Top 50 Quotes From Dr. Emmett Brown

Doc: Clara was one in a million. One in a billion. One in a googolplex!

Doc: [reading a letter his future self wrote] I never knew I could write anything so touching.
Marty: I know, Doc, it's beautiful.

[first lines]
Marty: Doc! Doc! Doc!
Young: [not paying attention] What?
Marty: Doc!
Young: What?
Marty: Doc!
Young: [finally seeing him] Aaaah!
Marty: Okay, relax, Doc, it's me! It's me, It's Marty!
Young: No, it can't be! I just sent you back to the future!
Marty: Oh, I know you did send me back to the future. But I'm back, I'm back *from* the future.
Young: Great Ssscott!

[Doc and Marty in the time machine are about to depart from the Alternate 1985]
Doc: Time circuits on.
Marty: What do you mean "Time Circuits on"? Doc, we're not goin' back now!
Doc: Yep.
Marty: Doc, What about Jennifer? What about Einstein? We can't just leave 'em here.
Doc: Don't worry, Marty. Assuming we succeed in our mission, this alternate 1985 will be changed back into the real 1985, instantaneously transforming around Jennifer and Einie. Jennifer and Einie will be fine, and they will have absolutely no memory of this horrible place.
Marty: Doc... what if we don't succeed?
Doc: We *must* succeed.

Clara: Emmett, do you think we'll ever be able to travel to the moon like we travel across the country on trains?
Doc: Definitely, although not for another eighty-four years and not on trains. We'll have space vehicles, capsules to sail off in rockets, devices that create giant explosions, explosions that are so powerful that they...
Clara: [finishes Doc's sentence] "They break the pull of the earth's gravity and send their projectile through outer space."
[Doc stares at her in shock. Clara laughs]
Clara: Emmett, I read that book too. You're quoting Jules Verne, "From the Earth to the Moon".
Doc: You've read Jules Verne?
Clara: I *adore* Jules Verne.
Doc: So do I. "20,000 Leagues Under the Sea", my absolute favorite. The first time I read that when I was a little boy I wanted to meet Captain Nemo and...
Clara: [laughs] Don't tease, Emmett. You couldn't have read that when you were a little boy, it was only first published ten years ago.
Doc: Oh, yes, well... I meant it made me *feel* like a boy. I never met a woman who liked Jules Verne before.
Clara: I never ever met a man like *you* before.
[Doc and Clara kiss as a shooting star falls from the sky]

[last lines]
Marty: Hey, Doc, we better back up. We don't have enough road to get up to 88.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Doc: The time-traveling is just too dangerous. Better that I devote myself to study the other great mystery of the universe: women!

Marty: [arriving in 1955] Oh, this is heavy, Doc. I mean, it's like I was just here yesterday.
Doc: You were here yesterday, Marty.

Younger Dr. Emmett Brown: [running out of the room] 1.21 gigawatts! 1.21 gigawatts. Great Scott!
Marty: [following] What-what the hell is a gigawatt?

Doc: Marty, you can't go losing your judgment every time someone calls you a name. That's exactly what causes you to get into that accident in the future.

Doc: Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads.

Doc: They're taking her home, to your future home! We'll arrive shortly thereafter, get her out of there and go back to 1985.
Marty: You mean, I'm gonna see where I live? I'm gonna see myself as an old man?
Doc: No, no, no Marty, that could result in a-
[gasps]
Doc: Great Scott! Jennifer could conceivably encounter her future self! The consequences of that could be disastrous!
Marty: Doc, what do you mean?
Doc: I foresee two possibilities. One, coming face to face with herself 30 years older would put her into shock and she'd simply pass out. Or two, the encounter could create a time paradox, the results of which could cause a chain reaction that would unravel the very fabric of the space time continuum, and destroy the entire universe! Granted, that's a worse case scenario. The destruction might in fact be very localized, limited to merely our own galaxy.
Marty: Well, that's a relief.

