Corrected entry: In the first scene from 1955, November 6th, where Marty watches the mix of people in Courthouse Square, there is a shot where a boy in mustard yellow pants, standing next to a man, under a tall tree, is "bouncing" down the sidewalk on a pair of spring-laden shoes. These shoes were called "rocket shoes", and were not invented until the late fifties/early sixties, not 1955.
Correction: The original poster claimed the shoes were not invented until well after 1955, so I gave an example of ones from 1955 that demonstrated the claim was wrong. Also, your logic is off since 1) that doesn't mean they were only first invented in 1955, just that they were provably invented BY 1955, and 2) being in a New York museum doesn't mean they were only released in the Northeast in that year. There is no contradiction in my post.
Corrected entry: In the original film Doc rips up Marty's letter and then sellotapes it back together at some point, however at the end of the second film Doc faints, so he wouldn't have picked up the letter and should be dead.
Correction: Doc never picks up the letter because he never let it go in the first place. He rips it up and *puts it in his pocket*. Presumably the pieces are still in the pocket when he faints and subsequently wakes up in his home.
Corrected entry: When Marty pushes the car behind the billboard there's a speed limit sign on the road that says 65mph. The national speed limit in 1955 was 55 mph.
Correction: The National Maximum Speed Law (i.e. the national speed limit) which prohibited speed limits higher than 55 mph, wasn't enacted until 1974. Prior to 1974 states had control of setting speed limits.
Corrected entry: When Biff takes Marty out of the car in 1955, he says, "You caused $300 damage to my car, Mcfly!" The only person who knew he was a Mcfly was Doc Brown.
Corrected entry: Marty's sister stated at the dinner table that grandma hit his dad with the car, but in the 1955 scene it was the grandfather that hit him.
Correction: She says Grandpa, not Grandma.
Corrected entry: After Marty takes a ride from a jeep to get to the classes he is using his headphones, which disappear outside the school.
Correction: When Marty is holding onto the back of the jeep on the way to school, he is shown wearing headphones. After this, the scene ends and it cuts to the next scene, where he arrives at school (without headphones) and some time has gone by. Enough time would have passed in between scenes for him to put the headphones in his bag.
Corrected entry: When Marty escapes the Libyans at the Twin Pines Mall, hits 88mph and ends up in Old Man Peabody's barn, driving in through a large opening in the barn before crashing. However, the cut to the inside of the barn shows no form of entry other than the closed doors the family are entering. In addition the inside of the barn is very small compared to the outside view. (00:30:10 - 00:31:55)
Correction: He doesn't enter the barn where the family enters the barn. He enters through the back of the barn and goes all the way through, hence why the family are facing the lights from the door they enter through, not the back of the car.
Actually there are no openings behind the car when the Peabodys enter so he couldn't have gone through.
The car spun 45 degrees when it enters the barn and comes to a stop. They enter it through the side so what you see behind the car is the other side of the barn, not the back (or front whatever you want) where he came in, that's on the right side of the car.
Corrected entry: On the DVD version, in the scene where Doc gets shot and then later reveals to Marty that he was wearing a bullet proof vest. A vest does not work in the way shown in the movie. It doesn't repel bullets (as shown in the "impact points" in the vest he displays), it absorbs them. Read how a vest works from howstuffworks dot com and you'll see what I mean. In addition, it looks like he is wearing only a Threat Level 2a class vest. An AK47 or similar weapon with a 7.62mm round would go clean through the vest, through Doc, and out the other side thus killing him and ending the story. The only style of vest that can withstand that sort of impact is a Threat Level 3 class vest (the style that specialized units in the military wear). This style is very bulky and is extremely difficult to conceal like Doc did. In addition, it has a ceramic plate in it which would have shattered upon the first impact and failed to protect against multiple impacts from that kind of weapon, and definitely not show "impact points" of twisted metal.
Correction: After 30 years it's possible for him to invent the vest. Also, from what I see, the vest hasn't repelled the rounds, as we can see where they've hit as the rounds have impacted the vest.
Correction: Doc is a brilliant scientist as well as an inventor. He had the time and the ability to invent his own special material that works like no other material known to man. If he can invent a time machine, I'm sure a bulletproof material would be easy for him.
As he stated in 1955, none of his inventions had ever worked. When he heard about and was shown the Delorean, he was amazed because it worked. I don't think that he would have been able to invent a jacket that repels bullets that great.
He is still a brilliant inventor/engineer that eventually makes the DeLorean run on bio-fuel and makes a train fly. Surely he can invent himself a vest.
Unless he is super paranoid I don't think he thought he would be shot.
Corrected entry: The DeLorean has 'Good Year' tyres - this is a deliberate mistake to create an in joke, as the brand is actually 'Goodyear'.
Correction: All the shots of the tires I see are correct. Goodyear's brand has the winged shoe between the "d" and "y" so that it looks like it's "good year." This is what the DeLorean has.
Corrected entry: In the speaker explosion scene at the beginning of the film, a horizontal safety line can be seen attached to the waist of the stunt person as he is knocked backwards.
Correction: This is the guitar cable which connects Marty's guitar to the amplifier.
Corrected entry: Steven Spielberg makes a cameo as the jeep driver with a green cap who pulls Marty around the street.
