Back to the Future: predictions, hits and misses

Back to the Future made a lot of predictions about what life would be like in 2015. How many have come true?

Marty McFly’s encounter with a holographic advertisement for Jaws 19 was a prescient sign of the rise of franchises.

Back to the Future made a lot of predictions about what life would be like in 2015. How many have come true?

Predictions that have come true:

The rise of the Chicago Cubs: The US baseball team has won a legion of new supporters this year from an unexpected quarter — fans of Back to the Future II. In the film, the US baseball team (which hasn’t won a World Series since 1908) are predicted to take home baseball’s biggest win. The Cubs are on a winning streak, and excluding this weekend’s game, have won 12 out of 13 of their past match-ups.

Video and entertainment technology: The ubiquity of technology in the film is not unlike life today: plasma screens, wireless video games, animated billboards and videoconferencing are commonplace. Tablets and electronic glasses are also used in the film, similar to the iPad and Google Glass.

Marty’s sneakers: The auto-lacing shoes worn by Marty McFly have been designed by Nike and will be released this year.

The rise of 3-D movies and sequels: Marty’s encounter with a holographic advertisement for Jaws 19 was a prescient sign of the rise of franchises.

The rejuvenation of Marty’s home town, Hill Valley: Unlike the dystopian, monochrome futures imagined in sci-fi films such as Blade Runner, the 2015 filmic version of Hill Valley has had a dramatic upgrade since 1985, with the downtown gentrification paralleling regeneration projects taking place in city centres across the globe.

Predictions that are in the works:

Hoverboards and flying cars: Perhaps the most iconic image from Back to the Future II is the hoverboard, a flying skateboard that has gripped the imagination of viewers since the film’s release. Director Robert Zemeckis fuelled rumours in the 1990s of its existence, but in reality the technology is still in the early stages, with expensive prototypes rising only a few inches off the ground.

Extreme cosmetic procedures: Doc explains to Marty he has undertaken extensive cosmetic procedures at a “rejuvenation clinic” — including a full blood transfusion, hair repair, and spleen and colon replacement — to give him an extra 40 years of life. The increased popularity of cosmetic surgery taps into this idea.

Replacing human jobs with technology: The notion that advancing technology is making human labour redundant is taken to extremes in the film. Lawyers have been replaced by data-courts, which adjudicate legal cases in a fraction of the time, and the Compu-fax and Hovercams have replaced journalists, writing automated stories.

Take a trip in author Matthew Reilly’s DeLorean to revisit Back to the Future’s awesomeness