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[aparisi2274]

So I am sitting here watching BTTF on TBS and I had a question. I mean I have seen this movie so many times I lost count, and everytime I watch it, I think of another question that bugs me about the movie.

How come when Marty goes back to 1955 and he meets Doc, and proves to him he is from the future, they go see the delorean, then Marty shows Doc the video, and he finds out he needs 1.21 Gigawatts to power the Flux Capicator, Doc doesnt work for the next 30 years to find another way to power the flux capacitor? I mean since he knows now.


Just wondering.

 

[CB3]

dosn't he use mr fusion in the 2nd and 3rd movies?

 

[Kiriku]

Well, you could say he tries to find a way for an alternate energy source during those 30 years, but only ends up using plutonium (right?) anyway. But after a few more years of research, he discovers a new way to utilize garbage to power the flux capacitator.

 

[aparisi2274]

Well, you could say he tries to find a way for an alternate energy source during those 30 years, but only ends up using plutonium (right?) anyway. But after a few more years of research, he discovers a new way to utilize garbage to power the flux capacitator.

yeah but he had that conversion made in 2015. I am not sure he invented it, but he did use it as an Alt. to plutonium.

 

[Thaedolus]

Maybe he had to wait until the Lybians gave him plutonium?

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

Probably mostly what Kiriku said: just because you know it's a problem to use plutonium doesn't mean it's easy to find an alternative. I once read a fanfic where Doc mentioned he'd spent a lot of time trying to find an alternative, but as the October 26, 1985 date drew near he realized that was the only viable option, which makes enough sense to me. I mean, building a time machine is tough enough as it is. Finding alternate portable sources of immense power would make things that much more difficult, especially since it took 30 years and his entire family fortune the first time around.

Alternately, remember he was the one especially paranoid about changing history. Though the events of October 26, 1985 were future history to them, he still would want to keep things as similar as possible, for fear of a paradox.

 

[Memles]

Having either never seen it, or forgotten 90% of it, watched it this afternoon as well.

Was most shocked at the amount of people I recognized...Glover and Billy Zane, especially. Great movie.

 

[DonasaurusRex]

also Doc was wary of changing the time space continuum and hated using knowledge of the future in the present (1955) so he probably just went along with the plan.

 

[snaildog]

What always bugged me is that they knew the EXACT SECOND of the lightning strike from a newspaper article. They had to with the car hitting the cable at speed. Can anyone explain that?

 

[SKluck]

The clock stopped when it got hit with lightning, so all they had to do is look at the clock. I'm sure marty knew it, because it was famous in his time for being frozen.

 

[3rdman]

The clock stopped when it got hit with lightning, so all they had to do is look at the clock. I'm sure marty knew it, because it was famous in his time for being frozen.

Want to know what always bothered me about that...The clock stops at 10:04 pm but there is no indication to the number of seconds within that minute to know when the lighting would strike. The should have tethered a cable to cover the distance of a Delorean traveling at 88MPH for 60 seconds. Yeah...I've seen this movie a lot.

edit: Didn't see your reply, snaildog.

 

[AniHawk]

Want to know what always bothered me about that...The clock stops at 10:04 pm but there is no indication to the number of seconds within that minute to know when the lighting would strike. The should have tethered a cable to cover the distance of a Delorean traveling at 88MPH for 60 seconds. Yeah...I've seen this movie a lot.

edit: Didn't see your reply, snaildog.

I think it was just dumb luck. Remember, the car died when the alarm clock went off.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

What always bugged me is that they knew the EXACT SECOND of the lightning strike from a newspaper article. They had to with the car hitting the cable at speed. Can anyone explain that?

Purely suspension of disbelief for a properly exciting climax. As admitted in the audio commentary.

I'm pretty sure they know the second because it was "exactly" 10:04 PM. As in, the minute hand moved forward one and bam! the lightning hit.

But since there wasn't an outside seconds indicator, they shouldn't have known this without an eyewitness. I guess theoretically the keepers of the clock could've been able to tell from the innards, and it was mentioned in the article... and they got a cheapo 50s analog clock to match up to it precisely. A long shot, though.


