Back to the Future
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179 free Back to the Future trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Oct 2026.
63 free Back to the Future trivia questions with answers. Sixty-three questions on the Back to the Future trilogy, from the DeLorean and the flux capacitor to the clock tower, Marty's guitar and Doc's train. The core round covers the 1985 original and its 1955 time-travel, the cast, the making of the films and the running gags that fans quote by heart. There is also a dedicated Back to the Future Part II round: the trip to 21 October 2015, the hoverboard chase, Grays Sports Almanac, old Biff, the alternate 1985 with George dead and Biff married to Lorraine, Elisabeth Shue replacing Claudia Wells, Crispin Glover's lawsuit, the Cubs prediction, self-lacing Nikes, Jaws 19 and the lightning strike that sends Doc to 1885. Easy questions on the plot, harder ones on the production and the box office. Every answer was checked against a documented source and the citation is shown under each explanation.
30 of 179 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01What was Doc Brown standing on when he slipped and hit his head?
His toilet
His toilet: Doc was standing on it to hang a clock when he slipped, hit his head on the sink and came round with a vision of the device that makes time travel possible.
Q 02Which carmaker offered to pay to have one of its models replace the DeLorean as the time machine?
Ford
Ford offered a product-placement fee if a Mustang replaced the DeLorean; one of the writers refused, saying Doc Brown doesn't drive a Mustang.
Q 03What is Doc Brown's first name?
Emmett
Emmett: Doc reveals in Part III that his family were the Von Brauns until his father changed the name to Brown during the First World War.
Q 04What speed must Doc Brown's DeLorean reach to travel through time?
88 miles per hour
88 miles per hour was more than a stock DeLorean could show: its speedometer stopped at 85, so the film car was fitted with a specially built one.
Q 05What element does Doc Brown steal from Libyan terrorists to power the time machine?
Plutonium
Plutonium: Doc took it from Libyan terrorists who believed he was building them a bomb, handing them a casing stuffed with used pinball-machine parts instead.
Q 06Who plays Marty McFly in the Back to the Future films?
Michael J. Fox
Michael J. Fox spent his days on the sitcom Family Ties and his nights as Marty, snatching only a few hours' sleep between the two sets.
Q 07Who plays the bully Biff Tannen in all three Back to the Future films?
Thomas F. Wilson
Thomas F. Wilson was asked the same things about the films so often that he wrote a comic 'Question Song' answering them all for his stand-up act.
Q 08What iconic invention by Doc Brown enables time travel within the DeLorean?
Flux Capacitor
The Flux Capacitor is 'what makes time travel possible'; Doc says realising it took him almost thirty years and his entire family fortune.
Q 09Which studio put Back to the Future into turnaround after first developing the script?
Columbia Pictures
Columbia Pictures liked the idea but judged it not sexual enough beside the raunchy teen comedies of the day, and suggested the writers try Disney.
Q 10At which mall's parking lot does Doc Brown first show Marty his time machine?
Twin Pines Mall
Twin Pines Mall: in 1955 Marty flattens one of farmer Peabody's two young pines, so he returns to a 1985 where the sign reads Lone Pine Mall.
Q 11What is the name of Marty's girlfriend in 1985?
Jennifer Parker
Jennifer Parker is taken to 2015 in Part II, where she comes face to face with her older self and both of them faint.
Q 12Which instrument does Marty McFly play in the Back to the Future films?
Guitar
Guitar: Marty plays lead guitar in a rock band whose school-dance audition is cut off for being 'just too darn loud'.
Q 13What phrase does Doc Brown often exclaim when surprised or making a discovery?
"Great Scott!"
'Great Scott!' is the last thing 1955 Doc says before he faints, when Marty reappears moments after being sent home to 1985.
Q 21At the end of Back to the Future, what does Doc Brown say they won't need where they're going?
Roads
Roads: 'Where we're going, we don't need roads,' says Doc as the DeLorean lifts off; no sequel was planned until after the film opened, so the ending was written with no follow-up in mind.
Q 22What does Biff crash his car into while chasing Marty around the town square in 1955?
A manure truck
A manure truck: Biff ends the chase buried in its load, and in every film of the trilogy a Tannen winds up in a heap of manure.
Q 23What is George McFly's hobby, which eventually leads to his success in the altered timeline?
Writing science fiction
Q 14What is the name of the dance where George and Lorraine are supposed to first kiss?
Enchantment Under the Sea
Enchantment Under the Sea: Lorraine recalls it at the 1985 dinner table as the night of her first kiss, so Marty knows exactly which dance he must rescue.
Q 15What natural phenomenon is used to power the DeLorean's return trip to 1985?
A lightning strike
A lightning strike: with no fuel for the car's reactor in 1955, Doc runs a cable from the courthouse clock so the bolt feeds the DeLorean the instant it hits.
Q 16How much power does Doc say the time machine needs to make a jump?
1.21 gigawatts
1.21 gigawatts: Doc pronounces it 'jigowatts', a rare but accepted pronunciation, and the writers even spelled it that way in the script.
Q 17What song does Marty perform at the dance that his parents attend?
"Johnny B. Goode"
"Johnny B. Goode": Marty gets carried away into a wild solo decades ahead of its time, then tells the silent 1955 crowd that their kids are going to love it.
Q 18Which designer's name does Lorraine mistake for Marty's own in 1955?
Calvin Klein
Calvin Klein: Lorraine finds the name printed all over his underwear after her father's car knocks him out, and assumes it must be his.
Q 19Before the script settled on a sheepdog, what kind of animal was Doc Brown's pet originally written as?
A chimpanzee
A chimpanzee named Shemp was Doc's pet in early drafts, until studio chief Sid Sheinberg insisted that films with chimps never did well.
Q 20Which scientist is Doc Brown's dog, the first-ever time traveller, named after?
Einstein
Einstein: for the first test Doc belts the dog into the DeLorean alone and drives the car by remote control from across the car park.
Writing science fiction: in 1955 George hides his stories for fear of rejection; in the 1985 Marty returns to, he is a confident, successful author with a first novel out.
Q 24Who was first cast as Marty McFly, then replaced after filming had begun?
Eric Stoltz
Eric Stoltz played Marty with a dramatic intensity that drained the comedy, so the filmmakers replaced him and shot all his scenes again.
Q 25Back to the Future opened just before which US holiday in 1985?
Independence Day
Independence Day: it opened on July 3 after test screenings went so well that the studio pulled the release forward, reaching cinemas only nine weeks after shooting wrapped.
Q 26What do several people in 1955 take Marty's puffy down vest to be?
A life preserver
A life preserver: the diner's owner takes it for one, and Lorraine's mother assumes he is a sailor in port, so Marty claims to be in the Coast Guard.
Q 27Which Huey Lewis and the News song was written as Back to the Future's theme?
The Power of Love
'The Power of Love': Huey Lewis first declined, unsure how to write a film song, then agreed simply to hand over the next song he wrote.
Q 28Which 1980s slang word does Marty keep using that baffles Doc in 1955?
"Heavy"
"Heavy": hearing it yet again, 1955 Doc asks why things are so heavy in the future and whether there is a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull.
Q 29What insult does the school disciplinarian throw at Marty while comparing him to his father?
Slacker
'Slacker': he says Marty is a slacker just like his father and that no McFly ever amounted to anything in Hill Valley; Marty replies that history is going to change.
Q 30What is the name of Marty's older brother?
Dave
Dave starts the film in a Burger King uniform; in the 1985 Marty returns to, he heads off to an office job in a suit.