Original subtitles

[suspenseful music playing]

[Josh] Hey, has this ever happened to you?

Cars that appear out of nowhere?

Strange photographs from the future?

Something has to be done.

[Josh] And a fictional character

from one of your favorite movies sending you

on the adventure of a lifetime.

You can't make this stuff up

or maybe you can because, television.

Hello? Anybody home?

[Josh] Just go with it.

Doc Brown enlisted me,

a guy who finds things for a living,

to do just that.

Team up with screen legend, Christopher Lloyd,

and track down the disappearing

DeLorean time machine

from this picture.

Apparently, the future depends on us

delivering this exact car

to Michael J. Fox where it's destined

to greatly benefit his foundation

for Parkinson's Research.

I'd do anything for Michael.

[Josh] Back to the Future co-creator, Bob Gale,

informed us that there wasn't just

one original car from the movie.

- There were seven. - Seven cars?

One by one, we track down six of them.

Only to find out for one reason or another

none of them were the car from this picture.

Where's the rest of it?

[Josh] Father and son super collectors

Bill and Patrick Shea told us the final car,

known by Back to the Future aficionados

as the Oxnard car

because it was used with the scenes

filmed in Oxnard, California,

had at one point been housed at Universal Studios

in Orlando, Florida.

But the one that's there now, well...

That car is a fake.

[Josh] Thanks to the carefully kept records

at DeLorean headquarters in Houston,

uh, yes, there still is a DeLorean headquarters.

I mean, this is crazy.

We were able to find the VIN number

of the mysterious seventh car

and traced its journey through the years.

And guess where it ended up?

Transfer order from Universal Promotions

back to Orlando, so it's there.

Chris, we're going to Florida.

Yeah.

Home of old people.

I'm Josh Gates and this is

Expedition: Back to the Future.

[dramatic music playing]

[upbeat music playing]

- [Josh groans] Okay. - [Chris groans]

Time machine number seven, the Oxnard car.

- It's our last hope. - This things have

a men's room here?

It's pretty likely, yeah.

Well, at least that's some good news.

[Josh] Universal Studios Florida

opened 30 years ago.

The same year Back to the Future III

hit theaters. Like the movies,

the park was an instant success

and today, more than 10 million people

- visit each year. - [crowd cheering]

[Josh] It's a movie fan's paradise.

But, as you can imagine,

we don't have time for sightseeing.

[dramatic music playing]

So if you look to your right,

you'll see the original DeLorean time machine

from the hit 1985 Universal Motion Picture

Back to the Future starring Michael J. Fox

and Christopher Lloyd.

Yeah, this is Christopher Lloyd.

- Hey. - Okay.

How do you know it's the real car?

It says it right here.

Oh, it also says on that helpful placard right there.

[Josh] Okay. Well, uh, Brad,

so this should be which known as the Oxnard car

and it's a time machine from Back to the Future Part III.

We've heard it's a replica but we have documentation

that shows that it's the real deal.

[sighs] Okay. I just got moved from churros, so I don't...

Maybe we should hop out and take a look at it?

Yeah, maybe you should hop out and take a look at it.

[dramatic music playing]

It says it's the one from the movie.

Yeah, it's definitely old, but I don't know, man.

What don't you know?

[Josh sighs] Didn't Sheas tell us that the...

that there should be a weird Mr. Fusion on it?

[stammers] Th-Th-That looks regular to me.

I know, but they said that it was replaced.

At some point, when it was on display,

they replaced the real Mr. Fusion

with a very skinny, tall, stovepipe Mr. Fusion,

so the car that's there now

doesn't have that, that's a fake car.

The Oxnard car had some long, skinny thing on it.

- Stovepipe. Yeah. - Right.

The VIN number is the only way to know for sure.

Where's the VIN on this things?

Okay. You open the doors, it's on the side.

[upbeat music playing]

[Josh] Uh-huh.

It doesn't match.

- This isn't the car. - [car door closes]

- Are you sure? - The VIN doesn't match.

Brad, this isn't the car from the movie.

Hey, I am holding in my hands a shipping order

from DeLorean headquarters in Houston.

It says the original car was shipped here

to Universal Orlando and this isn't it.

- Whoa. - Right?

No, I just realized I never showed Gretchen

how to make the churro better.

Braddy!

Is there anyone in the park

that knows the whereabouts of this vehicle?

Maybe Phil.

Who's Phil?

[Brad] He's like the boss of everything.

- Bring us to Phil! - Bring us to Phil!

[Brad sighs]

All right, here we are.

- It's Phil's place. - [Josh] Okay.

- [Chris clears throat] - So, in there?

Yeah, Phil's in there.

And then what, left, right, down the hall?

Yeah.

- Stupid thing. - [engine puttering]

Come on, we'll find this guy.

[tense music playing]

- [knocks on door] - You Phil?

- Yeah. - Hey, uh, I'm Josh,

this is, uh, Chris.

We're, uh, on a bit of a mission,

sorry to burst in.

We came here looking for the original

screen-used DeLorean

from the Back to the Future films

that you supposedly have.

And we have the original VIN number and shipping order,

I-I don't know how to tell you this,

but that car that you have on display out there,

- that's not real. - I know. It's a replica.

A replica?

- [thuds] - I mean, we have been...

We've been from LA to Massachusetts,

to Houston, now Orlando

trying to find this thing.

It's unbelievable.

You guys wanna see the real one?

[suspenseful music playing]

Yes. Yeah. Sorry about that waste basket.

Oh, that's okay. We got plenty.

Here we go.

- Follow me. - [Chris sighs]

[thuds]

Come on.

So we had this one on display for a while

but, uh, you know, the weather was beating

the crap out of it and people were starting

to pick at it like carcasses,

it was a mess, so we moved it off to Florence,

stashed it back here,

it's just been taking up space.

In fact, about to move it out next week,

so your timing is pretty good.

Okay.

[Phil] Guys, open up.

[groans]

[suspenseful music playing]

- [Phil] You guys ready? - Yeah.

- Yeah. - [Phil] Well, here it is.

[dramatic music playing]

- [Josh] I think that's it. - It's the DeLo.

- I think that's it. - Yes.

It's dirty, it's dusty, but look at it,

look at the Mr. Fusion.

I think that's the Oxnard car.

Looks like it to me.

- Okay, check the VIN. - Huh.

Oh, no, no, no, no, no.

This is your adventure.

I'm just off for the ride.

- I'm too nervous. You do it. - Oh, you do it.

- You do it. - You do it.

- You do it. - You do it!

Okay, I'll do it.

[tense music playing]

Okay.

- You gotta be kidding me. - What?

- It's a match! - Yeah!

- This is it! [laughs] - Yes!

- Yeah, it is! - [Josh] This is the car.

- Oh, man. - Okay.

That's right, ladies and gentlemen.

We have officially found the seventh car,

the Oxnard car.

I remember seeing this up on the silver screen

in part three.

And now, it's here.

I mean, I am standing right in front of it

and the VIN verifies its authenticity.

Sure, at this point, I've now seen

every screen-used DeLorean that still exists,

but there is something special about this one.

Maybe it's the jetlag

or maybe it's the fact that this particular car

has eluded so many for so long.

Now, all we have to do is rely on the kindness

of a perfect stranger.

- Okay. - Hey.

Okay. Yeah.

Uh,

Phil, look, um,

I'm sure you recognize Chris.

Uh,

we are desperate to find

one of the screen-used cars from Back to the Future.

And it's sitting back here, it's gathering dust,

is there any way you would consider

letting us take it off your hands?

This is for The Michael J. Fox Foundation.

[Josh] And this car, it's gonna raise...

Well, we think it's gonna raise

a lot of money for a really good cause.

Yeah.

Well, like I said, it's...

We're gonna move it out next week.

