The DeLorean in BTTF, not just a time machine, but a space ship

[Brent]

It has to be right? It has to be right, as we all know with Time Travel stories, just traveling in time isn't enough if you want to appear in the same place on Earth, cause the Earth moves around the sun. Your vehicle would have to be able to travel through space as well as time. So, since we have seen in all three movies that the car ends up on the same place on Earth in time, it must also be able to travel in space and lock on to that exact same position it left on Earth and materialize there.

 

[Trekker4747]

Unless whatever its using to move through time (cosmic strings, or whatever you want to think connects to two points in time for them to travel through) moves with the Earth.

 

[Harvey]

Has any time travel story in film or television, besides the movie PRIMER, even addressed this issue in some form? I've read short stories where it is an important element, but it seems to be completely ignored by Hollywood time travel narratives.

 

[Brent]

Has any time travel story in film or television, besides the movie PRIMER, even addressed this issue in some form? I've read short stories where it is an important element, but it seems to be completely ignored by Hollywood time travel narratives.

The Philadelphia Experiment took this into consideration I think.

 

[Harvey]

Cool. I haven't seen that one, though the (apparently) lesser sequel is always lying around video stores.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

There was a novel that did something like this. It took place partly in a dystopian future which was facing environmental collapse; they sent messages into the past to stop this from ever happening, but they had to work out where the Earth would be at that point (~1962) and target that point in space.

As for the DeLorean...meh. We all travel through space by simply being on the Earth as it moves, so I figured the car just moved with the Earth's normal movements and any time travel it does can be taken into account that way. In other words, they could not possibly deal with this 'problem' and still have a movie worth watching.

 

[Admiral_Young]

I think the DeLorean would needed to be heavily shielded and reinforced to protect it's self from radiation and other harmful space stuff. Doc or Marty open up their windows....poof, vacuum suck. Plus wouldn't space just tear the Delorean apart? It's still a car.

 

[TemporalFlux]

The answer is simple. Hill Valley is the center of the universe, and everything spins around it.

---------------------

Sherlock Holmes - ""When you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth"

Watson - "Then you are most certainly stoned, sir."

Holmes - "Yes, I am."

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

They dropped that bit about the DeLorean being extremely cold (after every time travel) almost immediately after that first scene, didn't they?

 

[Trekker4747]

They dropped that bit about the DeLorean being extremely cold (after every time travel) almost immediately after that first scene, didn't they?

Not really. It was just not as severe.

When Marty arrives in 1955 we don't get a real good look at the DeLorean until after it crashes into the barn. At which point we can see the moisture and some frost on the DeLorean's surfaces. It's got the dry-ice collection on when it arrives back in 1985 towards the end of the first movie and a little bit of "dry ice smoke" coming off of it when Doc arrives from 2015.

We never see the car well from the outside when it arrives in either 2015 or back in 1985-A but when Doc lands behind the billboard in 1955 the "dry ice smoke" is there. IIRC there's some "dry ice smoke" when Marty arrives in 1885 and some when it comes to a rest on the rails in 1985.

So only after Temporal Experiment #1 does it arrive covered in the ice and the exhaust vents disperse the condensed gas. All other times the "idea" of the effect is there but not severe. This was because it was costly and time consuming to cover the car in the dry-ice (actually I believe they used CO2 fire extinguishers) after ever time-travel so they mostly just gave the impression with a little bit of dampness on the car to suggest melting ice and some fog/smoke effects.

Here's something to consider:

When Doc drops Marty off at his home in 1985 at the end of the first movie and leaves for "30 years in the future" how long is Doc gone? In theory Doc could've been gone for months or years before coming back to 1985. Given what we find out int he second movie we know Doc had time to do the following:

Collect money from various time periods (as seen in his suitcase, this may suggest time-travel to multiple eras!), get the hover-conversion done to the car (likely to be a few days work) get the fusion generator installed (also likely to be a few days work) and one wonders how he got both of these things done without the workers wondering about all of the crazy equipment in and on the car including the fission generator. Doc had time to get the "all natural overhaul" of his body including replacement of organs and a face-lift and he had time to thoroughly research the fates of Marty Jr. and Marlene to work out his plan to "save" them.

Doc laments before leaving 2015 that he regrets having never visited the Old West but considering he has 19th century money in the suitcase it seems possible he may have visited there and was just throwing Marty off his scent or something. (And, yes, it's possible Doc acquired the money by other means but I find it hard to believe Doc could easily acquire vintage dollar bills easily unless while in 2015 he discovered eBay. )

Looking at the BD copy of Back to the Future Part 2 doc has money from the following times:

1955
1923
1917
1934
1902
1864 (two slots)
1985
1914 (three slots for it, in fact)
1863
1861
1866
1875

Each slot has a decent amount of clean, newish-looking, cash in it. So either Doc got some really good-looking vintage cash or his been to all of these time periods. Incidentally, the money he gives Marty to buy clothes with comes out of the 1934 slot.

 

[Silvercrest]

Has any time travel story in film or television, besides the movie PRIMER, even addressed this issue in some form? I've read short stories where it is an important element, but it seems to be completely ignored by Hollywood time travel narratives.

