Stranger Than Fiction
It's really easy for a sci fi movie to quickly look dated as time marches on—after all, what happens when we’ve reached, say, 2019 with no flying cars (looking at you, Blade Runner)?
But some prescient filmmakers managed to portray the future with an almost eerie accuracy. Here are 15 movies where fiction became reality.
Woman In The Moon: Shoot For The Moon
Before President Kennedy voiced his longing to send Americans into space, Woman in the Moon, a 1929 German silent film, was already there. Several gadgets used for space travel, as shown in the movie, have become a reality.
Fritz Lang, Woman in the Moon (1929)
Woman In The Moon: NASA Likes It
The most significant prediction in Woman in the Moon was the launch countdown. The film gives the moviegoer a feeling of suspense by counting down to zero, a staple of every NASA launch.
Fritz Lang, Woman in the Moon (1929)
Troy: Zero To Hero
No, not Hercules. Another famous Greek character in this action-packed adventure predicts a cast member's future with ironic accuracy—Achilles. Troy tells the story of Helen, who, despite marrying the Spartan King, runs away to Troy with her love, Paris. But that's just the beginning.
Troy: Achilles The Warrior
The Spartans, along with their Greek allies, fight Troy for Helen's return. Achilles, portrayed by Brad Pitt, spends most of the film showing his fighting prowess on the beaches of Troy. But on set, Pitt got a big dose of irony.
Troy: A Line In The Sand
After nearly completing filming and months of running on sand, Pitt tore his Achilles tendon. Perhaps there was a line in the sand Pitt shouldn't have crossed? Ouch!
The Net: A Catch-All
The Net is a psychological thriller starring Sandra Bullock. Her character, Angela Bennett, a computer programmer, is trying to protect her identity while running from an unknown enemy. The Net's villain can break into your home and steal from you without ever being there, courtesy of the Internet. Sounds familiar.
Invisible thieves may leave a bad taste, but The Net also has an appealing prediction.
The Net: Pizza Anyone?
The Net predicted today's online ordering trend with gusto. From dinner to clothing, The Net suggests a world where online ordering is standard, not simply a sci-fi speculation, as it was in 1995 when the movie was released.
The Running Man: Reality TV
With Arnold Schwarzenegger's help, the 1987 film The Running Man offers moviegoers a glimpse of entertaining reality TV. Today's reality TV requires a tough-as-nails mindset to win. Thank goodness our current programs don't have the same life-or-death scenario as The Running Man.
TriStar, The Running Man (1987)
The Running Man: Not Just Reality TV
Not only does Schwarzenegger use his acting prowess to help the film predict today's entertaining real-life competitions, but The Running Man also gives glimpses of flat-screen TVs and voice-activated electronics. What's more, 2019 is the year in the film.
TriStar, The Running Man (1987)
The Purge: Election Year: Fear And Trembling
If reality TV isn't scary, a good horror movie's predictive skill will keep you on edge. The Purge: Election Year showcases with terrifying accuracy the current unrest in a contested American Presidential election. But there’s one detail in the movie that hits too close to home.
Universal, The Purge: Election Year (2016)
The Purge: Election Year: America, The Great
The Purge: Election Year is the story of Charlie Roan, a woman who, as a child, was her family's only survivor of the yearly purge. Now a 2040 presidential candidate, Roan campaigns to end the purge. Her opponents use lethal means in their attempt to end her.
Does it sound vaguely familiar? Maybe? Still, The Purge Election Year is a closer version of America's current political tensions than seemed possible.
Universal, The Purge: Election Year (2016)
The Birds: Be Kind To The Birds
What's just as scary as politicians? Murderous birds. Sounds comical? Not to Tippi Hedren's character, Melanie Daniels, in Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds. You may not believe birds are bad for your health now, but after watching The Birds, you might think again about how you treat your feathered friends.
