10 Sci-Fi Movie Futures That Hilariously Missed The Mark

Science fiction films love to paint pictures of what’s to come. From flying cars to dystopian societies, these movies often offer exciting, and sometimes terrifying, glimpses into the future. While some predictions are surprisingly accurate, many others, well, they didn’t quite pan out as envisioned. Let’s dive into ten cinematic predictions of the future that hilariously, or perhaps thankfully, missed the mark.

10. Every Terminator

The Terminator series, with its complex web of time travel, presents multiple future timelines. A common thread? A massive overestimation of how quickly robotics and artificial intelligence would advance. The original film suggested that Skynet, a super-advanced AI, would achieve self-awareness by August 29th, 1997. Not only that, but it would also seize global control and churn out an army of killer robots.

Even accounting for the plot device of reverse-engineering future tech, the idea of such a sophisticated AI emerging and dominating the world in the late 90s was, to put it mildly, ambitious. Our current AI is impressive, but we’re not quite at the Skynet stage, thankfully!

9. Escape from New York

John Carpenter’s 1981 classic, Escape From New York, painted a grim picture for 1997. It predicted a staggering 400% rise in crime by 1988, leading authorities to convert the entire island of Manhattan into a maximum-security prison. Its sequel, Escape from L.A., applied a similar concept to Los Angeles in 2013.

The film’s future feels off for a couple of reasons. Firstly, it’s incredibly pessimistic, extrapolating 80s crime trends into an uncontrollable societal collapse. Secondly, it imagines a government that would simply abandon valuable real estate and resources, effectively arming prisoners with an entire city. It’s a cool concept for a movie, but highly impractical in reality.

8. Daybreakers

The 2009 film Daybreakers proposed that by 2019, the world would be predominantly populated by vampires—the classic, sun-fearing, blood-drinking kind. More impressive, or perhaps alarming, was the prediction that this vampiric transformation of society would occur in just ten short years.

While the existence of mythical vampires is a stretch, the truly unbelievable part is the timeline. In a single decade, humans become the minority, and vampires manage to establish a sophisticated global infrastructure. This includes vast underground networks, UV-filtered cars, large-scale human blood farms, and advanced vampiric science labs. Vampires, it seems, possess an extraordinary work ethic.

7. Blade Runner

Released in 1982, Blade Runner set its dystopian, yet technologically advanced, future in 2019. While visually stunning and thematically rich, its version of 2019 featured advancements we are still far from achieving. The film imagined off-world colonies, flying cars (spinners!), and highly sophisticated androids (replicants) nearly indistinguishable from humans.

Humanity had apparently mastered interstellar travel, with colonies stretching to Orion. Genetic engineering created artificial beings and even recreated extinct animals. While our 2019 had its own tech marvels, it paled in comparison to the complex, albeit grim, world of Deckard.

6. Barb Wire

Barb Wire, the 1996 action flick, deserves a little credit for its foresight. It envisioned a United States that had experienced a second civil war by the year 2017. While an actual civil war didn’t occur, the period did see significant political polarization and tension, so it wasn’t entirely off base with the societal mood.

However, where Barb Wire truly veers into fantasy is its protagonist. The idea that a nightclub-owning bounty hunter, known for her leather outfits and impeccable styling, would be a key figure in such a conflict stretches believability. It’s an entertaining premise, just not a particularly realistic one for a post-conflict America.

5. Waterworld

Waterworld smartly set its story in an unspecified distant future, somewhere around the 2500s. This makes it difficult to critique its societal or technological predictions. However, its take on human evolution is where things get a bit fishy, literally. The film’s protagonist, played by Kevin Costner, is a mutant born with functional gills and webbed feet.

Considering our last gilled ancestors date back about 370 million years, the genetic gymnastics required to spontaneously re-evolve such features in a human are astronomical. It implies an incredibly rapid and specific evolutionary leap, akin to parents having a child with fully formed, extra limbs from an entirely different species. Cool for a movie, but a head-scratcher for biology.

4. 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 masterpiece, 2001: A Space Odyssey, is famed for its remarkably accurate predictions of certain technologies. It showcased video calls, flat-screen displays, voice recognition, and even tablet-like devices, all envisioned decades before they became commonplace. It even predicted US/Russian cooperation in space during the Cold War.

What makes its future prediction amusingly off, however, is the aesthetic. Despite all the futuristic tech, the fashion, hairstyles, and interior design remained firmly rooted in the 1960s. It’s a curious disconnect: a future of incredible technological leaps, yet everyone looks like they stepped out of a mod catalog.

3. Every Star Trek

Star Trek generally sets its main narratives in the 22nd and 23rd centuries, giving plenty of leeway for its advanced technology like transporters and warp drive. Many of its concepts have even inspired real-world innovation. However, the extensive backstory created for the Trek universe includes some historical predictions that didn’t materialize.

A prime example comes from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan (1982). The film establishes that the 1990s were the era of the Eugenics Wars, where genetically engineered superhumans, like Khan Noonien Singh, rose to power and dominated much of the planet. Thankfully, the 90s were more about grunge and dial-up internet than global conquest by augments.

2. Mad Max

The original Mad Max (1979) predicted a near-future marked by societal breakdown due to oil shortages and war. It suggested a Gulf conflict in the 80s would disrupt oil production, leading to economic chaos and the collapse of governments, eventually culminating in a global nuclear war. While parts of this felt plausible, the follow-through was extreme.

What’s particularly ironic and unrealistic in the Mad Max universe is the characters’ handling of gasoline, or “Guzzolene.” Despite it being the most precious resource, characters are incredibly wasteful, spraying it, spitting it, and even using it to turn guitars into flamethrowers. For a world supposedly defined by fuel scarcity, they sure don’t act like it!

1. Snowpiercer

Snowpiercer presents a chilling future where, in 2014, an attempt to combat global warming backfires, plunging the Earth into a new ice age. The remnants of humanity survive aboard a perpetually moving train, characterized by stark class divides and brutality. The core premise—a frozen wasteland and societal struggle—isn’t entirely alien.

However, the most implausible aspect of Snowpiercer’s future is the *cause* of the apocalypse. The film posits that by 2014, world governments united decisively against climate change, tasked top scientists with a solution, and rapidly deployed a large-scale atmospheric aerosol to dim the sun. The idea of such unified, swift, and drastic global action on climate change by 2014 feels more far-fetched than the cricket protein bars or the globe-spanning train itself.

Looking back at these cinematic futures is always a fun exercise. They reflect the hopes, fears, and technological understanding of their time. While they might not have accurately predicted our present, they certainly gave us some memorable movie moments!

What are some other movie predictions of the future that you think totally missed the mark? Share your thoughts in the comments below!