Correction: That is not true. The jeep driver is Walter Scott (who is also credited for his role).
Corrected entry: When Lorraine follows Marty back to Doc's in 1955 and Doc goes to answer the door, he says to Marty (before opening it) that it's his mum. Lorraine must have heard them through the door yet she never questions it.
Correction: Two possible reasons she never asks about it. First, she simply did not hear him. You're assuming she did, but there's no evidence of it. Second, asking questions would be tantamount to admitting to eavesdropping. It's rude to eavesdrop and so Lorraine would hardly give herself away by asking questions about something she wasn't supposed to have heard in the first place, and which would have sounded nonsensical anyway.
Corrected entry: The original DeLorean tops out at a measly 80 miles per hour and that is probably with a tail-wind downhill. However, it is likely the Doc heavily modified the engine to reach 88 miles per hour.
Correction: The DeLorean DMC-12 had a listed top speed of 130 MPH, and Road & Track tested the 0-100 MPH acceleration time. While it's performance figures were criticized as being somewhat disappointing, the DMC-12 could easily reach 88 MPH even without any modifications Doc would've done.
Corrected entry: When Marty begins playing "Johnny B. Goode", the guitar tone is suddenly distorted whereas it was clean in the prior song without him ever adjusting the amp or the guitar's volume knob. The guitar also becomes more distorted during the guitar solo.
Correction: Turning a knob on a guitar takes almost no time at all. He could have easily turned it between shots, or when his back was turned toward the camera.
Corrected entry: After Marty changes things and returns to 1985, he finds his brother Dave is more successful and now has an office job. So why is Dave still living at home with his parents?
Correction: This has already been asked. He never says he lives there. He may be just having breakfast with his sister and parents on his way to the office. Also, if he's living with his parents, it wouldn't be a mistake. Many young adults continue to live with their parents, just because they don't have to spend extra money.
Corrected entry: Lorraine thinks Marty's name is Calvin Klein because she said it was written on his underwear. Actually, it's stitched on, which should tip her off that the underwear was made that way when it was manufactured, not written on.
Corrected entry: Marty gives Goldie Wilson the idea to run for mayor before Goldie thought of it himself. Suppose now that Goldie runs for mayor before he is supposed to and loses the election and it ends his political career, thereby disrupting history.
Correction: So what? Marty changes lots of things during his time in the past, ranging from the very minor - Twin Pines Mall becoming Lone Pine Mall - to the really quite major - his parents' entire personalities and futures. History's already disrupted to a significant degree, one more thing, particularly one that, as far as we know, didn't happen, is hardly mistake-worthy.
Corrected entry: The lightning bolt hitting the clock tower should not have stopped the clock because the clock is not electrical, it's mechanical.
Correction: Electricity arcing between metal parts can melt them.
Corrected entry: When Marty is trying to prove to Doc that he is from the future, he shows him his driver's license and the photo of himself and his siblings. Doc immediately dismisses them both. Doesn't Doc notice that the quality of the color in the photos is much better than any color film that existed in the 1950's? Wouldn't that grab his attention?
Correction: If he actually took the time to examine it, maybe. Think about it, if someone walked up and told you he was from the future and showed you a document to prove it, would you believe him and examine it or humor the weirdo and get away as quick as you could?
Corrected entry: When Marty shows Doc the flyer from 1985 about saving the clock tower, this gives them the time that the clock will be struck by lightning, 10:04pm on that coming Saturday (11/12/55). However, the main problem here is that the time is only given in hours and minutes, and since lightning moves at the speed of light, an entire lightning strike lasts only fractions of a second. Doc and Marty have no clue as to what second the lightning will strike during that minute, and it isn't given a thought. In reality this would cause a tremendous dilemma if the Delorean had to pass at a precise second. And since the clock on the tower lacked a second hand, they would need a sychronized watch to determine the second the strike occurs, even if they knew it. In the movie it is assumed the strike occurs at 10:04:00, which is fine, but for more realism they could've added a second hand to the clock to eliminate this plot hole. It would have been stuck in place as the other hands after the lightning strike.
Correction: A second-hand isn't necessary. The second within the minute that the lightning strike occured could have been been determined by an examination of the inner workings of the clock (which stopped functioning after the strike). Such a noteworthy piece of trivia would likely have been included in the Hill Valley Preservation Society's flier. In fact, Doc states as much - that according to the flier the clock is struck at precisely 10:04pm.
Even if they examined the insides of the clock and reported the precise second of the lightning strike in the flier (which is itself improbable), they would only know the time down to the nearest second (and that's assuming the clock tower kept perfect time). 88 miles per hour is about 129 feet per second-at that speed, even being off by a few milliseconds would cause the lightning to miss the DeLorean entirely.
Correction: There were a few different versions of these sprung shoes from different makers, and went by similar names like moon shoes, satellite shows, and rocket shoes. They were all inspired by the space race going on in the 50s and 60s. And they do date from at least 1955, since there is a 1955 pair on display in the Brooklyn Museum.
jimba
This correction slightly contradicts itself. If the ones you could find from 1955 were in New York then they must have been released to the public in the same year in the Northeast States. However, Hill Valley is in California, a western state. This means that the product probably wouldn't be there until 1956 onward.