The Birds: Of One Mind
Daphne du Maurier's novel of the same name is the basis for the film adaptation, and in it, birds attack people unexpectedly and without reason. This ended up being an eerie prediction: 50 years later, du Maurier’s son and his family were similarly scared when they became the target of disgruntled seagulls camping outside their English cottage.
Rosemary's Baby: Don't Wake The Baby
In Rosemary’s Baby, Rosemary Woodhouse (Mia Farrow) believes in her unborn child's inherent evil. That may sound funny, but for the film’s director, Roman Polanski, evil became a part of his own unborn child's story.
Paramount, Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Rosemary's Baby: Don't Speak Of The Devil
After the film finished shooting, an unspeakable evil befell Polanski and his wife, actress Sharon Tate. Sadly, Tate, who was pregnant at the time of her death, became perhaps the most famous victim of the Manson family.
Paramount, Rosemary's Baby (1968)
Poltergeist: Not In Good Spirits
Like most paranormal horror movies, 1982's Poltergeist is one scary movie. In it, the Freeling family unintentionally disturb Native burial grounds and find themselves cursed. What makes Poltergeist more terrifying is not the plot but the "Poltergeist curse".
Poltergeist: A Cursed Film
Two young actors cast in Poltergeist lost their lives in the six years between the first and third releases. Dominique Dunn, cast as the oldest Freeling child, Dana, was murdered in 1982 by an ex-boyfriend. She was only 22. Heather O'Rouke passed on in 1988, at age 12, from a congenital condition. She played Carol Anne.
The Omen: Interesting Idea
Released in 1976, The Omen is the story of Damien Thorn, a child prophesied to be the antichrist. American diplomat Robert Thorn, played by Gregory Peck, and his wife Katherine, portrayed by Lee Remick, adopt Damien after their infant's death. Producer Harvey Bernhard was given the film's idea but cautioned not to make it. Why? Let's see.
Twentieth Century, The Omen (1976)
The Omen: Untimely Deaths
Some felt the film would upset the Devil, inviting evil into their lives. As it happened, Peck's son took his own life just as filming began, making both Peck and Robert bereaved parents. But there’s more.
Twentieth Century, The Omen (1976)
The Omen: Special Effect
John Richardson's brilliant special effects created a scene in The Omen where a character is decapitated. While working on his next film, Richardson was in a car accident with his assistant, who was decapitated. But that’s still not all.
Twentieth Century, The Omen (1976)
The Omen: Diabolical Mayhem
Peck and executive producer Mace Neufeld flew to the set on separate planes, each struck by lightning. And adding to all that calamity, the Irish Republican Army bombed Neufeld's hotel during filming.
Twentieth Century, The Omen (1976)
The Truman Show: Make Them Laugh
A hearty laugh is always good for the soul. The Truman Show boasts another of Jim Carrey's brilliant performances. It also envisioned a society obsessed with watching others. Sound familiar?
Paramount, The Truman Show (1998)
The Truman Show: Did You Know?
In The Truman Show, Truman Burbank lives unaware that an entire world shares his ups and downs and witnesses his most intimate moments. Fast-forward to today, where some believe they unknowingly live within a TV show, and where some TV shows do follow people’s day-to-day.
Paramount, The Truman Show (1998)
Airplane 2: Let's See
Some comedies have given audiences a glimpse of a specific kind of future technology—tech that can see through us all. Loved for its wacky one-liners and sight jokes, Airplane 2 also shows the potential of this futuristic surveillance.
Airplane 2: Happy Birthday
Airplane 2 jokes about full-body scanners that can see passengers in their birthday suits. These gags were silly in 1982, but have become far more realistic in 2024.
Network: Whatever It Takes
Network tells the story of veteran newsman Howard Beale, who is willing to end his life on-air. His station, the UBS Evening News, endorses his idea, knowing Beale's on-air death will increase ratings.
Network: Only Time Will Tell
In his 2000 Chicago Sun-Times column, critic Roger Ebert wrote that Network is a masterfully prophetic film. After all, Howard Beale's same manic, ranting, and unscripted energy is precisely what fuels reality TV today.
