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(First of all - kudos to WadCheber for inspiring this question)

When the DeLorean is first revealed, we see it exiting from Doc's Truck:

In the image I've given below, you can see there isn't much room to spare in the truck:

DeLorean exiting truck

Bearing in mind the Delorean has gull-wing doors, how did Doc:

  1. Get into the DeLorean in the first place (we later on see him exit out, so he wasn't remote-controlling it), and
  2. Operate the ramp (perhaps by remote control)?
Often Right
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    I guess Doc could've also invented a transporter and not mentioned it - what's a transporter when you've got a DeLorean time machine anyway :P – Often Right Jun 16 '15 at 02:47
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    If this answer is correct, the DeLorean would be unnecessary if the Doc had a transporter. The only reason the DeLorean has to go 88 miles per hour is that the temporal field created by the flux capacitor only exists for the amount of time required for a DeLorean to travel its own length. With a transporter, you could simply open the temporal field, then transport yourself through the field. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 02:52
  • @WadCheber - I was joking ;) – Often Right Jun 16 '15 at 02:53
  • I know. Just having fun. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 02:53
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    Maybe he drove it in and remote-controlled the truck – Jason Baker Jun 16 '15 at 02:56
  • @JasonBaker; that sounds like something Doc would do lol – Often Right Jun 16 '15 at 02:57
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    HOW DID I FAIL TO REALIZE THAT MARTY ASKS THE DOC IF HE IS WEARING A DEVO SUIT? That's my new favorite part of Back to the Future. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 03:03
  • The really cool portal answer unfortunately can't be correct. Since the flux capacitor is on the DeLorean, the applicable reference frame of the portal would be that of the DeLorean. In other words, when the portal would be created, it would travel with the same speed as the DeLorean. There is no reason why the portal would be in the inertial frame of the road, which is a fairly arbitrary frame. – Martijn Jun 16 '15 at 10:35
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    How did the filmmakers get it in there? I feel like the answer is probably "Doc did it the same way the props crew did it", however that was. – Nerrolken Jun 16 '15 at 16:34
  • Well, when he gets out of the DeLorean, he is clearly very startled. You can see the confusion in his eyes: 'Wait, where am I? How did I get here?' –  Jun 16 '15 at 20:38
  • Maybe the truck has a very cleverly concealed door in its side. – Anthony X Jun 17 '15 at 00:39
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    @AnthonyX that's an interesting thought. Perhaps even the side of the trick flips open... – Often Right Jun 17 '15 at 00:41
  • Maybe someone else drove the truck for him? – KutuluMike Feb 12 '17 at 00:56
  • Maybe there are two Docs from two different time periods and one Doc drives the van at 88mph on the highway and the other Doc calculated where the van would be an time traveled to that point, matching speed and location. Therefore the presence of the smoke. Maybe there is a whole backstory to the terrorists in the VW van and the plutonium that involves time travel that we don't know. I don't actually think this is valid, but a fun thought experiment. – Integration Feb 12 '17 at 16:43
  • Here’s a question that’ll bake the noodle: what if doc turned on the time circuits.....but drove the TRUCK up to 88? Would the DeLoraan disappear? Or the truck too? Or anything? – MissouriSpartan Apr 05 '21 at 02:58
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    @MissouriSpartan Or turn that around: if the DeLorean were propped up so that the wheels were off the ground, and you revved it up to 88mph, would that be enough to trigger the time circuits even though it wasn't moving at all? – Admiral Jota Apr 05 '21 at 14:11
  • @AdmiralJota so many questions for Doc.... – MissouriSpartan Apr 05 '21 at 14:12

4 Answers4

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A Delorean is 6'1" across. A Semi Trailer is at least 8' across. The door could've easily been opened enough for him to climb in. You only need about 7" to open it due to the rotation of it. Note the door in its full open position doesn't even go out from the side, because the hinge is inside.

