Various proposals have been brought forth in the past by fans of the movie franchise for why the car has to be moving at 88 mph to achieve temporal displacement, but actually the production crew chose the velocity simply because they liked how it looked on the speedometer, modified for the movie. A digital speedometer is attached to the dashboard so that the operator can accurately gauge the car's speed. Surrounded by an electrical current similar to a Tesla coil, the whole car vanishes in a flash of white/blue light seconds later, leaving a pair of fiery tire tracks. As it accelerates, several coils around the body glow blue/white while a burst of light appears in front of it.
After entering a target date with the keypad inside the DeLorean, the operator accelerates the car to 88 miles per hour (141.6 km/h), which activates the flux capacitor. The operator is seated inside the DeLorean (except the first time, when the remote control is used), and turns on the time circuits by turning a handle near the gear lever, activating a unit containing multiple fourteen- and seven-segment displays that show the destination (red), present (green), and last departed (yellow) dates and times.
The control of the time machine is the same in all three films.
