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Dave Johnson
2019-05-11T14:05:00Z
- We looked at some of the best sci-fi movies in history to see what kinds of predictions they made about technology and the world.
- Many predictions are hilariously inaccurate, but some have proven eerily correct decades later.
- Memorable movies like "Blade Runner," "The Terminator," and "2001: A Space Odyssey" predicted modern-day tech like military drones and cell phones.
- Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.
Not all science fiction films age well, and often the predictions they make are hilariously misguided.
1987's "The Running Man," for example, contended that in the year 2019, we'd be watching battle royale-style murder on live television.
2019 is also the year that "The Island" predicted human clones would be farmed like cattle for their organs — and that film hit theaters a mere 14 years ago.
But some classic sci-fi films made rock-solid predictions that proved eerily accurate decades later. Movies such as "Blade Runner," "The Terminator," and "2001: A Space Odyssey" are all worth revisiting for the modern-day technology they predicted.
Despite some great contenders from the last decade or two, we established the drinking age rule for this list: We looked only at movies that were 21 years or older (so tough break, 2002's "Minority Report").
Here are nine predictions from old sci-fi movies that actually came true.
Space travel — 'Le Voyage Dans La Lune,' 1902
It's hard to make the case that any particular work of fiction predicted the general concept of space travel. Jules Verne may well have been the first person to write about it in any sort of modern, technological way with his 1865 novel "From the Earth to the Moon," but since then, countless films have featured travel to the moon or beyond.
Even so, "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" deserves special mention. With the movie camera barely 10 years old and the first cinema still three years away from a grand opening, French filmmaker Georges Méliès made a 13-minute, special effects-laden movie about explorers who travel to the moon in a cannon-propelled space capsule.
It's remarkable for many reasons. The subject matter is inventive, the visual effects are charming and downright iconic, and the conceit of firing a rocket out of a canon is not as far-fetched as it might seem to viewers accustomed to Space X launches.
In fact, the "space gun" — ballistically firing a satellite into orbit from the equivalent of a giant canon — has been explored for decades. In the 1960s, under the auspices of Project HARP, the Navy used a 100-caliber gun to fire 400-pound projectiles into suborbital trajectories that reached a height of 110 miles. So the idea, though impractical, is far from crazy.
No, we're unlikely to ever fire people into space from a canon. But "Le Voyage Dans La Lune" certainly ignited viewers' imaginations and paved the way for Neil Armstrong and Apollo 11.
Robots — 'Metropolis,' 1927
Though relatively unknown to mainstream movie audiences, sci-fi fans will have no trouble recognizing the iconic 1927 film "Metropolis."
From the vantage point of 2019, this film isn't easy to watch, since it's a silent, black-and-white film that runs well over two hours. (Though if you're so inclined, you certainly can watch Metropolis in its entirety on YouTube.)
And Metropolis broke a lot of fresh ground, including the first on-screen depiction of robots. In the film, an inventor with an uncanny 1920's resemblance to Doc Brown crafted a metallic humanoid robot who is then "reskinned" to resemble Maria, a character in the film.
Today, we take the inevitability of robots — and even human-like androids in particular — for granted. But as novel as this was at the time, today we are virtually overrun with increasingly realistic androids.
In 2014, Japan saw the debut of "Kodomoroid," a robot newscaster, and Osaka University's Professor Hiroshi Ishiguro has unveiled an android named Erica who is startlingly realistic. At the same time, robots like Boston Dynamics' Atlas and Honda's Asimo demonstrate that walking, running, opening doors, and even gymnastics are on the robot menu.
Earbuds —'Fahrenheit 451,' 1966
Ray Bradbury's iconic novel "Fahrenheit 451" has long been required reading for high schoolers everywhere, and François Truffaut tried his hand at making a film version in 1966.
Firemen never took on the role of starting fires, but that conceit wasn't intended to be taken as a prediction — it's a satirical parable. But there is a fascinating piece of technology in this film that sagely predicts the rise of earbuds and the modern earbud culture.
