The Future Is Now: Fans Celebrate 'Back to the Future' Day With The Top Predictions The Movie Made in 1989
In the blockbuster phenomenon "Back to the Future II", which was first released on Nov. 22, 1989, Marty (Michael J. Fox) and Dr. Emmett (Christopher Lloyd) travel to Oct. 21, 2015 using the now iconic DeLorean time machine to save Marty's future son from getting jailed. This vision of the future included hoverboards and self-lacing shoes, to name a few.
26 years later, "Back to the Future II" continues to leave movie viewers awestruck at the idea of a future they never expected would come too soon. Now the future has come, and we are living in it.
The question is, did the movie made the correct predictions or is the future as envisioned in "Back to the Future" not quite yet?
In "Back to the Future", fingerprints were primarily used for identification and security. That's one prediction down pat. These days, many devices use fingerprint mechanisms such as the Touch ID technology featured in iPhones, Screen Crush writes Oct. 20. A lot of security systems have also begun using biometrics aside from the usual password combinations.
Video calling was also featured in the movie. This technology very much exists today in the form of Skype, Facetime and the like.
In the movie, Marty's kids were seen wearing high-tech goggles during dinner that plays TV and is also plugged to the house's phone system. This is another thing "Back to the Future" got right. Kids, young and old, now have similar devices such as Google Glass, Samsung VR and Oculus Rift, reports Time Oct. 21.
Most of us have now become familiar with the idea of hoverboards, but the concept of levitation is still not quite in reach. But the AirBoard and the hands-free Segway are promising attempts to replicate the hoverboards in the movie.
Vox reports Oct. 21 that Lexus has been working on an actual floating hoverboard named Lexus Hover. The device reportedly "relies on superconductors and magnets, which work against gravity to life board and rider above the ground."
While these are enough for us to revel at the futuristic phenomenon that was "Back to the Future", it is worth noting that some of its predictions didn't come into fruition and there are current inventions that were missed out on the movie.
For instance, the movie featured flying cars and the premise that "Where we're going, we don't need roads." Also, fax machines were still rampantly used in "Back to the Future" 2015. Nowadays, fax machines are being replaced by the single powerful device that is the smartphone.
With its hits and misses, "Back to the Future" remains to be one of the most memorable movies of our time. Considering the movie's "futuristic" fashion and reliance on fax machines, the real "future" doesn't look so bad at all.
