History Film / BackToTheFuturePartIII

* ArtisticLicenseBiology: It's not impossible for a black bear to be found in southern California, as their range does extend there, they're not desert animals.

* CattlePunk: Doc builds a refrigerator, a sniper rifle, and chemicals capable of pushing a steam locomotive over 88 MPH with materials available in 1885 Hill Valley. He can't repair the Delorean, though he manages to turn another locomotive into a SteamPunk time machine years later.

* DeadlyDisc: It's an instance of creating a Stable Time Loop again, as the insinuation is that it's the original Frisby pie plate that inspired the phenomenon that led to the Frisbee.
* DeliberateValuesDissonance: The History book Marty reads about Buford Tannen in 1955 uses slurs for Native Americans and Chinese Americans.

* HiddenDepths: Schoolmarm Clara is able to ride a horse, board a moving train, and climb up to the front.
* HiddenWeapons: After Tannen and his men have their primary guns confiscated at the party entrance, he attempts to assassinate Doc with a tiny Derringer pistol he smuggled in under his hat.
* HideousHangoverCure: The "wake-up juice". It's such a horrible concoction that it immediately causes Doc to run, screaming, to the horse trough and dunk his entire head in. And this is just the reflex action caused by the smell and taste, after which he passes out again. The bartender says it takes about 10 minutes to really start working.
* HighSpeedHijack: Doc and Marty hijack the train from horseback with the intent of using the locomotive to push the out-of-gas [=DeLorean=] to the requisite 88 mph.
-->'''Engineer:''' Is this a hold-up?\\
''[[[{{beat}} pause]]]''\\
'''Doc:''' It's a science experiment!

* IChooseToStay: Zig-Zagged by Doc, who upon being thrust into 1885 is perfectly fine with settling down to live the rest of his days as a blacksmith, and gives Marty instructions to recover the Delorean and go back to 1985 without him. However, this changes when they learn that Doc will be killed within the same year. Marty travels to save Doc in 1885, and they prepare to get back to 1985 until Doc sacrifices himself to save Clara, leaving him stuck for good in 1885. ''Then'' they build a steam powered, time-traveling train for their own use sometime in the 1890s.

** Marty [=McFly=] travels through time back to the old west. Despite being only a teenager who has presumably never shot a real gun before, he turns out to be an expert at quickdraw and pistol shooting (once he adjusts to the recoil) because of his [[IKnowMortalKombat familiarity with a video game from 1985]].

* SecondActBreakup: Happens between Doc Brown and old west schoolteacher Clara Clayton. Notable as it's part of a science-fiction comedy movie trilogy that doesn't normally dwell on such things; and that despite the breakup happening over a misunderstanding, no one was really at fault -- it's just really hard for someone living in the old west to believe someone who tells them he's a time-traveller from a hundred years in the future.

* {{Steampunk}}: Doc's custom sniper rifle, the time train from the end, as well as Doc's refrigerator in the blacksmith shop. The sheer size and complexity of the refrigerator, along with the difficulty of getting a conventional steam locomotive up to eighty-eight miles per hour (easily done with an internal combustion engine), illustrate more "realistic" applications of SteamPunk tech. The time train at the end throws all realism out the window, but Doc once said, "If you put your mind to it, you can accomplish anything." As mentioned in RealityIsUnrealistic, there were already ice factories in 1885 that ran on steam power.

* TrickedOutTime: Marty suggests in ''Film/BackToTheFuturePartIII'' that they bring Clara Clayton back to the future with them -- which would remove her from 1885, where she's supposed to be have died by falling into "Clayton Ravine". Doc rejects this as a step too far -- but the filmmakers have suggested that if [[spoiler:Doc had appeared to go over the edge of the ravine when the train crashed]] Clara may have killed herself by jumping into the ravine, removing herself from the timeline and causing it to be named after her after all. The filmmakers do state that Doc himself created a Tricked Out Time situation with the Clayton Ravine in the first revision to that timeline: originally, Clara's carriage went over the ravine, resulting in the name; in the revised timeline where Doc saved her (but where Marty was never present), she committed suicide by jumping into the ravine after Doc was killed by Buford, resulting in the name. This is used to explain why both Doc and Marty know of the ravine by that name.
* {{Undertaker}}: The town undertaker is seen measuring Marty up for his coffin size the day before the duel, due to the bets among the townspeople going against him.