[Dr. Emmett Brown is doubting Marty McFly's story about that he is from the future]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Then tell me, future boy, who's President of the United States in 1985?
Marty: Ronald Reagan.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Ronald Reagan? The actor?
[chuckles in disbelief]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Then who's vice president? Jerry Lewis?
[rushing out and down a hill toward his laboratory]
Dr. Emmett Brown: I suppose Jane Wyman is the First Lady!
Marty: [following Doc] Whoa. Wait, Doc!
Dr. Emmett Brown: And Jack Benny is secretary of the treasury.
Marty: [outside the lab door] Doc, you gotta listen to me.
Dr. Emmett Brown: [opens the door to the lab] I've had enough practical jokes for one evening. Good night, future boy!
[closes the door leaving Marty outside]
Marty: No, wait, Doc. Doc. The-the-the bruise on your head, I know how that happened. You told me the whole story. You were standing on your toilet and you were hanging a clock, and you fell and you hit your head on the sink. And that's when you came up with the idea for the flux capacitor,
[somberly]
Marty: which is what makes time travel possible.
[Doc opens the door and looks at Marty with a stunned look on his face]

Dr. Emmett Brown: [Doc has just finished the final preparations for Marty's return to 1985] Well, I guess that's everything.
Marty: [pause] Thanks.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Thank *you*!
[Marty emotionally embraces Doc, which surprises him]
Dr. Emmett Brown: See you in about 30 years.
Marty: I hope so.

Doc: You're just not thinking fourth dimensionally!
Marty: Right, right. I have a real problem with that.

Marty: This is heavy.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Weight has nothing to do with it.

Dr. Emmett Brown: [21:04] If my calculations are correct, when this baby hits 88 miles per hour... you're gonna see some serious shit.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Oh, my God. They found me. I don't know how, but they found me. Run for it, Marty!
Marty: Who? Who?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Who do you think? THE LIBYANS!
Marty: HOLY SHIT!

Young: [looking at a tiny circuit under a magnifying glass] Unbelievable that this little piece of junk could be such a big problem. No wonder this circuit failed. It says "Made in Japan".
Marty: What do you mean, Doc? All the best stuff is made in Japan.
Young: Unbelievable.

Marty: The almanac. Son of a bitch stole my idea! He must have been listening when I- It's my fault! The whole thing is my fault. If I hadn't bought that damn book, none of this would have ever happened.
Doc: Well, that's all in the past.
Marty: You mean the future.
Doc: Whatever! It demonstrates precisely how time travel can be mis-used, and why the time machine must be destroyed, after we straighten all of this out.

Doc: Don't talk to anyone, don't touch anything, don't do anything, don't interact with anyone, and try not to look at anything.

[referring to the DeLorean]
Marty: [looks through a camcorder] This is heavy-duty, Doc. This is great. Uh, does it run, like, on regular unleaded gasoline?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Unfortunately, no. It requires something with a little more kick. Plutonium.
Marty: Um, plutonium. Wait a minute. Are...
[lowers the camcorder]
Marty: Are you telling me that this sucker is NUCLEAR?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Hey, hey, hey! Keep rolling. Keep rolling there.
[Marty raises the camcorder]
Dr. Emmett Brown: No, no, no, no, no, this sucker's electrical, but I need a nuclear reaction to generate the 1.21 gigawatts of electricity I need.
Marty: Doc, you don't just walk into a store and-and buy plutonium! Did you rip that off?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Of course. From a group of Libyan nationalists. They wanted me to build them a bomb, so I took their plutonium and, in turn, gave them a shoddy bomb casing full of used pinball machine parts. Come on! Let's get you a radiation suit. We must prepare to reload.

