"Continuity, Marty! Something has gotta be done about your continuity!"
November 21, 2013 11:12 PM   Subscribe

 
The narrator says Doc Brown's dog Einstein could see the Libyan terrorists from far away and implies that's ridiculous, but dogs often respond to things they hear from far away even if they don't see them.

WHO NITPICKS THE NITPICKERS?
posted by Jacob Knitig at 11:19 PM on November 21, 2013 [10 favorites]


Clearly whoever made this wasn't alive when BTTF came out, back when porn theaters - and their weirder cousins, the porn drive-ins - had become fixtures in many cities, even smaller towns. That was a plot point, dude, not an error.
posted by I EAT TAPAS at 11:24 PM on November 21, 2013 [14 favorites]


Yyyeah this guy doesn't really know what he's talking about most of the time.
posted by kafziel at 11:36 PM on November 21, 2013 [3 favorites]


I like that "they moved an inconsequential prop between takes" issues get more points than "the entire movie really doesn't make any sense when you think about it" stuff.
posted by aubilenon at 11:39 PM on November 21, 2013 [2 favorites]


I would quite enjoy it if the CinemaSins guys fell into that giant sinkhole in Louisiana and then the Honest Trailer guys try to save them but get sucked in too.
posted by incessant at 12:10 AM on November 22, 2013 [10 favorites]


They missed the point about the theatre. It started as a live theatre, became a respectable neighbourhood theatre, became an 80s adult film theatre (pretty standard for the times) and then it becomes a hologram theatre in 2015.
posted by Chaussette and the Pussy Cats at 12:11 AM on November 22, 2013 [6 favorites]


I cannot wait until more of these come out for older movies. "WHY did these PEOPLE walk around and not use the phones literally EVERYONE carries in their pockets all the time?!"
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 12:20 AM on November 22, 2013 [4 favorites]


Yeah, the great thing about the 1985 sequences is that these days, they come of as 'period pieces', just like the 1955, 2015 and 1885 parts. The first movie even begins with a 'Mister Sandman' sequence for 1985.
posted by BiggerJ at 12:21 AM on November 22, 2013 [9 favorites]


BiggerJ: "Yeah, the great thing about the 1985 sequences is that these days, they come of as 'period pieces', just like the 1955, 2015 and 1885 parts. The movie even begins with a 'Mister Sandman' sequence for 1985"

Completely! It's like some sort of accidental brilliance that the 1985 scenes seem as "guys, check out how completely 1985 it is in here!" today as the 1955 scenes do.
posted by DoctorFedora at 12:33 AM on November 22, 2013 [11 favorites]


The DeLorean is only covered in ice when it goes forward in time, not backward. Jeez.
posted by Mister Moofoo at 1:10 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Completely! It's like some sort of accidental brilliance that the 1985 scenes seem as "guys, check out how completely 1985 it is in here!" today as the 1955 scenes do.

I don't think it's accidental. A film directing technique for when you're changing the setting is to set-up parallel shots to invite comparisons from the viewer. And if you're going to do a "Hey, look, it's 1955!" series of shots, you better start the film with a series of similar shots so you can see how everything changed. So the movie began with "Hey, look, it's 1985!" even when the movie was made. It's just more obvious now than it was at the time.
posted by empath at 1:19 AM on November 22, 2013 [5 favorites]


Yeah, I think it's not unusual for young Biff to be a killer. I mean, he's descended from a murdering outlaw. He sexually assaults Lorraine McFly (and probably would had done worse if George wasn't there). And let's not forget he kills George and tries to do the same to Marty in 1985-B. Oh yeah, and he steals the Delorean, twice: Once in 2015, and once in BttF The Ride.

Pretty much the whole Tannen family is established as extremely evil.
posted by FJT at 1:23 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


2015 Marty has Parkinsons :[
posted by panaceanot at 1:35 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


I think it might be a good time for this guy to shut the fuck up. It was a cute schtick when it first started, but it's incredibly annoying now.
posted by Grangousier at 1:38 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


My God the continuity is bad on Back To The Future.

