The DeLorean explanation (merged threads)

[LeChuck1986]

Originally Posted by jweir

Fixed.

Also don't forget about the alternate 1985 which even though repaired would still have yet another DeLorean in the regular 1985 as things would be repaired around them.

But then it wouldn't be at the same time as the DeLorean who about to leave/arrived in BttF1. Said at the same time, not meaning the year.

@Michael J Fox is Canadian: I knew I forgot one :P

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

Originally Posted by LeChuck1986

But then it wouldn't be at the same time as the DeLorean who about to leave/arrived in BttF1. Said at the same time, not meaning the year.

@Michael J Fox is Canadian: I knew I forgot one :P

You're right about your first point. Assuming the deloreans still show up in alternate timelines, here's how they should exist in 1985

January 1st-October 26th 1:20 AM; 1 delorean
10/26 1:20-1:21 AM: no deloreans
1:21 AM-1:24 AM; 1 delorean
1:24 AM-1:35 AM; 2 deloreans (marty returning 11 minutes before he left)
1:35 AM-circa 2 AM; 1 delorean
circa 2 AM-circa 11 AM; no deloreans (doc leaving for the future until he returns)
around 5 minutes at approximately 11 AM; 1 delorean (the scene we see at the end of part 1 and beginning of part II)
circa 11 AM until 9 PM no delorean
October 26th 9 pm - October 27th 2:15 AM) 1 delorean (the entire time they are in the alternate timeline in part II)
October 27th 2:15 AM- 11 AM 0 deloreans
11:00 AM-11:01 AM 1 delorean when marty returns from 1885 until it is destroyed
and presumably the remainder of the year with no deloreans.


So yeah to answer the question brought up in a shorter way, including the alternate timeline, the only time in 1985 there should be 2 deloreans is the 11 minutes at the end of part I after marty returns from 1955 before he leaves from 1:24 to 1:35


It's likely theres multiple deloreans circulating in 2015 for doc to be able to track the events occurring with Marty Jr and Griff. It is likely that there are at least 2 docs on october 21st; one tracking the events and the other one that brought marty and Jennifer there. It isn't explained how he knows exactly what originally happens. Maybe he planted cameras in there or maybe Doc is hiding in the cafe 80s.

[PsychoRaven]

Those wondering why Doc wasn't duplicated with the Delorean just need to remember one thing. Sometimes in a movie/game you must realize that sometimes something exist or happens the way it does just because it makes for a better story or gives a convenient reason for doing something a character is doing.

I think that when you start over think little details it can take away your enjoyment of something that you would otherwise enjoy.

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

Originally Posted by PsychoRaven

Those wondering why Doc wasn't duplicated with the Delorean just need to remember one thing. Sometimes in a movie/game you must realize that sometimes something exist or happens the way it does just because it makes for a better story or gives a convenient reason for doing something a character is doing.

I think that when you start over think little details it can take away your enjoyment of something that you would otherwise enjoy.

We don't know whether doc is duplicated or not, marty never asks him.

[MageTank]

I'm really a bit late to this conversation, but I feel I must interject.

The factoids in the extras of the DVD version in BTTF2 state that the "backwards '99'" shape in the sky after the DeLorean was hit by lightning was put there on purpose to show that the lightning strike caused the DeLorean to SPIN at 88 Miles Per hour, causing the temporal jump.

[thunder636]

maby doc was duplacated cuse as doc saids in episode 1 that the deloran was copy as well and landed in 2015 but if doc was not duplacated wouldnt that mean that the copy deloran would of crash in 2015 when doc or his son found it and it would be badly damgend

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by Michael J Fox is Canadian

It's likely theres multiple deloreans circulating in 2015 for doc to be able to track the events occurring with Marty Jr and Griff. It is likely that there are at least 2 docs on october 21st; one tracking the events and the other one that brought marty and Jennifer there. It isn't explained how he knows exactly what originally happens. Maybe he planted cameras in there or maybe Doc is hiding in the cafe 80s.

"Wait a minute, the date. This is tomorrow's newspaper!"

"Precisely! I already went further ahead in time to see what else happens. I backtracked everything to this one event!"

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

"Wait a minute, the date. This is tomorrow's newspaper!"

"Precisely! I already went further ahead in time to see what else happens. I backtracked everything to this one event!"

But do the exact events happen in the newspaper? Griff bullying Marty Jr. and specifically asking 'are you in or are yout out'? I'd think doc would have to find that out for himself. Also remember when doc picks them up in 1985, he does not have einstein with him, it's later revealed einstein was in a suspended animation kettle meaning 1 of 2 things: Doc travelled to a time prior to 4:29 pm on October 21st to put einstein in the kennel or while marty was battling griff, doc time travelled to another time to get einstein and came and got him.

Why else would Doc not stick around after putting marty Jr. out to make sure everything goes properly? Presumably because he knows he has another self lurking around the cafe 80s.

