Back To The Future: Predictions They Got Right!

Oscar Wilde once wrote, “Life imitates Art far more than Art imitates Life“.

Star Trek had wireless communicators which inspired a young viewer by the name of Martin Cooper to get into the telecommunications field and as a result he invented the cell-phone. Back to The Future 2 had Doc Brown take Marty McFly to the year 2015 in his Time-Travelling DeLorean. Among the many things that had been predicted back then, The Chicago Bears, a baseball team with a 108 year old losing streak finally won the World Series today after 1908, Zemeckis and crew missed it by just a year. Here’s a list of things Back To The Future 2 predicted:

Drones: As any aerial/landscape photographer or journalist would attest, drones have opened up avenues for the visual media that had been previously unfeasible due to logistical and frankly, logical reasons. Back to The Future 2 had drones capturing footage for the news and also, walking a dog.

back-to-the-future-2

Hoverboard (Depending on who you ask): One of the most thrilling and imaginative chase scenes in movie history, Marty used a Mattel Hoverboard to escape from Griff Tannen.
Sadly the ones we got weren’t that useful. Companies like Hendo came close, though they need a special copper plated surface to work on.

Also we cannot, not mention the prank which fooled the world. Inclusion of frequent Jackass collaborator, Tony Hawk should have been a dead giveaway but like Agent Fox Mulder, we just wanted to believe. Damn you,  Funny Or Die. Here’s the brilliant hoax.

Video Calling: One of the oldest novelties in Sci-Fi. Stanley Kubrick had done it scarily, accurate to what we have today in 2001: A Space Odyssey but Back To The Future beat it to the punch because it had that additonal touch of  the dread  while getting a call from our bosses while at home. Additionally the screen which he calls on was a flat screen TV, so you could add that to the list!

video_phone_call

Hands-free Video Games: A young Elijah Wood, expresses his dismay that Marty needed to use his hands to operate a video game suggested a future with video games that could operate where something like the Wii or Kinect would be possible.

3D/Holographic movies: Marty sees a holographic Jaws 19 movie promo. Look around you, most of the movies are released in 3D today and a visit to Coachella 2012 would have let you witness a long deceased, Tupac Shakur perform live via hologram.

This scene also predicted the age of endless sequels that we are living in.

jaws19

Biometrics: Jennifer uses thumbprint technology to unlock her house in one scene. Biometrics is an instrumental feature in security and authentication worldwide. Closer to home, you can’t get your Driving license or Aadhar Card without first enrolling your fingerprints.

The Commemorative Objects.

If we are living in a fictional world and taking a look at the US Elections only re-affirms it, the following would qualify as paradox.

Nike Mag: Self Lacing Boots. One of the coolest gadgets to brace the big screen. These self lacing shoes were a stroke a costume design genius. Nike auctioned these exclusive edition shoes with all proceeds going to The Michael J Fox Centre for fighting against Parkinson’s Disease.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lJu1gLvctQ

Pepsi Perfect: Product placement done right. Pepsi not willing to let this cash cow go un-milked, they had a huge ad campaign announcing the launch of commemorative edition drinks coinciding with the 30 year anniversary of BTTF.

Pepsi unveils a series of themed advertisements in celebration of Pepsi Perfect and the 30th anniversary of Back to the Future. (PRNewsFoto/PepsiCo)

Have we missed any? Do let us know in the comments.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *