Let’s talk about Back to the Future 3 and the issues around the buried Delorean which could solve all the issues.
And I know this is a topic often debated by the Back to the Future fanbase, so let’s see if we can put it to bed once and for all!
The main plot of Back to the Future Part 3 is Marty McFly going back in time to 1885 where Doc Brown gets inadvertently got trapped at the end of Part 2.
Doc from 1885 sent a letter to Marty that he would receive in 1955 telling him how the Doc who is from 1955 could help repair the Time Machine so that it could get Marty back to his original time of 1985.
But then Marty and 1955 Doc discover that 1885 Doc gets killed by Bufed Mad Dog Tannen just after writing the letter to Marty, so Marty decides to go back to 1885 himself to save Doc.
So Marty goes back to 1885 and instantly has a run in with some native Americans who shoot an arrow in his petrol tank and boom, suddenly Marty had no fuel to be able to get the time machine up to the selectively needed 88 miles per hour so he can time travel and get home. And why do I say selectively needed? Because Doc was just hovering in the air when the car was struck by lightning to send him back to 1885 and thus proving that the whole 88 miles per hour thing was silly as lightning alone could have done it.
But I digress.
So that Marty had access to the time machine to attempt to time travel from 1955, the 1885 Doc had buried the time machine in a cave that he somehow knew would be undisturbed by 1955.
So, this meant that there was another time machine sat there that didn’t have a punctured gas tank. So, why didn’t Marty and Doc just go and recover this one and get the fuel out of it? Well…this is where fans will tell you that Doc would have emptied the gas tank before burying it.
Oh really? The film doesn’t ever tell us this is the case?
Have the filmmakers? Oh, have they? Have they really? Or did they just go along with the notion that he would have emptied it after fans hounded them for years as a way to cover up this oversight of theirs?
But even if Doc did syphon out all the gasoline, then where was it? What use did Doc have for it and is it all gone?
Fans will say he probably used it on some invention or that gasoline doesn’t stay fresh that long. Nuh uh! I’ve used a car for local trips that sat for two years over covid and it never got filled up during that time. It worked.
But even if we agree that Doc would have syphoned the gas out,
do we really think he managed to get literally all the gas out? That there wasn’t even a tiny amount left? Say, oh I don’t know…enough for one drive in a straight line to just reach 88 miles per hour once?
Of course there was. Also, Doc surely wouldn’t have emptied it long before he buried it as he would have tried for a long time to fix it.
And even if he emptied it why would he have used it straight away on other things?
As a smart man, Doc would have known his mind may later have come to a solution to fix it. He would have kept that resource.
Unless he resigned himself to stay in 1885 as he seemingly did. In which case I have more solutions to this dilemma. Doc could have sent another letter to Marty who was trapped in 1955 and told him to bring a spare cannister of gasoline.
Or easier yet, go to Western Union and ask to slip in another note with the letter that said, bring extra gas. Or even, dig out the Delorean and put a little sign in the window that reads, Hey Doc and Marty of 1955, make sure you bring a spare cannister of fuel and watch out for the Indians when you arrive.
You can get loads more Movie and TV Show articles in the Movies section of the site, and don’t forget to check out all our pop culture videos and Geek Battle Podcast on the Geek Battle social channels below:
