Back to the Future Time Machine

Number: HCV54-M9C0H

Year: 2022 - 8/10

Collection: HW Screen Time

Born: 1981, Dunmurry, Ireland

Manufacturer: DeLorean Motor Company

In the Back to the Future franchise, the DeLorean time machine is a time travel vehicle constructed from a retrofitted DMC DeLorean. Its time travel ability is derived from the flux capacitor, a component that allows the car to travel to the past or future. This occurs when the car accelerates to 88 miles per hour and requires 1.21 gigawatts of electricity.

For most of the first film, the 1.21 gigawatts are supplied by a plutonium-powered nuclear fission reactor, and, with the absence of plutonium, a bolt of lightning channeled directly into the flux capacitor by a long pole and hook in the film's climactic sequence. At the end of the first film, and for the remainder of the trilogy, the plutonium nuclear reactor is replaced by a "Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor" generator possibly acquired in 2015. The "Mr. Fusion" device converts household waste into electrical power; the name suggests nuclear fusion. Due to a hover conversion made in 2015, the car also becomes capable of hovering and flight, though it loses this ability at the end of the second film.

Although the Mr. Fusion unit provides the required power for the time machine, the DeLorean is still powered by an internal combustion engine for propulsion. The fuel line is damaged during Marty's trip to 1885 in Back to the Future Part III. After he and Doc patch it, they attempt to use whiskey as a replacement fuel since commercial gasoline is not yet available. The test fails, damaging the car's fuel injection manifold and leaving it unable to travel under its power.