How did the Libians find Doc?
Whats your theory on how the Libians could have found Doc Brown in the mall parking lot?
shareCold_In_SpaceMaybe in 1885, but the impression I got was that it may not have actually been all that small as time went on; it seemed to become more expansive the more they described the city, especially for 1985 and later in 2015. The dedication of the clock tower in 1885 has made me wonder if it might be the county seat of "Hill County" - though that doesn't necessarily mean much for it's size.
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Small town.
On a recent re-watch, the thought struck me if maybe Marty going back for Doc's camera could have somehow tipped the Libyans off. I'm not exactly sure how, since there's definitely a fair amount of lag between when Marty got there and when the Libyans arrived, but maybe they had someone watching Doc's lab - which could be why Doc didn't want to risk going back to get his camera; though that kind of makes him a jerk for sending Marty, even though he obviously went back to the lab at least once to get the plutonium we saw under his bed at the very beginning of the movie. That person watching the lab could have trailed Marty to the mall and then doubled back to rendezvous with the terrorists in the van.
We know that 10 minutes before Doc was shot, the Libyans in the van were downtown, by the courthouse square; which is somewhere in the radius of 2 miles or so, since it didn't seem too far from the future site of Marty's home. Since Marty at the end of the movie arrived at Lone Pine Mall on foot not long after the Libyans got there, it's reasonable to assume they didn't go directly to the mall like Marty did. They could have gone somewhere else first, the most reasonable place being Doc's lab; especially if that had been their point of contact with Doc in the past, and if that was where they had someone staking it out, it would make as good of meeting point as any, as either Doc Brown would be there, or the person watching the lab could at least be able to report their observations.
I'm curious, in spite of being in a presumably protective trunk, if the plutonium could have left a faint enough radioactive trail they could have also followed with a Geiger counter.
As for how Doc got involved with them in the first place - at first blush I would figure that the Libyans might have just been in the market for a competent physicist who they could bribe or coerce into making a bomb for them. However, since Doc had obviously made a breakthrough in his time travel technology, he presumably would have reach the inescapable conclusion about what he needed to complete it - plutonium, for the nuclear reaction that could produce 1.21 giga-watts. Knowing this, and knowing he'd need to procure it through the black market, I think it probably would have been Doc making the approach; seeking out the right criminal elements, under the pretense of the promise to build a nuclear bomb - ostensibly reasoning that he needed the money, which for anyone who looked into his current state of things would find that to be plausible - and then it becomes a matter for the right bidder to pull off the scheme and deliver the goods to him.
I had seen a fan made trailer for a Back to the Future prequel, called "1.21 Giga-watts," that's pretty entertaining - https://youtu.be/3qCVKdGYUDU
"I'm in it for the power and the free robes." - Harry Stone share