10 Films That Creepily Predicted 2016’s Biggest Moments

The titular character of Tim Robbins’ satirical mockumentary Bob Roberts might be running for senatorial rather than presidential election and have a penchant for fascist-tinged folk music, but those differences aside he’s a dead ringer for America’s brand new President-elect Donald Trump.

It’s well known that Robbins is amongst Hollywood’s more vocal left-wing liberals, so it’s perhaps not too surprising he’d have a little dig at Republicans in his directorial debut. And considering the content he’s currently retweeting on Twitter it’s safe to say he’s feeling rather smug about his prophetic little movie.

A Republican folk singer, businessman and self-made millionaire, Bob Roberts decides to run for senate and bewitches the voting public with catchy songs about making money and returning to traditional American values. Pitted against a hapless Democrat candidate, upon whom Roberts and his cohorts launch a smear campaign while successfully covering up his own dodgy dealings, he goes on to win the senatorial election.

Donald Trump, too a self-made millionaire though with a little help in the shape of a small loan of a million dollars from his dad, captivated the American public with talk of ‘making America great again’ and building a wall to keep out job stealing, rapist Mexicans.

Pitted against a Democratic candidate that nobody really liked, Trump emphasised Hillary Clinton’s email controversy while scandals of his own emerged (rape accusations, pussy grabbing locker room talk and being Putin’s BFF included), and too went on to win the presidential election.

What possibly binds the fictional politician and the scarily real-life Donald Trump the most is what the ever-astute film critic Roger Ebert called Bob Robert’s ‘down-home fascism’ in a 1992 review of the film.

Both exploited fear of the ‘other’, be it Robert’s rather general focus on ‘Arabs’ or Trump’s denouncing of Mexicans and Muslims, and both pushed the notion that America was in decline and in need of restoring to a former supposed glory. And sadly, in both cases, that is just what the American public wanted to hear.

Any others? Share your thoughts below in the comments thread below.