It was the year of double denim, flat tops and the Beastie Boys. Photo / Universal Pictures
It was the year of double denim, flat tops and the Beastie Boys. Photo / Universal Pictures
Great Scott! It's October 21, 2015 - the day Back to the Future II called "the future".
In 1989, a year of double denim, flat tops and the Beastie Boys, 2015 seemed like a very long time away indeed. So far away that it was the setting for Back to the Future II, the second in the hugely popular film trilogy directed by Robert Zemeckis.
Fans watched Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd), Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) and his girlfriend Jennifer Parker (Elizabeth Shue) take off for the future at the end of the original film - and, in the sequel, they touch down 30 years later in 2015.
From food to fashion, technology and transport, Marty is bowled over by what he finds there. What did the film get right? Well, more than you'd think but Back to the Future II was also a film with a convoluted plot and premise - even the characters didn't fully understand it - and this is where things get weird.
The philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell famously confused and bewildered readers when he wrote: "It has been argued that we have reason to know that the future will resemble the past, because what was the future has constantly become the past, and has always been found to resemble the past, so that we really have experience of the future, namely of times which were formerly future, which we may call past futures."
Wait, it'll make sense in a second: "Will future futures resemble past futures? This question is not to be answered by an argument which starts from past futures alone. We have therefore still to seek for some principle which shall enable us to know that the future will follow the same laws as the past."
The films predictions were often on point. Photo / Universal
Blackboard and Doc Brown time. Until today the "future" in Back to the Future was a future future, a future which had not yet come to pass. Now, as of today, Back to the Future II's future is a past future.
The future has come to pass, meaning we can answer part of Russell's question: "Will future futures resemble past futures?"
1) Wearable technology. Spot something familiar? Isn't that Google Glass Marty is wearing at the breakfast table? The hi-tech specs he sports could pass for early versions of the computerised eye-wear - though his could also be used to answer the phone.
2) Video calls. With FaceTime and Skype now staples, the video call has evolved from a business medium to an essential of everyday life. Though we tend to prefer our screens just a tad smaller.
3) Microwave meals. The dehydrated pizza could be the predecessor of microwave meals - in the film, after 12 seconds on the "hydrator plate", it grew to a meal-sized dish.
4) The Cubs. might win a World Series. At the time when screenwriter Bob Gale, who is a Cardinals fan, penned Back to the Future 2 in 1989, he thought it would be a good joke to poke-fun at the Cubs' long title drought. A drought that 26 years later is still going.
5) Jaws 19. Well, kind of, according to this parody trailer released by Universal.
Misses
1) Flying cars. We're not quite at the stage of seeing cars zip through the air - though a DeLorean could do wonders for the rush-hour commute.
2) Hoverboards. Probably a good thing these haven't been invented for the mass market yet - though some clever bod has come up with a prototype - the baggy jeans and Converse look is just so Nineties.