[CartoonistWill]

Originally Posted by LeChuck1986

The duplicate doesn't matter much to me. I find it funnier in the movies when you count howmany DeLoreans there are in a certain time era at the SAME TIME.

1955
BttF1 DeLorean
BttF2 Delorean (to restore 1985 from Future Biff's changes)
BttF3 Delorean in the mineshaft

1985
BttF1 DeLorean
BttF1 DeLorean after Marty gets back at the moment he leaves.

2010
BttF2 Delorean

This just blows my mind away :P

You forgot! There were 4 DeLoreans in 1955!

1955
BttF1 DeLorean
BttF2 DeLorean (used by Biff to give his younger self the sports almanac)
BttF2 Delorean (to restore 1985 from Future Biff's changes)
BttF3 Delorean in the mineshaft


1885
BttF3 DeLorean (in the mineshaft)
BttF3 DeLorean (hidden in a bear cave)

[CartoonistWill]

Originally Posted by Michael J Fox is Canadian

But do the exact events happen in the newspaper? Griff bullying Marty Jr. and specifically asking 'are you in or are yout out'? I'd think doc would have to find that out for himself. Also remember when doc picks them up in 1985, he does not have einstein with him, it's later revealed einstein was in a suspended animation kettle meaning 1 of 2 things: Doc travelled to a time prior to 4:29 pm on October 21st to put einstein in the kennel or while marty was battling griff, doc time travelled to another time to get einstein and came and got him.

Why else would Doc not stick around after putting marty Jr. out to make sure everything goes properly? Presumably because he knows he has another self lurking around the cafe 80s.

But if Doc can TIME TRAVEL why did he need to freeze Einie "as if I had never left," he said, instead of time travel back to the exact time he dropped Einie off, meaning he literally didn't leave but for the moments it took to get up to 88 mph?

[CartoonistWill]

Originally Posted by Michael J Fox is Canadian

But do the exact events happen in the newspaper? Griff bullying Marty Jr. and specifically asking 'are you in or are yout out'? I'd think doc would have to find that out for himself. Also remember when doc picks them up in 1985, he does not have einstein with him, it's later revealed einstein was in a suspended animation kettle meaning 1 of 2 things: Doc travelled to a time prior to 4:29 pm on October 21st to put einstein in the kennel or while marty was battling griff, doc time travelled to another time to get einstein and came and got him.

Why else would Doc not stick around after putting marty Jr. out to make sure everything goes properly? Presumably because he knows he has another self lurking around the cafe 80s.

More importantly, why didn't Doc freak out saying that preventing this would change the time stream thereby changing the future thereby meaning he would have never known Marty's kids would be in danger thereby never having a reason to backtrack events back to that day thereby never having a reason to pick up Marty and change the time stream and thereby causing a paradox! Hm? lol

[LuigiHann]

Yeah. What was great about BTTF1 was that the time travel was totally accidental, and the stuff that he has to fix in the past is all just stuff that he messed up in the past. It's really solid and totally avoids the obvious paradox that "go back in time to fix the present" plots all potentially fall into.

BTTF2 is a fun movie but it can't be taken nearly as seriously in that regard. They prevent Biff from taking over Hill Valley, so in the final timeline they'd have no reason to go back in time to prevent Biff from taking over Hill Valley. Headache-inducing.

People say that BTTF3 presents the same paradox, but I feel like even if Marty hadn't seen that tombstone, he would have ignored Doc's advice and gone back to meet him anyway.

[Flyingman356]

Biff got hit by a car door. That didn't prevent anything.

[ewanm89]

Originally Posted by LuigiHann

Yeah. What was great about BTTF1 was that the time travel was totally accidental, and the stuff that he has to fix in the past is all just stuff that he messed up in the past. It's really solid and totally avoids the obvious paradox that "go back in time to fix the present" plots all potentially fall into.

BTTF2 is a fun movie but it can't be taken nearly as seriously in that regard. They prevent Biff from taking over Hill Valley, so in the final timeline they'd have no reason to go back in time to prevent Biff from taking over Hill Valley. Headache-inducing.

People say that BTTF3 presents the same paradox, but I feel like even if Marty hadn't seen that tombstone, he would have ignored Doc's advice and gone back to meet him anyway.

Where would a time travel story be without a good paradox?

[Shadowknight1]

Originally Posted by ewanm89

Where would a time travel story be without a good paradox?

In the Star Trek universe.

[Michael J Fox is Canadian]

theres plenty of time travel films which depict the time line as linear and expecting time travel (ie time travellers wife, terminator, 12 monkeys) so by those rules, there are no alternate timelines and thus cant be a paradox

[Iggman88]

Originally Posted by Shadowknight1

In the Star Trek universe.