* WhatTheHellIsThatAccent: As is standard for Hollywood, Marty's [[{{Oireland}} Oirish]] ancestors' accents are the stereotypical variety in that no Irish person anywhere ever has ever spoke with such an accent.

* WithAFootOnTheBus: The Doc falls in love with Clara, a woman of the far west. He told her he was from the future, so she slapped him and took the train out of the city, while Doc and Marty tried to use a train to activate the time machine. She discovered that he said the truth and run to him, trying to catch the train and beg his pardon. In the end, only Marty returned to 1985: Doc was out of the time machine saving Clara's life, and it was destroyed after Marty returned. But that does not stop a scientist: Doc made a new time machine, built into a train [[GivingRadioToTheRomans powered by steam]], and reunites with Marty in what is an instant from his perspective (but long enough for Doc and Clara to have started a family from theirs).

* YouRemindMeOfX: Seamus and Maggie note "Clint"'s habit of taking up challenges reminds them of Seamus' brother ''Martin'', who ended up knifed in a BarBrawl. It seems like the [=McFly=] family by the 1980s didn't know of Martin's existence or at least Marty wasn't told about him. In any case, the reason why the information hit him so hard is that ''his given name is Martin''. Turns out he was coincidently named after the brothers, as Martin Seamus [=McFly=].

** One of the reasons why the scene where Buford shoots Marshal Strickland was removed. The producers thought it was too depressing, and after doing it, [[KarmaHoudini it didn't seem right that Buford does not die]]. They were worried it would make audiences want Marty to kill Buford, and he can't, because Buford needs to live long enough to extend the Tannen family line. In 1985-A in ''Part II'', Buford was explicitly identified as Biff's great-grandfather, meaning Marty couldn't risk killing him, not to mention that having the film's teenage protagonist kill another person, no matter how evil that person was, would have been too dark for the mostly lighthearted time travel comedy. This leaves a minor plot-hole in the scene when Buford is arrested by Marshal Strickland's deputy instead of by Strickland himself. However, even if the scene were kept, it's possible Biff would have been born regardless because Part II does show that he lives with his grandmother Gertrude in 1955, who is implied to possibly either be Buford's child or married to one of his.

** One of the reasons why the scene where Buford shoots Marshal Strickland was removed. The producers thought it was too depressing, and after doing it, [[KarmaHoudini it didn't seem right that Buford does not die]]. They were worried it would make audiences want Marty to kill Buford, and he can't, because Buford needs to live long enough to extend the Tannen family line. In 1985-A in ''Part II'', Buford was explicitly identified as Biff's great-grandfather, meaning Marty couldn't risk killing him. This leaves a minor plot-hole in the scene when Buford is arrested by Marshal Strickland's deputy instead of by Strickland himself. However, even if the scene were kept, it's possible Biff would have been born regardless because Part II does show that he lives with his grandmother Gertrude in 1955, who is implied to possibly either be Buford's child or married to one of his.

* BackForTheFinale: George, Lorraine, Dave, Linda, Biff, Jennifer, and even Einstein all return for the final scenes.

* InstantDeathBullet: Subverted. Marty and Doc both assume that Doc will be shot on Monday, September 7, 1885, because that's when he dies and they work under the assumption that they have until Monday to figure out a plan to get back. Turns out he actually got shot on ''Saturday, September 5'' in the original timeline, and didn't succumb to his wound for another two days. The gunshot wound thankfully doesn't even happen once Marty intervenes in the timeline thanks to a Frisbee pie pan.

* InstantDeathBullet: Subverted. Marty and Doc both assume that Doc will be shot on Monday, because that's when he dies. Turns out he got shot on ''Saturday'' in the original timeline, and didn't succumb to his wound for another two days. The gunshot wound thankfully doesn't even happen once Marty intervenes in the timeline thanks to a Frisbee pie pan.