10 Movies That Eerily Predicted Things In Real Life

9. Jack Nicholson's Surprising Parentage - Chinatown

The Movie

The big twist in Roman Polanski's terrific film noir is that Katherine Cross (Belinda Palmer) is not merely the sister of female lead Evelyn Mulwray (Faye Dunaway), but also her daughter.

As it turns out, Evelyn was raped by her grotesque land mogul father Noah Cross (John Huston), resulting in the birth of Katherine.

This pays off horrifically in the film's final moments as Evelyn is shot dead by the police and the villainous Noah gains custody of Katherine, while also getting away with his other crimes scot-free.

How It Predicted Reality

Katherine's deeply icky parentage foreshadowed the film's star learning the surprising truth of his own birth just as Chinatown was due to release.

Time Magazine called Nicholson to fact-check some information for a feature about the actor, where he was informed that the woman he believed to be his sister, June Nicholson, was actually his mother, and his "mother" was in fact his grandmother.

A 37-year-old Nicholson initially denied the claim, but later learned from other family members that it was true - his mother got pregnant with him at just 16 years of age to an unknown father, prompting June's mother to raise the child so June could pursue a dancing career.

Both women took the secret to their graves, dying long before Nicholson learned the news himself.

Thankfully the circumstances of the actor's existence don't match Chinatown down to the grossest details, but the shared subject matter between life and art is nevertheless fascinating.