In "Fahrenheit 451," "seashells" are described as "thimble radios tamped tight, and an electronic ocean of sound, of music and talk coming in, coming in on the shore of her unsleeping mind." In 1966, the most personal audio available was the transistor radio. And though headphones existed, they were large and bulky affairs. Bradbury and Truffaut envisioned a world with tiny, thimble-sized earbuds that played private audio — both music and talk.
It wouldn't be until 2001 and the first Apple iPod that people started wearing seashells, submersing themselves in music and podcasts just like the film depicted.
Skype — '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 1968
The list of things that "2001: A Space Odyssey" predicted could probably fill an article all by itself, from tablet computers to space tourism.
But one element in the film stands out: Skype.
To be fair, no one in "2001" actually logs into the Microsoft-operated video chat service. But video calling is featured prominently in the movie, such as when Dr. Heywood Floyd calls his family from a space station orbiting the earth.
There's even more innovation in this scene: Floyd inserts what looks like a credit card in the videophone to start the call, predicting their eventual ubiquity — in the 1960s, credit cards weren't nearly as common as they are today.
And the two-minute call from space cost $1.70, thoguh we can't figure whether that's a bargain or not.
The tech world has had a 50-year love affair with the concept of videophones, and numerous efforts were made to make them a reality. The Picturephone was first demonstrated at the 1964 World's Fair, and it surfaced at retail again and again over the years — such as AT&T's 1982 Picturephone and the 1992 VideoPhone 2500.
All were failures, but the internet, mobile broadband, and smartphones all conspired to eventually make video calling via apps like Skype and FaceTime everyday tools.
Mobile phones — 'Star Trek,' 1966
Purists might consider this one a cheat, but we'd be remiss not to include "Star Trek" in the list, since it predicted more technology than Leonardo di Vinci's notebook.
Let's be clear: "Star Trek" started as a TV series in 1966, and its three-year initial run set the blueprint for the show's many technological predictions. But all of that eventually made its way to the big screen, starting with "Star Trek: The Motion Picture" in 1979, qualifying it for this list.
And when we say that "Star Trek" invented the modern mobile phone, we mean it. The show's pocket communicator with the flip-up grid antenna literally inspired Motorola engineer Martin Cooper to design the world's first mobile phone in 1973.
His prototype, which would eventually become the Motorola DynaTACwas a veritable beast of a phone that weighed 2.5 pounds and had a 20-minute battery life. It took a decade to bring it to market, but 1983's DynaTAC started a revolution that led to ever smaller phones, flip phones, and eventually, smartphones.
Smart homes — 'Demon Seed,' 1977
Some movie fans point to the goofy 1999 Disney film "Smart House" as the first major appearance of the Internet of Things and smart-home technology in a film. And admittedly, when the movie is actually called "Smart House," that's a little on the nose.
But you can go back further for the first example of a smart home in cinema: 1977's sci-fi-horror film "Demon Seed."
In "Demon Seed," a scientist develops Proteus IV, an artificially intelligent computer that starts off on a positive note by curing leukemia. But it quickly spirals out of control when the computer develops an unhealthy crush on its creator's wife, installs itself on a computer in their home, and takes control over all the technology and devices there.
The premise is terrible and the execution is pure 70's made-for-TV schlock, but what Proteus IV actually does is prescient — like a modern smart home, the computer can control lights, door and window locks, manages the home's alarm system, can show video of the front door like a smart doorbell, and even control devices like an automated swimming pool cover.
"Demon Seed" could easily be the blueprint for modern smart home technology from Philips Hue lights to Ring doorbells to Kevo smart locks, and dozens of other Internet of Things devices.
Flying cars — 'Blade Runner,' 1982
Few sci-fi movies are as revered as Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner," a film that put cyberpunk and sci-fi noir on the big screen for the first time.
The movie goes big on audacious predictions for the year 2019, including snakes on the verge of extinction, fully humanlike androids, ceaseless rain in LA, and space colonies.
