By Paula Miller, Managing Web Editor
Hollywood has always had a fascination with the future, although its predictions tend to be a bit far-fetched. One of Hollywood’s most iconic visions of the future comes from the “Back to the Future” series, and today we are living that future.
In “Back to the Future Part II,” Doctor Emmett Brown and Marty McFly visit the future to save McFly’s children. They set their time-traveling DeLorean to travel 30 years into the future: October 21, 2015. In celebration, today has been dubbed “Back to the Future” Day, and fans are taking the opportunity to see how the film’s far-fetched ideas have played out. When the movie was released in 1989, the idea that we would have flying cars and hover boards by 2015 may not have seemed so crazy. In fact, the film was pretty close with some of its predictions. So what did 2015 look like in 1989?
Source: Movieclips
1. Flying cars
The first glimpse you get of 2015 in the film is the skyway—even the DeLorean gets a hover conversion (highways are so 1985). Given that our cars still drive on the ground, this might be have been a better prediction for 3015.
2. Rejuvenation clinics
After arriving in the future, Doc reveals that he had some wrinkles removed at the rejuvenation clinic. Botox isn’t quite the same, but the film got the right idea.
3. Hands-free video games
When Marty visits the Café 80s, he’s excited to see Wild Gunman, his favorite arcade game. But the little kids in the café are hardly impressed: “You have to use your hands?” Video game technology has indeed made significant advancements since the ’80s. These kids hit the nail on the head.
4. Hover boards
According to “Back to the Future,” in 2015, hover boards are the new skateboards. Unfortunately, the closest we have to hover boards are these things, and they don’t exactly hover.
5. Video conference
In 2015, future Marty uses his flat screen TV to video conference with his boss. This may be the most accurate prediction of the film. With Skype, FaceTime and Snapchat, video calls are everywhere now.
6. Instant fax
While video conferencing with his boss, future Marty gets an instant fax. But in the real 2015, we have instant message instead of instant fax. So maybe what we lack in flying cars and hover boards we make up for with the Internet and smart phones.
7. Holograms
As Marty walks by the movie theater of the future, a giant shark hologram appears advertising “Jaws 19.” Our 3D technology is pretty close, although we don’t have 19 Jaws movies.
8. Cubs win World Series
The film predicts that the Cubs win the World Series in 2015, and now, for the first time since 2003, the Cubs are in the playoffs. Ironically, the major plot line revolves around a sports almanac brought back from the future.
“Back to the Future” Day is exciting for fans and non-fans alike, and not just because Pepsi came out with a limited edition Pepsi Perfect to celebrate. “Back to the Future” Day makes the future less abstract and gives us a chance to see how far we really have come, even if we don’t have hover boards—yet, at least.
Paula Miller can be reached at [email protected].
