The 80s were an incredible decade for movie science fiction, giving us classics like “Blade Runner” and “Aliens.”
Fortunately for us, it also gave us a bunch of movies which, no matter how good they were, got the future extremely wrong. Here are the eight worst offenders.
1. “The Terminator”
Yes, it’s a phenomenal movie. No, we don’t live in a world where cybernetic organisms caused a nuclear holocaust and wage a laser-ship dominated war with the remnants of humanity. I know it’s not supposed to be until 2029, but still don’t really see the signs of that happening. Sorry, Mr. Cameron.
2. “Escape From New York”
John Carpenter’s classic takes place in 1997, which in his movie means America is a dystopia, Manhattan is a giant prison where the crime rate is out of control, and the world while in real life it meant the crime rate had gone down and Microsoft was releasing Internet Explorer 4.0.
In 1996, Carpenter tried again with “Escape from L.A.,” where he predicted the year 2013 with pretty similar results.
3. “Tron”
“Tron” doesn’t take place specifically in the future (like a few on this list, its future is of the “not too distant” variety), but posits that the most advanced video game A.I. looks something like this:
Which is basically worse graphics than any video game system before Sega Genesis. But yes, I still do wish I could drive a light cycle.
4. “Flash Gordon”
Again, this isn’t specifically the future, but it takes place in a world with telepathic communicators, aliens, and rocket ships, but the least realistic part, other than Flash beating up a bunch of bad guys with a football, is that Flash is the star quarterback for the New York Jets. Right. A world where the Jets are relevant. I’ll believe it when I see it.
5. “Mad Max 2″
In 2014, it’s more likely a person you see on a motorcycle is a 60-year-old guy having a mid-life crisis than part of a gang of marauders.
6. “Heartbeeps”
Robots were all the rage in the 1980s, and this spiritual ancestor to “Wall-E” has its two robots fall in love. Unfortunately, this is about as close as we’ve come to that:
The robots of today can barely move, much less enter into monogamous relationships.
7. “2010″
2010 was apparently “The Year We Make Contact,” but four years since it’s come and gone, we’re still waiting on space travel (we haven’t even made it to Mars or back to the Moon yet, much less Jupiter), devious artificial intelligences, and black monoliths.
8. “Back To The Future Part II”
Hmm, let’s see what Mr. Zemeckis promised me I’d have in 2015 (3 months from now): flying cars, hoverboards, and complete control of the weather. Strikes 1, 2, and 3.
I know. I’m just angry because I want my hoverboard. Hopefully, those Nike Air Mags can make up for it.
And honorable mention to “Spacehunter: Adventures In The Forbidden Zone,” but because it takes place in the 22nd century, it’ll probably be better to let the robots who run MTV then to put it in their updated list.
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