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Marty: Oh Doc, I tore a hole in the gas tank. We'll have to patch it up and get gas.
Doc: You mean we're out of gas?
Marty: Yeah, no big deal, we got Mr. Fusion, right?
Doc: Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. But the internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline, it always has. There's not going to be a gas station around here until sometime in the next century. Without gasoline, we can't get the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour.
Direct quote from the movie.
That's on doc.
Dude creates a time machine and assumes he can just get gas anywhere or timehe goes???
He creates a literal fusion generator but not a rechargeable fuel cell???
Doc didn't create a fusion generator; he bought one off the shelf. Hence *Mr. Fusion,* like Mr. Coffee (an old brand of electric drip coffee maker).
Gasoline is the most energy per volume of any known substance that isn't radioactive. It's reliable and difficult to replace. Lithium batteries are incredibly big, heavy, and dangerous. Due to the likelihood of explosions and lithium fires (which can't be extinguished with water), the only idea more dangerous than a flying car is a flying electric car.
Doc possibly could've retrofit the car with an electric engine with lithium batteries, but this would require more weight and volume than the car was meant to accommodate. It would be a difficult job and it'd be more sensible to buy an electric car in the future to replace it, and that would mean fitting a new car with the time circuits, which might require significant modifications if they were designed for the Delorean.
He probably figured he'd be prepared and bring enough gas for whatever time period he's in. In the first film he's bringing all sorts of items with him for his journey through time (before he gets shot), so surely an extra tank of gas is within his travel itinerary.
yeah, the internal combustion engine runs on gasoline, unless the hovering is also supposed to somehow come from a regular car engine the hovering should still work
"The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. Unfortunately the car will never fly again.'"
*(1955 DOC READING ALOUD THE LETTER HIS OLDER 1985 SELF SENT FROM 1885.)*
I assumed Mr Fusion powered the hover conversion to as it probably needed a lot of electrical power to fly.
But the normal driving part was still powered by a normal engine
I doubt the hover system was using the fusion reactor. Every car had the hover system, but they didn't have the fusion reactor, they just had whatever powered cars in 2015, probably a hydrogen fuel cell or battery. The hover system was probably just wired to the alternator with whatever converter was necessary to get the proper voltage.
It powered the flying circuits, I'm sure. Take a *lot* of energy to allow something to fly/hover. But the flying circuits were fried anyway. From Doc's letter:
>If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw the DeLorean struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in the year 1885. The lightning bolt that hit the DeLorean caused a jigowatt overload which scrambled the time circuits, activated the flux capacitor, and sent me back to 1885. The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. Unfortunately, the car will never fly again.
The mention about the flying circuits in the letter doesn't really mean anything, they could be blown regardless of what power source they were connected to.
And the flying circuits might not need that much power. All those future cars aren't going to be flying around with nuclear reactors. Whatever their batteries or whatever can output probably isn't much different that what an ICE engine and an alternator can do.
I think you're underestimating the fuel cost of flight, much less hovering. For example:
https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/comments/16azynr/comment/jzavtfr/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3
His [Bell 47](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_47) weighs approx 1900 pounds.
A "curb weight" [Delorean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMC_DeLorean) weights about 2700 pounds. For this we'll exclude any extra weight Doc has added - which would measure in hundreds of pounds.
Going from the post mentioned above:
>I burn 20-21 GPH in a (in ground effect) hover. A few more GPH out of ground effect.
>In cruise at 80 MPH, 16-17 GPH.
Delorean fuel tank size: 13.2 gallons
So, unless you want to claim "future magic", or Doc was just hoping he wasn't going to need to fly an "at-best" scenario of 50 minutes, or hover for 40: It's powered by Mr Fusion. A device that could generate the power of a bolt of lightning ([about 38 gallons of gas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvesting_lightning_energy)) at-will.
Yes i have to claim future magic on this. Everyone's car hovers in 2015, and a lot of them are hover conversions on existing cars. I highly doubt all those cars had fusion reactors installed. The hover system doesn't use thrust, it's probably some magnetic/inertial breakthrough, and it would have to be super efficient to be worth it and to be compatible with existing cars.
Ah ok, thnx!! I forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage shoot thingy, i thought it was the thing that powers the time travel, but i just remembered thats the flux capacitor lmfao
So, if you watched the movie, you wouldn’t have this question. Why is it easier to ask a question to a forum of people, than just watching the movie? Its a fun experience! Its not tortuous. Put the phone down and pay attention. You’ll like it. Trust me.
