Oops.. Movies that didn't get the future quite right

[Mustang]

So, I'm watching Freejack last night (I'm bored) and Alex is freejacked to November 23, 2009. Well, unless Mick Jagger is going to become a bonejacker here in the next few months, I don't think the view of the future was quite right.

I started thinking of how many movies of my youth dealt with events in the future and watching them now with dates that have come and gone (or are shortly going to pass in a few years)

Some notable ones I can think of off the top of my head...

Terminator - Skynet became self Aware on August 29th, 1997 and all hell broke loose. Obviously didn't happen. Hell.. the Soviet Union was gone years before that so, Skynet would have needed a new enemy.

2010 - I wish we were flying to Jupiter. Don't see that happening in the next year though.

Strange Days - Nothing went to shit on December 31st, 1999. Although, I'm still waiting for some of that Squid Technology.

Blade Runner - Sure, 2019 is still 10 years away and there is time for replicants, but doubt it.

[Groundhog]

http://images-eu.amazon.com/images/P/B00005N9FD.02.LZZZZZZZ.jpg
http://saysomethingfunny.files.wordpress.com/2009/05/deathrace2000still.jpg
http://www.apfn.net/messageboard/09-28-06/images/1984-movie-bb.jpg

[Neon_Chaos]

About 6 more years til this one becomes part of this thread...

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[miked]

I saw the thread title and my first response was going to be Freejack. I guess now I'll have to go with the Running Man. Who loves you and who do you love?

[Dr. Sak]

About 6 more years til this one becomes part of this thread...


At least the one thing they got right was that the Cubs still wont have won a World Series.

[DataKing]

Escape from New York / Escape from L.A.

I love Snake Plisskin, but boyo did they ever get things wrong timeline-wise.

[Cringer]

2010 used to sound so far away to writters in the 70's and 80's I guess. 2000 must have seemed like that great barrier of THE FUTURE.

[gstelmack]

I guess now I'll have to go with the Running Man. Who loves you and who do you love?

With MMA and reality TV, how far off is this really?

[flere-imsaho]

The future timeline from the original Star Trek (and, heck, most of the ST movies) is pretty out of date now.

Even better, and sadder, is reading science fiction from the 1st half of the 20th century.

[Surtt]

Even better, and sadder, is reading science fiction from the 1st half of the 20th century.

1984 looks like it nailed it.
(Well, off by 20 years or so)

[MJ4H]

Really?

[Mustang]

Even better, and sadder, is reading science fiction from the 1st half of the 20th century.

I somewhat enjoy reading older science fiction just for that reason. To see what they got close to and what they didn't.

[Schmidty]

1984 looks like it nailed it.
(Well, off by 20 years or so)

Well, it certainly is starting to look like things are going in that direction....

[MikeVic]

I didn't read 1984, but read Brave New World by Aldous Huxley instead. I don't remember everything, but I definitely remember the more sexualized world. I'm sure there were dumb parts in it too, but the sexualized world definitely stuck with me.

[RainMaker]

Soylent Green doesn't seem like it'll be very accurate.

2001 A Space Odyssey was way off on our space exploration.

Escape from New York didn't do too well predicting the future of New York.

[Wolfpack]

Terminator - Skynet became self Aware on August 29th, 1997 and all hell broke loose. Obviously didn't happen. Hell.. the Soviet Union was gone years before that so, Skynet would have needed a new enemy.

Well, they did sort of explain it away during the movie. Arnie does explain the world blows up on 8/29/97, but John asks why the Russians would do it since they were supposed to be friendly with the US by 1994 (T2 was post-Cold War by a couple of years). Arnold counters that the Russians would still respond in kind to a full nuclear attack by the US anyway. In addition, with Cyberdyne getting blown up at the end and Dyson getting killed, whatever chance of history unfolding as it had leading up to the 1997 Judgement Day wouldn't likely occur that way. I think this was alluded to in T3 in that JD could not be avoided, merely delayed, thus it now occurred in 2004--ironically, this means T3 became dated the moment it came out and also dated the other two movies in the process since none of this can now come to pass in our real world timeline.

[M GO BLUE!!!]

How many actually got the future correct?

I love to see things like a guy getting out of a hover car to use a phone booth.

[Tekneek]

Logan's Run - which is a personal favorite.

Soylent Green, while perhaps not likely to occur by 2022 (I certainly hope it does not), does not seem completely impossible to occur at some point either. In some way, I still find it plausible.

Being that yesterday was the 60 year anniversary of the publication of 1984, it is important to note that society (particularly in England) is much more like that today. As someone stated in a blog post I read yesterday, we obviously didn't understand the warning we were being given and instead interpreted it as a manual.

[Peregrine]

How many actually got the future correct?

I love to see things like a guy getting out of a hover car to use a phone booth.

It will take maybe 10 or 20 more years to play out, but so far Gattaca is still looking dead-on. Not to mention it's one of my favorite movies.

[Groundhog]

The future timeline from the original Star Trek (and, heck, most of the ST movies) is pretty out of date now.

Even better, and sadder, is reading science fiction from the 1st half of the 20th century.

Hell, even the mid-later 20th century science fiction doesn't hold up well. A futuristic world with flying cars, all decked out with 8-tracks! Philip K. Dick's stories are full of these.

Arthur C. Clarke managed to get a surprising amount of things right. In particular he had a story that featured tiny portable music players, but he's also managed to come up with numerous other inventions that other people have come up with later in reality, then Clarke takes great pleasure in invalidating their trademarks. :)

Not really the same thing, but the first time I read War of the Worlds was not all that long ago, and I was initially stumped as to why it took the military like a day or so to respond to the "meteor" slamming in to the ground. Then I remembered what time the story was set in.

[flere-imsaho]

Sometimes I suspect that Philip K. Dick did some of that juxtaposition of technologies on purpose. A lot of his stories have a sort of "shabby futurism" about them. Which I like, btw....

And Clarke is a great call for getting things right. I feel for the guy who invents the first space elevator when the Clarke estate comes knocking.... :D

[Mustang]

How many actually got the future correct?


If Ah-nold could become president, Demolition Man would win this going away.

[Wolfpack]

If Ah-nold could become president, Demolition Man would win this going away.

Well, other than LA not burning to the ground in 1996, cryo-prisons complete with behavioral modifications, somehow cramming about thirty amendments to the Constitution in between now and the early 2030s....

[kingnebwsu]

At least the one thing they got right was that the Cubs still wont have won a World Series.

Against Miami???

[Mustang]

Well, other than LA not burning to the ground in 1996, cryo-prisons complete with behavioral modifications, somehow cramming about thirty amendments to the Constitution in between now and the early 2030s....

You forgot the most important one...

In the future all restaurants are Taco Bell.

[MikeVic]

I can see listening to commercials though. :p And I'd like to have the three seashells.

[Neon_Chaos]

You forgot the most important one...

In the future all restaurants are Taco Bell.

Pizza Hut, you mean.

[MikeVic]

I'm fairly sure it was Taco Bell too.

[JeeberD]

Yes, it was Taco Bell...

[DaddyTorgo]

mmmm Logan's Run

[JAG]

I'm fairly sure it was Taco Bell too.

Well this is kind of random, but this thread made me think of Demolition Man before it was mentioned. I looked up the notes and tidbits from IMDB and apparently when the movie showed internationally, they used Pizza Hut instead of Taco Bell. So you're both right.