When Doc climbs aboard the running train on his horse and helps Marty climb up, Marty's hat falls off. In the next shot his hat is still on his head.
When Marty is backing into the cave, there is no arrow sticking out of the DeLorean.
After the scene in the saloon with Mad Dog and Marty, Mad Dog has a soiled shirt due to the spittoon. In the following scene when Mad Dog and his cronies are chasing Marty on their horses, Mad Dog has a clean shirt.
When Clara is showing the craters of the Moon to Doc, the camera pans down and you can clearly see the telescope is pointing to the right side of the sky, not to the Moon.
When Clara is on the train to leave town, she pulls a cord to trigger an emergency stop. Her hands are clad in dark brown leather gloves. However, right after she gets off the train and begins running, her hands are not gloved. She is then seen wearing these same gloves throughout the remainder of the film.
Black bears do not live in the desert or the scrub lands. They are found in wooded areas, grasslands, mountains or where moisture is found, along with edible vegetation and other food sources.
Steam locomotive-pulled passenger cars in 1885 did not have emergency pull cords, the engineer was the only one who could stop the train and even then it took a while. Emergency pull cords worked off of the air brake system developed in later years. So Clara could not have pulled the cord that brought her train to a screeching halt.
Drive-in movie theaters were never flat, each curved row was raised so that cars could tilt upward enough so that everyone in the car could see the screen, even from the back seat. So a car could never reach any appreciable speed driving toward the movie screen from the back rows.
In Part II, Lorraine says that the owner of the Rolls Royce pressed charges against Marty. When that event plays out here, the Rolls Royce is running a stop sign, and fails to yield to cross-traffic, as he should when entering a three-way intersection. Marty would only be liable for damages to his own car (since he was racing), as would the other driver.
When Doc Brown and Marty have transported the DeLorean to the drive-in theater and are preparing to launch it toward the screen and into 1885, Marty shows Doc Brown that he is ready by enthusiastically slamming the transmission's gear lever to the left and down. The director got the shot he wanted, not realizing that for the car's shift pattern, moving the lever that way would put the DeLorean into reverse.
In Back to the Future Part II (1989), Doc Brown opens a case with money from different time periods for monetary emergencies. One is marked 1875 ten years earlier which means Doc Brown possibly already had the 80 dollars that he owed Buford Tannen and therefore could have paid off the debt. But Doc didn't pay Tannen out of principle, not because he didn't have the money. The fact that he later tells Marty: "Now I wish I'd paid him off." implies that Doc indeed could've afforded to do so, if he wanted.
When trying to reach 88mph on the train, they unhook all of the wagons in order to lose weight, but they leave the firewood wagon which is the heaviest. They didn't need firewood because they used presto logs. The reason they leave the tender on is because in addition to the firewood, the tender also carries the water that the locomotive needs to make steam, which is what powers the locomotive. Without steam, burning anything in the boiler, especially the high temp presto logs would just cause it to explode.
Marty McFly's mother Lorraine Baines McFly is only related to the McFly family via marriage, so there is no apparent reason that Marty's great-great-grandmother Maggie would look exactly like Lorraine. There is no reason not to think so, either, because over that many generations, one of her descendants could well have married one or another generations of Baines and been Marty's mother.
Marty wears his red and white colored Nike sneakers throughout the film; but when Marty and Doc Brown are in the mine in 1955 to find the DeLorean, he is wearing black and white Converse Taylor's or "Chucks", that is because underneath the brown jacket, Marty is wearing his 1955 outfit he wore in the first film.
Marty and Doc construct a wooden frame to hold the 4 tires in front of the train to serve as a bumper when pushing the time machine but when they bring the "borrowed" train up to the time machine there's no tires or lumber anywhere to be seen. They didn't bring it with them and with the time machine sitting openly on the tracks what would be the point of hiding tires and lumber off to the side in bushes somewhere?
On the other hand, they could have simply tossed them to the side of the tracks before unloading the car. Just because a director does not show every single thing that happens (such as attaching the crate to the train), that doesn't mean they aren't there or haven't been done.
On the other hand, they could have simply tossed them to the side of the tracks before unloading the car. Just because a director does not show every single thing that happens (such as attaching the crate to the train), that doesn't mean they aren't there or haven't been done.
Black bears are forest dwellers and would not be encountered in the middle of the desert.
When Clara pulls the train's emergency stop cable, there is a shot of the train stopping from head on that is obviously filmed in reverse, as the steam disappears into the train.
