Hate the ending - Back to the Future Part III (1990) Discussion

[–] mikethemartian (6874) 2 years ago

With regard to the flying part I think he says he had already travelled to the future.

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[–] Cherubino1 (101) 2 years ago

Possible, although I find it hard to imagine. Doc would first have to convert the train into a time machine and put it on the tracks. Then he would have to travel about 130 years into the future and hope that the tracks would still be there. And then he would have to mandate that this huge train be converted to a flying train. Is it “realistic” that the company that made the DeLorean flyable would also convert trains just like that?

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[–] clashwho (758) 2 years ago

This doesn't seem like the sort of film to nit pick. It's a fun fantasy movie about time travel, not a sci-fi movie trying to predict a plausible future.

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[–] Cherubino1 (101) 2 years ago

I see it differently. If you read the many interviews with the producers/screenwriters/directors, you’ll see that these people put a lot of thought into all sorts of details.
For example, these people thought about what events (that are never mentioned or shown in the movie!) lead to what other events, or what the characters experienced even though it is never mentioned.
A well-known example is the deleted scene in the second part where Biff disintegrates when he returns to 2015. You never learn why he does this, but the creators have said that Lorraine probably shot him at some point.
In this respect, I think the speculation about how Doc can build a time machine in 1885 is justified.

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[–] blindfolded (1650) 2 years ago

Doc got the hover conversion done in the future. That's why he says "already been there" as the train lifts up.

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[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

Are you sure THAT is why he says it? He did visit 2015 in the previous movie, you know, so he could be referring to that just as well.

In any case, I wanted to mention that the Doc that invents the time machine is not the same Doc that helps Marty get back to 1985, and the Doc that invents the train version of the time machine is also not the same, youthful and ignorant Doc.

1955 Doc doesn't know anything, he only has a vision of how a time machine (or flux capacitor) could, in theory, be built. He has no idea if it would work or not (he exclaims excitedly 'It works!', when he sees it and realizes it must've brought Marty to 1955 from the future).

However, he has no experience in building or inventing time machines yet, he's 'green', so to say, and he has access only to 1955 components, not 1985 stuff, which he might not even be able to imagine yet. All those electronics and such.

The wild west-Doc is even more knowledgeable, because he has been doing major modifications to the DeLorean in 2015, so he has SO much more experience and knowledge about all kinds of components, of which he can sure fabricate at least crude replicas in the wild west. He has more intimate knowledge of how all of it works, so when he is allowed a few years of tinkering, tinking, philosophizing and pondering, he can find 'new paths' to the power requirement problems and such (as did Nikola Tesla in real life, alas, his inventions were stolen and energy towers demolished because money).

Heck, he might even have talked to mr. Tesla, maybe there was a collaboration.. (Tesla was born in 1856, so it's plausible!)

Also, there was a lot of TIME on the more experienced Doc's hands, the 1955 Doc that didn't have experience or knowledge, had no way of doing anything but basically planning and waiting for the right components to exist and all that, so it took him 30 years.

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[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

The wild west-Doc had seen and experienced so much, and started realizing he can make SOME kind of 'replicas' with the primitive 'past-tech', proven by the 'ice cube machine' he buit. Sure, it'd have to use different paths to the same result, and they might be clunkier, but he could scavenge '1955-replacable' parts from the cave DeLorean for his experiments (and the gas it would have, or would have had before the Doc meticulously took it out and stored it in his lab, which this character would ABSOLUTELY do).

As I have mentioned, the whole 'gas problem' is a stupid, manufactured crap for 'movie tension' and doesn't make sense if you think about it for a few seconds. There's no reason to risk their lives with the hare-brained 'train plan', when they could sit and think for awhile.

My more common sense-solutions to the 'gas problem':

1) Take the cave DeLorean's gas, that Doc absolutely would have stored somewhere neatly.

