Summary
- Back to the Future II accurately predicted technology like smartwatches, video calling, and digital currency we use today.
- Biometric security scanners at the McFly home in 2015 were a real prediction by the film, commonly used in various places.
- The film foresaw personalized advertising and non-military drones in 2015, showing the accuracy of its futuristic predictions.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
- The Blackening Ending Explained, Cast, Plot, and Where to Watch
- August Osage County Ending Explained, Plot, Cast, Trailer and More
- Why is The Lorax Leaving Netflix? What Happened to The Lorax?
- Is Ciri Related to Geralt? Is Ciri Geralt’s Daughter?
- Who is Alexis Vega Wife? Know Everything About Alexis Vega
SCROLL TO CONTINUE WITH CONTENT
You are watching: 11 Things Back To The Future 2 Got Right About 2015
Set partly in 2015, the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II made many predictions about life in the future, and some of them were fairly accurate. The opening of BTTF2 picks up on the cliffhanger ending, in which Doc Brown (Christopher Lloyd) returns to 1985, telling Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) that they have to do something about his kids. Successfully pretending to be his younger son to keep Marty McFly Jr. out of prison, things go from bad to worse when an elderly Biff Tannen (Thomas F. Wilson) gets hold of the Delorean and changes his past, turning him into one of the wealthiest men on Earth.
Interestingly, narcissistic billionaire Biff Tannen gets involved with politics, keeping President Nixon in power. Biff’s rise to power draws parallels with former US President Donald Trump, whom Back to the Future co-writer Bob Gale cites as an influence on the character (via Daily Beast). Aside from eerily foreshadowing Trump’s involvement in US politics and his 2016 campaign for the presidency, Back to the Future Part II made some other spot-on predictions for how life might look in 2015.
The entire Back to the Future franchise is available to stream on Prime Video.
Related
15 Best Back To The Future Hidden Jokes (In All 3 Movies)
The classic adventure Back to the Future elevates its rock and roll, Western, and time-travel adventure themes with various hidden jokes and nods.
|
Movie |
Rotten Tomatoes Score |
IMDB Score |
|---|---|---|
|
Back to the Future |
93% |
8,5/10 |
|
Back to the Future Part 2 |
63% |
7,8/10 |
|
Back to the Future Part 3 |
81% |
7,4/10 |
11 Doc Brown’s Smartwatch
From Rain Forecasts to Modern Wearable Tech
Upon arriving in 2015, Doc, Marty, and Jennifer (Elisabeth Shue) weave through flying cars – still not a reality in 2023, let alone 2015 – to find themselves in a torrential downpour. Doc emerges from the car, checks his watch, and tells Marty and Jennifer that the rain is due to stop in five seconds. This is a fairly accurate depiction of the wearable smartwatch technology which now governs everybody’s lives, monitoring their heart rate, telling them what the weather will be like, and notifying them of any emails or messages.
Smartwatches of the modern age are typically linked to other devices, like tablets, laptops, or smartphones, and they don’t have weather predictions within seconds, but the idea of the technology is the same. To have an accessory that can give someone accurate weather to help them get through their day is one of the many predictions Back to the Future II got right about its own future.
10 Video Calling And Social Media In Back To The Future 2
Early Predictions of Social Media Integration
When Jennifer hides in the McFly’s wardrobe, she watches as her future husband conducts a video call with a sleazy businessman called Douglas J. Needles (Red Hot Chilli Peppers’ Flea). Although video calling would become more mainstream during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it was very much in use during 2015.
Interestingly, while Back to the Future 2 doesn’t predict the internet, it does have a version of social media as Douglas’ likes, dislikes, and interests scroll across the bottom of the screen during the call. In the social media age, the need to update everybody on one’s likes and dislikes is a very 21st-century preoccupation. It’s not typically displayed on a video call, but that information can be stored in descriptors in cell phone and laptop digital phone books for video calling.
