Some Classic Movies that Predicted Our Current and Near-Future Tech Trends
Just about any movie that’s set in the future or discusses a future has had a go at trying to predict some of the technologies that will come into play. While mostly reserved for science-fiction flicks, there are some that deploy a particularly intelligent or pessimistic character to lay out what they think is on the way. Now, in 2022, some of those tech predictions have either hit the mainstream or are expected to break through in the coming years.
Total Recall
Adapted from the 1966 short story from Philip K. Dick, the 1990 flick Total Recall depicts many, many futuristic technologies. While Arnold Schwarzenegger’s virtual reality trip to Mars and that explosion is perhaps the most memorable bit of future-gazing, the idea that’s swiftly becoming a reality is that of self-driving cars. In the movie, the Johnny Cab has some form of a plastic human sitting in the front to give the idea of a driver, but in reality, the front seats are still going to have people sitting in them.
Many companies are digging into this technology, with the likes of Alphabet, Microsoft, and Uber Technologies seemingly leading the charge. Their advances to date have come far enough that the European Commission will table legislation that will allow nations to approve the sale of self-driving cars by the end of September. In 2002 and 2004, Minority Report and I, Robot also explored the idea of mass-market self-driving cars. Personal self-driving cars might be quite far away, predominantly due to prices, but self-driving public vehicles like the taxi in Total Recall could well be the next big step for the technology in the mainstream.
Blade Runner
Released in 1982 by cinematic mastermind Ridley Scott, Blade Runner is still hailed as one of the best science-fiction movies of all time, and its sequel from 2019 went down rather well in review too. One of the most endearing elements of Blade Runner in the 80s was its willingness to showcase technologies that really weren’t so farcical. AI-driven robots and smart homes are well within the public consciousness, and on the way – much like self-driving cars – might just be flying cars. It almost seemed normal in Blade Runner when Harrison Ford hopped into a flying car to get around the dark, gloomy, mostly deserted city of Los Angeles.
Certainly not yet here to the extent that they were in Blade Runner, but flying cars are certainly in development. One of the leaders in the field is Hyundai. The Korean carmaker has made significant investments in the technology and is targeting 2030 as the year that they’ll really be able to get flying cars off of the ground. As with self-driving cars, Uber Technologies also has a hand in these developments, putting the cash earned through their ill-begotten expansion, as revealed in The Uber Files, towards becoming more future-proof now that they’re such a colossal tech firm.
The Cable Guy
He may best be known for his more overtly comedic roles, but Jim Carrey has starred across a crazy range of genres, playing erratic characters as often as more steely-eyed leads, as he did in the thriller Dark Crimes. Here, however, it’s all about the quick snippet of future-telling that deranged cable installer Chip quickly rifles out in the 1996 flick The Cable Guy. At the end of the movie, Chip’s monologue details that TV, phones, and computers will be integrated, and that you’ll be able to “visit the Louvre on one channel and then watch female wrestling on another.”At Super Bowl LVI, Carrey reprised the role for a Verizon advert that confirms that his prophecy came to pass.
Now, TV, phone, and computer are integrated into smartphones, and live streaming allows us to instantly immerse ourselves in a location elsewhere in the world – not to speak of the massive range of content that we can get on any device. Taking Chip’s prophecy further, we don’t just need to see things through a screen now, but we can also play live through streams. At the online casino, live games like Live Mega Roulette, Live Bet on Poker, and Live Dragon Tiger virtually sit players at the table to place real-money bets in real time. Thanks to the internet and live streaming, engaging with places around the world isn’t just a passive, TV-like viewing experience, but rather one that is as immersive and interactive as real life.
Metropolis
This is very much a throwback pick, but the 1927 flick Metropolis is still held in high regard for its pioneering of major sci-fi concepts on the big screen. It broke a lot of ground, with the most significant being depicting robots in a movie. The Science Museum Group Collection even features a replica of the robot, Maria, from the Fritz Lang film. Evidently inspired by the aesthetics of Tutankhamen’s mask – which was discovered five years prior – Maria became the reference for future moviemakers who wanted to infuse some robots, including C-3PO. We’re certainly getting close to a Maria-tier robot in the real world, with the likes of Kodomoroid, Atlas, ASIMO, and Erica – who is eerily realistic – proving that we very nearly have the technology for real robots.
In each of these movies, we’ve seen advanced technologies that have either arrived in 2022 or are not far away from becoming more mainstream in the years to come.
