Footage of Eric Stolz as Marty, shot before he was fired and replaced with Michael J. Fox, along with commentary by Zemeckis and Spielberg.

This movie comes with a good commentary track by Bob Gale and Neil Canton. However, it was recorded back in 2002, probably for the first DVD release.
When Marty is trying to escape the terrorists after Doc Brown is shot, he slams the DeLorean into gear like you would an automatic transmission. However, a shot of the pedals a bit later on shows that the car has a clutch.
Still have yet to check out the extras on the Blu-Ray; there's a ton of them. Including the aforementioned footage of Eric Stoltz.

It's too bad they can't CGI Claudia Wells in to replace Elizabeth Shue as Jennifer in the sequels; Wells was so much better, and had better chemistry with Michael J. Fox. Then again, according to Bob Gale in BTTF Part II's commentary track, Jennifer was "dead weight" in the sequels anyway, so very little harm was done.

In BTTF II, we see a TV set at Doc Brown's go from snow right into Howdy Doody. TV stations in the 1950's never just signed on out of the blue; they played The Star Spangled Banner and an ID as they were signing on. Frequently, they broadcast a test pattern or color bars in the overnight. (Nowadays, TV stations never sign off; it's more lucrative to run infomercials or some tacky QVC wanna-be in the overnight hours.)

Just a small nit. It was BTTF III, not II that featured Doc's tv going from snow to Howdy Doody.

Time travel science fiction always is frought with paradoxes and other plot inconsistencies. Here's one I never considered from this film.

One of the biggest nitpicks in this film concerns which episode of The Honeymooners first aired on November 5, 1955. It wasn't "The Man From Space"; that didn't air until 12/31/55. The episode that aired on 11/5/55 was "The Sleepwalker", where Ralph had to babysit a sleepwalking Norton. More here.

Here's what's happening with DeLorean cars. Apparently, a lot more survived the collapse of the company than I thought. And no, they still can't install a flux capacitor in the car.

Future Day!

10/21/2015, 4:29 p.m.

Nitcentral must be in a different time-zone.
NOW the time should show as
October 21, 2015 - 4:29 pm

I enjoyed the entire BTTF series. I also enjoy sci-fi movies about the future. Let me put it this way: I prefer Buzz Lightyear over Woody. However IMHO, Part II was not as good as the others. I actually preferred the past with the duo in the old west.
One of reasons was the dark theme of Part II. I guess they were trying to follow the formula of Star Wars being followed with Empire Strikes Back.
Also Part II was probably the most nit-filled of the series. This is true in terms of time-travel as well as the copied scenes from the previous movie.
The most obvious nit is that Jennifer Parker and George McFly were replaced by other actors.
The next nit was when Doc arrived at the beginning: it was not an exact replay of the end of the first movie. He had to think for a second before telling Marty that he was fine in the future. We find out later that this was a lie. I wonder why Doc was willing to change the future history of Marty Jr. but not that of Marty himself.
This nit involves the time-travel theory that BTTF uses which is the butterfly/ripple effect: Doc used a chalkboard to explain the alternate time-line to Marty. However this was only an aid. In BTTF there is only one time-line, but it can be changed. Therefore when Doc removed Marty and Jennifer from 1985, the future should have been rippled to have the older couple missing from 2015.
The same nit applies when old Biff stole the car. His actions in the past should have caused a ripple around Marty, Doc, and Jennifer; possibly to the point that Marty would have found himself instantly in Switzerland in 1985. There was a deleted scene when Biff was erased from existence.
Then at the end Doc was in the car when it got struck by lightning. Problem was the car was not going 88 MPH.
Despite the nits and the dark theme, I did enjoy the show. It was clever when the duo had to interact in scenes from the first movie while avoiding being seen by their past selves.

Well, the "Cubbies" didn't win the 2015 World Series. They didn't even get that far; they were whupped by the Mets in four straight. In fact, with all the expansion that MLB has done over the past 30 years, the idea of the World Series being over by October 21 will never again happen. This year, the Series will begin on October 27. If it goes the full seven games, the Series will end on November 4. Barring any rainouts.

And, that "Sports Almanac", that caused so much trouble, sure looked somewhat thin and skimpy. Especially since it was supposed to contain 50 years worth of sports statistics.

Well, the "Cubbies" didn't win the 2015 World Series.

But they did win the 2016 World Series.

In the words of Maxwell Smart: Missed it by that much!

Maybe the radio station in BTTF2 covers many other communities in the area, but is licenced to Hill Valley, or it's an early community radio station.

I only recently realised that younger viewers coming to BTTF I won't understand why it is so meaningful that the terrorists are LIBYANS. Libya was such a big bogeyman in 1984 when it was filmed.

They also wont realise the significance of going into the future when the future is already in the past.

They'll understand, they are not idiots, and this is not the first work of fiction that has been overtaken by the real future.

Here's something to mess with your mind. What if at The Enchantment Under The Sea dance, one or more of the fellow students took a photograph of the guitarist on stage that night, then decades later, brought said photographs to a Class Reunion and George and Lorraine saw them.

I honestly don't think Doc actually intended to witness the birth of Christ, he was using it as an example. (And an incorrect one, using 0000 as a year).

Biff might have been too humiliated to seek help.

