Parting out a FEW Datsun 620 trucks

[bilzbobaggins]

Operation

The operation of the DeLorean time machine is consistent throughout all three films. The operator sits inside the DeLorean, (except for the first time, when a remote control is used), and turns on the time circuits, activating a unit containing multiple fourteen and seven-segment displays that show the destination, present, and last-departed dates and times. After entering a target date, the operator accelerates the car to 88 miles per hour (141.6 km/h), which activates the flux capacitor. As it accelerates, several rails around the body of the car glow blue. Surrounded by large sparks, the whole car vanishes in a flash of blue light seconds later, leaving a pair of fire trails where the vehicle's tires will pass arriving at the destination time. Observers outside the vehicle see an implosion of plasma as the vehicle disappears, while occupants within the vehicle see a quick flash of light and instantaneously arrive at the target time in the same spatial location (relative to the Earth) as when it departed. In the destination time, immediately before the car's arrival, three large and loud flashes issue forth from the point from which the car emerges from its time travel. After the trip, the DeLorean is extremely cold, and frost forms from atmospheric moisture all over the car's body.^[1]

A few technical glitches with the DeLorean hinder time travel for its inhabitants; in the first film, the car has starter problems and has a hard time turning over once stopped, much to Marty's repeated frustration.^[1] In the second movie, the time display malfunctions and shows random dates, which partially cause Doc to be sent to 1885.^[2] In the third movie, the fuel line rips while the car is off-road, preventing the car from running under its own power.^[3]

[edit] Fuel

In Back to the Future, Doc states that the time machine is electrical but that he needs a nuclear reaction (produced by plutonium stolen from a group of Libyan terrorists) to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity needed.^[1] A bolt of lightning is used to power the flux capacitor twice in the series, once with a large pole and hook rigged up to the car to help Marty get back to 1985,^[1] and again accidentally in flight to send Doc to 1885.^[2] The Mr. Fusion model fusion generator, made by Fusion Industries, which uses garbage as fuel, is installed in place of the nuclear reactor from the first film during Doc's first journey thirty years into the future, 2015, when he also has the hover conversion installed.^[1][2] In Back to the Future Part III, the DeLorean's fuel line is damaged while fleeing from Native Americans in 1885, and Doc and Marty's only supply of gasoline is lost. It is stated by Doc that "Mr. Fusion only powers the time circuits and the flux capacitor, but the internal combustion engine runs on ordinary gasoline; it always has." In a desperate attempt to get home, alcohol is used in place of gasoline after the fuel line is patched, destroying the DeLorean's fuel injection manifold. The car never travels under its own power again but is pulled by a team of horses and later pushed by an 1880s locomotive.^[3]

The power required is pronounced in the film as "one point twenty-one jiggawatts."^[1] While the closed-captioning in home video versions spells the word as it appears in the script, jigowatt,^[4] the actual spelling matches the standard prefix and the term for power of "one billion watts": gigawatt. Though obscure, the "j" sound at the beginning of the SI prefix giga- is an acceptable pronunciation for "gigawatt."^[5][6] In the DVD commentary for Back to the Future, Bob Gale states that he had thought it was pronounced this way because this was how a scientific advisor that he had for the film pronounced it.^[7]

[edit] Equipment [edit] Flux capacitor

The flux capacitor, which consists of a rectangular shaped compartment with three flashing Geissler style-tubes (arranged in a "Y" configuration), is described by Doc as "what makes time travel possible." The device is the core component of the time machine.^[1]

The device was located between the headrests behind the seats and, as the time machine nears 88 mph, light coming from the flux capacitor begins pulsing (or as Marty said in the first movie, "fluxing") more rapidly until it becomes a steady stream. Doc originally conceived the idea for the flux capacitor on November 5, 1955 when he slipped and hit his head on his bathroom sink while standing on the toilet to hang a clock.^[1] He presumably worked for the next 30 years acquiring materials and working out the theories of what eventually became the DeLorean time machine in 1985. A similar, but more primitive, flux capacitor is also seen in the front of Doc's second time machine, the Time Train, at the end of Back to the Future Part III.^[3]

Although the films do not describe exactly how the flux capacitor works, Doc mentions at one point that the stainless steel body of the DeLorean has a direct and influential effect on the "flux dispersal," but he is interrupted before he can finish the explanation.^[1] The flux capacitor requires 1.21 gigawatts of electrical power to operate,^[1] equal to 1,210,000,000 watts which, to give a sense of scale, is approximately the output of a single pressurized water reactor at a nuclear power plant. It equates to around 1.6 million (continuous) horsepower, but is only discharged for a moment.

