Back to the Future was one of the most popular films of the 1980’s. The film (if you haven’t seen it and if you haven’t you need to have a serious word with yourself!) see’s Doctor Emmitt brown invent a time travelling DeLorean that takes Marty McFly back to the 1950’s where he inadvertently changes history by inventing the skateboard, influences Chuck Berry and kisses his own mother! The success of this classic family movie led to two sequels creating one of the most successful trilogies of all time. The first sequel of which, Back to the Future II, saw the protagonists thrown forward in time 30 years to the 21st of October 2015… which scarily is today’s date!
Back to the Future II paints a very colourful and laughable insight in to what everybody in the 1980’s expected the future to be. When you watch the film, you’ll see that their take on 2015 was rather… optimistic shall we say? Hover boards, double ties and Queen Diana of England obviously aren’t part of the 2015 reality – but what inventions did Back to the Future II correctly predict? We take a look here…
Video Conferencing
In the movie, the poor future Marty McFly is seen getting boot from his corporate job via a multi-video conference. Although the ‘YOU’RE FIRED’ fax is an outdated 80’s reference – this scene accurately predicts skype and other such webcam business conferences. This scene also brings us to…
Flat Screen TV's and Cable TV
The TV’s in Back to the Future II’s 2015 are flat screen. Back in the 1980’s televisions still had very bulky backs and the thought of a flat screen TV, now common place world-wide and cheap as chips, would have been considered sci-fi. These TV’s also come with an endless amount of channels which echo today’s endless channel count on cable and Sky.
Smart Glasses
Certainly one that caught our eye was the young Marty McFly Jnr watching television on a funky pear of specs and also using it to make phone calls. Such things are of course possible today with the Google Glasses, which gained mixed reviews on their release. Maybe they should have based the design on Marty Jnr’s…
Tablets
A character approaches Marty with a petition to save the iconic clock tower, which is present in all three of the Back to the Future movies. It’s worth noting that Marty isn’t asked for his signature on a piece of paper – instead he’s passed a tablet-looking device similar to an iPad Mini. Maybe that’s where Steve Jobs got the idea.
Online Banking with Finger Recognition Payment
In the movie, the older McFly is seen making a payment via his very retro-looking computer by entering his card in to a reader at home and payment is also seen with fingerprint recognition. Both are of course possible today with banks supplying card readers for online banking and the iPhone 6 and latest Samsung Galaxy devices allowing you to pay via the fingerprint sensor.
3D Movies
Within minutes of entering the future Hill Valley, our hero is attacked by a 3D hologram of Jaws as a promotion for the ‘Hollomax’ cinema. Today 3D films are common place and technology has even been developed to enjoy a 3D experience without wearing glasses, as seen on the Nintendo 3DS. The Jaws film being promoted is apparently the 19th in the series, which leads us to something else Back to the Future II correctly predicted…
Drones
Drones have become a bit of a fad in the last couple of years and are available for cheap now in the UK. They feature a couple of times in the movie, once as a plant pot and also as a news camera ‘always first on the scene’.
Self Tightening Laces
Yes, you heard right! Recently, NIKE created some REAL self-tightening laces similar to those used in the movie. Generously, 1,500 of them were made and then auctioned to raise money for the Michael J Fox Foundation for Parkinson’s Research.
Hoverboard
Yes, with all the technical advances made in the past 30 years, I can’t be the only one who would swap all the tablets, smartphones and self-service checkouts for a real life hoverboard!
We’ve all dreamed of owning one since we first saw the movie; however Lexus made the 1980’s dream a reality and with some clever use of magnetic force and engineering, created a real working hoverboard!