Doc: [consulting a map of the train line] This spur runs off the main line three miles down to Clayton Ravine. There's a long stretch of track that will still exist in 1985. This is where we'll push the DeLorean with the locomotive. Funny, this map calls Clayton Ravine "Shonash Ravine"... that must be an old Indian name for it. It's perfect, a nice long run that goes clear across the bridge over the ravine, you know, over near that Hilldale housing development.
Marty: Right, Doc, but according to this map, there is no bridge.
[cut to Marty and Doc standing at the end of the track overlooking the ravine]
Marty: Well, Doc, we can scratch that idea. I mean, we can't wait around a year and a half for this thing to get finished.
Doc: Marty, it's perfect, you're just not thinking fourth-dimensionally!
Marty: [sotto voice] Right, right. I have a real problem with that.
Doc: Don't you see? The bridge *will* exist in 1985. It's safe and still in use. Therefore, as long as we get the DeLorean up to 88 miles per hour before we hit the edge of the ravine, we'll instantaneously arrive at a point in time where the bridge is completed. We'll have track under us and coast safely across the ravine!
Marty: What about the locomotive?
Doc: It'll be a spectacular wreck. Too bad no one will be around to see it.

[Flying above Biff in 1955]
Marty: There he is, Doc! Let's land on him, we'll cripple his car.
Doc: Marty, he's in a '46 Ford, we're in a DeLorean. He'd rip through us like we were tin foil.
Marty: So what do we do?
Doc: I have a plan.

Marty: [23:01] Wait a minute. Wait a minute, Doc. Ah... Are you telling me that you built a time machine... out of a DeLorean?
Dr. Emmett Brown: The way I see it, if you're gonna build a time machine into a car, why not do it with some *style?*

[Doc and Marty are about to hijack the train]
Doc: Reach!
Engineer: Is this a holdup?
Doc: It's a science experiment! Stop the train just before you hit the switch track up ahead!

Marty: I don't get it, Doc. I mean, how can all this be happening? It's like we're in Hell or something.
Doc: No, it's Hill Valley. Although I can't imagine Hell being much worse!

Doc: Marty, why are you wearing that gun? You're not considering going up against Tannen tomorrow?
Marty: Doc, tomorrow morning, I'm going back to the future with you. But if Buford Tannen comes looking for trouble, I'm gonna be ready for him. You heard what that son of a bitch called me last night.
Doc: Marty, you can't go losing your judgment every time someone calls you a name. That's exactly what causes you to get into that accident in the future.
Marty: What? What about my future?
Doc: I can't tell you. It might make things worse.
Marty: Wait a minute, Doc. What is wrong with my future?
Doc: Marty, we all have to make decisions that affect the course of our lives. You've gotta do what you've gotta do. And I've gotta do what I've gotta do.

[Marty and Doc are asking how fast the train could go]
Marty: Do you think it's possible to get it up to... 90?
Engineer: Ha! 90? Tarnation, son, who'd ever need to be in such a hurry?
Doc: Well, it's just a little bet he and I have, that's all. Theoretically speaking, could it be done?
Engineer: Well, I suppose if you had a straight stretch of track with a level grade, and you weren't haulin' no cars behind you, and if you can get the fire hot enough, and I'm talkin' about hotter than the blazes of hell and damnation itself... then yes, it might be possible to get her up that fast.

Dr. Emmett Brown: [holding Marty's video camera] No wonder your president has to be an actor. He's gotta look good on television.

Buford: You owe me money, blacksmith.
Doc: How do ya figure?
Buford: My horse threw a shoe. And seein' as you was the one that done the shoein', I say that makes you responsible.
Doc: Well, since you never paid me for the job, I say that makes us even!
Buford: Wrong! See I was *on* my horse when it threw the shoe and I got throwed *off*! And *that* caused me to bust a perfectly good bottle of fine Kentucky red-eye. So, the way I figure it, blacksmith, you owe me five dollars for the whiskey and $75 for the horse.
Marty: [hoarsely] That's the $80.
Doc: Look! If your horse threw a shoe, bring him back and I'll reshoe him!
Buford: I done shot that horse!
Doc: Well, that's your problem, Tannen!
Buford: Wrong! That's yours. So, from now on, you better be lookin' behind you when you walk. 'Cause one day you're gonna get a bullet in your back.
[Buford and his gang gallop away on their horses]

Dr. Emmett Brown: [Marty is showing Doc Brown the flux capacitor in the DeLorean time vehicle]
[51: 57]
Dr. Emmett Brown: It works! It works!
[grabs Marty]
Dr. Emmett Brown: I finally invent something that works!
Marty: [quietly] You bet your ass it works.

