6 Iconic Sci-Fi Films That Failed to Predict the Future (Luckily For Us)
The end of the world, a global environmental disaster, and hoverboards didn't happen after all (the latter is really a shame though).
1. Blade Runner (1982)
Year the movie is set in: 2019
What the movie is about:
In the future, replicants that look just like humans are used for various grunt work. But some of the robots disobey and want to escape. A former police officer Rick Deckard, now a member of a special unit called "Blade Runners" is set out to find them. The main hero was about to retire, but received orders to eliminate four androids who had illegally arrived on Earth.
What doesn't come true:
The future portrayed by Ridley Scott looked so convincing that the film became the inspiration for a number of other projects. As for the real thing, we still don't know how to make such accurate robot replicas of people and animals (perhaps a good thing). And no matter what Elon Musk promises, distant planets or even Mars, are out of reach, while flying cars are still no more than just a dream.
2. Back to the Future Part II (1989)
Year the movie is set in: 2015
What the movie is about:
Young Marty McFly, along with Professor Emmett Brown, travels from 1985 to 2015 to help out his own children in the future. But due to a silly mistake, the heroes change their past and their fate at the same time. Now they have to fly back to 1955 to put things right.
What doesn't come true:
The future has arrived, but we have seen neither flying cars nor the legendary hoverboards (which is a shame). And people still can not go to a rejuvenation clinic like Professor did and add a good 30 years to their life, despite all the advances of cosmetology and plastic surgery. Though, to be fair, Robert Zemeckis had no intention to guess everything right, he just saw the future as an opportunity for satire.
The funny thing is that in one of the scenes Marty uses a pay phone, even though cell phones were already widespread at the beginning of the 21st century.
Freejack (1992)
Year the movie is set in: 2009
What the movie is about:
Racer Alex Furlong crashes on the track, but he does not die. He is kidnapped and taken away to a future where they have already learned how to transfer a person's consciousness from an old body to a new one. And the "donors" are those who should have died in the past anyway.
What doesn't come true:
Time travel and digitization of consciousness, of course, remains science fiction, but after all, the original novel came out in 1958 and such inaccuracies can be forgiven. But this can not be said about filmmakers who adapted the novel. Was it that hard to make it so the film takes place in another century?
4. Timecop (1994)
Year the movie is set in: 2004
What the movie is about:
In the future, anyone can change the course of history by going back in time. There is a special time patrol unit that prevents possible disasters from happening. One of the officers, agent Max Walker, goes on the chase after a corrupt senator that wants to be a president.
What doesn't come true:
Pretty much everything. This movie looks like pure anachronism these days. The authors missed literally every prediction because by 2004 it was not even possible to have an erotic experience in virtual reality. Not to mention time travel.
On the other hand, the movie is based on a comic book, which removes all questions from the creators of the film adaptation, because they just tried to bring the story to the screen.
5. The Island (2005)
Year the movie is set in: 2019
What the movie is about:
Lincoln Six-Echo lives in a dystopian, heavily guarded compound. One day he realizes that everything he knows about this ideal world is not true.
What doesn't come true:
Contrary to what was shown in the action film with Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson, no environmental disaster has occurred, so people don't have to live in isolated breeding grounds and have serial numbers instead of last names. Fortunately.
6. 2012 (2009)
Year the movie is set in: 2012 (obviously)
What the movie is about:
Scientist Adrian Helmsley learns that due to increased solar activity, the Earth will soon face global catastrophe. When the end of the world is coming close, unsuccessful writer Jackson Curtis along with his family tries to make their way to the arks, which only the ones who have money and power have access to. But it is not so easy to do when the earth is literally crumbling under their feet and whole continents are going under water.
What doesn't come true:
No matter how much people were frightened by the Mayan calendar apocalypse, the end of the world never came in 2012. Though Roland Emmerich did use this opportunity to make yet another disaster movie, a silly but terribly entertaining one.