Plutonium Crate
The stolen fuel behind the DeLorean's first trips through time.
Plutonium is the original fuel of Doc Brown's DeLorean time machine in Back to the Future. The time machine requires a power input of 1.21 gigawatts, originally supplied by a plutonium-fueled nuclear reactor.
Lore & Background
Doc powers the time machine with plutonium stolen from Libyan terrorists, who had previously stolen it from a power plant; he used it for the DeLorean instead of building a nuclear weapon for them. After Doc refuels the DeLorean with it, the Libyans unexpectedly arrive and shoot him. Marty flees in the DeLorean and is transported to 1955, but without the plutonium needed to return to 1985.
Reader's Guide
Doc shows Marty the major functions of the DeLorean: the flux capacitor, the time circuits, and the plutonium chamber that powers them. With no access to plutonium in 1955, Doc channels a bolt of lightning into the flux capacitor instead, and from the end of the first film the plutonium reactor is replaced by a Mr. Fusion Home Energy Reactor.
More in Time Travel & Artifacts
Elsewhere in Back to the Future
Spotted an error? Know more?
Reader corrections go straight into our review queue. Suggest an edit · How this site is sourced