Predicting the future has always been a human preoccupation, arguably the most famous predictions are the supposed Mayan world-ending predictions and of course those of Nostradamus. From plagues to world shattering events, to two “brothers” falling, we’ve seen just about every one have their meanings analysed to fit the patterns we want to see.
Sooth-saying is one of the oldest professions in the world, taking advantage of people’s natural curiosity. Everybody wants to know what the future holds, be it on an individual or global scale. If the world is going to end, you want to make sure that you get the most out of the time you have left; after all, no point saving for a rainy day that is doomed to never come right?
So from soothsayers of old, we move on to soothsayers of new, or less-old – the movies. Many movies have made outlandish predictions about the future, filmmakers presuming that this or that technology will be invented, or this or that disaster will happen and that humanity will be forever changed as a result – usually for the worse. Of course, these films are not saying that these events will definitely occur, they are merely suggesting what could be. Sadly, some films films shot wide of their mark.
Let’s have a look at a few, shall we?
10. Back To The Future – Hover Boards
Well, we can’t say that this has quite been disproved yet, but the concept would be hard pushed to come to fruition in the next two years, so it is a safe bet to say that we won’t all be riding around on hover boards in 2015 as this film dared to suggest. Hovercraft technology exists of course, but requires much more power than can be delivered from a tiny board. There are no doubt faithful replicas that you can buy, but they are never getting off of the ground Marty McFly-style. How many dreams can one film crush? We all wanted a hover board; McFly and company told us we’d have to wait, so we waited! Where’s our hover board, McFly?
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6 Comments
It amazes me that when they were coming up with the name Skynet for the military communcation system that no one in the room had ever seen Terminator.
Unless it was trolling on a spectacular level.
It came as a surprise to me too. But the Skynet that actually exists was first launched in 1969…so they probably weren’t borrowing from Jim Cameron…unless they were robots sent back in time from a future where The Terminator had been made and they were trying to set the whole thing up.
Disagree with 9 completely, yes OK 2012 wasn’t the greatest film ever – far from it – but to say that the film makers were ‘predicting’ the end of the world is rubbish. They were just cashing in on a popular ‘theory’ being talked about by a lot of people in the lead up to the end of the Mayan calendar. And judging by the box office performance they did a pretty good job of that.
Hi Mike box office figures are a tricky measure of success. A lot of movies achieve massive success despite being absolute garbage – take any Paranormal Activity after the first one for example of that.
The gist is simply, that things didn’t happen when they were “prophesied” if you will. I am not suggesting the film makers were sure this would happen, merely that it didn’t when the movie said it would, same with all the others on this list :-)
I think the whole of 1984 deserves a mention
I thought about 1984, but decided that one was a bit easy…and more than a few people aren’t overly convinced that most of it hasn’t happened.