Marty: [Reading the newspaper from 2015] "Within two hours of his arrest, Martin McFly Jr. was tried, convicted and sentenced to fifteen years in the state penitentiary."? Within two hours?
Doc: The justice system works swiftly in the future now that they've abolished all lawyers.

Jennifer: Dr. Brown, I brought this note back from the future and - now it's erased.
Doc: Of course it's erased!
Jennifer: But what does that mean?
Doc: It means your future hasn't been written yet. No one's has. Your future is whatever you make it. So make it a good one, both of you.
Marty: [Marty wraps his arm around Jennifer] We will, Doc.

[1955 Doc is watching a video of 1985 Doc]
Dr. Emmett Brown: What on Earth is this thing I'm wearing?
Marty: Ah, this, this is a radiation suit.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Radiation suit? Of course. 'Cause of all the fallout from the atomic wars.

1955: [It's Marty's last night in 1955. Doc is setting up the cable that will channel the lightning bolt into the time machine] ... Hill Valley area weather this Saturday night. Mostly clear, with some scattered clouds. Lows tonight in the upper 40s.
Dr. Emmett Brown: Are you sure about this storm?
Marty: Since when can weathermen predict the weather, let alone the future?
Dr. Emmett Brown: You know, Marty, I'm gonna be very sad to see you go. You've really made a difference in my life. You've given me something to shoot for. Just knowing that I'm going to be around to see 1985. That I'm gonna succeed in this!
[gestures at time machine]
Dr. Emmett Brown: That I'm gonna have a chance to travel through time!
[Marty looks solemn, knowing that Doc is destined to be murdered before he gets to use the time machine himself]
Dr. Emmett Brown: It's gonna be really hard waiting 30 years before I can talk to you about everything that's happened in the past few days. I'm really gonna miss you, Marty.
Marty: I'm really gonna miss *you*.
[pause]
Marty: Doc, about the future...
Dr. Emmett Brown: No! Marty! We've already agreed that having information about the future can be extremely dangerous. Even if your intentions are good, it can backfire drastically!
[Marty nods reluctantly]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Whatever you've got to tell me, I'll find out through the natural course of time.

[last lines]
Marty: Hey, Doc! Where you goin' now? Back to the future?
Doc: Nope. Already been there.

[last lines]
Young: No! It can't be; I just sent you back to the future!
Marty: No, I know; you *did* send me back to the future. But I'm back - I'm back *from* the future.
Young: Great Scott!
[Doc faints]
Marty: Doc! Doc! Doc! Oh, fantastic.

Dr. Emmett Brown: Marty, I'm sorry, but the only power source capable of generating 1.21 gigawatts of electricity is a bolt of lightning.
Marty: [startled] What did you say?
Dr. Emmett Brown: A bolt of lightning. Unfortunately, you never know when or where it's ever gonna strike.
Marty: We do now.
[hands Doc the "Save the Clock Tower" flyer]

[repeated Line]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Great Scott!

Doc: Marty! What in the name of Sir Isaac H. Newton happened here?

Marty: [running into the Saloon] Doc. What are you doin'?
Doc: I've lost her, Marty. There's nothing left for me here.
Marty: Yeah, that's why you gotta come back with me.
Doc: Where?
Marty: Back to the future.
Doc: [Nods his head] Right. Let's get going.
[puts down his glass of whiskey]
Marty: [muffled] Great.
Doc: Gentlemen, excuse me. But, my friend and I have to catch a train.
Saloon: Cheers to ya, blacksmith.
Saloon: And to the future.
Saloon: Amen.
Doc: [picks up his glass of whiskey] Amen.
Bartender: Emmett, no!
[Doc throws back the whiskey and turns and passes out, tipping over a table in the process]

[pacing in front of the clock tower]
Dr. Emmett Brown: [looks at his watch] Damn! Where is that kid?
[looks at a small alarm clock in his other hand]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Damn!
[looks at a second watch on his other wrist]
Dr. Emmett Brown: Damn! Damn!