Wag The Dog: Political Distractions
Wag The Dog is a darker comedic foray into political predictions. Presidential adviser Winifred Ames (Anne Heche) gets help from political spin doctor Conrad Brean (Robert De Niro). They distract the public from the sitting president's scandal—two weeks before election night. Sound familiar? Keep reading.
Wag The Dog: Hollywood Distractions
A political strategy film is hardly prophetic. However, this is where Wag The Dog takes the ball and runs. Dustin Hoffman's character, Hollywood producer Stanley Motss, works with Brean to fabricate a war in Albania that will ultimately distract the media.
Wag The Dog: 24-Hour News
Wag The Dog was released in 1997, when CNN, Fox News, and MSNBC were new. Today, nothing is outlandish about the government and news media working together. Patriotic stories make the government look good and provide content for 24-hour news networks, something the writers of Wag The Dog likely could not fathom.
The Muppets: Let's All Get Along
The Muppets not only help children develop language and literacy skills but also learn life lessons about decency and morals. Thanks to The Muppets, children also learned about the law…and witnessed one weird prediction.
Walt Disney, The Muppets (2011)
The Muppets: That's Not Nice
Jason Segel, who acted in and wrote for The Muppets Movie, learned that all Muppets couldn't be friends all of the time—well, not without a price, that is. Segel wrote a scene where the Muppets try to recruit Elmo but are unable to because of Elmo's lawyer. Funny, right? It depends on who you ask.
Walt Disney, The Muppets (2011)
The Muppets: Pay The Real Price
Elmo's real-life lawyers weren't laughing, cutting the scene entirely from the film. So, despite all the Muppets being, well, Muppets, the privilege of working with them all is going to cost you. Lesson learned.
Walt Disney, The Muppets (2011)
Minority Report
Ok, so maybe we don’t have precogs stopping crimes before they happen (...yet), but Minority Report with Tom Cruise might just be the best a movie has ever predicted future technology.
Technology, media, policing—the Steven Spielberg-directed flick is so uncanny, you start to wonder if Philip K Dick, the writer of the original story, had some kind of precognition himself…
Twentieth Century, Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report: Touch Screens
Minority Report may not have been the first ever movie to feature a touch screen, but the intuitive UI they use, swiping between pages on a tablet, is incredibly close to what the iPad would become—when it was released eight years later.
Twentieth Century, Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report: Law And Order
The authorities in Minority Report use advanced, non-lethal, yet incredibly aggressive weaponry, much like modern, militarized police forces. Modern officers also make use of face scanning technology that’s remarkably similar to what you see in the movie.
Twentieth Century, Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report: Marketing
The people in Minority Report live in a world where privacy is essentially non-existent—where they’re aggressively served hyper-targeted advertising constantly. Sound familiar?
Twentieth Century, Minority Report (2002)
Minority Report: Precognition?
Precogs receiving visions of future infractions and stopping them before they can occur might seem like a ridiculous science fiction premise—but look up “preventative custody”. We’re already trying to do it.
Twentieth Century, Minority Report (2002)
The Cable Guy
When Jim Carrey’s Cable Guy screams that Americans will have a computer, phone, and cable TV all in one, he seems like a crazy person. Not so crazy now, huh?
Columbia, The Cable Guy (1996)
The Cable Guy: Online Gaming
In a world where millions spend half their lives in online games, it’s funny to think of the futuristic prediction that “you’ll be able to play Mortal Kombat with your friend in Vietnam!”
But he was right, wasn’t he?
Columbia, The Cable Guy (1996)
Gattaca
When the futuristic thriller Gattaca hit theaters in 1997, its conceit of “gene editing” seemed like pure, dystopian science fiction. Audiences had no idea that CRISPR genome editing was right on the horizon.