But the movie got a few things right, too. The pyramid-shaped LA skyline implies that the city's skyscrapers are no longer legally required to have helipads on the roof — something that changed for real in LA in 2014 — and the film also predicted the rise (no pun intended) of flying cars. An essential part of the "Blade Runner" universe is the Spinner, a flying car we see darting about the city.
Flying cars have been part of our "promised future" since the 1950s. And engineers have tried. Oh, how they've tried. Among the many attempts at flying cars, there has been the 1947 ConvAirCar Model 118, little more than an auto with wings, and 1990's Sky Commuter from Boeing. And inventor Paul Moller spent his life developing various versions of his Sky Car, a reliable fixture in the back pages of pop science magazine for decades.
And while we don't have flying cars quite yet, they're definitely, at long last, coming. A number of companies are readying what are essentially "passenger drones" — electric powered, self-flying, vertical takeoff and landing vehicles that look like oversized drones.
And they can ferry passengers without the need for a pilot. Boeing, AirBus, and Chinese company eHang are all developing oversized drone flying taxi services, and some are just a couple of years (in theory) from operation, and Uber has already announced the first five cities that may start flying.
Military drones — 'The Terminator,' 1984
James Cameron's sci-fi blockbuster "The Terminator" gave us a lot of reasons to lie awake at night — a self-aware computer that triggers nuclear Armageddon, relentless killbots, and Bill Paxton's spikey punk hair.
Mixed in with all that are visions of the future that reveal Hunter-Killer drones — in essence, military flying drones armed with weapons.
By the early 1980s, the military already had extensive experience with "target drones" — radio-controlled unmanned vehicles that could be shot down for target practice — and reconnaissance drones, launched from ships and aircraft. But it wouldn't be until the "war on terror" in the 2000s that the US military would fulfill the predictions of "The Terminator" and deploy UAVs — military drones — with weapons on board.
The MQ-1 Predator, first used in 2001, is the first known military drone capable of firing weapons that were triggered remotely by ground operators. And lest you think that the autonomous Hunter-Killers of Sarah Connor's nightmares are pure fiction, the US military is even now grappling with the question of fielding artificially intelligent drones capable of making their own firing decisions.
Self-driving cars 'Total Recall,' 1990
"Total Recall" is like a live-action cartoon painted in primary colors.
But amid the memory-control technology, wall-sized TV screens, routine commercial flights to Mars, and alien superstructures under the Martian surface are a few interesting predictions. The most prescient: self-driving cars.
The movie's Johnnycabs are probably what self-driving cars might look like from a late-'80s point of view. They featured a stylized android avatar in the driver's seat, and — if you happen to have the strength of an Arnold Schwarzenegger — ripping out the bot meant you could sit down and actually drive the car.
That seems a little silly and perhaps naive today, but that's only because we know exactly what self-driving cars look like — they're in the news and on the streets. Bristling with sensors, today's fully self-driving cars can drive themselves without the need for anyone or anything to sit in the driver's seat. And semi-self-driving cars are not far behind, though they do require a pilot to keep their hands on the controls for safety, at least for now.
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FAQs
What sci-fi predictions that came true? ›
Science fiction predicted credit cards, television and the 1969 lunar landing. Bionic limbs, military tanks, antidepressants and submarines emerged from sci-fi, too.
Does sci-fi movies predict future? ›While many sci-fi stories in the past have accurately predicted the future before it became the present, that isn't always the case. For years writers have tried their best to portray what they believe will happen.
What is the first most scientifically accurate movie? ›1/8 2001: A Space Odyssey
This list would not exist without Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. While some may say the film is boring and moves slowly, it is the original Sci-fi film that portrayed everything with as much accuracy as possible.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Stanley Kubrick's 1968 masterwork is championed by many as one of the greatest science fiction films ever made and for good reason, as it's also one of the most scientifically accurate. Kubrick and especially co-screenwriter Arthur C.
...
