57. Oh La La!

Not actually a real magazine, this time – although amazingly, some Back To The Future fans have managed to track down the two actual French magazines from which its cover and pages are composited.

A couple of things are noteworthy about the dust-jacket switchover that happens here – firstly, remember that when Marty bought the Almanac in the 2015 store, the shopkeeper explained that it had a “dust jacket” (neatly foreshadowing that it would become a plot element later). And secondly, is it not a bit surprising that when Strickland flicks through the book – which we later discover, of course, is the girlie mag and not the Almanac – that he doesn’t comment on it?

58. Coming Summer 1990

The mini-trailer for Back To The Future Part III at the very end of the second film was inspired by a similar technique at the end of Richard Lester’s 1973 The Three Musketeers. The Musketeers producers, however, had somewhat sneakily decided to make two films out of footage that was originally shot for just one, leading to a regulation (‘the Salkind clause’) that prevented such a thing happening again. While the Back To The Future sequels started life as a single script (Paradox) which included both the 2015 and 1885 plots, they became two separate films early in the production process.

Zemeckis was also keen that the trailer inform audiences of the release date of the third film, as he had been annoyed at having to wait three years for the resolution to The Empire Strikes Back’s cliffhanger.

Back to the Future Part III

59. “Just Try It, Tannen!”

This line of dialogue, spoken by the Doc, is the one moment in the Back To The Future Part III trailer that didn’t make it into the completed film.

60. Howdy Doody Time

Moving onto what did make it into Back To The FuturePart III then, after a brief reprise of Back To The Future Part II’s ending. The 1950s kids’ show Howdy Doody, as well as waking Doc up (and in a neat little nod to each time Marty is awoken by a Lea Thompson character throughout the trilogy, he says “Howdy Doody time?” in a similar fashion), also foreshadows Marty’s trip to the Old West.

61. The model car

It’s not entirely clear why Marty is rooting around in the Doc’s trash, but there’s a nice touch as he picks up the burned model car – the same car that had crashed into the bin in flames back in the first film.

62. ELB

The hand-carved letters in the mine are the first, but not the last, mention of the Doc’s full initials (they also show up on the side of the train at the very end of the film). It’s not specified in the films, but the Back To The Future cartoon revealed that the ‘L’ stands for ‘Lathrop.’ The writers have denied, however, the rumor that this makes the Doc’s name a deliberate backwards-spoken version of “time portal.”

63. The Drive-In (I)

The third cinema seen in the trilogy is the out-of-down drive-in the Doc strategically sets up as Marty’s departure point. Unsurprisingly, there are some clever references in the movies advertised here – the two posters seen as Marty emerges in his Western outfit are both 1955 releases. More notably, however, they’re both films that feature Clint Eastwood in uncredited roles. Marty actually even points at the Revenge poster when noting that the Doc hasn’t heard of Clint yet.

64. The Drive-In (II)

There are also three films being advertised on the drive-in’s marquee: Francis In The Navy, Ma And Pa Kettle In Waikiki, and Abbott And Costello Meet The Mummy. All three, like Back To The Future Part III, are sequels made by Universal – and Francis also happens to be Clint Eastwood’s credited debut film.

65. The Drive-In (III)

Oh, and the location of the theatre itself is no accident: it’s Monument Valley, the Arizona-Utah border location that was most famously used for many of John Ford’s Westerns (including Stagecoach and The Searchers).

66. “Where you’re going, there are no roads”

A conscious echo of the first film’s famous closing line, or sheer coincidence? It can’t be accidental… surely?

67. Maggie McFly

It’s been remarked upon several times that it’s somewhat strange that Lea Thompson plays the role of Maggie McFly, given that her character Lorraine Baines is actually from the other side of Marty’s family. Bob Gale has explained this apparent discrepancy by the simple reasoning that they wanted the third film to have a “Mom, is that you?” scene, just as the first two had – and offers the possible justification that “the McFly men have a genetic trait that attracted them to women who bear a resemblance to Maggie or Lea Thompson.”