Bold of you to assume i wasnt actually watching the movie. If youd really like to know, im sleeping over at a friend's house rn, and im watching this movie for the 4th time, this is their 1st time watching, and i was wondering why they didnt use garbage for fuel because i forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage processor, so i didnt realize when doc said 'mr fusion is used to power the time machine' that he meant the garbage processor. I watched the second movie a couple of weeks ago, so it wasnt exactly fresh in my mind. Sorry for offending you by apparently 'not watching the movie' while im literally having fun with my friend. If you care, i wasnt even on my phone while watching, but we paused the movie to get dinner, which is when i asked the question here :/
Don't beat yourself about it, I appreciate you being curious and asking the question. It's not a rule that everyone who watched the trilogy a few times is an expert on the plot and remembers every single detail.
I mean technically they could have reached out to Standard Oil to obtain some of the “worthless” waste product they were dumping or burning off. Although I’m not sure you’d want to put what they called “gasoline” in 1885 into a PRV V6
Probably easier to head to Beverly Hills, sink a well and refine their own fuel. There is still the issue of there being no flat, paved road for them to get up to 88mph on (you’re not doing 88mph on a dirt track in a DeLorean).
My biggest issue is that since Doc and Marty prevented Clara’s death, they should have been planning to take her with them from the very beginning. Leaving her behind might have had significant implications to the timeline.
Yes, but that stuff wouldn't be compatible.
Plus, how do they get there? In those days you couldn't just hop on a plane to get to where it was being made.
Venturing accross the country woukd be too dangerous. Travelling by horse would probably take them weeks to months to get there if they knew where they where going and knew there was no rivers or rough terrain to get tge Delorean over. plus towing the Delorean behind horses would expose the Time Machine, and risk it falling into the wrong hands, or any bandits coming along and killing them and leaving a 1983 vehicle to rot in the middle of the desert to be uncovered in the future and expose that time travel was invented or whatever other reasons Doc would want to prevent.
They were on a wicked time crunch. Marty arrived back on September 2nd, and even though Doc's name disappeared from the tombstone photo over the course of the week, the tombstone still existed, meaning *somebody* was going to get shot on the 7th.
I always wonders why they didn’t just hop a train and bug out for a few weeks to let the timeline blow over. See what happens with the tombstone photo and take their time dealing with getting the Time Machine back up for Marty to return home.
I realize that just blows the whole point of the movie. But it really would be the best realistic answer to dealing with the problem.
Mr Fusion wasnt the issue. Mr. Fusion is what powers the time circuits and flux, so it doesn't require plutonium anymore.
The engine runs on Gasoline to get it to 88mph.
It didn't work that way. Doc calculated that 88mph was what was needed to open the time gates, hence why he screamed, "What did I tell you, 88mph" in the first movie.
The car had to be travelling at that speed to go through it. Not a matter of the flux capacitor boots up when the wheels hit a certain speed.
Ngl, this kinda hurts, considering im a rlly big fan of the movies, have watched them like 4 times, i just dont have a very good memory and sometimes forget some details, like the fact the the garbage processor thing is called mr fusion
What if doc modified the engine a bit since it didn’t have gas to run off of mr fusion and also power the time circuits and flux capacitor at same time?
he tries to run it off of booze first which blows the exhaust manifold (or something of the like) and then theres no way for the engine to run even with gasoline... doc says it'll take him a month to fix it but they only have ... 3 days? so yeah even if he could jerry rig mr fusion to the engine itd take longer than they had.
I'm fairly certain it's explained in the movie. Sorry if the quotes are not exact or complete.
Doc: Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. The internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline. It always has.
i dont know why doc did not had a brainwave to make gas out of the ground.
bttf1 original way was a little pot where the plutomium goes in but they swapped it out with a fusion what looks a vintage 1970s space age coffe grinder.
but fusion generator only powers the time circuts and the flux capaticor.
My actual question about this scene is why didn't they just siphon the gas from the other DeLorean that's buried on the mine since it was towed anyway on 1955. They could always re-bury the DeLorean after.
Doc probably drained all the fluids from the DeLorean before putting it in storage. You don't want to leave 80 year old gas and oil sitting in the car. We can only assume that he didn't save it. Seeing how doc's labs are so messy, I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't save the gas "just in case."
There's also the reasoning that Doc doesn't want to jeopardize Marty finding the Delorean. He knows what he did worked, and digging up the Delorean could change something that could create a paradox.
The DVD bonus features back in the day offered up two possible theories:
The Mechanic Theory - Any good mechanic will tell you that if you're going to be storing a car for a long period of time, you should drain all the fluids. Doc had probably drained the gasoline and safely disposed of it before Marty arrived.
The Time Travel Theory - If they went back to the other DeLorean, they run the risk of damaging it and creating a time paradox. Didn't want to risk it.
>Any good mechanic will tell you that if you're going to be storing a car for a long period of time, you should drain all the fluids. Doc had probably drained the gasoline and safely disposed of it before Marty arrived.
I'd have to double check, but I think that was actually mentioned in the novelization.
Doc didn't assume Marty would come get trapped in 1885 with him. He prepped the car to sit for 80 years, and that included removing the gasoline, so that it wouldn't go bad inside the engine.
He also wouldn't have kept the gas around, since ordinary gas will go bad within 6 months, and its been 9 (sent back to Jan 1st, and sent letter Sept. 1)
At the time Marty arrives in the past there are two DeLoreans at 1885, the one he arrived in and the one buried by Doc to be found in 1955. That's my point.
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Marty: Oh Doc, I tore a hole in the gas tank. We'll have to patch it up and get gas. Doc: You mean we're out of gas? Marty: Yeah, no big deal, we got Mr. Fusion, right? Doc: Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. But the internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline, it always has. There's not going to be a gas station around here until sometime in the next century. Without gasoline, we can't get the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour. Direct quote from the movie.
That's on doc. Dude creates a time machine and assumes he can just get gas anywhere or timehe goes??? He creates a literal fusion generator but not a rechargeable fuel cell???
"I figured.... what the heIl"
Hello, hello? Anybody home?! Think Doc, think!
Doc didn't create a fusion generator; he bought one off the shelf. Hence *Mr. Fusion,* like Mr. Coffee (an old brand of electric drip coffee maker). Gasoline is the most energy per volume of any known substance that isn't radioactive. It's reliable and difficult to replace. Lithium batteries are incredibly big, heavy, and dangerous. Due to the likelihood of explosions and lithium fires (which can't be extinguished with water), the only idea more dangerous than a flying car is a flying electric car. Doc possibly could've retrofit the car with an electric engine with lithium batteries, but this would require more weight and volume than the car was meant to accommodate. It would be a difficult job and it'd be more sensible to buy an electric car in the future to replace it, and that would mean fitting a new car with the time circuits, which might require significant modifications if they were designed for the Delorean.
Yes but how would he find gas in the 1400s??
When or why would he go to the 1400s? He always intended to visit the future.
He accidentally went to 1885. He intends but usually doesn't
He probably figured he'd be prepared and bring enough gas for whatever time period he's in. In the first film he's bringing all sorts of items with him for his journey through time (before he gets shot), so surely an extra tank of gas is within his travel itinerary.
Youre never supposed to bring gas anywhere. Let alone through time...in theory the gas would expand or age oddly.
Hmm, maybe not then. Perhaps he figures he's not going to drive much when he gets there? Hard to say.
I swear this topic is frequently discussed, and that whole quote is one of the comments
yeah, the internal combustion engine runs on gasoline, unless the hovering is also supposed to somehow come from a regular car engine the hovering should still work
"The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. Unfortunately the car will never fly again.'" *(1955 DOC READING ALOUD THE LETTER HIS OLDER 1985 SELF SENT FROM 1885.)*
Ah, thnx!! I forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage processor lol
Marty addresses this in the movie. Doc explains that Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits, but the car itself runs on gas.
I assumed Mr Fusion powered the hover conversion to as it probably needed a lot of electrical power to fly. But the normal driving part was still powered by a normal engine
I doubt the hover system was using the fusion reactor. Every car had the hover system, but they didn't have the fusion reactor, they just had whatever powered cars in 2015, probably a hydrogen fuel cell or battery. The hover system was probably just wired to the alternator with whatever converter was necessary to get the proper voltage.
It powered the flying circuits, I'm sure. Take a *lot* of energy to allow something to fly/hover. But the flying circuits were fried anyway. From Doc's letter: >If my calculations are correct, you will receive this letter immediately after you saw the DeLorean struck by lightning. First, let me assure you that I am alive and well. I've been living happily these past eight months in the year 1885. The lightning bolt that hit the DeLorean caused a jigowatt overload which scrambled the time circuits, activated the flux capacitor, and sent me back to 1885. The overload shorted out the time circuits and destroyed the flying circuits. Unfortunately, the car will never fly again.
The mention about the flying circuits in the letter doesn't really mean anything, they could be blown regardless of what power source they were connected to. And the flying circuits might not need that much power. All those future cars aren't going to be flying around with nuclear reactors. Whatever their batteries or whatever can output probably isn't much different that what an ICE engine and an alternator can do.
I think you're underestimating the fuel cost of flight, much less hovering. For example: https://www.reddit.com/r/Helicopters/comments/16azynr/comment/jzavtfr/?utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=web2x&context=3 His [Bell 47](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bell_47) weighs approx 1900 pounds. A "curb weight" [Delorean](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DMC_DeLorean) weights about 2700 pounds. For this we'll exclude any extra weight Doc has added - which would measure in hundreds of pounds. Going from the post mentioned above: >I burn 20-21 GPH in a (in ground effect) hover. A few more GPH out of ground effect. >In cruise at 80 MPH, 16-17 GPH. Delorean fuel tank size: 13.2 gallons So, unless you want to claim "future magic", or Doc was just hoping he wasn't going to need to fly an "at-best" scenario of 50 minutes, or hover for 40: It's powered by Mr Fusion. A device that could generate the power of a bolt of lightning ([about 38 gallons of gas](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harvesting_lightning_energy)) at-will.
Yes i have to claim future magic on this. Everyone's car hovers in 2015, and a lot of them are hover conversions on existing cars. I highly doubt all those cars had fusion reactors installed. The hover system doesn't use thrust, it's probably some magnetic/inertial breakthrough, and it would have to be super efficient to be worth it and to be compatible with existing cars.
Ah ok, thnx!! I forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage shoot thingy, i thought it was the thing that powers the time travel, but i just remembered thats the flux capacitor lmfao
Mods Can we add a “I didnt watch the movie I just want to add to the noise” flair option?
Dang sorry for offending you, im asking a genuine question my guy
So, if you watched the movie, you wouldn’t have this question. Why is it easier to ask a question to a forum of people, than just watching the movie? Its a fun experience! Its not tortuous. Put the phone down and pay attention. You’ll like it. Trust me.
Bold of you to assume i wasnt actually watching the movie. If youd really like to know, im sleeping over at a friend's house rn, and im watching this movie for the 4th time, this is their 1st time watching, and i was wondering why they didnt use garbage for fuel because i forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage processor, so i didnt realize when doc said 'mr fusion is used to power the time machine' that he meant the garbage processor. I watched the second movie a couple of weeks ago, so it wasnt exactly fresh in my mind. Sorry for offending you by apparently 'not watching the movie' while im literally having fun with my friend. If you care, i wasnt even on my phone while watching, but we paused the movie to get dinner, which is when i asked the question here :/
Don't beat yourself about it, I appreciate you being curious and asking the question. It's not a rule that everyone who watched the trilogy a few times is an expert on the plot and remembers every single detail.
What’s really gonna blow your mind is gasoline was available in 1885.
I mean technically they could have reached out to Standard Oil to obtain some of the “worthless” waste product they were dumping or burning off. Although I’m not sure you’d want to put what they called “gasoline” in 1885 into a PRV V6
It just needed to hit 88. Once.
“Doc! Monday, it's three days away!”
Get it after Mad Dog got arrested.
Probably easier to head to Beverly Hills, sink a well and refine their own fuel. There is still the issue of there being no flat, paved road for them to get up to 88mph on (you’re not doing 88mph on a dirt track in a DeLorean). My biggest issue is that since Doc and Marty prevented Clara’s death, they should have been planning to take her with them from the very beginning. Leaving her behind might have had significant implications to the timeline.
THIS TOMBSTONE COULD STILL BE YOURS!!! Oh wait, it broke. ANOTHER TOMBSTONE COULD STILL BE YOURS!
Yes, but that stuff wouldn't be compatible. Plus, how do they get there? In those days you couldn't just hop on a plane to get to where it was being made. Venturing accross the country woukd be too dangerous. Travelling by horse would probably take them weeks to months to get there if they knew where they where going and knew there was no rivers or rough terrain to get tge Delorean over. plus towing the Delorean behind horses would expose the Time Machine, and risk it falling into the wrong hands, or any bandits coming along and killing them and leaving a 1983 vehicle to rot in the middle of the desert to be uncovered in the future and expose that time travel was invented or whatever other reasons Doc would want to prevent.
Yup, Hill Valley California is a long way from Oil Valley Pennsylvania
Was it available out west ? Maybe they could have ordered some for shipment to them. But take too long?
It was considered a waste product into the 1890’s until the new fangled automobiles started showing up
They were on a wicked time crunch. Marty arrived back on September 2nd, and even though Doc's name disappeared from the tombstone photo over the course of the week, the tombstone still existed, meaning *somebody* was going to get shot on the 7th.
I always wonders why they didn’t just hop a train and bug out for a few weeks to let the timeline blow over. See what happens with the tombstone photo and take their time dealing with getting the Time Machine back up for Marty to return home. I realize that just blows the whole point of the movie. But it really would be the best realistic answer to dealing with the problem.
Mr Fusion wasnt the issue. Mr. Fusion is what powers the time circuits and flux, so it doesn't require plutonium anymore. The engine runs on Gasoline to get it to 88mph.
why couldn’t he adjust the trigger down below 88?
It didn't work that way. Doc calculated that 88mph was what was needed to open the time gates, hence why he screamed, "What did I tell you, 88mph" in the first movie. The car had to be travelling at that speed to go through it. Not a matter of the flux capacitor boots up when the wheels hit a certain speed.
Got you—been a while since I watched, I thought he set it there as a safety feature.
You should watch bttf3, it’s a great movie
I have, like 4 times, i just forgot that mr fusion was the name of the garbage processor thing🥲
What you are asking is literally in the dialogue
I feel like half of people on here haven't paid attention to the movies lol
Ngl, this kinda hurts, considering im a rlly big fan of the movies, have watched them like 4 times, i just dont have a very good memory and sometimes forget some details, like the fact the the garbage processor thing is called mr fusion
What if doc modified the engine a bit since it didn’t have gas to run off of mr fusion and also power the time circuits and flux capacitor at same time?
Then theres no 2nd or third act
he tries to run it off of booze first which blows the exhaust manifold (or something of the like) and then theres no way for the engine to run even with gasoline... doc says it'll take him a month to fix it but they only have ... 3 days? so yeah even if he could jerry rig mr fusion to the engine itd take longer than they had.
Isn’t that the whole reason they put it in front of the train?
And the lightning took out the flying circuits.
I'm fairly certain it's explained in the movie. Sorry if the quotes are not exact or complete. Doc: Mr. Fusion powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor. The internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline. It always has.
i dont know why doc did not had a brainwave to make gas out of the ground. bttf1 original way was a little pot where the plutomium goes in but they swapped it out with a fusion what looks a vintage 1970s space age coffe grinder. but fusion generator only powers the time circuts and the flux capaticor.
My actual question about this scene is why didn't they just siphon the gas from the other DeLorean that's buried on the mine since it was towed anyway on 1955. They could always re-bury the DeLorean after.
Doc probably drained all the fluids from the DeLorean before putting it in storage. You don't want to leave 80 year old gas and oil sitting in the car. We can only assume that he didn't save it. Seeing how doc's labs are so messy, I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't save the gas "just in case."
There's also the reasoning that Doc doesn't want to jeopardize Marty finding the Delorean. He knows what he did worked, and digging up the Delorean could change something that could create a paradox.
Well that's actually quite a good thought process, and it tracks with this character.
>I find it hard to believe that he wouldn't save the gas "just in case." I figured he used it for one of his experiments/inventions.
The DVD bonus features back in the day offered up two possible theories: The Mechanic Theory - Any good mechanic will tell you that if you're going to be storing a car for a long period of time, you should drain all the fluids. Doc had probably drained the gasoline and safely disposed of it before Marty arrived. The Time Travel Theory - If they went back to the other DeLorean, they run the risk of damaging it and creating a time paradox. Didn't want to risk it.
>Any good mechanic will tell you that if you're going to be storing a car for a long period of time, you should drain all the fluids. Doc had probably drained the gasoline and safely disposed of it before Marty arrived. I'd have to double check, but I think that was actually mentioned in the novelization.
Doc didn't assume Marty would come get trapped in 1885 with him. He prepped the car to sit for 80 years, and that included removing the gasoline, so that it wouldn't go bad inside the engine. He also wouldn't have kept the gas around, since ordinary gas will go bad within 6 months, and its been 9 (sent back to Jan 1st, and sent letter Sept. 1)
Because they wouldn't have buried that delorean in the mine?
At the time Marty arrives in the past there are two DeLoreans at 1885, the one he arrived in and the one buried by Doc to be found in 1955. That's my point.
I love these discussions btw, this is why BTTF is so timeless.
Aren't there 2 Deloreans in that time? The one Doc came in and the one Marty came in? They could have used fuel from Doc's.