And to be honest, it's become...

bit of an albatross back here. And...

if you guys need it so badly,

I'd have to make a few phone calls but, uh...

it should be all right.

- Ah! - [Josh] Yes?

Yes.

- So we just do it? - Give me the newspaper.

Oh, everything should be back to the...

- What is it? - The car.

It's gone.

Phil, when you said you're moving it out next week,

- moving it where? - Children's hospital.

We're gonna put it on display in the lobby.

Give the kids something cool to see.

We're taking it.

[Josh] Chris, don't you see, we can't...

we can't take this car away from a bunch sick kids.

- This is ridiculous. - [newspaper drops]

Wait, maybe... When are you moving it?

- Maybe there's still time. - [Phil sighs] Well, uh,

we were looking at the middle of the week but there's...

- [car engine starting] - Chris, what are you doing?

Oh, we've come too far to give up now.

Guys, guys,

that's-that's-that's an old car.

[car engine revving]

Chris, all right, uh, we can't do this.

Josh, get in. This is the seventh car,

it's gotta be the right one.

No, but did you saw the paper,

something's wrong.

We've been all over the country

and found all seven time machines

and none of them is the right one.

What do we have to do, build it ourselves?

[tire screeches]

What did you just say?

I said what are we gonna do, build it ourselves?

Chris, that's it.

We have to build it ourselves.

Oh.

I knew it all along.

[static]

[upbeat music playing]

[Vinnie] So I believe I have a lot of the same

staples that any red blooded

wanted time traveler would have.

But amongst to my prized possessions

is this piece of the A DeLorean

certified by the restoration team.

For my ultimate prized possession

is a piece of the B DeLorean

which was used in all three movies

that they destroyed on the train tracks

at the end of part three.

So I went to the filming locations,

scoured it, and found this piece

of the taillight.

See you in the future.

[Josh] Talk about a turn of events,

we've now found all seven of the DeLorean time machines

from the Back to the Future Trilogy and none of them

was the time machine from this photo.

Oh, crap.

Which is why it continued to disappear.

- Until Chris said... - What do we have to do,

build it ourselves?

- Bingo! - What's that supposed to mean?

[Josh] What it means is we have only one option left,

we have to build one from scratch.

And since the last time I built a time machine

was exactly never,

I tracked down someone who might be able to help.

So, Chris and I are right back

where we started, Southern California.

It also happens to be home

to the world's foremost

DeLorean time machine builder.

What's this guy's name again?

His name is Danny Botkin.

- They say he's the best. - All right.

Botkin.

Hope he's got a men's room in there.

Yeah, let's hope.

Back in the early '80s,

Danny Botkin was just a kid

who happened to spot a DeLorean

while car shopping with his dad.

And it was love at first sight.

But despite his begging,

his father decided to get a Bronco.

But Danny's dream never died.

And in 2000, he finally bought

the space age-looking DeLorean.

He spent four years restoring it

and converting it into a time machine.

During this time, he worked

as a DeLorean mechanic

learning the ins and outs

of every inch of the car.

He received so much great feedback

on his time machine from fans and gearheads

that he decided to segue his passion

for the movie car into his career.

And now, he builds DeLorean time machines for a living.

Super fans say he is the best of the best.

And though it usually takes him

about six months to complete a build.

We just don't have the luxury of time.

[Danny] How are we doing?

- Good. You, Danny? - Yes, I am.

- Hey, I'm Josh. How are you? - Yes, Josh.

- Good. How are you doing? - I'm great.

And this is Christopher Lloyd.

Oh, I know Christopher Lloyd. How are you doing?

You are the DeLorean guy.

- Yes, I am. [chuckles] - All right.

Are you in the movies too?

- Uh, cable. - Oh.

- So, you build time machines. - Yes, I do.

I see time machine restoration team on the shirt.

So, how does one become a time machine builder.

You build one for yourself, and then after that,

everybody wants you to build one for them, so...