Dr. Emmett Brown: [reads the "Save the Clock Tower" flyer and reacts with hope] This is it! This is the answer. It says here that a bolt of lightning is going to strike the clock tower at precisely 10:04 p.m. next Saturday night! If... If we could somehow harness this lightning... channel it into the flux capacitor... it just might work. Next Saturday night, we're sending you back to the future!

Marty: [Doc has just been shot. Marty runs over to him] Doc! Doc!
Marty: [Marty turns Doc's body over to reveal it is apparently bullet-ridden and lifeless. Marty begins to cry] No! No!
Marty: [Doc suddenly blinks and sits up] You're alive.
Marty: [Doc unzips his radiation suit to reveal a bulletproof vest underneath] Bulletproof vest? How did you know? I never got a chance to tell you.
Marty: [Doc smiles and removes a weathered piece of paper from his pocket. Marty unfolds the paper to reveal it is the warning letter he had written in 1955, taped back together] What about all that talk about screwing up future events? The space-time continuum?
Dr. Emmett Brown: Well, I figured, what the hell?

Dr. Emmett Brown: Let me show you my plan for sending you home. Please excuse the crudity of this model. I didn't have time to build it to scale or paint it.
[reveals intricate tabletop model of the town square]
Marty: [impressed] It's good.

Marty: Bartender says that's the strongest stuff they got.
[Doc begins to pour alcohol into the DeLorean's gas cap]
Doc: Try it, Marty.
[Marty is trying to start the engine in the DeLorean. The engine begins to sorely start as he keeps turning the keys to work the engine]
Doc: Give it more gas...
[the DeLorean sounds as if its about to start until the fuel-injection manifold blows apart from the car with a lot smog as the car dies; Doc picks it up]
Doc: Damn! It blew the fuel injection manifold. Strong stuff alright, it'll take me a month to rebuild it.
Marty: A month? Doc, you're gonna get shot on Monday!
Doc: I know, I know...! Wait, I've got it! we can simply roll it down a steep hill... no, no, we'd never find a smooth enough surface. Unless... of course, ice! We'll wait until winter, when the lake freezes over we'll...
Marty: Winter? Doc! Monday, it's three days away!
Doc: Okay, okay, let's think this through logically... we know that it won't run under its own power and we know we can't pull it, but if we could find a way to push it up to 88 miles per hour...
[a whistle blows in the distance and Doc looks out the window at the arriving train]
Doc: That's it!

Doc: So, it may not be my name that's supposed to end up on this tombstone. It may be yours.
[Marty and Doc exchange expressions they have each been saying throughout the trilogy...]
Marty: Great Scott!
Doc: I know, this is heavy.

Marty: That's right, Doc. November 12, 1955.
Doc: Unbelievable, that old Biff could have chosen that particular date. It could mean that that point in time inherently contains some sort of cosmic significance. Almost as if it were the temporal junction point for the entire space-time continuum. On the other hand, it could just be an amazing coincidence.

[in a drive-in, in 1955. The theater screen shows a still picture of a group of Native Americans riding horse in a desert]
Young: All you have to do is drive the time vehicle directly toward that screen accelerating to 88 miles an hour.
Marty: Wait a minute, Doc. If I drive straight towards the screen, I'm gonna crash into those Indians.
Young: Marty, you're not thinking fourth dimensionally. You'll instantly be transported back into 1885, and those Indians won't even be there.
Marty: Right.
Young: Well, good luck for both our sakes. See you in the future.
Marty: You mean the past?
Young: *Exactly*!
[after a few minutes, when he drives the DeLorean to 1885, an actual group of Native Americans is literally running towards his location]
Young: [shouting frantically]
Marty: Indians!