When Marty and Doc are standing by the railroad tracks at the ravine, it is evident that the railroad track is wildly uneven and radically steep, even by the standards of the day in 1865, and is clearly just prop track laid on rough ground. This is most obvious on the track in the foreground when we first see Clara on the runaway wagon. The roadbed would have required extensive grading and leveling before laying track in order to be usable.
On the morning that Marty is supposed to have his shootout with Mad Dog, an automated machine in Doc Brown's shop makes breakfast. One part of the machine cracks some eggs and slides the frying pan over to an open fire. But as this happens, the eggs are pushed over too and you can see that some of the egg whites are already cooking, suggesting that the pan is already hot.
Doc calls Marty by his actual name inside a full saloon. However, no-one gets suspicious or questions it.
Doc's TV is left on during the night with no station broadcasting on the channel to which the TV is tuned. Suddenly "Howdy Doody" comes on. Stations were/are required to sign on with a legal ID (call letters and city of license). Almost all provided additional information (owner, frequency, transmitting power....) and played the national anthem before programming began.
Marty tells Doc he will send the hover board to him through the walkies talkie but even if the train noise wasn't too loud Doc doesn't have his walkies talkie as he is holding onto the train with both hands. Yet Doc shakes his head acknowledging he understands.
When Clara comes to visit Doc at his barn with her "broken" telescope, in theory there's nothing actually wrong with it even though she says it was damaged. What she describes, rotating a knob one way makes the image fuzzy and the other way makes it clearer, implies that's a properly functioning focusing system. This was most likely a ruse just to give her a reason to go visit Doc Brown.
If Tannen was to be in jail and the headstone disappeared from the photo, why was there still such a hurry to get back to the future? They could then have waited for the next train.
Doc arrives in his steam powered train/time machine, but before that the crossing guard goes down. The mechanism for the crossing guard is much further down the track, usually 400 feet away, giving cars 20-30 seconds of safe time to cross or stop. Doc's new train would have never triggered the crossing guard.
After Marty arrives in 1885, he eats dinner at his great-great-grandparents' house. During dinner, Maggie asks to talk to her husband privately in the other room. In that other room, wire hangers are hung on the wall behind them. Wire hangers were invented by Alfred J. Parkhouse in 1903.
Aircraft contrails visible when the horses are pulling the DeLorean.
During the Hill Valley Festival in 1885 where the courthouse clock is dedicated, a sousaphone is seen in the background playing with the band. The sousaphone was not created until 1893 by the J.W. Pepper company.
In one shot during the aftermath of Marty's "shootout" with Tannen, a modern California state flag can be seen hanging from one of the buildings. This design was not developed until 1911, the original having been destroyed in the Great San Francisco Earthquake of 1906.
When Doc and Marty commandeer the locomotive they tell the train crew to uncouple the cars from the tender. The couplers, however, are modern AAR-type knuckle couplers, the earliest versions of which weren't adopted by US railroads until after an act of Congress in 1893. Most couplers prior to then, and even for some time during the transition period, were the older, more-dangerous link-and-pin design.
Towards the end of the film, Mad Dog Tannen is holding Doc Brown hostage trying to lure Marty out into the street for a duel. He tells Marty that if he doesn't face him now, he will shoot Doc Brown. When Marty doesn't come out, Tannen pulls his single action Colt pistol and points it at Doc's head. When he does this we can hear the distinctive clicking sound of the hammer being cocked as he's raising the gun, but his thumb never actually touches the hammer at any point when he draws his pistol.
When the train enters the station with Clara standing next to it, the warning bell can be heard ringing, though it is not seen ringing in the split second in which it is visible.
When Marty is running up the street after Doc Brown in 1955, you can hear the sound of Marty's footsteps. It sounds like Marty is running hard-soled shoes, not the sneakers he's obviously wearing.
When Doc Brown cuts the engine away from the train, the rapid chuff of the exhaust indicates that the drive wheels are slipping, but they can be seen moving at a normal pace.
On each of the occasions when the Delorean door is closed, it fails to make the electronic sound as it does when it's opened. The door should also make the sound when closed as evidenced in parts 1 and 2.
When Marty is running away from Buford Tannen and his gang after their first encounter at the saloon, a crewmember in blue shorts and a white t-shirt is running alongside a camera on the left side of the screen.
Towards the end When Marty questions the people in the bar by saying," What...what if I don't go out there?" On Marty's right, a film light on a stand is clearly visible sitting in front of the window.
Towards the end of the town party scene, when Marty and Doc are talking about Martys upcoming duel and the chance that the train may be late, towards the left side of the frame (just to the left of the ornate post) you can briefly see a modern PA system (Bass cab with head on top and 2 tweeters above) at approx 01:01:29.
The Indians wear traditional clothing of the tribes living in the Great Plains region.
