20 Things You Somehow Missed In Back To The Future
7. The DeLorean's Top Speed
The DeLorean has to go 88mph in order to travel through time. This is such a well-known fact, the number 88 is synonymous with the franchise. But do you know what the weirdest thing about this number is? The DeLorean has a maximum speed... of 85mph! This means it can't even reach the speed needed for the plot!
But why does it matter? Why was the writer, Bob Gale, so adamant about the number 88? Well, Gale wanted the "time-travel speed" to be a number with the same digits so it was easy to remember. Gale also needed the automobile to go really fast to time-travel so the action scenes were more tense and exciting. (It's a fair point. It wouldn't be particularly exciting if the DeLorean time-travelled by driving at 33mph.)
Only after Gale obtained a DeLorean did he realise it couldn't reach the intended speed. Since he had the number 88 stuck in his head, he refused to change it. To get around this plothole, the speedometer shown for the vehicle was modified so it displays a maximum speed of 95mph.