So, you were you a car guy

or Back to the Future guy first?

I'm both. I love movies, I love cars.

What great car to have.

[clanging]

Somebody dropped something.

- [mouthing words] - [Chris] All right.

So, look, you are just the guy that we need to talk to.

- Okay. - We need a time machine.

Well, I can do that for you.

But not just any time machine.

- Okay. - We need...

- this time machine. - [Danny] Okay.

- [Josh] What do you think? - Well, there's quite

a few parts on here that looks like I built.

There's other parts on her too that looks...

original, like from the original car.

- What do you mean? - Well, usually a lot of guys

use a lot of prefab parts.

But this looks like a lot of original parts

and some of the parts that I made.

Well, we want original parts.

- Right. - It's gotta be authentic.

[Danny] On the other hand, there's quite

a few things on here that I'm not familiar with.

It looks like a DeLorean to me.

- What's different about it? - Well, one of the things

is what he's holding.

[Josh] Michael? A remote control.

Yeah, I've never done a remote-controlled DeLorean.

Well, you're about to.

- Okay. - All right?

- Let's do it. - [Josh] Can you?

- Yeah. - [Josh] You can build this?

- I can build it. - [Josh] Okay.

- When? - How soon do you need it?

Yesterday.

Okay. Well, we need a DeLorean.

A ton of 'em in Houston.

We can ship one?

Not with your timeframe.

Locally, are there any around here

that you know about?

- Hector. - Yes, sir.

[Danny] Where was that barn find we're talking about?

- The DeLorean? - [Danny] Yeah.

It's at Sun Valley.

You guys up for a trip to Sun Valley?

Well, we can't stop now.

[upbeat music playing]

[Josh] So, I went back on the road with my new pal.

And honestly, things have been moving

so quickly on this crazy adventure

that sometimes I forget I'm actually hanging out

with Christopher Lloyd.

Film, TV, theater, this guy has done it all.

And by the way, did I mention he's won three Emmys?

Lucky for me, this extra-long car ride

gives me the opportunity to finally ask him a question

that's been burning in my melon

for the last 30 years.

I mean, the thing that doesn't really make sense...

- Yeah. - ...is he goes back in time

but wouldn't he cease to exist,

like, the moment that his parents didn't meet,

wouldn't that just be it right there?

Uh, yeah, but he haven't existed yet.

He can't cease to exist when he hasn't existed yet.

But he did exist, and then when he went back,

he messed it up, so why is he fading away,

why does he just cease to exist?

Because he go back into that time reality,

of the present reality.

So, he's... He assumes who he was

at the time he go back.

You interacted with anybody else today besides me?

Yeah, well, I might have sort of bumped into my parents.

Great, Scott.

How does Biff end up working for George McFly?

That's seems like a stretch, doesn't it?

That he's waxing his car at the end?

[Marty] Biff out there waxing it right now.

You don't get out much, do you?

- Not really. - Did you have a girlfriend

- growing up? - [scoffs] No.

[Chris] What did you do with yourself?

[Josh] I watched Back to the Future?

I can't believe you're still wearing that shirt.

Oh, I can say the same about you.

Oh, no, I got like 50 of these.

Yeah, well, I had my sweat glands removed in '87,

- a few of them. - What?

What?

Nothing.

Barn finds are the Lost Ark of the car world.

Stories abound about haggard collectors

stumbling across some priceless Duesenberg

buried under a mountain of filth

in an old chicken coop.

But our mission comes

with a little more gravity.

Hello.

- You wanna go that way? - [Chris] Yeah.

[Josh] Hello.

This is my life.

I've been around the globe countless times

and I am always looking for something,

the lost tomb of Attila the Hun,

the treasure of Jesse James,

Amelia Earhart's lost plane,

and my kids' socks.

And now I'm in a junkyard in Southern California.

I definitely need to have a chat with my agent.

- Chris. - [Chris] What?

Look.

Oh, yeah.

This is it.