Here's a video further showing this:

Still from the video showing a man exiting the vehicle about 12" (30cm) from a wall:

StayOnTarget
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Ryan
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I'll answer this in the most likely answer there can be. Someone screwed up in the we didn't think this out because it just looked cool department.

While the door/ramp looks to be on a winch(s) (the extra ramp parts have red wheels as seen at 0:18, to allow them to fully extend), unless Doc could remote control the box truck, there is no possible way for him to get in and back out the Delorean.

Movie goofs, they happen.

There is only one explanation for how he could have done it, and it's almost Rube Goldberg in its nonsensical construction, even for Doc. He would have had to move the truck, lowered the ramp, got into the back, closed the ramp, climbed into the Delorean through an open window, allow the Delorean or something else to fill the cabin and the open windowed Delorean with smoke, closed the window, then open the ramp again to pull the Delorean out, all before the smoke dissipates. Even Doc isn't that freaking pointless or convoluted (I hope).

But as @WadCheber has linked to, the Delorean window is about the size of a bread box, making even that convoluted idea impossible without magic.

enter image description here

  • @N_Soong and cde- that's why I wrote this: Alternative version of BttF: Marty gets a call from Doc, asking him to come to the mall with a video camera. On the way, he decides to stop for a snack at McDonald's. Arriving at the mall 30 minutes late, he sees Einstein sitting outside a truck marked "Doc Brown Enterprises". The Doc himself is nowhere to be seen. Eventually, Marty decides to check inside the truck. There he finds the Doc, dead of smoke inhalation. Marty spends the rest of his life constantly haunted by the day his decision to eat a Big Mac killed his best friend. The End. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 02:56
  • Basically, Doc would have had to do all those things while also correctly predicting when Marty would arrive. If Doc waited too long, Marty would see him pulling into the truck. If Doc jumped the gun and did everything too soon, he would die of smoke inhalation before Marty arrived. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 03:00
  • The smoke is a little weird, but the rest isn't so hard to believe. Maybe once he had drove the DeLorean in the truck to the parking lot, he wanted to do a little more work/testing on the internal devices like the flux capacitor or control panel, so he opened the truck door by a remote he'd designed for convenience, climbed in, closed the door again so no one would see his new invention or bother him, and then slid in through a window he had opened before for exactly that purpose (knowing he might want to do some work on it while keeping the DeLorean hidden and secure). – Hypnosifl Jun 16 '15 at 04:27
  • As for why he didn't asphyxiate on the smoke, maybe it was just steam? In real life, the "smoke" from cooling towers at nuclear plants is in fact steam (and not even radioactive!), and I remember hearing/reading somewhere that the vents at the back of the DeLorean time machine (not seen on normal DeLoreans) were meant to be part of a cooling system for the nuclear generator inside. – Hypnosifl Jun 16 '15 at 04:31
  • @Hypnosifl - So he was being irradiated and burned by steam, but not asphyxiated. Got it. :) – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:34
  • Also, a man who falls off a toilet while hanging a clock (who the hell has a clock in their bathroom anyway?) should not try to wriggle through a tiny window via a narrow gap between it the interior wall of a box truck. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:36
  • @Hypnosifl - the window idea wouldn't work anyway. Have you ever seen a DeLorean window? Here is a picture of one. The problem should be fairly obvious. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:39
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    @Hypnosifl If both are at atmospheric pressure (14.7 psia), steam and boiling water are both at the temperature of 100C or 212F. If it was steam, Doc would have atleast second degree burns considering the closed space and the amount of screen time in the smoke. At best its fog, or some sort of movie smoke. At worst its actual smoke, but steam would have left him sweating or scolded. –  Jun 16 '15 at 04:40
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    @WadCheber that's the window? HAHA. Edited. –  Jun 16 '15 at 04:41
  • @cde - Yessir. That is indeed a window from a DeLorean DMC-12, the same model as the Doc's time machine. I'm not sure why they designed it that way, possibly something to do with the momentum of closing a gullwing door, and the added force needed to do so being too much for a conventionally sized window to handle. Or maybe they just thought it looked cool. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:43