Remember the Twin Pines Mall? They even changed the name of that to the Lone Pine Mall... I mean, that is just taking the biscuit. I hope they found whoever made that mistake and fired them.

Image 1
Image 2
posted by zoo at 2:37 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


I can do you a video of Everything That is Wrong With BTTF in 0 Seconds or Less.

BECAUSE THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH BTTF!
posted by Just this guy, y'know at 2:49 AM on November 22, 2013 [13 favorites]


this just reminded me how rad that movie was, honestly
posted by angrycat at 4:03 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


My God the continuity is bad on Back To The Future
But maybe, just maybe, all that time travel causes disturbances that ripple out and change small, seemingly incidental details retrospectively in each time frame. I mean, there've been changes in cosmological thinking since 1985 and maybe what's going on is best explained by a multiverse model than one based simply on travel between points on a linear time line as in the original films. I mean, dude, what if the films themselves are evolving and changing retrospectively as we get closer to the 2015 convergence point, due to the ripples emanating from the Delorean's entry into different points in the multiverse?

I'm sure Walter Bishop could explain it all.
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:33 AM on November 22, 2013 [8 favorites]


But maybe, just maybe, all that time travel causes disturbances that ripple out and change small, seemingly incidental details retrospectively in each time frame.

I'm pretty sure he was joking. He actually runs over a pine tree in 1955, which is why it changed.
posted by empath at 4:43 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


I don't think it's accidental. A film directing technique for when you're changing the setting is to set-up parallel shots to invite comparisons from the viewer. And if you're going to do a "Hey, look, it's 1955!" series of shots, you better start the film with a series of similar shots so you can see how everything changed

It's actually really striking watching the film now how tight the writing is in the first 20 minutes or so. The film establishes dozens of different aspects of 1985 that are either referenced in 1955 or contrasted in the modified 1985 at the end of the film. Almost every shot and line of dialog sets something up for later, without seeming too forced or exposition-heavy.
posted by burnmp3s at 4:45 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


I know, Empath. I was just trying to add some needless theorising and a gratuitous Fringe reference.
posted by Sonny Jim at 4:51 AM on November 22, 2013


Robert Zemeckis is a genius and BTTF is ninety-seven kinds of awesome.

...

Regarding the video, the gull-wing doors shouldn't be a problem. It's a myth that they require more space to open. "When properly designed and counterbalanced, [gull-wing doors] require little side-clearance to open (about 27.5 cm, or 11" in the DeLorean[2]) and allow much better entrance/egress than conventional doors."
posted by Sticherbeast at 4:56 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Wow, suddenly I really want to watch this again. Time travel plots should only ever be used for fun and frivolousness, and Back to the Future is the shining example, the exception of course being City on the Edge of Forever. J.J. Abrams himself brought in the frivolous time travel thing in Felicity, final season. Then he applied it to the Star Trek universe and screwed that up forever. Unless...someone could travel back in time and somehow change that...hmmm.
posted by jabah at 5:04 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


I like CinemaSins. Don't understand the hate. It's just light hearted YouTube vids.
posted by smackfu at 5:04 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Yeah, I think it's not unusual for young Biff to be a killer. I mean, he's descended from a murdering outlaw. He sexually assaults Lorraine McFly (and probably would had done worse if George wasn't there).

Yeah, Biff is not just giving kids wedgies. He's already a violent criminal, even just as a teenager.

That said, at the very end of BTTF, it is sort of odd that George McFly trusts Biff to be around his family, even if only as a servile manservant.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:04 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


I like CinemaSins. Don't understand the hate. It's just light hearted YouTube vids.

CinemaSins itself is fine, but this one inspires more nerd rage than most. It's nitpicking a great movie, with too many of the nitpicks being garden variety continuity errors, and many of the nitpicks aren't even right, e.g. dogs detect things that they can't see all the time, people who wear watches can still ask for the time (especially when on the phone), etc.

...

