7 Back to the Future Plot Holes & Questions That Were Quietly Solved Years Ago

Forty years after its release, Back to the Future continues to endure for film fans not only as one of the quintessential sci-fi movies of the era but one of the best movies of all time. Along with its two follow-ups, the Back to the Future franchise has a very special place in the hearts of moviegoers and genre nerds. In fact, the influence of Back to the Future continues to be felt, as the way it handled time travel was handled successfully enough that any other movie operating within those same confines usually has to address the 1985 hit in some way. Despite the adoration that the trilogy has, it’s not without headache-inducing qualms that some fans just can’t get past.

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Almost every movie has plot holes and unclear explanations to a certain degree, but Back to the Future, as a whole, may have some of the most. Some of these questions range from the nitpicky, EG “How does a flux capacitor make time travel possible?” (it just does, next question), to the actually confusing, EG: “If they left Jennifer on the porch of her home in the Bad 1985 timeline in Part II, how did she wake up in the Good 1985 timeline in Part III?“). Some questions that fans have, however, have answers, and many of them are in the movies themselves.

7) How Did Doc Brown Get the DeLorean Inside the Van?

The fundamental feature that separated DeLoreans from other (accessible) cars was the gull-wing doors that went straight up upon entry or exit rather than out. Though this feature is an aesthetically interesting one, which makes the DeLorean as a time machine even more appealing, it’s one that results in problems.

Many Back to the Future fans have always wondered, given these doors, how Doc Brown can get it in and out of the van that carries it when he first reveals the car to Marty. There’s obviously not enough room on either side in the truck to get in and out of the car, so how did this work? Keeping your eyes peeled to the movie for a few more seconds after this moment will, naturally, reveal the answer: Doc has a remote control that can drive the car. He uses the remote to get the car out of the van and then again to pilot it during the first time travel test with Einstein. Sometimes, just watching the movie reveals the answers to the questions.

6) Where Did Marty Get a Hair Dryer for His “Darth Vader” Costume?

Here’s a question that fans have asked so much that it actually gets addressed in the official “FAQ” on the Back to the Future website. On that page, creators Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis detail many questions that fans have had about structure and story in the film and its rules over the years, with the hairdryer among them. As fans know, Marty disguises himself to scare his father, wearing a radiation suit and tucking a 1980s hairdryer into his belt to complete the look. Naturally, though, fans have noticed that this did not belong in 1955, so where did Marty get it?

Bob and Robert have an explanation for this one, revealing that it was tucked into Doc Brown’s suitcase that he places into the DeLorean before he’s killed by the Libyans and before Marty travels back in time. In fact, there’s even a deleted scene from the movie where the 1955 Doc Brown goes through his own suitcase, asking Marty what the hair dryer is after he picks it up.

Doc Brown: “What’s this?”

Marty: “A hair dryer.”

Doc Brown: “A hair dryer? Don’t they have towels in the future?”

5) How Come Marty’s Parents Don’t Recognize Him After He Returns to 1985?

It’s often a point of contention for many fans that the “new” versions of George and Lorraine don’t recognize Marty in the 1980s, having had their lives completely changed by his appearance in 1955. The reality of this question is that George and Lorraine only interacted with Marty for a couple of days in that time, and it was also three decades prior. In the time since Marty interacted with them, the pair clearly made countless memories and lived very happy lives. Not to say that they forgot about how Marty helped them get together, but it’s been three decades, and they probably just forgot his face; it’s not that deep.

4) Where Is Biff’s Child if Griff Is His Grandson?

When Marty travels to 2015, he naturally encounters another branch from the Tannen family tree in the form of Griff. The grandson of Biff is revealed to be following in the footsteps of his grandfather, bullying the grandson of George McFly in the far future. It’s worth noting that fans curious about the parentage of Griff is not one that actually creates any fault in the story or any kind of narrative disruption, but considering the entire franchise is built around these specific families and their ancestors/descendants, it begs the question: why don’t we meet Griff’s father/Biff’s son?

