Today (October 21st 2015) marks the day that Marty McFly, his girlfriend Jennifer and the good Doc Brown arrived in the future from the year 1985 in the cult classic movie Back to The Future 2. This so happens to be my favourite film of all time, so as you can imagine the anticipation to see whats in store trending around social media today is unreal.
So how spot on did writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis predict technology would enhance by the year 2015 when they wrote the script all those years ago? Now lets remember before reading the following, these guys must have drawn a picture in their head not knowing how clever their predictions actually were going to be.
Video Calls
Watching the film back even in the 90s, this seemed like a futuristic dream, but with FaceTime and Skype now in full motion, the video call has evolved from a business medium to an essential of everyday life.
Jaws 19 appears in the movie in 3d. Now we don’t have a jaws 19, but 3D viewing of movies and even the use in theme park rides is popular worldwide.
Tablet
In the scene by the clock tower Doc has what looks like a handheld tablet . Today tablets are commonplace, with around 240 million units expected to be sold by the end of this year, an 8 per cent increase from 2014.
Fingerprint recognition
Most of us don’t use it to get into our house, but fingerprint recognition is now a major part of many people’s lives, being used on several smartphones to unlock them or pay for items.
Wearable technology
Marty’s future kids wear headsets at the dinner table to make and receive calls and watch TV. With the introduction of Google Glass in 2013, and gaming headsets for the latest consoles, virtual reality is not far from becoming the next thing to become another addition to our futuristic technology.
Hoverboards
Japanese car company Lexus recently unveiled a prototype for a real, rideable hoverboard. A company called Arx Pax from California is also working on its own version. Unfortunately they both rely on custom built magnet tracks so are unlikely to be able to fly over water like Marty’s.
Hands-free gaming
While we don’t see it in the film, kids at Cafe 80s mock Marty for having to use his hands to play an arcade game. The latest games consoles offer such additional accessories for gaming.
Self-tying shoes
Marty’s self-tying trainers I think would have been on every kids Christmas list if they were available back in 89 after the release of BTTF2. Well, what seems like a fitting tribute to the year 2015 when they were used in the film, Nike designer Tinker Hatfield has confirmed he and his team are working on a consumer version of the shoes, complete with self-tying laces, and hopes to have them ready for sale by early next year. Somehow, i do not think these will come cheap. Will half to add this one to my dream wish list next to the Delorean.
Robot car fuelling
Filling a car up is still largely the same as it was in the 80s, though you could say with more electric vehicles on the road today, electric charging docks for cars in the street, could be seen as close to what we see in the movie.
Now that is an impressive run of predictions. Maybe Zemeckis and Gale were time travellers themselves, or maybe not. Here are some things that are not quite there YET, or you could say have been over thought.
Flying Cars (The Delorean)
My favourite of the lot, though sadly flying traffic just wouldn’t cut it in this day in age. There are enough road rage looneys driving on roads.
Self dry /fit clothing
Pretty cool, though not very cost efficient. I’m pretty sure prototypes have been attempted.
The Fax machine
Looking back at the movie, I can’t help but think how far we have come if this was thrown in as something that would survive through our overturn of technology.