- "Marty lifted the camera and took a flash picture [of Doc's initials, E.L.B., carved into a wooden beam in the Delgado Mine]. He placed the camera carefully into his duffel bag, then turned to help Doc remove the pile of rocks and timbers that the 1885 Doc had used to hide the DeLorean."
- —From Back to the Future Part III by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, page 19)
A camera was an optical instrument used for taking photographs.
History[]
When trying to avoid a bank president in 1952, Marty McFly blinded him with the flash of a camera.
Dr. Emmett Brown's binocular card in 2015 incorporated a camera, enabling him to not only watch but also photograph Marty McFly, Jr. and Griff Tannen from a distance.
Doc had a camera in 1955, which he and Marty McFly used on November 14 to document their excavation of the DeLorean time machine from the Delgado Mine, where his 1985 counterpart had hidden it in 1885, and also to take the photograph of the tombstone in the Boot Hill Cemetery. According to the repair instructions found in the DeLorean, "a few flashlight bulbs, along with some penlight batteries" were all that were needed to fix the time display mechanism.
Presumably, along with his notebook and reel-to-reel tape recorder, the camera was the medium Doc used to document his scientific experiments prior to the invention — and his purchase — of the JVC camcorder.
A camera of the large 19th century variety was used by the photographer at the Hill Valley Festival in 1885, who was offering those attending the opportunity to have a souvenir photograph taken with the new clock that would be installed in the tower of the Hill Valley Courthouse. When Marty mentioned that he wished he had brought his own camera, he came up with the idea of having a photograph of himself and Doc standing together in front of the clock.
Behind the scenes[]
- Although it is never mentioned either on-screen or in the novelization, Doc presumably developed his own photographs (being a scientist, he would know how to do this) to prevent them from falling into the wrong hands.
Appearances[]
- Paradox script
- Back to the Future Part II (Binocular card)
- Back to the Future Part II novelization (Binocular card)
- Back to the Future Part III
- Back to the Future Part III novelization
- Back to the Future: The Animated Series
- Back to the Future (IDW Publishing)