In 1989, Back to the Future Part II time-travelled to 2015. How much did Hollywood get right?
HOVERBOARDS, flying cars and $50 Pepsi ... In the 1989 movie, Michael J. Fox time-travelled to 2015. How well did Hollywood predict next year?
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IN the 1985 film Back to the Future, Marty McFly travelled into the past, to 1955, to save his parents’ marriage.
Four real-world years later — but mere minutes after returning to 1985 for Marty — in 1989’s Back to the Future Part II, Emmett “Doc” Brown arrived with urgent news: Marty must travel to the future to save his kids.
So Marty and Doc jumped into the DeLorean and set the time circuits for 30 years hence: Wednesday, October 21, 2015.
Yes, 2015 seemed a long way away in the 1980s and envisioning how technology might have changed our lives by then really was the stuff of Hollywood fantasy ...
Did they get it right?
Minds boggled at a 2015 in which the weather bureau would predict rainfall to the second. Automated petrol pumps (you don’t even have to get out of your car!) spout slogans in synthesised Stephen Hawking voices.
Cafes manned by floating TV heads deliver drinks by air tube. Fashion is uniformly brightly coloured. Books no longer require dust jackets, since dust-repellent paper was invented. Dogs can be walked by unmanned hover collars. A visit to the Rejuvenation Clinic (“They took out some wrinkles, did a hair repair, changed the blood ...”) might add a good 40 years to your life.
And grabbing a bottle of Pepsi would require a $50 note.
But what resemblance does this ’80s Hollywood vision of 2015 bear to the one that, in less than four weeks, we will all find ourselves living in ... for real?
Thankfully, inflation has not quite spiralled to the dystopian levels Back to the Future Part II predicted; that said, paying $4 to $5 for a chilled 600ml Pepsi at a convenience store does feel futuristically exorbitant.
As for the rest?
Join us now in the DeLorean as we assess the fantasy and the reality of 2015 technology as depicted by Back to the Future Part II — with an expert reality check from News Corp’s very own Doc Brown, national technology editor Jennifer Dudley Nicholson.
Are we all living in Michael J. Fox’s supercool future?
HOLOMAX
Forget 3D. Holomax films go beyond the third dimension, with hologram projectors bringing the movie to you.
THE MOVIE: Marty walks by the Holomax Theatre, which is screening Jaws 19. The hologram advertising for the film on the cinema frontage arcs down to snap its jaws around a terrified Marty.
THE REALITY: Four Jaws films were enough and holograms are not common. US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel recently had a holographic country music star pick his nose during a live broadcast, while Tupac and Michael Jackson have appeared posthumously as performing holograms. One company does have everyday holograms in its sights, however. San Francisco-based Bleen is crowd-funding two devices — one shaped like a rock, the other an egg — that would deliver 3D images projected in light above the unit. Bleen promises to deliver the devices, costing $US225, by next October.
HOVERBOARD
In 2015, cool kids don’t skate, they hover. (Foot-powered momentum still required.)
THE MOVIE: On the run from Griff Tannen’s gang, Marty commandeers a hoverboard — pink, Mattel branded, with scooter adaptor — from two young girls. Griff pulls out his souped-up, black Pit Bull branded hoverboard to give chase.
THE REALITY: The hoverboard is real and it’s coming in 2015. A company named Hendo has created a working hoverboard that uses magnets to levitate one inch off the ground. Hendo is so confident in its prototype, it invited skateboard hero Tony Hawk to trial it last month, with hilarious, spinning results.
Sadly, the hoverboard only works on surfaces made of “non-ferromagnetic conductors” such as copper; not on regular footpaths. The first units will set you back $US10,000 when they arrive in October.
NIKE HI-TOPS WITH POWER LACES
“Power laces? All right!”
THE MOVIE: Marty changes into future fashion in order to pass as his son. His Nike sneakers are auto-lacing with illuminated logo. His jacket has a size-adjusting feature that adapts to its wearer and — as Marty discovers after falling into the fountain — also has drying mode. Doc gives Marty one other tip to pass as a fashion-savvy 2015 teen: “All of the kids in the future wear their pants inside out.”
THE REALITY: Nike produced 1500 pairs of Marty McFly hi-top shoes in 2011, auctioning them off for Michael J. Fox’s Parkinson’s research charity. Wearers, however, were forced to lace them up manually, like plebeians. This could change next year, if Nike’s special projects and design vice-president Tinker Hatfield is to be believed. This year he told Sole Collector: “Are we gonna see power laces in 2015? To that, I say yes!” The development would follow Nike’s self-lacing shoe technology patent, granted in 2013. Meanwhile, few kids wear their pants inside out, but there are a lot of exposed underpants and pockets peeking out of short-shorts on the streets of Australia.
FLYING CARS
“Where we’re going, we don’t need roads!”
THE MOVIE: The DeLorean handily busts through the space time continuum right onto the Hill Valley skyway. Still driving one of those silly old “road cars”? Never fear, hover conversions are available. The skyway is lined by floating lane markers and signs, indicating exits and hyperlanes — the latter offering a fast route from California to London.
THE REALITY: We still need roads. However, companies are developing flying cars, also known as VTOL (vertical takeoff and landing) vehicles.
US company Terrafugia promised to deliver its first effort, the Transition, next year, though its release now appears to have been delayed until 2016. The vehicle may also cost $US270,000. Other efforts include the Moller Skycar 400 with a top speed of 563km/h.
FINGERPRINT SECURITY
Because fumbling for keys in the dark is sooo last century.
THE MOVIE: The Hill Valley Police immediately identify the unconscious 1985-model Jennifer (she’s been put to sleep by Doc’s Sleep Inducing Alpha Rhythm Generator) by scanning her thumbprint. The police then fly-drive her home to the 2015 McFly residence, secured by fingerprint technology: just touch the entry pad and the door will open. Taxis in 2015 also offer instantaneous fingerprint payment.
THE REALITY: Do not trust any taxi driver who wants to take your fingerprints. Biometric door locks are readily available, however, with models stocked at hardware chains now for about $400. One recently released model, the Kwikset Kevo, also lets you open the door with a tap after connecting your smartphone — something the good Doc didn’t see coming.
DEHYDRATED FOOD
If it’s good enough for NASA ...
THE MOVIE: Grandma Lorraine prepares dinner for the McFlys by tearing open a foil pack with a Pizza Hut logo and popping its biscuit-sized contents into a Black & Decker Hydrator. Mere seconds later, a family-sized half pepperoni/half green pepper pizza pops out.
THE REALITY: Pizzas still arrive in fully hydrated form, though they can be ordered over the internet and from smartphones. Keen snackers can also dehydrate food with kitchen gadgets priced from about $100; though rehydrating them is a messy, often unsuccessful business.
VIDEO GLASSES
Future etiquette crisis: are video glasses at the dinner table acceptable?
THE MOVIE: Marty Jr watches TV at the dinner table via his JVC video glasses — complaining he can only get two channels. Meanwhile, his sister Marlene takes a phone call on her video glasses.
THE REALITY: Finally, the real 2015 beats the Hollywood version. Our 2015 has Google Glass smart spectacles that connect to the internet, remind us when to leave the house, answer questions, handle calls and screen television shows. While video calls were removed in a recent update and are being revamped, a Spanish television news network has released an app that streams bulletins to the tiny screen in Google’s spectacles. Yes, that’s right, there’s still not much to watch.
Originally published as In 1989, Back to the Future Part II time-travelled to 2015. How much did Hollywood get right?
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