Back To The Future III question

Marty goes back to the old West after he receives the letter via Western Union from Doc. Upon Marty's arrival in the old West, he's chased by Indians who are being chased by the cavalry. During the chase, the Delorean takes an arrow that punctures the gas tank and Marty then abandons the car (after being chased by a bear).

The letter from Doc that was delivered to Marty while he stood in the rain at the end of Back To The Future II stated that Doc had been in the old West for 6 months or so. The letter also contained information on how to find where the Delorean was in the old abandoned mine.

So, the old West Doc placed the Delorean in the mine, Marty and the 1950's Doc find it and then Marty goes back in time to the old West to get Doc, despite Docs request not to go. When Marty arrives in the old West, the same Delorean is both in the mine where Doc placed it to be found by Marty and the 1950's Doc, and in the cave where Marty left it after the Indian attack. Doc tries to get the Delorean in the cave started by pouring strong liquor into it, but that doesn't work. They ultimately rig up a way to get the Delorean up to 88 mph using a train engine.

So the question is, why didn't Doc just patch the hole in the gas tank on the Delorean in the cave, then go to (the same but) other Delorean he placed in the mine and siphon some gas from it and use it in the Delorean in the cave to get back up to 88 mph and leave the old West? The gas would have been somewhat old (6 months or more) but surely would have been worked better than whiskey. Is this a "Duhhh" thing for Doc?


Any thoughts?

some things are best forgotten

6 months in the dry desert heat....

you would think, good sealing gas cap. The gas in the tank in the Delorean in the mine was in a sealed tank. Only so much would have evaporated within the tank until it reached an equilibrium between liquid and gas at that temperature (if I remember my basic physics correctly). So I believe there should have been some quantity of liquid gasoline. Pressurized gas caps were a circa 1980's invention that addressed exactly the problem you mention.

Old Biff steals the DeLorean, goes back in time, and then returns to the same timeline that he left leaving the car where he found it so that Marty and Jennifer could then go back to their time? Shouldn't have that timeline changed radically, and old Biff not have anywhere to go?

And where the hell was Sarah Connor in all this? She has to have sex with some futureboy to give birth to humanity's last hope against the Terminators!

TlalocW

The old Biff coming back to an unaltered future just makes no sense.

if you remember, old Biff starts to vanish right upon his arrival back in the 21st century which would seem to indicate he got back just as the timeline was beginning to skew. Speculation has been that he was earlier killed by Lorraine or someone he screwed over after he became rich which made him cease to exist just as he was arriving in back in the 21st century.

Going back in time and changing it alters the timeline right then and there. There should be no going back to where you started, and everything in Old Biff's time should have been wiped out instantly.

TlalocW

the effect should have been immediate.

...where's the governator when we need him? :shrug:

As far as the original post, wasn't the car in the cave out of gas too? If not, what was wrong with it?

As far as the Biff thing, maybe even in the rich Biff timeline the future was still the same, since Marty fixed it anyway. So, although the 80's were screwed up, maybe the 2000-whatever's were still okay ... ehhh, the Biff thing is definitely a serious plot hole.

but it appeared to be in good shape when Marty & 1950's Doc found it in the mine. It could have been out of gas by the time Doc got to the old West. Did Marty or Doc ever stop for gas for the Delorean at any time in the three movies from the time Marty fled the terrorists in BTTF I up through when the Delorean was hit by lightning at the end of II? At the beginning of II Doc places some garbage into the Mr. Fusion. But that's the only renewal of energy I remember.

I almost wish they hadn't made it because I got a real kick out of the first two.

straight from Bob Gale on the DVD commentary track.

(He's the writer/producer)

It's the most frequently asked question about BTF3. The answer is that Doc knows it would be a big mistake to mess with the Delorean in the cave. It's the most precarious part of the whole plan; he's banking everything on that cave being undisturbed for 70 years. If they break the seal on the cave and get the gasoline, it quite possibly would change the scenario in a way that would alter events in 1955 (from the beg. of BTC3).

Doc KNOWS it all worked, since Marty is there. But he won't go near the cave, since the slightest disturbance (even obscuring the ELB initials) could create another paradox.

Ask me anything else; I know all about the trilogy.

FOR THE REST OF YOU GUYS ASKING ABOUT BIFF:

The trilogy DVD set has a deleted scene that shows old Biff vaporizing immediately upon his return to 2015 in the stolen DeLorean. According to Gale and Zemekis it was cut because it confused audiences completely. Remember that, at this point in the film, the audience doesn't grasp what old Biff has done.

You're right. I saw the deleted scene you mention about Biff vanishing when someone brought the trilogy over one night. I forgot that was a deleted scene.

The alarm clock goes off, the DeLorean stalls, Marty spends 30 seconds trying to start it. Meanwhile Doc is up on the clock rigging up a cable to slide down to fix the unplugged plug, 30 seconds pass. Marty hits the gas, lots of other stuff happens, 30 more seconds pass before he reaches the cable when the lightning strikes.

Delorean's must really suck. 0-88 in 60 seconds.

It bugs me every time I catch it on TNT.

as a loop in time problem.

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