Back To The Future II vs. The Real Future

Posted in Culture Shock, Films |

Hoverboards

Screencap by Hollow-Art

What they thought would happen: They’re like skateboards, but they’re in the FUTURE! Someone’s gotta invent this!

What will most likely happen: Skateboards will remain sans-hover for the time being.

Video Telephones

Screencap by Hollow-Art

What they thought would happen: See, it’s just like today’s phone calls, except they’re all on video!

What will most likely happen: They actually tried to market a videophone to us in the early nineties. It failed because people still like talking on the phone in their underwear. (They also cost over a grand each.) However, cellphone cameras, webcams, and Skype have picked up where videophones left off, giving one the ability to correspond virtually face-to-face wherever, whenever.

Giant TV Screens EVERYWHERE

Screencap by Hollow-Art

What they thought would happen: GIANT TV SCREENS WILL BE EVERYWHERE!

What will most likely happen: Okay, this has actually happened.

Billboard sized televisions appear along many highways and interstates and “normal” sized TVs have sprouted up in this decade like Starbucks did in the late 90s: in banks, subway terminals, malls, and even dentist’s offices.

Screencap by Hollow-Art

One big thing Back To The Future II failed to predict was the emergence of cell phones. 2015, and people were still shit out of luck if their cars broke down in the middle of fucking nowhere. They couldn’t even come up with some teleportation gimmick! If only director Robert Zemeckis had any clue just how much of a sci-fi wet dream cell phones would become. Hell, the iPhone probably has an app for instantly making coffee wherever, and if it doesn’t, it should. But is this anywhere in Marty McFly’s 2015? No, sir.

Next time you see a movie set in the not-too-distant future, take notes, then compare them to see if they measured up when the real future meets the not-so-real future. Of course, if we are to believe the conspiracy theorists, the world will end in 2012, so you’d better get cracking fast.

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