Nostradamus.
| Michel de Nostredame | |
|---|---|
| Known for | Prophecy, treating plague |
| Signature | |
Gernsback believed, like some others of the time, that applying electricity to the soil would allow crops to produce higher yields. Electrification of crops will be an established fact twenty years hence. There is no reason why the ground can not yield twice as much produce, as has long been shown experimentally.
Which sci-fi movie that predicted the future came the closest to getting it right? ›'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968): Tablets and Video Calls
Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi magnum opus may be one of the closest times a sci-fi film has gotten right to predicting the future. Now commercial space travel may still be years away, but the predictions of other "future" inventions were dead-on.
This picture marks the origin of science-fiction in cinema. Beyond the ethic and social backstories it raises, Lang's Metropolis predicts streaming video calling, in other words, our Skype or WhatsApp calls, almost a century ahead of their time.
What is the most scientifically accurate movie according to NASA? ›- Gattaca (1997)
- Contact (1997)
- Metropolis (1927)
- The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)
- Woman In the Moon (1929)
- The Thing from Another World (1951)
- Jurassic Park (1993)
To answer the original question, the space movies with the most accurate physics are Contact, 2001: A Space Odyssey, and Apollo 13. The movies with the least accurate physics are the Star Wars and Star Trek series.
Is Dark scientifically accurate? ›
As a Physicist, I've appreciated Dark for its scientific accuracy in all of its sci fi nature (a few minor statements were very unscientific though). Time travel, especially the tunnel (wormhole) time travel, has been incredibly accurate.
What should I watch on Netflix based on a true story? ›...
Popular on NetflixExplore more
- Father Stu.
- Lost Girls.
- Fatherhood.
- Outlaw King.
- Against The Ice.
- Blue Miracle.
- Operation Mincemeat.
- Amina.
Interstellar is known for being very accurate when it comes to the visual effects. Created with the help of theoretical physicist Kip Thorne, Interstellar features a massive black hole, named Gargantua, to which a team of astronauts ends up traveling.
How scientifically accurate is Interstellar? ›The movie Interstellar is reasonably accurate from a scientific standpoint. Some of the concepts in the movie, such as wormholes and time dilation, are supported by theoretical physics, but have not been proven conclusively.
What will happen in the year 2025? ›The 2025 Polish presidential election is scheduled to be held. Toyota plans to launch its first fully electric vehicles. NASA will land the first female astronaut and the first African American male astronaut on the surface of the Moon through Artemis 3. Boeing is set to deliver the Boeing 777X to the market.
What will happen to world in 2050? ›World population is expected to increase from 7 billion today to over 9 billion in 2050. A growing population is likely to increase pressures on the natural resources that supply energy and food. World GDP is projected to almost quadruple by 2050, despite the recent recession.
Can you predict the future in your dreams? ›At this time there is little scientific evidence suggesting that dreams can predict the future. Some research suggests that certain types of dreams may help predict the onset of illness or mental decline in the dream, however.
What is a Teledactyl? ›"The Teledactyl (Tele, far; Dactyl, finger--from the Greek) is a future instrument by which it will be possible for us to 'feel at a distance. ' This idea is not at all impossible, for the instrument can be built today with means available right now.
What movie predicted the future most accurately? ›- 8/10 Network.
- 7/10 Contagion.
- 6/10 WALL-E.
- 5/10 Back To The Future Part II.
- 4/10 Minority Report.
- 3/10 The Truman Show.
- 2/10 Metropolis.
- 1/10 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- Space travel — 'Le Voyage Dans La Lune,' 1902. ...
- Robots — 'Metropolis,' 1927. ...
- Earbuds — 'Fahrenheit 451,' 1966. ...
- Skype — '2001: A Space Odyssey,' 1968. ...
- Mobile phones — 'Star Trek,' 1966. ...
- Smart homes — 'Demon Seed,' 1977. ...
- Flying cars — 'Blade Runner,' 1982.
Which film portrays a futuristic world where humans are controlled and enslaved by machines? ›
The Matrix.