- This could be the view. - Okay.

You grab that, I'll get this.

Oh.

- Whoa, this is a mess. - Oh, man.

Hope our time machine guy knows what he's doing.

[gun cocks]

[Maple] Can I help you boys with something?

[upbeat music playing]

My name is Adam Richards.

And I'm a Back to the Future's super fan.

For about the last 20 years,

I've been collecting props, merchandise,

and traveling the country to meet the cast and crew.

My fandom is also carried over into my professional life

where I follow in the footsteps

of my biggest inspiration,

the artist behind the movie posters

Drew Struzan.

I've illustrated comic book cover

from IDW Publishing.

As well as helped out on some designs

and consultation for NECA's

Back to the Future action figures and collectibles,

which if you told my younger self

I'd be doing in the future, I think you're crazy.

[Josh] I know what this looks like,

a couple of people snooping around

on someone's property, but this is where

our time machine expert Danny

told us we could find a DeLorean to use.

Luckily, I search for things for a living.

So, nothing surprises me.

Well, almost nothing.

Oh, man, hope our time machine guy knows what he's doing.

- [Chris] Yeah. - [gun cocks]

[suspenseful music playing]

[Maple] Can I help you boys with something?

Uh, we're friends of Danny, the builder.

He should've told you we were coming, Danny Botkin.

Never heard of him.

Oh, um, we're here for the DeLorean.

We're supposed to pick it up

or the whole space time continuum will be in jeopardy.

Wait a minute.

Aren't you that guy from the TV?

- Oh, well, yes. - [Maple] No, not you.

- Okay. - You.

Yes. Yes, I am.

Well, if I've known I was gonna be talking

to a TV star, I would have plucked my chin.

Oh. [chuckles]

You don't wanna mess with perfection.

- Oh. - [Josh] This car

is of the utmost importance.

And it could affect generations to come

and you could be a part of that.

Uh-huh.

What's your name?

Maple.

Maple?

Yes.

Maple.

Maple,

can I have a word with you in private?

I'd like that.

I named pet rat "Dog".

- [Chris] No. - Yeah.

[dramatic music playing]

Okay.

[singer] ♪ I just want you In my life ♪

♪ I don't think I'm gonna make it back ♪

♪ More than that ♪

♪ All I want ♪

I don't wanna know, do I?

You most certainly do not.

Okay.

The Back to the Future fan base is one of a kind.

This trilogy has enthusiasts of all ages

from every country on earth.

And the time traveling storyline is complex,

creating its own subculture of theories and speculations.

So, to set the record straight,

let's turn some of these theories into facts.

Did you know this Fact to the Future?

Though it's well known that actor Eric Stoltz

was cast as the original Marty McFly,

the studio eventually let him go

as his acting style was too dark and bruiting

for the central comedic role.

The production spent six weeks shooting

and spent nearly four million dollars

before Michael J. Fox became available.

But Michael J. Fox might not have been available at all,

if not for one lucky coincidence.

Initially, Michael couldn't participate in the film

because of conflicts with his sitcom Family Ties.

But as fate would have it,

the show had to change its schedule

when Michael's TV mom, Meredith Baxter Birney

gave birth to twins in real life.

This freed Michael up enough to be able

to take over the coveted role

- of Marty McFly. - How dare you.

Another bit of alternate casting happened early on,

not with an actor, but with an object.

In an early draft of the script,

the time machine was written to be a refrigerator.

That was literally going to be gathering atomic energy

from a nuclear blast

near a remote military testing site.

Robert Zemeckis eventually changed the time machine

to a DeLorean before production began,

setting off a craze for the extinct sports car.

But the idea of a nuked refrigerator turned up again

years later in another equally famous movie franchise

when George Lucas and Steven Spielberg

finally used the idea in

Indiana Jones and The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

in a notorious scene that had fans questioning

the filmmaker's sanity.

Okay. We'll, that was exciting.

Oh, did I say exciting?

I meant disturbing and terrifying.