Also pictures of Marty would have been probably a very unlikely coincidence. Barring any knowledge of the time machine, they'd have no reason to connect their son with Calvin Klein.

if Marty didn't realize the time circuits were on, and he was about to time travel, why was he driving directly towards a photo booth?

why was he driving directly towards a photo booth?

Because he was being chased by a van full of killers who were actively shooting at him.

The guy was panicking.

Also he was noticing the time circuits powering up as he was heading for the photo booth, he was likely realizing what was happening to the time machine and not watching where he was going.

Marty and Doc may be the focus of the movies … but Jennifer is a Time Lord

From Yahoo, here's more behind the scenes stuff. Including naming other actors who auditioned for Marty. Also, the article states that casino mogul Biff was based on casino "mogul" Donald Trump. (Both, of course, are major a-holes.)

Why would Biff want to return the time machine at all. Could have left them in 2015 and they would be stranded.

He came back to 2015 to see how the changes worked out.

Which is a very big plothole, because he should have ended up in the modified 2015 instead of returning to the original one.

I think he has other things to worry about.

I presume the 2 miles in 1955 is an indirect route and after development over the 30 years it's now possible to take a shorter way to Lone Pine Mall.

There were probably wooded areas and such, in 1955, that Marty would have to detour around.

Over the ensuing 30 years, as the area was built up, the wooded areas were torn down and new roads built. No doubt Marty used those modern roads when he returned to 1985.

But they still exist, they are not prevented from being born like what happened to Marty in the first movie. We also know that multiple instances of the same person can exist in a given timeline.

Kindly refrain from copy and pasting posts from other groups without context.

No one knew Marty as Clint Eastwood in 1985, so when he returned there Clint Eastwood was some guy who supposedly died in a train wreck at the ravine 100 years ago.

(I wonder what that means for the actor CE in the final BTTF III timeline?)

Very little, as it was his real name and the original "Clint Eastwood" was likely a very regional notable.

How did they even associate the train crash with "Clint Eastwood" anyway.

Did Doc and Clara tell the local authorities that "Clint Eastwood" died in the train crash?

Doc and Marty discussed the train within earshot of the locals before and after the final Buford encounter, they easily put two and two together. The train engineer also likely identified the older bandit as having long white hair.

So in BTTF 1, how does Doc get into the DeLorean to reverse it out of the van, When he first meets Marty?

did he have help from his friend David Copperfield?

I presume Doc Brown drove it into the van then lifted up the ramp with a motorised system.

In the novelization of the first movie, during the dinner with the Banes family, in 1955, a commercial comes on, in which a doctor is plugging cigarette. Of course, Marty can't believe what he's seeing, while the Banes family wonder what has gotten him so worked up.

Later on, while they are in the car, Lorraine starts to smoke. Marty grabs the pack from her, intending to show her the Surgeon General's warning. Of course, being 1955, it isn't there.

I wonder if these scenes were in the movie, but got cut, or were part of the script that never got filmed.

Those scenes are not in the "Deleted Scenes" section of the "25th Anniversary Trilogy" Blu-ray I have. Of course, they doesn't mean they weren't shot. If they were, and cut into the film, they would have shown a nice contrast in the attitudes toward cigarettes and smoking in 1985 as opposed to 1955.

I remember a scene in the car where Marty mentioned the lack of a surgeon general's warning.

It's not in the movie now?

I don't believe the surgeon general scene was ever in the film.

Both scenes were probably in the script, but never filmed.

Too bad, as Adam pointed out, they would have shown the change in attitude towards smoking between the 1950's and 80's (and now). For example, in many of his TZ intros, Rod Serling is holding a lit cigarette. I can't imagine that flying today.

Weird, I swear I remember seeing that exchange in the scene.

Must be a Mandela effect. Although, I did read the Novelization back in the day. So, maybe I remember that scene from the book, imagined it and misremembered it as being from the movie.

Could be.

The novel was based on an early draft from what I remember.

It describes Marty's clothes as what Eric Stoltz wore when he was originally cast.

Many things don't make it from script to screen.

Guess that includes the scenes in question.

A humor writer covered the entire novelization, based on that early draft, on his Tumblr and it makes for amusing reading.

https://btothef.tumblr.com/tagged/bttf/chrono

In Part II, in the 2015 sequence, there is a brief glimpse of a newspaper article about an impending visit to the U.S. by "Queen Diana".

Ouch!!

Of course, when this movie was released (in 1989), 2015 was twenty-six years away. They had no way of knowing that Diana would not live to see the end of the 20th Century, let alone make it to 2015.

And, of course, Queen Elizabeth II was (and is) still with us in 2015.

This sounds like something out of Mad magazine. A musical version of Back To The Future has played will open on Broadway on June 23rd, 2023. I wonder if the Huey Lewis song The Power of Love will be included. More on the musical here. What? Me Worry?

I wanted to say "has played in London", but the stupid smartphone (dumb phone?) jumped the gun on me. Moderator, please fix. Thanks.

Another item that should be noted. The guitar that Marty plays "Johnny Be Good" on, a Gibson ES-345, wasn't introduced until 1958. More here.

Something the average viewer would know nothing about.

Doc somehow came into possession of a "Men in Black" mind erasing device.

He travelled to the 1990's, saw MIB, and got inspired.