Sidenote: I'm terrible with continuity errors. One of the few that's ever really leapt out at me is in Troll 2. The mother and father are having a conversation, but the buttoning on dad's PJ top keeps changing. I think I only noticed this because I was once in a MST3K-style show making fun of Troll 2, so I've seen it approximately 4,382 times.
posted by Sticherbeast at 5:10 AM on November 22, 2013


They did one for Wizard of Oz too. It was also not as fun as their normal ones for current bad movies.
posted by smackfu at 5:29 AM on November 22, 2013


I've really gotten to hate nitpicking about continuity errors. They're an artifact of the way that movies are made and have existed since they started making them. Even the best movies have them but you don't really notice them unless it's a bad enough movie that you're not engrossed enough in the story itself to see them. If the normal viewer doesn't see the errors while watching the movie without having to stop it to study details, then they aren't really errors.

The supposed error of the car driving from darkness through dawn and into full daylight wasn't even a continuity error. The filmmakers were just speeding things along because they needed the scene to start in darkness but end in daylight. Movies (and not just time travel movies) always speed things up to keep the narrative going.
posted by octothorpe at 6:01 AM on November 22, 2013


My God the continuity is bad on Back To The Future.

Remember the Twin Pines Mall? They even changed the name of that to the Lone Pine Mall... I mean, that is just taking the biscuit. I hope they found whoever made that mistake and fired them.


I love that little detail.

The other thing to remember is that original 1985 is a Crapsack world (well, Crapsack-lite compared to the Alterna-1985 in BTTFII), which explains the porn in theatres, among other things.
posted by leotrotsky at 6:22 AM on November 22, 2013


BUT HOW WILL WE KNOW THAT THE CAR DIDN'T SIMPLY EXPLODE EN ROUTE AND THEN REASSEMBLE ITSELF UNLESS WE SEE IT FOR EVERY SECOND OF ITS JOURNEY
posted by Sticherbeast at 6:23 AM on November 22, 2013


Also, check out the 2015 antique store, anyone else notice what appears to be the not-existing-yet in 1990 T-Mobile Sidekick in the Magnavox box?
posted by leotrotsky at 6:25 AM on November 22, 2013


It's a radio.
posted by empath at 6:36 AM on November 22, 2013


Well, I always doubted the possibility of Jaws 19 coming out as early as 2015, what with movie release dates of 1975, 1978, 1983 and later 1987. Sounds like Jaws 11 would have been more appropriate.
posted by klausman at 6:36 AM on November 22, 2013


I have seen the BTTF movies, in toto, about a bazillion times. I even have a small child named after Doc Brown...

and I'd never before noticed the Roger Rabbit stuffed animal in the 2015 antique store.

I am ashamed.
posted by hanov3r at 6:53 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


I'm sure Walter Bishop could explain it all.

I love how ever since Fringe did it, it's becoming more common to check if you're in an alternate timeline/dimension by checking who starred in BTTF in this universe.
posted by The Whelk at 7:20 AM on November 22, 2013 [2 favorites]


Okay, but this line was pretty good

"All of Chuck Berry's contributions to rock and roll are now explained. His cousin saw a white guy playing Johnny B. Goode and took all the credit."
posted by likeatoaster at 8:28 AM on November 22, 2013


On a whim, I sat down and watched Back to the Future all the way through like you're supposed to. It's become one of those movies, like the Indiana Jones series; it's on TV all the time so more often than not you'll pick it up mid-stream and still enjoy it.. but damn, the original Back to the Future was perfectly written. There isn't a single bit of dialogue that isn't meaningful in some facet of the plot. It's so tight, inventive and funny. It's silly and knows it. How much fun it must have been to write it!

"My god! Do you know what this means?.... it means this DAMN thing doesn't work at all!!"
posted by ReeMonster at 9:00 AM on November 22, 2013 [5 favorites]


Then he applied it to the Star Trek universe and screwed that up forever

The Star Trek universe already had questionable use of time travel applied to it in TNG
posted by Hoopo at 9:22 AM on November 22, 2013


"All of Chuck Berry's contributions to rock and roll are now explained. His cousin saw a white guy playing Johnny B. Goode and took all the credit."