So, we're dropping off our barn find DeLorean

at Danny's so he can assess the condition.

To the untrained eye like mine,

it looks pretty rough

but I mean, it also looks like a DeLorean

and it runs, so that's good.

I just hope Danny comes back with some good news.

I am not sure I can take any more disappointment.

Well, I mean, it's a little rough,

but it's got good bones.

It's a... It's a good candidate.

I'm just kind of surprised you guys got it so quickly.

Well, Chris really took one for the team. He...

Well, that'd be the last time we speak of it.

Anyway, we got the car.

- [Danny] Okay. - Now, what happens?

Well, now, I have torn it down,

kind of checked the bones of it,

make sure there's no critters or anything like that in it,

I think the next thing to do

is just start building it back up.

Okay. So, I know this is your bread and butter,

this is what you do, but we obviously need

a level of detail here that is

- off the charts, right? - [Danny] Right.

It hasn't been done before. You saw the picture.

- Yes. - Can you do that

- in the short time we have? - With myself?

No.

But that's why I called Kevin.

[suspenseful music playing]

Kevin Pike.

Does this guy know something about building time machines?

Yeah, he should.

He built the original.

[upbeat music playing]

[Benjamin] Hi, my name is Benjamin Carroll.

And I love Back to the Future.

It has truly changed my life

ever since I watched it in my old VCR.

Hopefully one day I could possibly get

a DeLorean of my own.

These movies have changed my life.

I love them. Happy 35th anniversary,

Back to the Future.

[suspenseful music playing]

Kevin Pike.

Does this guy know something about building time machines?

Yeah, he should.

He built the original.

[Josh] I am running out of places to pinch myself

because I am now sitting at a table

with movie royalty.

Out of my top favorite films of all time,

this guy to my left was a big part of most of them.

Kevin Pike,

special effects supervisor extraordinaire.

The very first movie he worked on,

little thing called Jaws changed Hollywood forever

by becoming the first bona fide blockbuster.

His follow-ups include

Close Encounters of the Third Kind,

Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom,

and of course Back to the Future.

And he's sitting right here.

Why? Because he built the original time machine.

And now, he's helping Chris and me build ours.

So, Kevin, you are the authority.

How does one turn a DeLorean into the perfect time machine?

One of the things that you wanna come together about

is what kind of car are you going to build

because there were several versions

for different story points in Back to the Future.

If you remember, on the back of the car,

right here, Chris, was where

- the plutonium chamber was. - Right.

[Kevin] Where you took the yellow lid off

and put in the red plutonium...

that you got from the Libyans.

Later, you come back from the future

and now you have the Mr. Fusion,

which is a Krups coffee grinder.

- [Chris laughs] - So, based on the photo,

- we want the Mr. Fusion model? - [Kevin] Correct.

The one from the end of the first film,

- that's what's in the photo. - [Kevin] Yup. That's great.

[Josh] Now, that we're clear on exactly

which version of the time machine we're building,

let's get down to the design.

We've all decided to break it down

into two parts, starting with the exterior.

So let's talk time machine 101.

What are the things

that every DeLorean time machine needs to have?

What are the basics?

It definitely has to have the bands,

the lip bands.

Now, when we made it, we actually used

phosphorus gas tubing

and got transformers and lit it up.

- [Chris] Right, right. Yeah. - [Kevin] That's how we made

that shape happen because all of this

was before what the kids put on

with these blue candy LEDs now.

So if you're gonna do it, at least do white?

[Danny] White? Yeah. We can do a white rope LED.

[Josh] Okay. So we have to have this banding.

- What else? - [Kevin] Um,

you're definitely going to have to need

the iconic pieces that you always see

on the outside,

like what we call these these days are hockey pucks,

uh, they look like little Pac-Man.

And they've gotten all these joke names.

And the other ones that you see would be

the strut tubes on the other side

that were actually turnbuckles for our helicopter blades.

