For as long as there have been movies there have been predictions about the future. 2001: A Space Odyssey, George Orwell’s 1984, some missed the mark and some hit rather close to home.
So how about today, October 21 2015, the date to which Dr Emmett Brown takes Marty McFly and his girlfriend Jennifer in Back to the Future II? What did the makers of the cult classic get right and where did they miss the mark?
Let’s start with the predictions that have proven correct, with these below from the Telegraph:
The film features several scenes of characters watching screens very much like the oversize ones we actually use these days…
Also, the “BTTF II” characters talk to the screens just like we do today. Not bad, given that videophones — though long promised — barely existed in 1989. With FaceTime and Skype now staples, the video call has evolved from a business medium to an essential of everyday life.
Earlier this year, Canadian inventor Catalin Alexandru Duru broke the world record for the longest hoverboard flight, standing on the back of a Omni Hoverboard, his homemade, propeller-powered vehicle…
The Back to the Future films also presaged wearable technology, such as wraparound glasses which Marty uses to answer and speak on the phone (Google Glass, anyone?)…
While we’re no nearer to a flying car than when the film was released in 1989, it got some things right. Biff, one of the series’ main characters, pays for a taxi ride with a thumb print – just like the fingerprint technology used on the iPhone 6 and cashless apps such as Uber, Hailo and Bounce.
Drones also make appearances in the film with a ‘USA Today’ drone capturing Biff being arrested.
In reality, a number of news networks are beginning to use unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) to get fresh perspectives in remote regions and high above crowded events, for example.
That’s not a bad set of predictions come true then, although the flying car one is rather crucial. More of what they got wrong below:
Now this is one thing we wish 2015 had brought: jackets that dry themselves and shoes that lace themselves up. Look, no hands…
The film went a little too heavy on its predictions for fax machines, which it imagined would be everywhere in 2015. Fortunately, they’re not.
… And there’s one key invention Back to the Future II missed out: smartphones and tablets, undeniably the most important technological breakthrough of the last decade. Apple didn’t even get a look-in.
It’s hard to imagine a world without people walking the streets bumping into each other whilst staring at their screens. We’ll leave you with this little nugget, the fact that the movie was almost called Spaceman From Pluto:
Sid Sheinberg, the risk-averse studio executive in charge of shepherding Back to the Future into cinemas, was spooked by the dismal box-office performance of time-travel movies Somewhere in Time, Time Bandits and The Final Countdown…
…he suggested an alternative title inspired by the script’s references to Marty McFly being mistaken for an alien…
Producer Steven Spielberg decided to pretend he was joking, despite knowing full well that he wasn’t. “Dear Sid, Thank you for your most humorous memo,” he responded. “We got a big laugh out of it. Keep ’em coming.” The original title stayed, and today Sheinberg denies that he ever thought his mooted title was a good idea.
Happy Back to the Future Day everyone, at 4:29 pm today it will all have come full circle.