9 Back To The Future 2 Predicted Digital Currency
Predicting the Rise of Contactless Payments and Digital Currency
After Marty’s hoverboard chase in Back to the Future II, he’s asked to donate money to save the iconic Hill Valley clock tower, and is offered a futuristic device with which to do so. The device looks very similar to a modern tablet, suggesting that Marty could use it to transfer money electronically or perhaps tap his payment card on the tablet.
Contactless payments and online banking were becoming more and more mainstream in 2015, so it’s another fairly spot-on prediction by writers Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis. It’s also worth nothing that Doc Brown gives Marty cash, another smart prediction that both physical and digital currency exist side by side in 2015. As time has gone on, cash is still welcomed, but digital currency and contactless payment is becoming much more of the norm.
8 1980s Nostalgia In Back To The Future’s 2015
From Jaws 19 to the Collectibles Craze
The Jaws franchise ended with the infamous Jaws: The Revenge, making Back to the Future 2‘s prediction of a Jaws 19 wildly optimistic. However, there’s a grain of truth in the idea, as by 2015 movie theaters were dominated by franchises or nostalgia pieces trying to reboot interest in classics. Thankfully, Back to the Future4 never happened meaning that the franchise has largely escaped the nostalgia boom of recent years.
The scene where Marty McFly looks into an antique shop window to see various pieces of 1980s ephemera also neatly predicts the way that the meaning of the word collectibles has evolved over time. Where once it referred to antique furniture or precious jewels, it now refers to a stuffed Roger the Rabbit. By 2015, seemingly innocuous items from the 1980s aren’t just vintage; they’re sought after pieces of memorabilia.
Related
Back To The Future Part 2 Vs. Part 3: Which Sequel Is Better
The Back to The Future franchise delivers two shockingly strong follow-ups to the original sci-fi classic; it’s worth comparing how each one fares.
7 Non-Military Drones In Back To The Future 2
From Fun Diversions to Future Utilities
Non-military drones had become quite popular by the time of 2015, as predicted by Back to the Future 2. When Marty arrives in the futuristic Hilldale development, he sees a non-military drone taking a local dog for a walk. While the technology hasn’t quite matched pace with Back to the Future 2, it can’t be far off. In 2015, and today, real-life commercial drones are predominantly used in filmmaking or by YouTubers to achieve cool shots, rather than as effective tools to tackle daily chores.
In 2015, non-military drones were largely marketed (and purchased) as fun diversions before their use in making videos for social media became more prevalent. The idea of using drones to make deliveries has been toyed with since but rarely executed accurately. It seems to be only a matter of time.
6 Marty McFly Jr’s VR Headset
A Surprisingly Accurate Vision of Future Technology
While it was likely a smart fix to allow the older Marty McFly and his son (both played by Michael J Fox) to share a scene (likey with the help of a stand-in with their face obscured), the VR headset that Marty Jr. wears is another decent prediction made by the movie. In 2015, Oculus and various other companies were preparing to launch commercial VR headsets for use in the home. The Oculus Rift launched in 2016, followed by Playstation VR later that same year.
So, while Back to the Future 2 is a year ahead, as predictions of the future go, it’s not bad going for a film that came out in 1989. VR headsets have since largely been used for gaming platforms, but there is thought to using them to help with education and training as well. Technology continues to move forward in leaps and bounds that BTTF2 helped to introduce to audiences.
5 Back To The Future Predicted Too Many Screens
Predicting the Multi-Screen Experience
See more : Is Peter Strzok Still Married? Who is Peter Strzok married to?
Flat screen TVs feel like an easy win for Back to the Future 2 given that the very first models went on sale 8 years later, in 1997 (via Techwalla). That said, the flat screen TV in Back to the Future 2 does predict the modern tendency to view multiple screens simultaneously. The amount of people in 2015 who found themselves watching something on TV while scrolling through social media on their smartphone is likely huge.
Of course, there also exist laptops and computers that access content in a split screen set-up or the use of multiple computer monitors for work and gaming. Multiple screen use has been expanding for years. Similarly, in the early days of streaming, the options opened to viewers beyond standard network television could feel a lot like having access to the McFly’s multi-screened TV.
