Back To The Future Part III’s Biggest Plot Hole: Why The Third Movie Shouldn’t Happen

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Fans of Back to the Future have spotted many inconsistencies in Marty McFly’s time travel adventures. For example, why don’t his parents notice how much he resembles a popular figure from their youth, Calvin Klein? And why couldn’t Doc Brown simply create fuel while in the Old West? Another puzzling point is that Marty doesn’t seem to recognize Doc’s house in 1955, even though it’s on the same property as the one he knows in the future.

While some inconsistencies in the Back to the Future movies have reasonable explanations, others are harder to understand. Luckily, most of these plot holes don’t ruin the entire film, and usually just mean a character could have made a different choice. However, a major issue with the setup of Back to the Future Part III suggests the movie shouldn’t have happened at all.

Doc Brown Should Know He’s Going To Die In Back To The Future Part III

One of the coolest things about Back to the Future is how instantly changes to the past affect the future. It’s not some slow burn – it happens right before your eyes! I remember being totally blown away when, after Marty’s little hoverboard mishap in 2015, the next day’s newspaper headline literally changed in front of us, going from news about his son being in jail to the story being about Griff and his gang instead. It’s a fantastic visual representation of the film’s core idea.

The movie Back to the Future Part III starts with Marty McFly stranded in 1955. He’s trying to return to 1985 with the help of the 1955 version of Doc Brown. Marty has already received a letter from Doc Brown of 1985 explaining that he’s living in the Old West as a blacksmith and wants to stay there. Marty shares this letter with his 1955 counterpart.

When Marty and Doc from 1955 unearth the DeLorean, hoping to send Marty back to his own time, they shockingly find a gravestone belonging to Doc from 1985. It shows he was killed by Buford Tannen just days after writing the letter they recently received. This discovery causes Marty to change course – he decides to travel to the Old West to try and save Doc’s life. However, it turns out he wouldn’t have needed to.

Okay, so picture this: in the original Back to the Future, Doc Brown is right there when Marty discovers the tombstone revealing his own death date. He sees how Marty dies, when it happens, and even gets a sense of why. Honestly, that knowledge alone should have drastically altered everything that follows! It’s a huge plot point that the movie kind of glosses over, but it really should have sent the timeline spinning. It’s a little detail that always bugged me – Doc knowing all that and things proceeding as ‘normal’.

The Doc Brown we meet in 1955 eventually becomes the eccentric scientist from the start of the first Back to the Future movie. He’s the one who builds the DeLorean time machine, assists in recovering the sports almanac from Biff at the fifties dance, and is unexpectedly sent back to 1885 by a lightning strike.

If Doc sees his own gravestone in 1955, he should already know when and how he’s going to die before he travels to the Old West. This means he could take steps to avoid his death, which would make the entire plot of Back to the Future Part III pointless. However, the movie shows Doc in the Old West with no knowledge of his future death until Marty warns him.

Okay, so even if Doc originally figured he was destined to be shot by Buford and was kinda okay with it, he really shouldn’t have been shocked when Marty told him things had changed. I mean, the timeline should have adjusted itself immediately! It’s like, hello, time travel 101 – changes ripple through, right?

Bob Gale Explained Back To The Future Part III’s Big Plot Hole, But Does It Make Sense?

In 2021, Bob Gale, the writer of Back to the Future, explained a plot inconsistency. He pointed out that time isn’t fixed, comparing it to the question of whether Doc Brown knew Marty would travel to 1955 at the start of the first movie. Gale argued that Doc wouldn’t have known, because Marty’s trip to the past and the resulting changes hadn’t happened yet.

Gale’s explanation doesn’t fully resolve the plot problem in Back to the Future Part III. Throughout the Back to the Future series, changes to the past happen immediately, as the time traveler experiences them. The films consistently demonstrate a direct link between action and consequence – Marty McFly makes a change, and the resulting effect on history is seen right away, like with the newspaper headlines or his family fading from the photo.

As Bob Gale, the writer of Back to the Future, explains, Doc Brown couldn’t have known Marty was going to travel back in time because Marty hadn’t done it yet. From Marty’s point of view, he hadn’t been sent to 1955 and met the younger Doc Brown – the event that would cause Doc in 1985 to know about it. Therefore, the knowledge Doc has is an effect that shouldn’t exist until after Marty travels back in time.

The movie Back to the Future Part III begins differently. The story kicks off when Marty McFly shows Doc Brown, back in 1955, a glimpse of his own future tombstone. This is meant to inform Doc Brown, who is now in 1855, about how he will eventually die, giving him knowledge of his own future.

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2025-12-13 20:41