Besides, if it’s a choice between having Lea Thompson in your movie or not having Lea Thompson in your movie, I think we can say the Back To The Future gang made the right decision. Even with that bad Irish accent she does.

68. A. Jones Manure Hauling

Along with ‘Honest Joe’ Statler’s, there’s another Hill Valley tradition in evidence in 1885: the Jones family manure dealers. By 1955, they’ve of course become ‘D. Jones Manure Hauling’ (as seen in both the first and second films). There’s no record of whether their services are still required in 1985 or 2015, though we’d like to imagine that an ‘F. Jones Manure’ and an ‘H. Jones Manure’ do exist.

69. The Saloon

The three old-timers who comment on Marty’s appearance as he walks into the Saloon (and later have the “Run for fun?” conversation with the Doc) are all played by somewhat notable Western actors. Dub Taylor was most known for playing a sidekick character called Cannonball, and here appears wearing his famed bowler hat. Harry Carey Jr. appeared in several John Ford films, as well as two episodes of Rawhide with Clint Eastwood. And Pat Buttram (he of the distinctive, crackly voice) was also known for several Disney films, including voicing the Sheriff of Nottingham in Robin Hood and Napoleon in The Aristocats.

70. Marty’s drinks

A running gag throughout the entire trilogy gets its third instalment here: every time Marty goes into the diner location for the first time (that’s Lou’s in 1955, Cafe ’80s in 2015 and the saloon in 1885), he orders a beverage that he never actually gets to drink any of before being interrupted by a “Hey, McFly!”

71. Shooting the rope

The Doc’s method of rescuing Marty is a reference to yet another Clint Eastwood film – this time it’s The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.

72. It’s a refrigerator!

Again, we don’t know for sure if this is a deliberate reference, but we’d be amazed if it’s not: in the original earliest drafts of the first Back To The Future, rather than being in a car, the time machine was built into a fridge. And in something that amusingly prefigures Indiana Jones 4 (hey, maybe it’s where Spielberg got the idea), the climax of the film would have seen Marty’s return home powered by an explosion at a nuclear test site. The idea of the fridge was dropped when the concern was raised that kids might copy the film and get locked inside those old-style heavy refrigerators – but the fact that the Doc eventually builds an ersatz one in 1885 seems like a little nod to the Back To The Future that might have been.

73. Clara’s first appearance

Two nice little background nods here – firstly, in advance of her first actual appearance in the story (narrowly avoiding being driven into Shonash Ravine), Mary Steenburgen as Clara Clayton can actually be seen standing waiting to be picked up as Marty and the Doc look at the map of the very ravine that will later (in the original timeline, at least) bear her name.

74. The clock arrives

… and at the same time, the famous Hill Valley clock is being unloaded from the train, evidently being delivered in advance of the opening ceremony later that week.

75. History repeating itself

Just as in the first film, a scene in which the Doc demonstrates a plan to get the DeLorean travelling in time with the assistance of an elaborate model (“sorry it’s not to scale or painted”) is followed by the arrival of a woman who’s romantically interested in one of the pair – in the original film it’s Lorraine visiting Marty, while in Part III it’s Clara to see the Doc.

76. ZZ Top

In case you somehow missed them (the beards are something of a clue), that’s ZZ Top playing at the festival. They provided the song ‘Doubleback’ for the third film’s soundtrack, and just like Huey Lewis in the first film, were rewarded with a cameo.

77. “Frisbie! Far out!”

Marty here notices the name of ‘Frisbie’, an actual pie company, and presumably thinks it’s just a coincidence that the name on the flat tray is similar to ‘Frisbee’, the flying disc. Of course, the two are actually linked – the pie company gave the colloquial name to the disc-throwing game, before the Wham-O company trademarked the slightly altered ‘Frisbee’ in the 1950s.