There are plenty of paradoxes in star trek, my fav is where voyager goes back in earth's history to destroy/retrieve a time machine and its pilot, which they find out that a person from the past was using it to steal future technology, bringing up the question who really invented that technology. Plus the time traveler who came back to find the cause of the paradox caused it himself by going back to see what caused it.

[Kale]

This thing has been buggin me for a while now.

So, in the first episode Einie never came back from the maiden voyage of the DeLorean in time. So Marty didn't have a car to run away from the Libyans nor even a reason to do so because Doc disappeared. So this means he had never time travelled in the first place before when Einie suddenly came back 6 months later.

But then again, the sign changed to Lone Pine Mall when doc started disappearing so it means that Marty had done his trip to the past.

Or was the beginning of the game only a dream Marty had in 1986 like it somehow states? And the meaning of Doc not being around is that he just never came back when he departed with the time train? And that's why Marty is ranting about Doc coming back any second now and trying to stop the sale on Doc's stuff? That he misses him and is insecure about his fate and of course can't talk about time travel to his father as a excuse to stop him. Though it's somewhat weird that everyone (else than Marty) is going on so easy about Doc being gone. Like that they don't care what has happened to him..

Well I just played the very beginning of the game again and Marty has that pic of him and doc from BttF3 when he wakes up so it means everything has happened (so it was only a dream right?).

I just don't understand that how can there be a DeLorean which returns to 1986 (and some of you talking about a duplicate DeLorean?) because the only one left at that time was destroyed at the end of BttF3..? Maybe Doc "borrowed" it from himself/Marty/Biff somewhere in the timeline after the events of BttF3 for some reason (maybe the time train broke down) and the whole point of the game is to return the car to that place of time so everything happens the way it should (like in the movies).

I kinda got the same feeling like when viewing BttF part 1 for the very first time as a kid somewhere in the past. In the finale I got the feeling that everything was only a dream of Marty as his parents and siblings were a little confused about Marty talking "Mom you look so thin" etc. And then in the very end the DeLorean returns from the future to clear it all out that it really happened.

Though if the things really happened like in the beginning of the game then Marty should not have that picture on his table - it would mean that Marty never really time travelled in the first place.

It's not like I'm saying that "this is the way it goes" - I mean that these are just some questions that popped in my mind when going through the whole deal we have been given by this time (I mean the storyline we have at the moment).

Maybe I should play Ep1 all the way through again to clear my mind a bit - and if I can't find the answers then I hope the final three episodes will

[zounds!]

It's been stated here before but, the delorean is a duplicate, it was made in 1955 when the delorean was struck by lightning. For some reason it made a copy and one went to the past, while the other was sent to the future... that one was then later found by Doc after the events of BttF 3 (the movie) and before the events of the first episode. While Doc was time traveling with his "new" Delorean (since the old one is destroyed) he got into trouble in 1931 and the new Delorean automatically travels back to 1986.

The beginning sequence was definitely a dream, and I don't think that it's meaning has been fully interpreted yet in the series.

[Carlos85G]

Originally Posted by Kale

This thing has been buggin me for a while now.

So, in the first episode Einie never came back from the maiden voyage of the DeLorean in time. So Marty didn't have a car to run away from the Libyans nor even a reason to do so because Doc disappeared. So this means he had never time travelled in the first place before when Einie suddenly came back 6 months later.

But then again, the sign changed to Lone Pine Mall when doc started disappearing so it means that Marty had done his trip to the past.

Or was the beginning of the game only a dream Marty had in 1986 like it somehow states? And the meaning of Doc not being around is that he just never came back when he departed with the time train? And that's why Marty is ranting about Doc coming back any second now and trying to stop the sale on Doc's stuff? That he misses him and is insecure about his fate and of course can't talk about time travel to his father as a excuse to stop him.
*snip*
Well I just played the very beginning of the game again and Marty has that pic of him and doc from BttF3 when he wakes up so it means everything has happened (so it was only a dream right?).

Yep, just a dream. The mall sequence in the beginning of the game is made void by the picture of Marty and Doc in front of the clock in 1885 when Marty wakes up.

Originally Posted by Kale

Though it's somewhat weird that everyone (else than Marty) is going on so easy about Doc being gone. Like that they don't care what has happened to him..

Doc's a loner. Most of the town thinks he's crazy. Apparently, his only friends are Marty and Jennifer.

Originally Posted by Kale

I just don't understand that how can there be a DeLorean which returns to 1986 (and some of you talking about a duplicate DeLorean?) because the only one left at that time was destroyed at the end of BttF3..?

Doc explains it when you talk to him in Episode 1, just select all the options because it's a secondary dialogue. You'll find out, but it still raises questions.

Originally Posted by Kale

Maybe Doc "borrowed" it from himself/Marty/Biff somewhere in the timeline after the events of BttF3 for some reason (maybe the time train broke down) and the whole point of the game is to return the car to that place of time so everything happens the way it should (like in the movies).

We had a fun pre-release discussion about it some time ago. You can read it here.