Metropolis
Nearly a century before anyone had ever mashed the words “face” and “time” together, Fritz Lang’s masterpiece Metropolis predicted video conferencing.
In 1927, it was the cutting edge of science fiction. Today, it’s in your pocket.
Universum Film, Metropolis (1927)
Metropolis: AI Girlfriends
Metropolis’s Rotwang builds a robotic woman, or Maschinenmensch, to try and replace his lost wife. Not only does his creation set the template for humanoid robots for decades to come, but robot girlfriends are 100% here!
Universum Film, Metropolis (1927)
2001: A Space Odyssey
Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie 2001: A Space Odyssey features many modern conveniences like video chats and vertically oriented touchscreens—but for some really prescient predictions, you should look at the original Arthur C Clark story.
MGM, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
2001: A Space Odyssey: Apple News
Arthur C Clark was one of the great writers of the 20th century and he predicted countless examples of modern technologies—but probably his biggest was his portrayal of news media in the future.
In 2001, Clark predicted that everyone would get their news from personal electronic devices that receive a constantly-updating never-ending stream of headlines. Now that sounds familiar…
MGM, 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Demolition Man
Stallone and Snipes’s Demolition Man might not seem like the most intelligent film on this list, but one of its major predictions about the future was honestly more enlightened that 90% of science fiction. And no, we’re not talking about iPads and self-driving cars, though it has both.
Warner Bros., Demolition Man (1993)
Demolition Man: Falling Crime Rates
It’s popular to portray a future where crime has gone out of control, but Demolition Man accurately predicted that crime rates will actually go down—and that’s why only a tough cop from the 90s like Sly Stallone can take down the diabolical Simon Phoenix.
Warner Bros., Demolition Man (1993)
Idiocracy
A future with a reality show president and everyone’s gotten stupider? Of course people draw parallels between the real world and Mike Judge’s 2006 comedy—but if you look closer, it actually did a better job that you might even realize.
Twentieth Century, Idiocracy (2006)
Idiocracy: Modern Corporate Media
Idiocracy’s proliferation of corporate brands into every aspect of our lives and personalities is right on the money for where we’re at today. And the big corporations blatantly rewriting public policy in their own self-interest? The degradation of art into lowest-common-denominator media designed to capture your attention at all times?
We’re living in Idiocracy, baby.
Twentieth Century, Idiocracy (2006)
Idiocracy: Crocs
When the production designer of Idiocracy saw Crocs for the first time, long before they were popular, he thought they looked absolutely stupid. He figured they’d never catch on in the real world, but they were perfect for the stupid future of Idiocracy.
Crocs, Inc brought in nearly $4 billion in revenue in the year 2023.
Twentieth Century, Idiocracy (2006)
Gremlins 2: The New Batch: Smart Homes
The state-of-the-art smart home in Gremlins 2: The New Batch might have seemed like a futuristic Hollywood touch—but it nailed a surprising amount of smart home technology that you can buy at Home Depot today.
Warner Bros., Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990)
Demon Seed
Demon Seed is about an artificial intelligence that gains sentience. It eventually captures a woman and attempts to synthetically impregnate her (ok, maybe this isn’t happening in the real world… yet).
But one of the AI’s abilities is remarkably similar to real AI technology being used just as creepily today.
Demon Seed: Deepfakes
In the film, the AI, called Proteus, creates a full video and audio simulacrum of a woman in order to fool someone, and it’s remarkably similar to the AI deepfake technology that’s used all over the Internet today.
Demon Seed: Too Close To Home
Demon Seed was even prescient enough that the AI’s first attempts at recreating people are uncanny and off-putting, but as the film goes on, its deepfake ability gets a lot more advanced—and a lot more insidious.
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Smartphones
OK, so this originated in the book (well, radio show if you want to be even more pedantic), but it bears mentioning: In Douglas Adams’ The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, the titular Guide is a pocket-sized, handheld device that contains the sum of all human knowledge.
