Sci-fi movies and TV series that accurately predicted the future

Throughout its history, science fiction has been trying to reveal to humanity the shape of the future. Some people are skeptical about such predictions, but there have been many examples of writers and directors’ imaginations becoming the reality of tomorrow. We have collected for you sci-fi movies and TV series that have accurately predicted the future.

«2001: A Space Odyssey» — tablet computers and video calls

Year of release: 1967
Director: Stanley Kubrick
IMDb rating: 8.3

The list of predictions that director Stanley Kubrick and screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke made in the movie «2001: A Space Odyssey» could take up an entire article. Firstly, a year before the «Apollo 11» mission, the movie showed how the Earth would look from the Moon. Secondly, Dr. Heywood Floyd communicates with his daughter via video link on the orbiting space station. To do this, he inserts something that looks like a credit card into the videophone, anticipating the ubiquity of payment cards in the future.

In addition, in one of the movie’s scenes, the astronauts watch the news on flat rectangular gadgets with large screens during breakfast (as we all love). Interestingly, in 2011, this shot became evidence in the patent war between Apple and Samsung. The «Apple» corporation referred to a patent describing the design of tablet computers. Instead, Samsung representatives deniedthat the idea of a tablet appeared in popular culture long before the release of the Apple iPad (2010), and cited a screenshot from Kubrick’s film as proof.

«Terminator» — military drones

Year of release: 1984
Director: James Cameron
IMDb rating: 8.1

James Cameron’s sci-fi action movie gave us many reasons to fear the future: the self-aware artificial intelligence computer system Skynet causing nuclear armageddon, relentless robot terminators, and Hunter Killer flying drones armed with plasma cannons.

At the time of the movie’s release, the military had already experienced working with radio-controlled target drones and reconnaissance drones. But it was only during the war on terror in the 2000s that the «Terminator» prediction materialized in military drones with weapons on board, the first of which was the MQ-1 Predator.

Today, various sea, air, andground drones have become the main weapon of war. And in addition — Sarah Connor would certainly not like this — they are actively equip built-in artificial intelligence. It allows the drone to operate in the face of enemy electronic warfare, autonomously recognize targets, and carry out attacks without human intervention. But whether autonomous drones will ever be able to turn the weapon against their creators remains an open question.

«Star Trek» — cell phone and 3D printer

Years of publication: 1966-1969, 1987–1994
Director: Mark Daniels
IMDb rating: 8.4

The second television series in the Star Trek universe is called «Star Trek: The Next Generation» and presented the idea of a 3D printer to humanity. The authors of the show called this device a «replicator» and according to the plot, it had create for the USS «Enterprise» food and small household items. Interestingly, decades later, the visionary ideas behind this fantastic gadget continue to inspire engineers. They became the starting point for the creation of the popular 3D printer MakerBot from MakerBot industries.

«The Running Man» — violent TV shows

Year of release: 1987
Director: Paul Michael Glaser
IMDb rating: 6.6

The events of the sci-fi action movie take place in the alternative United States of 2017. After devastating natural disasters and wars, a totalitarian government comes to power in the country. To keep the impoverished population in line and distract people from the disappointing realities of their lives, a bloody survival game «Running Man» was created.

It actually allows you to execute unwanted people on live TV. And although the city is surrounded by building-sized screens and millions of cameras that are impossible to hide from, the government controls the network and distorts information to further its cause. «It (the movie) conveys the feeling that we are all being manipulated and lied to, — explains Paul Michael Glaser, director of the film. — These are gigantic things that people live with every day».

«The lines between reality and news, propaganda and entertainment are blurring», — states the film’s producer George Linder. At the time of the film’s release, this was only a grim prediction. And now television is filled to the brim with violent game shows. Their participants are not (yet) killed on air, but all other kinds of humiliation and suffering are offered for our entertainment: from surviving on deserted islands without clothes to competing with strangers for food and being imprisoned for long periods of time under the lenses of cameras, through which a TV audience of millions is watching you.

«Demon Seed» — integrated smart home

Year of release: 1977
Director: Donald Cammell
IMDb rating: 6.3

In the sci-fi thriller «The Demon Family», a scientist develops a computer with artificial intelligence, Proteus IV. After realizing itself as a person, the machine expresses a desire to «get out of the box» and get its own body. Taking advantage of its creator’s business trip and the abundance of electronic devices in his house, Proteus takes control of the house and makes the scientist’s wife a prisoner. It turns out that he intends to create a child with his unique mind in a human body.

The film is based on the novel of the same name by the famous master of mysticism and horror Dean Koontz. But in addition to horror, it envisions a smart home where a computer can control lighting, door and window locks, a security system, and individual devices such as a pool cover. All this is embodied in modern technologies from Philips Hue lamps to Ring smart doorbells, wireless Bluetooth locks Kevothat can be opened with a single touch, and other IoT devices.

