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DocPistol

Doc and his pistol.

Libyan confronts doc

Doc, still holding his pistol, is cornered by the Libyans in their Volkswagen Station Wagon.

" "We'll kill him [Doc] tonight," Sam continued. "Headquarters has decided it's not worth it to bring him in for questioning. You two tail him for the rest of the day. Chances are he'll end up at the garage he uses for an office or at Twin Pines Mall. He's been spending a lot of time there recently, usually late at night." / "Does he carry any weapons?" [asked one of the Libyans] / "A handgun at most. An old .45-caliber revolver. It may not even work." "
—From Back to the Future by George Gipe (quote, pages 62 and 63)
"He [Marty] saw Doc Brown point the revolver at the [terrorists'] van and squeeze the trigger. No sound or flash of fire emerged, however, as bullets splattered all around Doc at his feet and into the side of the step-van. Finally, dropping the revolver, Doc began to sprint for the safety of the mall, fully five hundred yards away."
—From Back to the Future by George Gipe (quote, pages 64)
"Doc reached inside the tow truck and pulled out a gunbelt, complete with a Colt revolver. / "You're sure you don't want to take this?" / It was Marty's turn to shake his head. He didn't want to use a gun. / "No, thanks. I don't know how to use it anyway." / Doc nodded and tossed the gunbelt back in the truck."
—From Back to the Future Part III by Craig Shaw Gardner (quote, page 36)

A silver pistol, a Colt Peacemaker, was owned by Dr. Emmett Brown.

History[]

Doc fired the handgun twice in 1955 to start Marty McFly in the DeLorean time machine off for 1885 at the Pohatchee Drive-In Theatre.

The weapon failed to fire when Doc also tried to use it against the Libyans in 1985, therefore allowing the terrorists to shoot him dead.

Behind the scenes[]

  • In the novelization, Doc's handgun is described by Sam as being "an old .45-caliber revolver" (see Quote above).
  • On page 64 of the novelization (see second Quote above), a misprint resulted in the last part of the line No sound or flash of fire emerged, however, as bullets splattered all around Doc and into the side of the step-van reading 'bullets splattered all around Doc and into the side of the van' — implying that the terrorists' van was hit by the bullets instead, which (if one thinks about it) is absolutely impossible. This error has been corrected here.
  • There was a deleted scene in Back to the Future Part III, which was reinstated by Craig Shaw Gardner for the novelization, where Doc offers Marty the handgun, but he refuses and responds "No, thanks. I don't know how to use it anyway" (see third Quote above) — which isn't true as Marty is a crackshot at Wild Gunman. He most likely refused as it could cause a paradox when Doc attempts to kill the Libyans in 1985, or because if he killed Buford Tannen in 1885 the timeline would change.
  • In 1955 the gun featured black colored grips, In 1985 the gun featured ivory grips. Likely a goof on the part of the film-makers, However it is explainable that Doc could had the gun refurbished in-between and had the color of the grips changed.

Gallery[]

Appearances[]

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