4 Michael J Fox’s Self-Lacing Shoes Go On Sale In 2015
From Fictional Prophecy to Philanthropic Reality
The magnetic self-lacing Nike trainers from Back to the Future 2 are more of a self-fulfilling prophecy than anything else that the movie offers as the corporation set out to make them a reality in time for October 2015. However, there was a greater purpose behind the invention.
Sales of the Back To The Future 2 style sneakers raised over $16 million for the Michael J. Fox Foundation. As highlighted in Apple’s Michael J. Fox documentary Still, the foundation does great work to fund research into Parkinson’s disease in the hope of one day finding a cure. The auctions to own a small piece of BTTF‘s fictional 2015 contributed to a better future for so many people living with Parkinson’s.
It’s truly amazing that something featured in the movie was able to be made a reality because of the movie.
3 Biometric Security Scanners At The McFly Home
From High-Security Fiction to Everyday Reality
Biometric data – the use of fingerprints and iris scans to verify identity – is now widely used in a variety of locations like airports and theme parks, and on devices like smartphones and tablets, as seen in Back to the Future 2. The movie goes one step further by having the McFly family’s home security system use biometrics to gain entry into the home. It’s probably just as well as the idyllic Hilldale promised in 1985 has fallen on serious hard times by 2015, attracting – as the welcome sign states – “suckers” to live there and potentially be burgled.
Following 1989’s BTTF2, most movies that depicted the use of biometric scanners were putting them in fictional high-security situations, like government buildings or expensive art museums. That’s fairly typical of the action genre now, but household use of them is just as common.
Related
Back To The Future: All 8 Timelines In The Movies Explained
Back to the Future’s classic time travel trilogy has been delighting viewers for decades. Here’s a breakdown of all eight timelines in the movies.
2 Back To The Future 2 Predicted The Miami Marlins
The Rise of the Miami Marlins
When Back to the Future 2 was released in 1989, there was no baseball team based in Miami. By 2015, however, there was indeed a Miami-based baseball team, although they didn’t win the World Series. The Florida Marlins debuted during the 1993 Major League Baseball expansion and would go on to win the World Series in 1997 and in 2003. In 2012 the team moved to a new stadium, Marlins Park, based in downtown Miami.
They also changed their name to the Miami Marlins as part of the agreement for being based in the Florida city, thus fulfilling one part of BTTF 2‘s prophecy, if not the other. The team actually has the lowest percentage of wins in the National League of Major League Baseball, but seven former members of the team have gone on to be members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
1 Personalized Advertising In Back To The Future 2
From Jaws 19 to Real-World AR Campaigns
Advertising is just about everywhere in Back to the Future 2‘s vision of 2015, from the digital billboards that sell flying cars to the Jaws 19 hologram. Back to the Future 2‘s Jaws gag is a good example of personalized advertising, because it targets Marty specifically and swallows him whole. It’s similar to the augmented reality (AR) advertising that became a talking point in business and tech journals in the real-world of 2015.
For example, a 2015 Toys ‘R’ Us campaign sent shoppers on an AR Easter egg hunt to be in the running for a chance of winning a gift card. Digital eggs aren’t that far removed from the giant shark in Back to the Future Part II proving just how prescient Bob Gale and Robert Zemeckis’ vision of the future truly was.
Back to the Future Part II
PG
Taking up where the first movie left off, Back to the Future Part II sees Marty McFly and Doc Brown travel to the year 2015, where their efforts to fix the future end up causing even bigger problems as Biff Tannen wreaks havoc across the timeline with the help of a stolen sports almanac. Martin J. Fox and Christopher Lloyd return in Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale’s second installment of their iconic trilogy.
Director Robert Zemeckis Release Date November 22, 1989 Cast Lea Thompson , Elisabeth Shue , Christopher Lloyd , Michael J. Fox , Thomas F. Wilson Runtime 108 minutes
Source: https://dinhtienhoang.edu.vn
Category: Entertainment