2) Instead of alcohol, use some kind of oil that has been known to work for cars for a long time, even if it's not as effective and so on. (Surely even alcohol wouldn't have exploded that way and broken the car the way we were shown)

3) Instead of gas, figure out how to use Mr. Fusion also for 'propulsion'.

How did Doc explain it in 2015, and how could he even get that kind of power source but not use it for making the car move? I mean, what did the people in 2015 think he is using it for in his car, since it's not for 'propulsion' (for the lack of better term)? Coffee making? It makes no sense that Mr. Fusion seems to be a normal, popular tech in 2015, but Doc still uses it only for a 'secret time travel engine' that he doesn't want to broadcast in public.

My question is, WHAT do people in 2015 use 'Mr. Fusion' for, if not moving their car? It generates ridiculous amount of energy, so what do the normal customers of 'Mr. Fusion' tech use it for? It seems to be popular and common enough to just be sold to people in 2015.

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[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

4) Modify the letter.

I already wrote a post about this, but why didn't Doc and Marty think about the letter? Just tweaking it a LITTLE bit would ensure they have all the gas they could ever want, and that Marty would NOT be attacked by the bear OR the indians. Just a few words in the letter, which Doc still has somewhere (even if it's in the office already - surely you can modify your own letter, or ask to include a paper you forgot in the envelope-bag-thing, even if it costs you a bit more).

"By the way, bring some gas and change your time travel starting location because there will be problematic entities attacking the DeLorean and damaging its gas line, and absolutely never go into a cave, because there's gonna be a bear in it!"

Problem solved - the pen is indeed mightier than a stupid plan to accelerate a train to 88 so it can fall into a ravine.

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[–] strntz (12684) 2 years ago

And at the end, Doc just builds a time machine in the Wild West and Marty and Doc would have gotten to 1985 anyway.

Yes, but at the time they ran the steam loco over the gorge, Doc didn't think it was possible to build a time machine.

We don't know exactly what made up the time machine components. While the digital electronics that the DeLorean featured would not have been within Doc's realm to build, it's possible the flux capacitor and basic electrical components to power it were. If he could push his crude time loco to the future, he could equip it there with futuristic electronics, cold fusion reactor, and flying apparatus before returning with his wife and new family to visit Marty in 1985.

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[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

This movie has _SO_ many other problems that should need some 'thought put into it' before it would make any sense to try to tackle the most stupid ending of a movie ever. There's no way he could make a flying train, and if he could, why would he do ALL that first, especially now that he has a family draining his resources, energy, wealth, money, and has to slave for .. err, I mean, a family to take care of, and only after all those years come to 1985 to greet Marty, his former BEST FRIEND (way to abandon and ditch your best friend just because you find a vag!).

I mean, the ending is definitely not very well thought-out, it's cartoony, over-the-top ridiculous and convoluted as well. First we are made to feel sad that the time machine is destroyed, but now it's replaced by another time machine almost immediately, so what did we lose?

This time, Doc is separating himself from Marty, though, so now Marty is supposed to live the rest of his life without having access to the time machine Doc's family has full and free access to 24h every day.

The problem with 'fantasy movies' is that the protagonists are often expected to handle the psychological strain of having experiences fantastic, amazing things and possibilities, only to then just settle to live a 'regular life' afterwards. Could you? I certainly couldn't.

In any case, there are so many problems with these movies that the tacked-on nonsensical ending is the LAST thing anyone should concern themselves with. But if we must, how about this question; Why does the train system react to a train that's not there?

I mean, is it chronologically expansive system that can detect trains coming from ANOTHER TIME, not just from a distance? How far and deep does that system scan, when it can even scan into 'time', and not just react to object in a distance?

Who the hell designed and built that fourth-dimensionally-scanning train detection system??

Also, why do you assume it was a corporation that converted DeLorean?

