Trivia / Back to the Future Part III

• Accidentally-Correct Writing: Buford Tannen's gang members take notice of Marty's Nike sneakers, pronouncing "Nike" as "Nee-Kay" ("What is that, some sort of Injun talk or something?"). While the pronunciation is meant to show how uneducated Tannen and his gang are, "Nee-kay" is actually much closer to the Ancient Greek pronunciation of "Nike" than the pronunciation of the shoe line is.
• Acting for Two:
  • Marty, Seamus, and William McFly (in a photo) are all played by Michael J. Fox. Naturally the Telltale game followed on this by making old age William look just like Michael J. Fox at the time of release.
  • As with the previous two films, Christopher Lloyd plays Doc and his Alternate Self from 1955.
  • Lea Thompson plays Lorraine Baines McFly and Maggie McFly.
  • Christopher Wynne plays Stubble in 1885 and one of Needles' gang members in 1985.
  • Thomas F. Wilson plays Biff Tannen and Buford "Mad Dog" Tannen.
• Cast the Expert:
  • Two of Buford's gang members were portrayed by stuntmen who were cast for their ability to ride horses.
  • On a more meta-example; the bartender and the patrons at the saloon are all played by actors who have a long history as character actors in Westerns, including Matt Clark and Pat Buttram.
• The Cast Showoff: Thomas F. Wilson actually did Buford's Gun Twirling.
• Creator's Favorite Episode: The main cast cited this as their favourite film in the trilogy.
• The Danza: Marshal Strickland's first name is given as James in supplementary material, just like his actor James Tolkan.
• Deleted Scene:
  • 1955 Doc offers Marty a pistol to take with him to 1885, which he turns down. This is the pistol that Doc uses as a starter pistol later.
  • Marshal Strickland confronts Buford and his gang on their way to confront Marty. Strickland lets them go until Buford shoots him in the back, killing him, saying "I Lied!" before riding off. Before he dies, Strickland tells his son "Remember that word, discipline..." The producers thought it was too depressing, and after such a despicable deed, it didn't seem right that Buford 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 to get to Biff. It explains why Strickland's deputy, now wearing a Marshall's badge, arrests Buford and his gang, with the line "You're under arrest for the murder of Marshall Strickland" redubbed to "You're under arrest for robbing the Pine City stage!" The scene and original line remain in the novelization though.
  • In the script and novelization the scene where they have horses drag the DeLorean is longer, with Marty speculating that since the engine is rated at over 100 horsepower, they might need 100 horses. Doc then goes on to explain how the concept of horsepower doesn't really map to reality.
• Enforced Method Acting: In his memoir Lucky Man, Michael J. Fox recounts that while filming the scene where Marty is lynched, he actually didn't get his hand in the right place on one take and actually blacked out. The director soon realized that the swinging was too realistic.
• Fake Irish: Seamus and Maggie McFly are played by Canadian Michael J. Fox and American Lea Thompson respectively.
• Hey, It's That Place!: The location used for the 1885 Hill Valley is the same location used for the 1985 Clint Eastwood film Pale Rider. Amusingly, Pale Rider had been knocked out at the box office by the first BTTF film.
• Magnum Opus Dissonance: As loved and iconic as the first film is, much of the main cast (Michael J. Fox, Christopher Lloyd, Lea Thompson, and Thomas F. Wilson) have stated that the third movie is their favorite, and the one they had the most fun filming. Also, Crispin Glover, despite not taking part in the sequels, said in a radio interview he considers the third one the best in the trilogy.
• Meaningful Release Date: The film was released on May 25, 1990, which was co-writer Bob Gale's 39th birthday.
• Missing Trailer Scene:
  • From the preview at the end of Part II, and the main trailer, there's Doc's line of "Just try it, Tannen!"
  • The film also uses an alternate audio recording of Thomas F. Wilson as Buford shooting at Marty's feet and saying, "Come on, runt! You can dance better than that!"
  • As well as Marty and Jennifer kissing after he wakes her up at her house at the end of the film with his cowboy hat still on.
• On-Set Injury: The scene of Michael J. Fox being hanged wasn't acting. He actually was near hung to death there. He was quickly cut down when Robert Zemeckis noticed the "acting" was getting a little too real.
• Orphaned Reference:
  • 1955 Doc looks at the rotted remains of one of the DeLorean's wheels as it is being put onto the tow-truck because, in a previous Deleted Scene, the tires turned to dust after Marty and Doc touched them.
  • Marty stepping on manure after arriving in 1885 Hill Valley was going to be followed with Marty involuntarily throwing some of that manure to Tannen while Bullet Dancing, which would enrage him, and culminate with Tannen being thrown on a manure cart at the end (presumably making the line "I hate manure" a Meaningful Echo to that scene and not just to Back to the Future Part II). After the second manure appearance was changed to a spittoon (see What Could Have Been), the other manure scenes became isolated events with no relation.
  • Strickland's deputy wears the Marshal badge when he arrests Tannen because he originally arrested him for Strickland's murder, but this scene was cut and the deputy's lines redubbed.
• Refitted for Sequel: It's widely known that the time machine was originally a chamber (specifically a refrigerator), and in order to travel through time, Doc and Marty would've sneaked into a nuclear test site in the desert to get the necessary 1.21 gigawatts. In this film, Doc sends Marty to 1885 at a drive-in theater in the desert.
• So My Kids Can Watch: Mary Steenburgen signed on because her children begged her. This was quite fortunate for the filmmakers, who regarded her as their first and only choice for the part.
• Spared by the Cut: In a deleted scene, Marshall Strickland was murdered by Buford, which is why he's arrested by Strickland's deputy at the end. The scene was cut because the filmmakers were afraid that it would make the audience root for Marty to kill Buford. The line "you're under arrest for the murder of Marshall Strickland" was redubbed to "you're under arrest for robbing the Pine City stage." The camera cuts away from the deputy in the middle of this line, presumably to hide the fact that his lips don't match it. The novelization, however, retains the original version of events.
• Uncredited Role: The members of ZZ Top were uncredited for their appearance as the band during the town celebration.
• What Could Have Been: Shares a page with Part 1 and 2.
• Working Title: The film's working title was Three.
• You Look Familiar: Two of Needles' gang members are played by J.J. Cohen and Ricky Dean Logan, who respectively played Skinhead and Data in the first and second films (the third gang member is played by Christopher Wynne, who also plays Stubble in the film). It’s unclear if, given the films' proclivity for Identical Grandson, the characters are meant to be related.
• This was the only film of the trilogy not to be released in The '80s.

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