  • And even if the Doc tried to squeeze through that tiny little window, it is almost at the point where the door would be nearest to the wall of the truck. He'd have less than a foot of space to slide his relatively large (in terms of height, not width) body through, and he'd have to twist himself around in order to get himself into the seat. A guy who has trouble standing on a toilet shouldn't attempt such gymnastics, especially at the Doc's age. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:51
  • I've actually seen a DeLorean window before, but it didn't occur to me until just now that a normal size human being could not possibly fit through such a small opening. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:53
  • @cde - Here is a link to a photo of the actual DeLorean from the movie. The window looks even smaller when you can see the whole car. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 04:58
  • @cde - People don't get second degree burns from hanging out in steambaths, presumably because the density is too low. And even if the density was a little higher than a typical steambath, Doc may have closed the window before beginning whatever process caused the release of steam. – Hypnosifl Jun 16 '15 at 17:43
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    @Wad Cheber - I didn't realize that the whole window didn't roll down, only that little section. But Doc made plenty of modifications, I suppose you could always imagine he altered it so the whole window rolled down, or folded in, or was removable, or something. – Hypnosifl Jun 16 '15 at 17:44
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    @Hypnosifl doc wasn't sweating or moist after stepping out. His clothes atleast would have gotten damp from that much Steam. And for the window, at no point do we see any window modification, so that's pointless speculation. –  Jun 16 '15 at 17:52
  • @Hypnosifl - No modifications were made to the window. You can see it in this photo. – Wad Cheber Jun 16 '15 at 22:38
  • @Wad Cheber -- OK, here's another possibility. We know Doc can control the DeLorean by remote from the scene with Einstein's trip 1 minute into the future. So, maybe when Doc got to the parking lot he wanted to do some work inside the DeLorean but wanted neither it nor him to be observed/disturbed (this desire for secrecy might be why he used a truck for transport instead of just driving the DeLorean). So, he opened the truck, used the remote to back the DeLorean out, opened the door and got in, then drove the DeLorean back into the truck & closed the door by remote to maintain his privacy. – Hypnosifl Jun 17 '15 at 20:51
  • @cde - See above for an alternate possibility for getting inside. As for the steam, if the windows of the DeLorean were closed then it would take a little while for much steam to work its way inside the car, maybe that steam was emitted very shortly before Marty saw the truck door open. – Hypnosifl Jun 17 '15 at 20:52
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    The door doesn't need much space to open, this answer makes the false assumption that it does – Ryan Feb 12 '17 at 00:10
  • Based on the other answer (https://scifi.stackexchange.com/a/152420/84134) , this is clearly wrong. – StayOnTarget Apr 04 '21 at 11:47
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My guess is that the Doc loves to put on a show and always goes over and above with his inventions and when he is presenting ideas. Remember the intricate model set he designed in both this movie as well as the 3rd part of the series? He likes to do things with class.

This is the pinnacle invention, something that the Doc has been working on for nearly 30 years and has finally succeeded. Why not unveil it to Marty in a classy and memorable way?

My guess is that he likely used a remote control to control the back of the truck, drove onto the truck, closed the door just before Marty arrived and re-opened it again to roll out with a touch of pizazz. The smoke could have been from the DeLorean, or he could have wanted to add more to the effect with a bit of artificial smoke (such as a smoke machine generates). This would also explain why he wanted Marty to come to the Mall car park at such a specific time.

Either that or he used his other secret invention, the shrink ray, and got in through a window. :)

kojow7
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I'd say he got into the car while it was outside the van, then he drove the car inside the van and waited for Marty to arrive (that's why they had an appointment and doc even called him up to remind him..) allowing a few minutes delay he drove out to make Marty a surprise.

before that, doc obviously drove the car into the truck by remote to get it from his lab to the mall and then drove the truck to the mall.

Frank
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