Set in a near future where the human race has been enslaved by a robotic AI, placed inside a computer simulation and used as a power source, its high concept story was matched by its eye-popping special effects, cementing its status as a modern day sci-fi classic.
The film's message is encompassed in the final inter-title: "The Mediator Between the Head and the Hands Must Be the Heart".
What is the message behind Metropolis? ›The uprising of the workers conveys a very significant and important political message about inequality in society and the future of modern capitalism. Metropolis exposes the very mechanics of capitalism – from the labouring masses at the bottom, to the powerful elite at the top.
Is Metropolis a Marxist? ›Metropolis is an indicative film of class and social issues. It is based on Marx's class analysis, with the bourgeoisies at the top of the economic hierarchy, managers in the middle and workers at the bottom of the financial scale.
Is the movie 2012 scientifically accurate? ›NASA's silly sci-fi film list -- 2012 the most flawed (w/ Video) (PhysOrg.com) -- At a conference held at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California, NASA experts have voted 2012 the most scientifically flawed and absurd science fiction film ever made.
Is Jurassic Park scientifically accurate? ›The Jurassic Park franchise's dinosaurs are not at all scientifically accurate. The first film was decent for 1993, but the sequels did not improve the accuracy - they did the exact opposite. It's worth mentioning that the Jurassic Park doesn't present the dinosaurs that actually lived.
Is gravity movie scientifically accurate? ›While it's true that the film is very scientifically accurate; even down to the star patterns in space, some liberties were made to sustain the story, leading to some minor yet rather glaring inaccuracies.
Which is movie related to science? ›Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg's third sci-fi blockbuster – after Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – is the film most cited by scientists and science journalists when explaining new findings to the public.
Is Greenland scientifically accurate? ›However, Greenland suffers from a scientific standpoint in two major areas - one being the lack of clarity in tracking the comet's path, and how such impending predictions are monitored in general, which almost always result in evacuation in dire scenarios.
Do astronauts have movies in space? ›Do astronauts on the ISS have an opportunity to watch first-run movies? They do. Sometimes studios will make a digital copy available to NASA to upload to the ISS. The crew sometimes watch films while they exercise on the treadmill.
How long will the universe exist? ›
22 billion years in the future is the earliest possible end of the Universe in the Big Rip scenario, assuming a model of dark energy with w = −1.5. False vacuum decay may occur in 20 to 30 billion years if the Higgs field is metastable.
What is closest to the speed of light? ›The most energetic particles ever made on Earth, which are protons at the Large Hadron Collider, can travel incredibly close to the speed of light in a vacuum: 299,792,455 meters-per-second, or 99.999999% the speed of light.
Does light exist without darkness? ›Your question is misleading for what your really asking…. In reality, yes, light could exist without darkness. I can think of many examples. Also darkness can exist without light.
What is the best movie based on a True Story? ›- All the President's Men (1976) Film. Drama. ...
- In Cold Blood (1967) Film. ...
- Hustlers (2019) Film. ...
- Argo (2012) Film. ...
- The Social Network (2010) Film. ...
- Dog Day Afternoon (1975) Film. ...
- Dallas Buyers Club (2014) Film. ...
- Can You Ever Forgive Me? (2018) Film.
Based of a memoir written by an actual Holocaust survivor, The Pianist may even be the saddest movie of all time.
Which series is based on a True Story? ›...
Based on a True Story (TV series)
| Based on a True Story | |
|---|---|
| Created by | Craig Rosenberg Jason Bateman |
| Written by | Craig Rosenberg |
| Starring | Kaley Cuoco |
| Country of origin | United States |
Experts agree that Apollo 13 is a largely accurate depiction of the true story. While it may be easy for filmmakers to play with facts, Ron Howard committed to portraying events in Apollo 13 as true to life as he could, which many experts agree that he did.
Is interstellar the best sci fi movie? ›Many critics consider Christopher Nolan's Interstellar to be one of the best sci-fi films ever made, although opinions were split at the time of its premiere. The plot revolves around former NASA pilot Joseph Cooper (Matthew McConaughey), who leads a team of astronauts on a journey to discover a suitable planet for.