78. My Darling Clementine

The Doc’s dance with Clara is a nod to yet another John Ford film, My Darling Clementine – which also, coincidentally enough, features a character named Doc (Holliday).

79. The Doc’s clocks (III)

The sequence in which Marty awakes the morning after the town festival is of course a deliberate mirror not just of the opening of the first film – with its pan across from a clock to an elaborate automated machine the Doc has invented to perform an everyday task – but of the beginning of the third, too. This completes a set: we’ve now seen the morning clock routine in all three of the houses in which the Doc is shown to live across the trilogy.

80. “You talkin’ to me?”

I mean, look, this is Den of Geek. Do we really need to tell you that when Marty’s in front of the mirror he’s paying homage to Taxi Driver and the Dirty Harryseries (specifically Sudden Impact)? Or that the latter is yet another Clint Eastwood reference? No? Good.

81. The hole in Doc Brown’s hat

It’s a small detail, but a nice touch, that rather than buying a new hat after having it shot off his head by Buford (thanks to Marty’s Frisbee-based intervention), he just continues to wear it, bullet hole and all.

82. “Great Scott!” “I know, this is heavy!”

This reversal of the Doc and Marty’s recurring catchphrases (a lovely, subtle reference to the effect their friendship has had on one-another) has to be one of the best jokes in the entire trilogy.

83. “I’ve been peddling this barbed wire all across the country…”

This may well be the most obscure reference of the lot – but the barbed wire salesman who counsels the Doc on his broken heart isn’t just a random character. Although not named as such, he bears a clear visual resemblance to Joseph Glidden, the businessman who really did patent barbed wire in the 1870s and became one of the richest men in America as a result.

84. Punch-out

Of course, Buford crashing head-first into the manure is an obvious reference to similar things happening to Biff in the first two films. But in addition, the manner of him spinning around towards camera after being clobbered by a McFly is clearly a further homage to the way Biff goes down when decked by George in Part I.

85. Doc’s bandana

It’s a really tough one to spot – such that we wouldn’t have done, if Bob Gale hadn’t pointed it out in the official FAQ he wrote – but the bandana worn by the Doc throughout the last scenes in 1885, most notably seen covering his face when he and Marty hold up the train, is made out of that same train-patterned shirt he was wearing back in Back To The Future Part II.

86. Sierra No. 3

The train crash into the ravine is spectacular – but it’s actually a quarter-scale model, not the locomotive that was used throughout the film, that we see destroyed. The train itself is pretty much the most famous loco in movies – it’s known, in fact, as ‘The Movie Star locomotive’ – as it’s appeared in more films and TV series than any other train. Notably, given the Wild West setting of Back To The Future Part III, it was in several Westerns, most famously High Noon – and also Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven in 1992.

87. Eastwood Ravine

And speaking of Clint, our last reference is a subtler revisiting of the old Lone Pine/Twin Pines gag, as the sign on the bridge as Marty returns to 1985 tells us that the ravine known as Shonash in 1885, and Clayton in the original 1985 timeline, is now referred to as Eastwood Ravine, in tribute to the man they all presumably believe fell in with the train.

Of course, why the people of Hill Valley felt the need to honour a man who showed up in town for less than a week, got into a fistfight with a local outlaw and then stole and destroyed a train is open to question – as is the matter of how they knew it was him. Maybe the Doc told them when he got back to town…?

88. Shot repetition

The trilogy is rounded off with deliberate echoes of two of the most famous shots from the first film. First, when the DeLorean is destroyed by the train back in 1985, there’s a quick glimpse of the 2015-era number plate spinning and hitting the ground – just as the original OUTATIME one had done after the time machine’s first ever trip.

read more: Why Back to the Future 4 Never Happened

And finally, of course, the shot of the Doc’s new train flying towards camera to close out the movie recalls the final shot of the original film – from way back before any sequels were even planned.