Back to the Future's Predictions: Hits and Misses
Dehydrated Food and Multichannel TV Broadcasting. Back to the Future was a milestone in 1980s cinema and became a cultural phenomenon. Its sequel, Back to the Future part II, impacted young minds like mine and made us dream about flying cars, hoverboards, and automated homes.
Though Back to the Future Part II was released in 1989, it’s amazing how it depicted many gadgets and technologies that are now a reality, some that came close, and others that didn’t quite hit the mark.
As Marty McFly desired to explore the future, we’ll walk through what really came to fruition and what didn’t in terms of products, technology, and cultural behavior.
We are now in 2025, exactly 10 years beyond the hypothetical 2015 where Marty and Doc landed. What do we have now that would mark as a hit?
Flat TVs: It was a huge change from the late 80s and throughout the 90s. In the 2000s, we saw a surge in flat screens and how much larger they became over the years. Could Marty have imagined TV screens of about 58 inches or more? Or transparent screens, as shown at CES in recent years?
Home Automation: Who doesn’t have smart bulbs, door locks, smart cameras, or assistants like Google Home or Alexa? This was a huge hit for BTTF, where a home was entirely controlled by AI. Today, we program our lights, rely on weather forecasts, and follow recipes given by our beloved assistants.
Video Calls: Marty receives a phone call—well, a video call—from Needles. Just like us, video calls are ubiquitous, whether from our smart TVs or computers. Big hit there.
Enhanced Glasses: Marty’s son and daughter (played by the same actor) use glasses that act like augmented reality devices. Today, the closest gadgets are Apple’s Vision Pro and Meta’s AI glasses. Though not for everyone, they are catching up with interesting use cases, and as in the movie, those glasses aren’t meant to be worn all the time.
Fingerprint Recognition: Used today for access control, though it has given way to facial recognition as a more reliable method. Payments aren’t quite there yet, though.
Newspapers? Even in 2015, printed press was still around, and today it still exists, though its tendency is to go the way of the dodo as digital news gains more ground.
Nostalgia? Do we long for the 80s and 90s culture? Indeed, we do. As of 2025, we’ve seen many reboots of popular franchises, such as Ghostbusters, Karate Kid, and Top Gun, to name a few. In the movie, living in 2015 meant you still longed for the 80s—hence, there’s still a bar called the 80s Café, isn’t there? Sequels as in the movie where Marty saw Jaws 19, there a tons of movies with sequels as long as any monday like Fast and Furious.
Flying Cars? Well, not quite. As of 2025, we’ve seen concepts at CES and in the press, but for now, you’re still stuck driving on roads. Maybe in another 20 years? There’s still much to do in this field, like creating aerial traffic lanes, laws, and figuring out what happens when a flying car runs out of gas—or whatever fuel it uses.
Hoverboards: This one is painful because, as a teenager, you dreamt of having one. In 2025, it’s still not possible, so maybe our kids’ children will see the day.
Self-Drying Clothes: The dream of every mother on earth. The only thing close to it is IoT devices attached to clothes and other wearables like watches and sneakers.
Double Ties? Thank goodness, no. That’s a prediction that never came to be, and let’s leave it there.
Fax Machines: By 2015, they were already a no-go. In the early 2000s, they saw their last action in offices and were replaced entirely by email.
Smartphones, Anyone? This was a great miss for the movie, as by 2015, everyone knew what smartphones were and how they changed the way we consume music, news, and media in general.
What About the Internet? It wasn’t mentioned in the movie. The internet wasn’t widely known in the late 80s, though it was nascent in academic circles. By 2015, the internet was omnipresent and gave rise to digital services like payments, social networks, and cryptocurrencies.
It’s clear that the Back to the Future movies were created to entertain, and in the process, they visualized what could be possible in the next 30 years, given the trends in technology and culture.
There have been hits and misses, but it’s amazing how close and accurate the hits are today.
Is there a chance that if a reboot is on the horizon, new predictions will be made for the next 30 years? Will they surprise us?
The movie presented a very interesting view of how humans imagine the future on the bright side. How many of those ideas were planted in the minds of people who thought they were possible and gave us the gadgets we use every day?
It’s movies like these that inspire us and empower us to deliver a better world for future generations.