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Observation about misconceptions about future

posted 14 years ago by letyaga3682
15 replies | jump to latest

I got to watch a score of futuristic films recently, especially those made in late 80s- early 90s, and that's what I noticed they got so wrong about the future:
- regarding means of communications, it just HAS TO be a huge videophone and when you call, the person you call to will reply in the matter of seconds having made themselves comfortable in an armchair in their office as if having nothing betterto do but than just sit and wait for your call. For some reasons, it was inconceivable for script writers at the time to come up with an idea of the Mobile Phone.
- hair styles. No matter how far they show it into the future, hairdos will always be circa the time the movie was shot.

Any other observations?

--- TOUT IRA BIEN ---

[–] deedsharpe 14 years ago

ppl are always filthy, men don't shave, the weather is always gloomy and cops have amazing laser guns that continuously miss their targets as close as 10 feet away.

when all else fails...chocolate saves the day!

[–] bob-583-344388 14 years ago

Not just hair styles, but also styles of control panels for their technology. Look at the buttons and toggle switches of the original Star Trek from the 1960s, the joysticks of Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, or Buck Rogers in the 25th Century from the 1970s, the compact keypad of Blade Runner from the 1980s with that PDA of his on up through the backlit touch panels of the latter Star Trek re-incarnations.

All reflecting the control devices of the time they were made.

___
Cool is irrelevant. I'm over 40.

[–] everlone_2000 13 years ago

James Cameron made an astute observation about this when discussing the production design for Aliens - he points out that the technology can't look too far advanced because the present-day audience needs to immediately understand what it does. Bear in mind that the purpose of the film isn't to try a prophesize future technology, but rather to tell a story, and you don't really want the audience to get bogged down in trying to work out what things are supposed to be.

[–] thethhour-1 13 years ago

I think those screens in Minority Report will hold up pretty well. Although they seem impractical it's just like a giant graphical interface - similar to what that other guy said Jim Cameron said about it looking familiar. We'll immediately know what it is but I don't think that will age too poorly.

[–] manofsteel4455 12 years ago

The Technology today is pretty much the same as it was back then.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

[–] McFly_2015 12 years ago

I do find it interesting to see films made about a 'future' which has either come or is approaching. There's plenty of 2012 films but those were more prophecies. As mentioned though they aren't so much predictions but to tell a story. A popular one is the second back to the future film which involved time travel to 2015

Any how so this film on 2009; well to be honest they seemed to undershoot it. They did get holographic changing billboards right but other than that, the rest of the film looked like it could have easily been set in the early 90's. Though it does predict a fall of civilization so that would explain the lack of technological advances.

I do find it interesting how so many of these 'future' movies failed to predict the impact of cell phones.

[–] darkthunder84 12 years ago

On the subject of Back to the Future Part II...

One technology I thought they predicted quite well, was the usage of flat screen tv's (LCDs / LEDs of our day). This was still quite a few years before LCDs became popular household television sets.

On the other hand, they predicted that people still communicated primarily via FAX machines (and not E-mail) :P

[–] McFly_2015 12 years ago

they did kind of get the 'skype' thing right.

[–] Mrpinkeye 12 years ago

i agree, and we could use skype on projectors today to get the large screen effect. its just the camera they look into is never made obvious.

i think the internet is prob what people didnt expect, they had to relate future devices to things they had i.e. tv's, phones etc. whereas today most things will be internet/mobile related

also, they could be spot on with a 10 year depression! lol and pollution is usually mentioned too. global warming, not so much

[–] Enrique-8 11 years ago

@darkthunder84 As far back as the 1960s Large Flat-Screen TVs were already foreseen, example: Fahrenheit 451 (1966). The book was written in 1953 but I am not sure if Bradbury had those in his story back then.

Enrique Sanchez

[–] susie_not_sad 12 years ago

But still no flying cars.

We're gonna need a bigger boat.

[–] AdmiralTugBenson 11 years ago

Is there any movie about the "future" that hasn't seemed comical when that date came to be the present? If these people could predict the future they'd be raking it in on the stock market and not writing Emelio Estevez vehicles.

"Got a cigarette Nels?"

[–] Testpattern 11 years ago

by AdmiralTugBenson » Fri Feb 21 2014 10:54:55
IMDb member since February 2008

Is there any movie about the "future" that hasn't seemed comical when that date came to be the present?..

Call me a fanboy, but I've always thought Wim Wender's Until the End of the World (1991)
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0101458/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_6) really nailed it's take on future tech. Granted, it wasn't supposed to be that far into the then future, but still...

And as much as this functional technology was accurate, the failure, if any, was in how the actual technology would look in application.

I attributed this to a bit of a theme in the film of future folks remaining intrigued by the charm of older things. Thus, the vehicles were old for the time the film was produced, but upgraded tech-wise with things that wouldn't be available until (from there) the, somewhat, distant future.

(This in itself a bit of a genius filmmaker move, not having to budget futuristic transportation design and waving it all off to the nostalgia inherent in human nature!)

Oh yeah, not that it matters, I came here because of the similar consciousness uploading theme in Transcendence (2014) (Ian McCandless vs. Will Caster)
(http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2209764/?ref_=nv_sr_1)

"If people like you don't learn from what happened to people like me..." -Professor Rohl

[–] DarrenDirt 9 years ago

Just reently re-watched the trailer for "Johnny Mnemonic" -- you know, that movie depicting a dark chaotic DISTANT future, with wooden Keanu Reeves transporting a TON of data in his brain?

In the trailer they actually have Keanu's Johnny character say out loud how much he's holding in his noggin (had to remove childhood memories TO MAKE ROOM!) ... tbh IIRC that sounded like SO MUCH storage back in the 1995 when the movie actually came out.

But how much exactly? Watch the trailer and try not to laugh out loud -- Hint: could fit inside an over-the-counter USB thumb drive today, for less than $100.

But "nearly 80 gigs of data" is a much cooler sounding shorthand than if they had the foresight to say something like "nearly 10 teras of data" or similar, so I'll overlook it. That movie was so clearly all about style over substance anyway.

How the hell did The Running Man manage to avoid such painful future-telling? It was quite frightening in its accuracy, tbh. Similar to Demolition Man. The dangers of reality TV and political correctness, given enough time to fully develop...

- - -

Chipping away at a mountain of pop culture trivia,
Darren Dirt.

[–] krissd 8 years ago

Just a note. Where i work we have alot of video conferences rooms that actually do work quite alot like seen in many movies. They do exist and are used.