I heart Back to teh Future.

 

[ckohler]

What always bothers me about most time travel stories like Back to the Future is that they make this big deal about "thinking fourth dimensionally", where in you stay in the same place and only move through time.

That doesn't make much sense since the earth is rotating, moving around the sun, the sun rotating around the galaxy and the galaxy moving away from the center of the universe... and all of this is happening very fast.

If you were to stay in the same exact point in the universe for even just a few seconds you'd find yourself far out in space.

 

[snaildog]

Whoa, never thought of that.

 

[firex]

What always bothers me about most time travel stories like Back to the Future is that they make this big deal about "thinking fourth dimensionally", where in you stay in the same place and only move through time.

That doesn't make much sense since the earth is rotating, moving around the sun, the sun rotating around the galaxy and the galaxy moving away from the center of the universe... and all of this is happening very fast.

If you were to stay in the same exact point in the universe for even just a few seconds you'd find yourself far out in space.

Amazingly, I just sat in my chair for 5 seconds and I was warped to Jupiter. I didn't know why until now. Thanks.

 

[Tekky]

What always bothers me about most time travel stories like Back to the Future is that they make this big deal about "thinking fourth dimensionally", where in you stay in the same place and only move through time.

That doesn't make much sense since the earth is rotating, moving around the sun, the sun rotating around the galaxy and the galaxy moving away from the center of the universe... and all of this is happening very fast.

If you were to stay in the same exact point in the universe for even just a few seconds you'd find yourself far out in space.

Hey it all depends upon where the "center" of the universe is. Perhaps the time machine also "sticks a pin" into the universe in order to define its location as the center point while it travels through time.

 

[snaildog]

What if there were two time machines being used at the same time? Would the earth fly out of orbit? Great Scott.

 

[Escape Goat]

What always bothers me about most time travel stories like Back to the Future is that they make this big deal about "thinking fourth dimensionally", where in you stay in the same place and only move through time.

That doesn't make much sense since the earth is rotating, moving around the sun, the sun rotating around the galaxy and the galaxy moving away from the center of the universe... and all of this is happening very fast.

If you were to stay in the same exact point in the universe for even just a few seconds you'd find yourself far out in space.

Look at what type of movie Back to the Future is. It isn't some hyper realistic time travel movie. Its a comedy which uses time travel as means to tell a story.

 

[ckohler]

Look at what type of movie Back to the Future is. It isn't some hyper realistic time travel movie. Its a comedy which uses time travel as means to tell a story.

True. Still, a lot of time-travel flicks which *are* trying for realism (like The Terminator, Star Trek, etc.) are also based off the same flawed premise as the original H.G. Wells novel. It's not really a big deal but it's something I always think about when I see those movies.

And don't get me started on paradoxes.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

I've thought a bit about that problem, but nothing that would hold up under great scrutiny. Like, whatever time travel mechanism is being used sort of "grabs on" to the surrounding area, and holds on, so during the in-between time it's really there, just in an invisible ethereal sort of way. That still leaves the problem of WHAT it's grabbing onto; if it grabs onto a piece of dirt, that dirt could be moved. I suppose as long as it's not supposed to be absolutely instantaneous in a wormhole way, but rather an infinitely fast path, they could make it keep a certain position from the center of Earth's gravity... which would still have the problem of a rotating planet.

 

[Shinobi]

Time travel is a total impossibility any way you slice it, at least in the physical realm. So it really doesn't matter how logical you try to make it.

 

[Incognito]

Time travel is a total impossibility any way you slice it, at least in the physical realm. So it really doesn't matter how logical you try to make it.

Bullshit.

 

[Matlock]

I know, Lonestar. He does some time travelling himself every time someone mentions Vince Carter.

"I remember when he wasn't injured, guys! Greatest dunk ever!"

 

[Kiriku]

How would we even know if previously mentioned relativity theories come in effect when time travelling, when we don't even know HOW to time travel in practice? If time travelling was to become possible, I don't think it would be according to the physical rules of the universe as we know them today.