«Minority Report» — contactless gesture control, targeted advertising

Year of release: 2002
Director: Steven Spielberg
IMDb rating: 7.6

Similar to «Space Odyssey» (Arthur C. Clarke’s predictions are worth a separate article), the film was based on a short story by one of the most visionary science fiction writers of the 20th century, Philip K. Dick. The film takes place in 2054, where a specialized police department detains criminals before they commit their crimes. This is done with the help of psychics called seers.

It’s hard to say whether Spielberg’s movie was the reason for the appearance of «Psychic Battle» on STB, but it was able to predict the technology of contactless gesture control, which Microsoft first used in the Kinect game controller in 2009. Around the same time, Google started testing its remarketing technology. Recall that during the escape in the mall, the computer system identified the hero Tom Cruise and appealed to him directly by showing personalized commercials.

This is the principle behind targeted DOOH (Digital Out of Home) advertising today. Its operators can study people passing near billboards and other outdoor advertising platforms. To do this, the Wi-Fi monitoring system collects the IDs of devices around and searches for open information using these IDs. This way, you can show commercials that better match the interests of the target group.

«Blade Runner» — flying cars

Year of release: 1982
Director: Ridley Scott
IMDb rating: 8.1

Having paved the way for cyberpunk and sci-fi noir to hit the big screen, «Blade Runner» will forever changed the movie fiction. Some of Ridley Scott’s predictions for 2019 — the world on the verge of extinction, incessant rain in Los Angeles, fully humanoid robots, and colonization of distant star systems — did not come true.

However, there were also some accurate predictions. We are talking about flying cars used by the police. People started dreaming of a car that would not be stopped by the lack of roads in the middle of the last century. The first prototypes looked likelike small airplanes attached to the roof of ordinary cars, others came from on fancy spaceships with folding wings, but giant taxi drones have become real today.

At CES 2016, the Chinese company Ehang presented the «personal vehicle» Ehang 184 with four propellers, capable of transporting a passenger for 23 minutes at a speed of 100 kilometers per hour. And in 2023, EHang successfully received the world’s first state certificate for a serial unmanned passenger multicopter EH216-S vertical takeoff and landing with a range of up to 35 km.

«The Net» — risks of online threats

Year of release: 1995
Director: Irwin Winkler
IMDb rating: 6.0

The sci-fi thriller starring Sandra Bullock was released three years before the equally paranoid «Enemy of the State». The film’s protagonist, cybersecurity specialist Angela Bennett, accidentally learns about a conspiracy whose members have implemented a backdoor into the computer security system «Gatekeeper». And since it is used by almost all companies in the world, criminals have gained access to their secrets.

All this happened on the eve of Angela’s long-planned vacation on the Mexican beaches. There she meets the attractive macho Jack, who suddenly tries to kill her. When she regains consciousness in a hospital room, she learns that her identity has been stolen. Now she is the dangerous recidivist criminal Ruth Marks, and Angela Bennett’s house and all her belongings have been sold.

I remember that after the first time I watched «Network», it was a revelation to me how easy it is to destroy a person’s life with just a few clicks of the mouse. Online services were just beginning to develop in the 1990s, but the heroine’s entire life was already available online. And it didn’t take much effort for the hacker group to get her personal data, including her social security number, medical card, and bank accounts.

«Metropolis» — robots

Year of publication: 1927
Director: Fritz Lang
IMDb rating: 8.3

German director Fritz Lang’s dystopian masterpiece became the most expensive in the history of silent cinema and created the cyberpunk image of future megacities shown in the films «Blade Runner» and «Judge Dredd». He was also one of the first to depict a humanoid robot on the screen, which in the story was a mechanical copy of the main character Maria.

Interesting to see the evolution of C-3PO’s design: Metropolis to Ralph McQuarrie to Star Wars #conceptart #starwars pic.twitter.com/nCJMquVKmn

— Paul Dolan (@PaulDolanArt) May 11, 2015

Today we read about androids every day news and we perceive their appearance as inevitable. Back then, it was a bold prediction of a talented visionary. By the way, it was the silver robotess from «Metropolis» that gave George Lucas the recognizable image of the protocol droid C-3PO, who took part in many historical events in the «Star Wars» universe.

«Total Recall» — self-driving cars

Year of release: 1990
Director: Paul Verhoeven
IMDb rating: 7.5

Paul Vergoven’s fantastic action movie became a hit in video distribution in the 1990s and created an amazing world of the future with memory management technology, tourist flights to other planets, and cyclopean alien buildings under the surface of Mars. Amidst this colorful picture, there are some interesting technical predictions, such as autonomous cars.

Yes, the stylized robotic taxi driver looks a bit naive. But it allowed to demonstrate the heroic strength of Arnold Schwarzenegger, who in a critical situation pulls out the bot and takes his place. Today, this may seem a bit silly only because we know exactly what autonomous cars should look like and can even see real samples from Uber and Tesla on the streets.