I believe the show Seven Days dealt with this. Frank Parker had to navigate his time sphere to specific coordinates of time and space to complete a backstep.

 

[Candlelight]

Has any time travel story in film or television, besides the movie PRIMER, even addressed this issue in some form? I've read short stories where it is an important element, but it seems to be completely ignored by Hollywood time travel narratives.

Wild stab here but... Doctor Who?

 

[Skywalker]

Has any time travel story in film or television, besides the movie PRIMER, even addressed this issue in some form? I've read short stories where it is an important element, but it seems to be completely ignored by Hollywood time travel narratives.

I believe the show Seven Days dealt with this. Frank Parker had to navigate his time sphere to specific coordinates of time and space to complete a backstep.

Yeah, and it was incredibly difficult for him to keep the...er...pod-thingy on course. Parker winding up on the correct day but hundreds of miles away from the Backstep facility was a plot point in many episodes.

Aaaaand now I'm getting nostalgic. I loved Seven Days.

 

[Trekker4747]

Something else to consider:

The night before they're supposed to return to 1985 Doc considers staying in 1885 with Clara but Marty quickly talks Doc out of it and suggests bringing Clara with them to 1985; Doc quickly dismisses this idea as being dangerous to the timeline.

Actually, Doc, brining Clara with you back to 1985 is the right thing to do. Clara isn't supposed to be alive in 1885 she's lived for days longer than she was originally supposed to! Bringing her back to 1985 is the right thing to do because she's not supposed to be alive anymore in the 19th century.

 

[scotpens]

It has to be right? It has to be right, as we all know with Time Travel stories, just traveling in time isn't enough if you want to appear in the same place on Earth, cause the Earth moves around the sun.

Not only that, but the earth rotates on its axis, the entire solar system moves along with the rotating Milky Way galaxy, and the galaxy is moving relative to the billions of other galaxies. In the cosmos, there's no such thing as standing still.

In H.G. Wells’ The Time Machine, the granddaddy of all modern time-travel stories, the machine supposedly moved through time but not through space. Actually, of course, moving through time, even at a normal pace, is moving through space. The machine simply stayed in the same geographic spot relative to the earth's surface.

 

[Owain Taggart]

get the hover-conversion done to the car (likely to be a few days work) get the fusion generator installed (also likely to be a few days work) and one wonders how he got both of these things done without the workers wondering about all of the crazy equipment in and on the car including the fission generator.

The way I've always seen it was that it wasn't the same Doc from the same timeline. The Doc that left to go to the future wasn't the same one that came back for Marty. He goes to the future, but we don't really know what time he went to, do we? Meanwhile, Doc that came back for Marty in the Hovercar version of the DeLorean came from 2015, as an older version of himself, where all these things about it were common, so that's why nobody was suspicious, because when they go back to 2015, you see that the DeLorean isn't the only hovercar. I see it as Doc having upgraded it over time with updated technology available at that time. The one that left to go to the future is the one that will eventually become 2015 Doc. I see him having spent more than a few hours there. More like 20 years or so. That's why he knows so much about what's happening and why he needs Marty's help. It's more natural to think he'd know of these developments after having lived in that timeline for years rather than a few hours.

 

[Flying Spaghetti Monster]

As per the original post: I thought of it too. I guess even traveling through time, the vehicle is affected by gravity as well and wouldn't just end up in space.

 

[Trekker4747]

get the hover-conversion done to the car (likely to be a few days work) get the fusion generator installed (also likely to be a few days work) and one wonders how he got both of these things done without the workers wondering about all of the crazy equipment in and on the car including the fission generator.

The way I've always seen it was that it wasn't the same Doc from the same timeline. The Doc that left to go to the future wasn't the same one that came back for Marty. He goes to the future, but we don't really know what time he went to, do we? Meanwhile, Doc that came back for Marty in the Hovercar version of the DeLorean came from 2015, as an older version of himself, where all these things about it were common, so that's why nobody was suspicious, because when they go back to 2015, you see that the DeLorean isn't the only hovercar. I see it as Doc having upgraded it over time with updated technology available at that time. The one that left to go to the future is the one that will eventually become 2015 Doc. I see him having spent more than a few hours there. More like 20 years or so. That's why he knows so much about what's happening and why he needs Marty's help. It's more natural to think he'd know of these developments after having lived in that timeline for years rather than a few hours.

The Doc in 1985 was around 60 years old and would've been 90 in 2015. It's highly unlikely that the Doc who came back for Marty is the a naturally aged (and de-aged with surgery) Doc native to 2015. And we do know where the Doc at the end of BttF is going he out-right tells Marty he's going thirty years into the future.

 

[the Dagman]

get the hover-conversion done to the car (likely to be a few days work) get the fusion generator installed (also likely to be a few days work) and one wonders how he got both of these things done without the workers wondering about all of the crazy equipment in and on the car including the fission generator.