And we took three of them out of the recycle bin

of the air parts junkyard and we put them on there

and they became extremely iconic.

The other big thing on the outside of the car

that you can't miss are these,

the big fins, these afterburner things.

[Kevin] These are the greatest.

This really gave the car propulsion in its imagery,

just by its own there. Whoa. That has...

Something has to come out of there.

So somewhere in there, it has to have

something big that does that.

And if you remember, we made that exhaust

with CO2 to give it that cold look

when it came in and stopped.

Those have to be there.

But that was all custom?

That's not off the shelf, these things?

- From scratch. - Wow.

It normally takes Danny months

to build a time machine and that's without having

to find parts identical

to what was used in the original.

It's a near-impossible ask,

but near-impossible still means possible.

Gentlemen,

I just wanna be clear.

We're giving this car to Michael's foundation.

I want it to be spectacular.

No cutting corners.

It has to be immaculate.

- Got it? - Got it.

[upbeat music playing]

Hey. Mickey here.

I am a teacher in elementary school

and I use Back to the Future as part of my curriculum.

I do a read aloud and, um,

I show props, replica props,

uh, to my students.

And check this out.

Even, uh, the entire cast had signed the jacket.

But what do I do when we need part two?

Snap. We make our own book and I created my own.

Back to the Future part two book,

including all the props.

Thank you.

[Josh] Well, this is it.

We have come a very long way

and it's led us here to this table

strewn with blueprints and schematics

with the world's foremost time machine builder,

Danny Botkin, and the man

instrumentally building the original, Kevin Pike.

I am having the time of my life talking

through the history of how the time machine came to be.

But now, we have to figure out

what it's going to take to make

our time machine beyond special

with what little time we have left.

Am I saying time a lot?

I feel like I'm saying time a lot. Sorry.

We don't have time for this.

The team and I have already spent hours

going over the details of the exterior.

Now, we move on to the interior.

And on the inside, what's the must-have?

[Kevin] Uh, a lot of buttons,

lot of switches, a lot of lights.

He could touch the buttons and the lights would light up

and he could put any date he wanted and he could go

- anywhere he wanted. - [Josh] So it worked?

You could... You could play with that panel

- and it would... - Oh, man. Those lights, uh...

- It was very real. - [chuckles]

[beeping]

[Doc Brown] Damn. Got to fix that thing.

All right. Time circuits on.

One part that you have to have

is in the interior

and no matter what mode you use

in all the shows, you have this.

And this is the flux capacitor.

[Josh] For many Back to the Future nerds,

myself included, the flux capacitor

is the heart and soul of the machine.

It's the component around

which everything else is built.

That's what made time travel possible.

[Kevin] Right. Exactly. So we have to have

one of those for sure, no matter what look we make.

[Josh] So to learn what went into creating it

is like unlocking the secret to my youth.

Any fan of the movie would be losing their mind right now.

And let me tell you, I may look calm,

but I am doing everything I can

to not pee my pants.

That was a pretty simple design

that turned out to be this major component

and it was just three little slivers

of plexiglass and this glass tubes

that are circuit connectors,

and they have spark plug wires on them.

It was completely fabricated, fantasy.

And then we went out, we got a silly strobe light

from radio shack to punch of the power,

- went 188 miles an hour. - Wow.

And then Bob wanted some action behind Michael,

so we have to have that Christmas tree

behind his head that accelerates

every time he goes faster.

The interior has a lot of functionality, as you know.

One of the iconic pieces is that lever

that he hits that turns the car on and off.

We've found that at an auto part store

that happens to be a battery planer.

Everything had a reason.

And just before we shot,

Steven Spielberg called us up to bring the car

and we went over every store he point

that had to do with that car.

He wanted to make sure that we had it in there

before he green lit us to go.

[Josh] Did it always look like it looks in the films?

Did you go through different iterations of it?

[Kevin] Um, we did as we are building it

because we were thinking about what we could do

and what we couldn't do. Uh, Bob Gale, Bob Z came by

all the time, checked to see how it was going.

