 12k
8
votes
Why doesn't Marty use the other DeLorean?
As noted by Doc's letter to Marty, Doc has been in 1885 for 8 months. This is crucial to figure out why the gas, how ever much is left, would not be useful. Gas tends to have a shelf life of 3 months. ...
- 67.8k
8
votes
Accepted
Why wasn't Van Halen's music in Back to the Future?
As you alluded to, I think we can safely assume it was money related, rather than image, as this was a major motion picture at the time produced by Steven Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment (nothing ...
- 96
8
votes
Accepted
Bottle cap in Back to the Future
According to AskBeer
The twist off bottle cap appeared in the early 1960's. This was the same time as the introduction of the pop top can.
This site specializes in questions about beer but the ...
- 4,736
7
votes
In BTTF, Did Marty make his first jump in the Twin Pines car park on purpose?
When he says "Lets see if you guys can do 90" and goes for 4th, he turns them on again, looks at the display and notes the dates are entered.
Nothing in the script indicates this, though it is not ...
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7
votes
Why did Marty McFly need to look up Doc Brown's address in 1955?
Adding to the previous answer which is essentially correct that Marty didn't knew the previous address. It may be because of following reason:
The 1985 Doc Brown lived in a house which was way smaller ...
- 12k
7
votes
Did Doc Brown send his clocks 25 minutes into the future?
We don't know
It's reasonable to assume that the film makers put this scene in to foreshadow the fact that some screwy things were going to happen with Time itself.
But even from a Watsonian point of ...
- 4,054
6
votes
Why do the DeLorean's effects not always start at 88 mph?
The problem is that you are comparing technically different time-machines.
Over the course of the trilogy the DeLorean was changed 2 times.
So we have:
The original powered by plutonium (1985)
...
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Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible