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Why the Heck Couldn't Doc Brown Have Just Made Gasoline in Back to the Future III?

414K views · May 30, 2026 · Education

Today I Found Out

3.3M subscribers

Comments · 3.8K

@TodayIFoundOut · 4 months ago · pinned
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@dhayes5151 · 3 months ago
Doc Brown was so smart that he knew the movie would be way more exciting if he used a train.
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@Pspersonal-bp8by · 3 months ago
If I find myself in 1885 with the knowledge of how to make gas and other sciences, I'm gonna buy the house next to the patent office to reduce my daily commute.
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@travisbur7110 · 3 months ago
The horses thing is a bit misunderstood. They needed to get the delorean out of the cave and into his shop and they used horses to do that. They just happened to check the speed as they did it, probably more for the audience or for fun than anything else
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@Driveby-Viktum · 4 months ago
Assuming they didnt destroy the engine in the first place, Doc couldve easily converted the Delorian to run on alcohol right from the start.
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@Caethewildre · 3 months ago (edited)
You're ignoring a few plot points in the movie. 1. They had only three days to get the Delorean running before Doc (or Marty) would get shot, which was not long enough to find the petroleum products you suggested, because.... 2. The town of Hill Valley did not have a druggist's shop. The closest options were a doctor's private office and general store. The other general store was mainly a dry goods shop and tobacconist, which made the closest, fastest choice the saloon... 3, They tried a bottle of 180-proof whisky from the saloon for their first try, and in that attempt they blew out the fuel injection manifold completely and Doc said it would take him a month to rebuild it using the tech he had available, so no further attempts to fuel the Delorean were possible or meaningful. 4. Hill Valley was at least a day's ride from Pine City, so there and back would take a couple days leaving the Delorean under a tarp in Doc's shop. Not an option. The next train wouldn't be by until the morning when Doc (or Marty) was going to be killed, so that wasn't an option to go to another town to fetch the fuel, even if the manifold hadn't been blasted out of the car. All this stuff about gas in 1885 is fun and all, but in the context of the film it doesn't work. There were several reasons why they couldn't have gotten their hands on it in time to save Doc's (or Marty's) life, and even if they could have gotten it, the first choice being alcohol shot down any other chances they had of refueling the Delorean, even if they could have made the trip to Pine City and back on time.
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@Noctudeit · 3 months ago
Important to note that knock is not an accumulative problem. If you fill up with unstable fuel, the engine will start knocking almost as soon as you turn the ignition. This happened to me when a coworker "disposed" of some stale gasoline by dumping it into my truck. I started it, it knocked, and the engine died before I got to 1 MPH, let alone 88.
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@singletona082 · 4 months ago
We should all want someone as supportive and competent as Bertha benz in our corner.
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@JP-rz2pp · 4 months ago
Is everyone forgetting that the issue was not if Doc could make gasoline (he could with enough time), but the fact that his doom was sealed by Tannen in less than a week?
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@quidambrujah · 3 months ago
<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRYdebc_NAo&t=1062">17:42</a> there is also a known correlation between the elimination of leaded gas and a drop in violent crime.
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@kickofftheboot · 4 months ago
What a catch was Bertha Benz! Beautiful, tech savvy, entrepreneurial, and considerate enough to avoid waking her husband….
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@LordBrittish · 4 months ago
“Oil that is, black gold, Texas tea.”
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