This is yet another detail that Gale and Zemeckis address in the larger FAQ section, answering the question with a thought experiment: it’s never established that Biff even has a son. Biff could have very well have had a daughter who is Griff’s mother. That said, the newspaper that updates in Back to the Future Part II, after Griff and his gang fly into the courthouse, does address him by the name “Griff Tannen,” implying that Biff does have a son. In any event, Gale and Zemeckis’ answer is a polite way of saying, “It doesn’t matter who Biff’s child was; they’re not important to THIS story.”

3) Why Does Young Biff Meeting Old Biff Not Create a Time Paradox?

In Back to the Future Part II, Doc Brown realizes that if Marty or Jennifer encounter their future selves while in 2015, two things could happen: She could go into shock and just pass out from seeing her older self, or it could create a time paradox that would “unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe.” As fans know, the first outcome is the result of the two seeing each other, but they’re not the only characters that encounter other versions of themselves.

Integral to the plot of Part II is that 2015’s Old Biff Tannen goes back in time to 1955 and gives his younger self the sports almanac that allows him to become wealthy and rewrite the history of 1985. It’s not a simple drop off, however, as Old Biff comes face-to-face with his younger self across multiple scenes. The truth of the matter as to why these two meeting each other doesn’t immediately destroy the universe is clear: Young Biff is too stupid to understand that he’s looking at himself. Despite multiple moments where Old Biff makes it clear that they’re the same person, Young Biff is too dense to understand. In short, the universe is saved by Biff being a moron.

2) Why Don’t Doc and Marty Get Gas From the Other DeLorean in 1885?

When Marty goes back to 1885 to save Doc Brown in the Old West he encounters a big problem: driving on the rough terrain in the DeLorean causes him to tear the fuel line in the car. This not only results in the DeLorean having no gas, but also no way for the gas to even make it into the engine if it DID have any fuel. This has caused many fans to wonder, rather than go through the trouble of retrofitting the DeLorean to be pushed by a train so it can achieve the 88 miles per hour threshold, why not just get parts and fuel from the DeLorean buried in the cave?

Here’s where the Time Paradox stuff comes back into play. Yes, there are two DeLoreans present in 1885 during the events of Part III, but they are, technically, the same car. The DeLorean first arrives in 1885 when Doc Brown is struck by lightning. He seals it inside the cave for Marty and ’55 Doc to find and use to send Marty back home. When Marty decides to take the DeLorean back to 1885 to save Doc Brown, they’re both present. However, if Doc and Marty went and dug up the DeLorean from the cave to salvage its parts for the other car, it would create a paradox that would alter its usability in 1955, preventing Marty from even coming back to 1885 anyway.

There’s also the larger implication that Doc Brown knew that the DeLorean would be stored inside the cave for seven decades, and as a result, drained it of all necessary fluids. This is implied by the fact that ’55 Doc Brown makes sure to note that he filled up the car with gasoline himself, implying that it did not have any after they dug it up.

1) Why Didn’t Doc Brown Just Pay Mad Dog Tannen the $80?

Learning about the death of Doc Brown in 1885 is the thing that inspires Marty to go to the Old West and save his friend. The circumstances of his being “shot in the back by Buford Tannen over a matter of $80” are revealed to be Tannen blaming him for his horse throwing a shoe and him needing to put it down ($75 for the horse, $5 for the shoe is his math). Brown, naturally, refuses to pay the sum.

In Back to the Future Part II however, we see a case that Doc Brown has in his possession with currency from all different eras, including both 1864 and 1875. As a result, Doc Brown could very well just pay the money to Tannen and not die, but the answer to why he does not do this is two-fold and crystal clear. First, Tannen’s demand that Brown owes him $80 is unfounded, a shift in blame by the foolish antagonist to deflect from his own faults and make all his problems the cause of someone else, not himself. The second, and most important, is that across three movies, we’ve learned that Doc Brown is a man of principles and discovery, and simply agreeing to Tannen’s absurd demands would have been out of character for him completely.