Do wormholes exist? ›Wormholes are shortcuts in spacetime, popular with science fiction authors and movie directors. They've never been seen, but according to Einstein's general theory of relativity, they might exist.
How big was the black hole in Interstellar? ›Extra details from 'The Science of Interstellar'
By calculations of Kip Thorne, Gargantua is about 100 million solar masses, placing it firmly as a supermassive black hole.
What equation did they solve in Interstellar? ›
As an adult, Murph uses the quantum data from the watch to solve the gravity equation. She is able to understand how to harness gravity, and how to control it. As a result, humanity is able to leave Earth in vast numbers.
How scientifically accurate is Interstellar? ›The movie Interstellar is reasonably accurate from a scientific standpoint. Some of the concepts in the movie, such as wormholes and time dilation, are supported by theoretical physics, but have not been proven conclusively.
Which is movie related to science? ›Jurassic Park. Steven Spielberg's third sci-fi blockbuster – after Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial (1982) – is the film most cited by scientists and science journalists when explaining new findings to the public.
How accurate is primer the movie? ›Primer (2004)
Sadly, Shane Carruth's Primer, which follows two men who accidentally build a time machine in a garage, isn't one of them. In fact, no time travel science exists in this film. What is accurate is the gravity degradation on which Aaron and Abe originally work.
However, Greenland suffers from a scientific standpoint in two major areas - one being the lack of clarity in tracking the comet's path, and how such impending predictions are monitored in general, which almost always result in evacuation in dire scenarios.
Is Gargantua real? ›The spaceship Endurance's destination is Gargantua, a fictional supermassive black hole with a mass 100 million times that of the sun. It lies 10 billion light-years from Earth and is orbited by several planets. Gargantua rotates at an astounding 99.8 percent of the speed of light.
Do wormholes exist? ›Wormholes are shortcuts in spacetime, popular with science fiction authors and movie directors. They've never been seen, but according to Einstein's general theory of relativity, they might exist.
How big was the black hole in Interstellar? ›Extra details from 'The Science of Interstellar'
By calculations of Kip Thorne, Gargantua is about 100 million solar masses, placing it firmly as a supermassive black hole.
- A Clockwork Orange. Year: 1971. Director: Stanley Kubrick. ...
- Okja. Year: 2017. Director: Bong Joon-ho. ...
- Men in Black. Year: 1997. Director: Barry Sonnenfeld. ...
- The Mitchells vs. The Machines. ...
- The Midnight Sky. Year: 2020. ...
- The Platform. Year: 2019. ...
- Elysium. Year: 2013. ...
- Blame! Year: 2017.
MCU till 2019 was mostly a sci-fi genre, now it is almost entirely a fantasy genre with scientific pretences.
What is a film in chemistry? ›
A layer of contaminant on part or all of a wafer. An example is wax that has migrated onto the wafer surface. [
What movie is most accurate to time travel? ›Primer, the low-budget debut film from Shane Carruth, may just be the most realistic time travel movie ever made; let's find out why. Do you ever wish you could turn back time? Well, the 2004 psychological science fiction film Primer will ultimately blow your mind on the ideas and possibilities of time travel.
What movie has the highest budget? ›The word “primer” literally means the prime coat, or the first coat. This derives from the Latin primus, meaning first. Something applied to a surface before a topcoat is called a primer, even though it might not be the first thing. The verb “to prime” means the action of applying a primer.
Are there actually bunkers in Greenland? ›In 1959, the US Army constructed a secret cold war bunker, dubbed Project Iceworm, within the Greenland ice sheet 120 km (75 miles) from the coast.
How long were they in the bunker in Greenland? ›It took nine months to get people out
It took nine months to go from the blast to the doors opening. Not everyone would have supplies to last nine months.
The asteroid size 65 million years ago was 10 km, it caused massive wildfires, a deep crater, and impact effects that darkened the Earth for several years.