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[–] avortac4 (3752) 2 years ago

Isn't Doc inventive enough to figure it out in the future, seeing all those cars flying and reverse engineering the tech and building his own version? I mean, it's possible he just did a lazy, simple 'hover conversion' (though it's not really hovering, is it, it's flying), but thinking about Doc's character.. not sure if he'd be that lackluster and lazy, to let others tinker with the time machine, when he's even sensitive about Jennifer SEEING it (which makes no sense, because why would he RISK that in the first place, arriving to 'next morning' presumably directly from the future, on a public street where ANYONE could've seen him and the time machine, wearing futuristic clothes and all that..)

See how even the most insignifigant-seeming details make no sense, when you think about them.

How about the whole fact that they travel to a non-existent future, because Marty doesn't live up to BE that guy, because of all the time traveling. Marty should've been fine, since no car accident ever happened. I mean, THAT Marty should never exist, because Marty doesn't get to continue his life 'into the future' BEFORE they return from their time travel shenanigans-filled adventure back to 1985. Only THAT Marty, from THAT point can continue living his life into the future, and he's certainly not the sad Marty we see in the 2015.

I am not saying there shouldn't be A Marty in 2015 - after all, as long as they return to 1985 and Marty lives his life from thereon, Marty exists in the future, even if they haven't returned to 1985 yet to ensure that. However, the VERSION of Marty we see, is someone I can't see existing, no matter what. Only _IF_ they never time travel, it could be possible, but that timeline doesn't exist, because Doc comes to take Marty to 2015 the 'next morning'.

So many problems would have to be solved before we tackle the cartoon train with cartoon physics (the mass of a train would NOT allow such fast turning and movement).

I barely scratched the surface.

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[–] Cherubino1 (101) 2 years ago

Another problem: How does Doc know that Marty and Jennifer will be at the wreckage of the DeLorean at that exact time? What would he have done if they weren’t there? (And after several years, how does Doc know exactly what day Marty will arrive in 1985? I’m just imagining Marty arriving, and suddenly Doc’s train shows up and runs over the DeLorean along with Marty).
Doc would have to reckon with the DeLorean still being on the rails, because Marty wouldn’t be able to get it off there that quickly. Instead, he shows up relatively soon after Marty’s arrival and risks a collision with the car.

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[–] ExTechOp (2770) 2 years ago

Marty and Jennifer didn't arrive back at the DeLorean's wreckage until well after Marty arrived back "home" to his improved timeline.

Remember, Marty had to get home (on foot), then pick up Jennifer in time to avoid the drag race with Needles that ruined his future.

That means Doc must've showed up when he did on purpose.

He had to have known Marty and Jennifer would be there, either from a past attempt or some other time-travel science he'd invented. He's had about ten years based on Jules and Verne's ages.

Maybe he tracked them after picking up his dog, Einstein.

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[–] ColumboKate (5731) 2 years ago

Remember though - in 1885 there were actually 2 deloreans. The one doc arrived in and left buried in the mine for marty to find in 1955. And then the one that marty arrived in, hidden in the bear cave.

They used the one from the bear cave.

In theory, Doc could have somehow repaired the time circuits on the one buried in the mine. It also now runs on trash Remember? Rather than plutonium.

It always bugged me that they didn't just fix the fuel line in marty,'s car and syphon the fuel from the other one. But then there would have been no film 🤷🏻‍♀️

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[–] Cherubino1 (101) 2 years ago

No, that would not have been possible. In his letter to Marty he wrote:

The lightning bolt that hit the DeLorean caused a jigowatt overload which scrambled the time circuits, activated the flux capacitor, and sent me back to 1885. The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. (…) I set myself up as a blacksmith as a front while I attempted to repair the damage to the time circuits. Unfortunately, this proved impossible because suitable replacement parts will not be invented until 1947.

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[–] ColumboKate (5731) 2 years ago

Thank you for clearing that up 👍

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[–] Volley (3433) 2 years ago

Didn't like the ending much either. Doc and his big family flying around in a hover train seemed unrealistic and cartoony, even for BTTF standards. Probably should have been a segment that showed us how Doc managed to assemble a train time machine with 1885 parts, a Delorean with fried time circuits in a cave, and a 2015 Mattel Hoverboard.

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