The instruction manual for the AMT/ERTL Delorean model kit says: "Because the car's stainless steel body improves the flux dispersal generated by the flux capacitor, and this in turn allows the vehicle smooth passage through the space time continuum."

[edit] Mr. Fusion

The Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor is the name of a power source used by the DeLorean time machine in the Back to the Future trilogy. It can be seen at the end of Back to the Future when "Doc" Emmett Brown pulls into the McFlys' driveway after a trip to the year 2015. It is a parody of Mr. Coffee machines, which were very popular at the time of filming.^[8] The appliance from which the prop was made was actually a Krups "Coffina" model coffee grinder.

The Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor converts household waste to power for the time machine's flux capacitor and time circuits using nuclear fusion. In the film, Mr. Fusion allows the DeLorean time machine to generate the required 1.21 gigawatts needed to travel to any point in time. The energy produced by Mr. Fusion replaces plutonium as the primary power source of the DeLorean's time travel allowing the characters to bypass the arduous power-generation requirements upon which the plot of the first film hinges.^[1][2]

The Mr. Fusion energy converter originally had the Westinghouse logo on it. However, the Westinghouse company would not allow the logo to be used, so the art director added some additional lines to the symbol to differentiate it.^[9]

[edit] Fictional timeline

For most of the first film, the 1.21 gigawatts are supplied by a plutonium-powered nuclear reactor and, with the absence of plutonium, a bolt of lightning channeled directly into the flux capacitor by a long pole and hook in the film's climactic sequence.^[1] At the end of the first film, and for the remainder of the trilogy, the plutonium nuclear reactor is replaced by a "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor" generator possibly acquired in 2015.^[2] The "Mr. Fusion" device apparently converts household waste into electrical power. Due to a "hover conversion" made in 2015, the car also becomes capable of hovering and flight, though it loses this ability at the end of the second film.^[2][3]

The DeLorean returns to 1985 and proceeds to travel to October 21, 2015 to stop Marty's future son from committing a crime. While there, the DeLorean is stolen by Biff who then travels back to November 12, 1955 to give his past self a sports almanac to be used for gambling. Once Biff returns to 2015 without Doc's knowledge, the duo returns to 1985, but finds themselves in an alternate timeline where Hill Valley is ruled by Biff that Doc described as 1985A. The DeLorean then travels back to 1955 to restore the timeline,^[2] but in the aftermath, it was struck by lightning again in the very same electrical storm, this time by accident, causing it to malfunction, activating the flux capacitor, leaving a twisted fire trail behind. The lightning creates an overload, and the original DeLorean vanishes from 1955, traveling back in time to January 1, 1885 (earlier in the film, Doc mentions that the time circuits are not functioning correctly; several instances in the film that show the time circuit display showed 1885 as the destination when the time circuits malfunctioned).^[2]

Once in 1885, the DeLorean is hidden in the Delgado mine for 70 years because suitable replacement parts to replace the DeLorean's destroyed microchip would not be invented until 1947. The DeLorean is recovered from the mine on November 14, 1955 and repaired by Doc Brown's 1955 counterpart, thus restoring it to working order using 1955 components, which could not restore the Delorean's flying capabilities. While Doc states he is happy in his new life in 1885 and requests that Marty not attempt to retrieve him, Marty and the Doc of 1955 learn of tragedy to come Doc's way in 1885; therefore, the 1955 Doc agrees to send Marty back to the Old West. Due to a broken fuel line caused by a Native American attack during Marty's re-entry and an attempt to substitute alcohol for fuel which destroys the fuel injectors, the DeLorean's final trip from September 7, 1885 to October 27, 1985 is partially powered by a steam locomotive pushing the vehicle up to 88 mph while using Mr. Fusion to generate the 1.21 gigawatts required to activate the flux capacitor and break the time barrier.^[3]

On October 27, 1985, once the DeLorean makes its final trip from 1885, it is destroyed by an oncoming freight train running the opposite direction. Marty is able to bail out of the car moments before the train strikes.^[3]

[edit] Other elements

[Kirden]

Haha, awesome. That made my eyes bleed a bit but burnt some time from work :P