Why the Heck Couldn't Doc Brown Have Just Made Gasoline in Back to the Future III?
About this episode
The episode explores the plot of Back to the Future Part III and discusses the historical context of the automobile during that time.
In the 1990 sci-fi comedy sequel Back to the Future Part III, intrepid time travelling late 20th century duo Marty McFly and Dr. Emmett Brown find themselves trapped in Hill Valley, California, back in the year 1885. With their DeLorean time machine out of gas and it being, well, 1885, Doc and Marty are forced to take creative measures to accelerate their ride up to the required 88 miles per hour and get back to the future. Doc Brown’s solution for this? An elaborate plan involving hijacking a moving train, pushing its boiler to the absolute limit and beyond of its structural capabilities as it careened towards a ravine, and then if it happened to all go well, the car would get up to 88 mph, thereby sending it back to the future. If not, well… the pair’s futures would officially be something neither would ever need to worry about again after they plummeted to their deaths. But while this certainly makes for an awesome climax to one of the greatest trilogies of all time, 1885 was not that far removed from the age of the automobile; indeed, that very same year German inventor Karl Benz unveiled his Patent Motorwagen, widely considered history’s first practical, mass-produced car…
Topics covered
- Back to the Future
- time travel
- automobile history
- sci-fi
- cinema analysis
Keywords
- Back to the Future
- Doc Brown
- Marty McFly
- Karl Benz
- Bertha Benz
- 1885
- time travel
- sci-fi
Mentioned in this episode
Books & works: Back to the Future Part III
Places: Hill Valley, California
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