The scene with the drive-in theater and the cavalry chase, along with the horses pulling the DeLorean are filmed in Monument Valley on the Utah/Arizona border, a long distance from California.
Trains going to Hill Valley in 1885 are marked "Central Pacific." Clara asks the ticket agent where is the end of the line? The agent says "San Francisco." The CPRR did not go to San Francisco. It ended in Oakland and a ferry connection was required to reach San Francisco.
Often times, Hill Valley is seen in a crimson soiled desert. But *if* Hill Valley is supposed to be in central California (as the Train ticket booth guy said that the train goes to San Francisco which is false because no railroads went to San Francisco directly in 1885) the landscape of Hill Valley should be more green and the mountains a bit more higher.
When Marty arrives at the Hill Valley railway station, the camera lifts up over the station to show the town, and the Town Hall can be seen under construction up the hill. However in all the future scenes the town square in front of the Town Hall, and all the immediately surrounding land, is flat - there is no hill.
As shown during the story at other times (Marty seeing himself playing at the dance and Doc handing himself a tool) 2 entities can exist in the same time. Therefore the gasoline that leaked out of the DeLorean that brought Marty back to the old west shouldn't have been a problem. Doc Brown could have gone to the one he boarded up in the abandoned mine which should still be there with a tank of gas.
Doc has no problem possibly changing future events by stranding several train passengers and not only stealing the locomotive but also destroying it.
When Marty pulls out the arrow, he causes a leak of the fuel. However the fuel tank is below the level of the arrow. The tank should still be full and only the gasoline further up the line would have leaked out. A simple patch repair of the fuel line would make the car usable again with out having to put it on the railroad tracks.
It is considered that Clara was supposed to die in the ravine accident which was only prevented because Marty and Doc were there while figuring out how to get back to their time and Clara should have died and thus never would have been able to fall in love with Doc and make it into his obituary. However, this is incorrect, because Doc originally volunteered to meet her at the station (before Marty's arrival), and if Marty hadn't arrived and told him of a possible love affair, then Doc would have went to meet her at the station, fallen in love, and she wouldn't have ended up in danger, and would be in the obituary later on after Doc's death in that time-line, so the plot is correct in this case. The only time she would have actually died in that ravine (hence it being named after her and Marty knowing that story) is in the original time-line which didn't even have Doc in 1885 to begin with.
When Buford is arranging his duel with Marty, one of his henchmen mentions a plan for a robbery in front of a large crowd. Somebody would have made at least an attempt to catch them on the act, but nothing like that happens.
When Marty arrives in 1885 he encounters his Great, Great Grandmother (Maggie McFly) whom exactly resembles his mother. However Maggie is his paternal descendant so there is absolutely no reason why the two would look alike. The only way Maggie should resemble Lorraine Baines is if somehow the branches of the McFly family tree led to the Baines family in time to re-merge with the McFly family with Lorraine. However, there was only about 55 years for this to happen (The 70 years from 1955 less the 15 or so years of Lorraine's age), between Lorraine's Grandparent/Maggie's child and Lorraine's parent/Maggie's grandchild, so this is highly improbable.
When Marty sees the unfinished ravine train tracks in 1885, he tells Doc that they can scratch that idea. Doc explains to Marty that the rest of the tracks across the ravine will exist in 1985, at which point they will be able to safely cross the ravine. However, Doc knows the ravine will be an active railroad track, but never seems to consider the possibility they could arrive back in 1985 and strike an oncoming train. This is almost exactly what happens when Marty arrives back to 1985.
In 1885, Doc finds out that he is to be murdered by Mad Dog Tannen over a matter of $80 within the next few days (he even tells Marty that he wishes he paid him off). As smart as the Doc is, why didn't he simply pay him the $80 or at least arrange for someone to pay Tannen on Doc's behalf? This would allow Doc & Marty more time to plan and carry out their return to 1985.
The 1955 Doc states that his future self might have landed in the Dark Ages and been burned as a heretic. However, it's shown throughout the trilogy that the DeLorean can only travel through time and not space, so the 1985 Doc would have landed in California during the Dark Ages (circa 1000-1500 A.D.), which at that point was sparsely populated by loosely organized hunter gatherer Native American tribes with no concept of heresy.
There is no reason whatsoever for Marty to go to 1885 to save Doc, because the 1955 Doc is now aware of his fate in 1885 and can simply avoid Buford or avoid the lightning strike when he lives out those events 30 years later. Furthermore, if they decided to immediately prevent Doc's murder anyway, they could simply go back to the previous night and either warn Doc of the lightning strike or of his fate with Buford.