Well, sorta...I mean it's played like that in the movie but that detail doesn't actually make sense as stated. Here comes some nitpickiness, but hey its sort of the theme of this post so if you don't like it, make like a tree and get out of here.

Chuck Berry would have been aware of the phenomenon of white guys playing rock and roll when Marty played Johnny B Goode at the Enchantment Under the Sea dance in November 1955 (Elvis and Bill Haley already had big hits), and Berry already had the huge hit rock & roll single Maybellene by that time. So his contributions were already well underway, and are not limited to Johnny B Goode. Also I'm pretty sure original 1985 timeline Marty would have had to have been influenced by someone, and I think it would have to be from an original timeline Chuck Berry.
posted by Hoopo at 10:17 AM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


in fact it looks like Johnny B Goode was written by Berry in 1955, so when his cousin calls him and he hears it, Berry must be like WTF I just wrote this song ROCK AND ROLL MIND BLOWN
posted by Hoopo at 10:30 AM on November 22, 2013 [3 favorites]


I'd never before noticed the Roger Rabbit stuffed animal in the 2015 antique store.

I don't remember ever noticing the Jimmy Carter peanut bank and I owned one of those at the time.

I'd dearly love to see Back To The Future IV: The Past Is Never Dead. In it, it's 2015 and Doc makes a sudden reappearance in Marty's life begging him to accompany him back to 1985 to prevent ... Well, I haven't developed the idea any further, but I figure there's room for lots of "I'm too old for this shit" jokes. Best of all, if Zemeckis got cracking on it right now, it could probably still be released before the end of 2015.
posted by octobersurprise at 12:57 PM on November 22, 2013


At first, I liked these guys, but then the more I watched, the more I realized a fair number of their complaints were either incredible nitpicks or even more annoyingly, arose from them either not knowing the source material (in which case, the movie is doing something correctly) or not paying attention to the movie closely enough. An example being, "Why did he do that? That was stupid! Chime!" when there's a very good reason for why X did Y.

And while The Last Airbender movie is definitely worthy of many, many criticisms, they kept complaining about the "air karate" or something, related to the bending...despite the fact being that's exactly how it is depicted in the tv show.
posted by Atreides at 2:26 PM on November 22, 2013 [1 favorite]


Yeah, the thing about being a nitpicker is you need to fill air with nitpicks. And the thing about being a movie buff (at least at my level) is that you respect a good cheat. You only want to hate on the clumsy ones, or the ones where they clearly don't care even though it at least slightly matters.

The Star Trek universe already had questionable use of time travel applied to it in TNG

Those damn people, just trying to entertain us. What were they thinking?!

In the same vein I really don't mind the alternate timeline as in-story excuse for a reboot -- it's actually a "good cheat" in the same sense. I found the time-travel-less Into Darkness, though, much less enjoyable for a variety of reasons, even though I completely got the topicality/relevance/social-commentary angle that Abrams was going for. Frustrating, but sort of like watching a decent ball team lose a game they could have won easily.

So back on topic, I know in my heart that the causality loop of Chuck Berry and Maybellene (and white rock and rollers) doesn't hold up to examination, but in story, it works, and that's what matters.
posted by dhartung at 5:14 PM on November 22, 2013


Those damn people, just trying to entertain us. What were they thinking?!

I think you possibly missed where that comment was coming from. I love time travel stuff. I was reacting to the suggestion JJ Abrams ruined Star Trek by bringing time travel into it. Which was kinda done ages ago before Abrams ever got his hands on the franchise
posted by Hoopo at 5:27 PM on November 22, 2013


Well, it was more rhetorical in any case.
posted by dhartung at 11:25 PM on November 22, 2013


TNG, my ass, Captain Kirk went around the sun in a Klingon Bird of Prey something something whales something nuclear wessels.
posted by Ghostride The Whip at 11:48 PM on November 22, 2013


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