Bob Gale was very, very good about reminding us

this was homemade by Doc Brown.

And to make sure we showed the welds,

and we showed the screw tips, and we showed the raw wire,

and everything that you can kind of see, is...

He put it on their for its go power

and it wasn't really the aesthetic beauty

of a classic car per se.

[Josh] Right. It needs to look high-tech but homemade.

- Because he homemade it? - [Chris] Yeah, yeah.

Uh, I love all this fancy stuff, right?

And we come up with a little-little alarm clock.

- [Josh] Yes. The alarm clock. - [Chris] That thing,

you can pick up in a local whatever, you know.

[Kevin] Th-th-that's, uh... The holy grail of pieces

because it's so prominent

on the dash, so that's a must-have.

- And those are hard to find. - So, it's not even

got its place. It's sort of... Just sort of bounced there.

- [ringing] - Here we go. Here we go.

This time, come on.

- [grunts] - [car horn honks]

- [car engine revs] - [Marty gasps] Ha.

[Josh] I know that some die-hard fans try to do this.

They make these cars.

Do they often get it exactly right?

[Kevin] Um, not exactly.

Always gets a little change as time goes on.

It's like the old telephone gag where somebody says,

"No. You can make it blue. That's good."

And then it gets darker blue, and then it's like green,

and it keeps changing.

So I kind of feel

that the best thing that we can do

- is make it 100% accurate. - Oh, yeah.

- Yeah. - [Josh] Big time.

So how do we step our game up here

to do something that is truly off the charts,

- one of a kind? - Well, I think

one of the things that we saw on the picture.

We're going to make it remote-controlled

and that'll settle the part.

[Josh] Yeah. You heard that right.

Our time machine is going to be remote-controlled.

It sounds crazy.

And in fact, it was something

they couldn't pull off in the original film.

But dare I say they solved that shortcoming

with a creative solution.

- Got that? - [dog barks]

- Good. Okay. - [Josh] No, they didn't train

a dog to drive.

The dog drives pretty well

but he doesn't make turns very well.

So then we have a human, which is me.

And since we're not planning to also donate a stunt driver

in a dog suit to Michael's foundation,

ours is somehow going to have to do it for real.

[suspenseful music playing]

[Danny] With that and sourcing out of all the original parts,

that's going to make it special.

None of that pre-fabricated stuff?

- [Danny] No. - No.

And how hard is it to find original parts for this?

[Kevin] It's going to be a lot of work.

It's going to be quite a hunt.

Um, some of them are out of service

and, uh, others, we're going to have to find hook

or by crook or maybe from some of the fans.

We'll find them.

- How do you all feel? - We got a lot of work to do.

- We got a lot of hunt to do. - Oh, well, now,

let's get to it.

- Let's make a time machine. - [Danny] Gonna be fun.

- Let's do it. - [Josh] Go.

[Chris] Let's go.

[Josh] This mission continues to amaze me

and that's really saying something

because I go all over the world

to find things for a living. But building something,

well, that's brand new territory.

Hey, Kevin, did the DeLorean have a flamethrower?

And while that's exciting, it's also problematic.

We are go for lunch, people.

Because our deadline is set in stone.

I hope none of these is hooked up to anything.

And if I miss that date, well,

actually, I'm not quite sure what happens.

A black hole opens, Biff buys another casino.

I don't know. And I don't want to find out

because the space time continuum

is serious business.

No.

[grunts]

[Josh] What I do know is I am not going to let down

my new friend, Christopher Lloyd

and Michael J. Fox.

No pressure, right?

Can you make yourself available

- the day after tomorrow? - Is that Michael J. Fox?

I have a mission and my mission is clear.

And I will not fail.

The future depends on it.

All right, Chris, check the newspaper.

It's a bust. We're done.

Ah!

- COMPUTER: Warning. - Uh-oh.

At least I hope not.

[cheerful music playing]