The way I've always seen it was that it wasn't the same Doc from the same timeline. The Doc that left to go to the future wasn't the same one that came back for Marty. He goes to the future, but we don't really know what time he went to, do we? Meanwhile, Doc that came back for Marty in the Hovercar version of the DeLorean came from 2015, as an older version of himself, where all these things about it were common, so that's why nobody was suspicious, because when they go back to 2015, you see that the DeLorean isn't the only hovercar. I see it as Doc having upgraded it over time with updated technology available at that time. The one that left to go to the future is the one that will eventually become 2015 Doc. I see him having spent more than a few hours there. More like 20 years or so. That's why he knows so much about what's happening and why he needs Marty's help. It's more natural to think he'd know of these developments after having lived in that timeline for years rather than a few hours.

The Doc in 1985 was around 60 years old and would've been 90 in 2015. It's highly unlikely that the Doc who came back for Marty is the a naturally aged (and de-aged with surgery) Doc native to 2015. And we do know where the Doc at the end of BttF is going he out-right tells Marty he's going thirty years into the future.

I believe you misunderstood his point. I believe he meant that the Doc who traveled 30 years into the future then spent around 20 years (Doc's personal time/age) time traveling after that. Where he could see that that one mistake of Marty Jr.'s led the McFly family down the path of ruin (remember the newspaper that changed was from a few days father ahead from where Doc took Marty to fix it). He even says he traveled further ahead to see what happens. This is why he needed the rejuvenation surgery to make himself appear the same age as when he left 1985 and be recognizable to Marty. So it is obvious that he did more than a single jump forward and then back to 1985, even though he was only gone a couple of hours in real time.

So the Doc Brown that came back to get Marty in 1985 was quite possibly only one of an infinite potential of alternate time-line Doc's. In fact, the original Doc Brown from BTTF1 died! When Marty returned to 1985 at the end of the movie, he returned to an alternate time line. One where George McFly became an author, the Twin Pine Mall became the Lone Pine Mall, and Doc learned the fate of the original and took steps to avoid the fatality. But in that original time line, which actually still exists but is no longer the powered up Prime Reality, Marty disappeared forever that night, Doc Brown was found dead in the Twin Pine Mall parking lot, and the Libyans likely got away after their VW bus crashed into the Photomat.

 

[Owain Taggart]

The way I've always seen it was that it wasn't the same Doc from the same timeline. The Doc that left to go to the future wasn't the same one that came back for Marty. He goes to the future, but we don't really know what time he went to, do we? Meanwhile, Doc that came back for Marty in the Hovercar version of the DeLorean came from 2015, as an older version of himself, where all these things about it were common, so that's why nobody was suspicious, because when they go back to 2015, you see that the DeLorean isn't the only hovercar. I see it as Doc having upgraded it over time with updated technology available at that time. The one that left to go to the future is the one that will eventually become 2015 Doc. I see him having spent more than a few hours there. More like 20 years or so. That's why he knows so much about what's happening and why he needs Marty's help. It's more natural to think he'd know of these developments after having lived in that timeline for years rather than a few hours.

The Doc in 1985 was around 60 years old and would've been 90 in 2015. It's highly unlikely that the Doc who came back for Marty is the a naturally aged (and de-aged with surgery) Doc native to 2015. And we do know where the Doc at the end of BttF is going he out-right tells Marty he's going thirty years into the future.

I believe you misunderstood his point. I believe he meant that the Doc who traveled 30 years into the future then spent around 20 years (Doc's personal time/age) time traveling after that. Where he could see that that one mistake of Marty Jr.'s led the McFly family down the path of ruin (remember the newspaper that changed was from a few days father ahead from where Doc took Marty to fix it). He even says he traveled further ahead to see what happens. This is why he needed the rejuvenation surgery to make himself appear the same age as when he left 1985 and be recognizable to Marty. So it is obvious that he did more than a single jump forward and then back to 1985, even though he was only gone a couple of hours in real time.

So the Doc Brown that came back to get Marty in 1985 was quite possibly only one of an infinite potential of alternate time-line Doc's. In fact, the original Doc Brown from BTTF1 died! When Marty returned to 1985 at the end of the movie, he returned to an alternate time line. One where George McFly became an author, the Twin Pine Mall became the Lone Pine Mall, and Doc learned the fate of the original and took steps to avoid the fatality. But in that original time line, which actually still exists but is no longer the powered up Prime Reality, Marty disappeared forever that night, Doc Brown was found dead in the Twin Pine Mall parking lot, and the Libyans likely got away after their VW bus crashed into the Photomat.

Yep, that's exactly what I meant Don't think it's the same Doc that went to the future. That one probably eventually settles down, but it's not the one that came back to get him. That one seems to be one that's been part of that future. Age is somewhat irrelevant in BTTF. He may be older, but they've never aged Doc. That could perhaps be explained by him having time-travelled so much that the effects haven't caught up with him yet though. Thirty years into the future, Ok. That still doesn't explain why he's in that getup and why he knows so much. One who stays for a short period of time wouldn't have stayed enough time to realize what's going on. I see Doc 2015 in a similar way to the way we see 1885 Doc. Both part of their own times.