The mere idea once blew people’s minds. Today, it’s basically a slightly less powerful smartphone.
Touchstone, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy: Uber
Another “ridiculous” invention of Douglas Adams was an electronic “thumb” that you could stick in the air and call for a ride from any spaceships in the vicinity.
So, basically Uber.
Touchstone, Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy (2005)
Her: AI Girlfriends
Spike Jonze’s sensitive 2013 film Her, where Joaquin Phoenix falls in love with an AI assistant voiced by Scarlett Johansson, predicted that people would want to date artificial intelligences—but it happened a lot faster than Jonze thought.
Annapurna Pictures, Her (2013)
The Siege: An Attack On New York
The Siege features a terrorist cell carrying out an organized attack on New York City, leading to drastic overreach by government and NYPD that leads to the dissolution of privacy rights and the violation of many international laws. And it came out in 1998.
Twentieth Century, The Siege (1998)
Contagion: A Pandemic
When Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion hit theaters in 2011, people complained that the movie’s portrayal of things like mass quarantine, vaccination ID cards, and the widespread exploitation of people’s fear for personal financial gain were “unrealistic”.
If only they’d known what was coming.
Warner Bros., Contagion (2011)
The Congress: AI Deepfakes
Not very many people saw 2013’s The Congress starring Robin Wright as herself, but it nailed the future in ways people were never expecting. In the film, Wright sells her entire likeness to a movie studio, who scans her and uses an AI clone of her in countless movies.
Sounds unrealistic? Bruce Willis sold his likeness to an AI deepfake company in 2022.
Opus Film, The Congress (2013)
The Congress: AI Taking Jobs
We eventually see a future where most people are lulled into a stupor and live almost entirely in online worlds while corporations remove the human aspect from nearly every aspect of life. Hmm…
Opus Film, The Congress (2013)
Citizen Kane: Elections
When Charles Foster Kane runs for office, he has his newspaper prepare two headlines for the day after the election: "Kane Elected!" and "Fraud at Polls!"
Children Of Men: Fear
In the bleak future of Children of Men, all women on Earth mysteriously turn infertile. In the face of this soul-crushing development, British society turns to the fascistic scapegoating of immigrants and refugees to give the people an outlet for their fear and anger.
Universal, Children of Men (2006)
S1M0NE: AI Influencers
S1M0NE is a silly satire where Al Pacino, a fading director, creates a virtual starlet and tries to pass her off as a real human actress, in order to rejuvenate his career.
The film is silly, but companies are already trying to use AI influencers to replace human models and actors. Is the first AI movie star on the horizon?
New Line Cinema, S1m0ne (2002)
Repo Men: Fast X
If you’re watching closely during 2010’s Repo Men, you’ll see a poster for The Fast And The Furious 10. By 2010, the Fast and Furious franchise was on the ropes, and the inclusion of the poster was probably a joke.
Little did they know that they actually would get to a tenth movie—and it actually came out two years earlier (2023) than Repo Men predicted!
Repo Men (2010), Universal Pictures
I Am Legend: Batman V Superman
In the future of I Am Legend, studios had so run out of ideas that they made a Batman vs Superman movie! Then that very film would come out nine years later.
Warner Bros., I Am Legend (2007)
Akira: The Olympics Being Canceled
The legendary 1988 Japanese animated film Akira takes place in the year 2019, during the leadup to the 2020 Olympics taking place in Neo-Tokyo. But it gets creepier.
Akira: Almost Down To The Day
The events of Akira lead to calls for the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo to be postponed just a few months before they begin (147 days, to be precise).
In the real world, calls to cancel the real 2020 Olympics were widely spread across the internet on Friday, February 28, 2020—147 days before the Olympics.
Back To The Future 2: Cubs Win World Series
Back to the Future 2 predicted in 1989 that the Chicago Cubs would finally win the world series… in 2015. They actually won in 2016, so they were way off.
But there’s another modern figure that the movie predicted with scary accuracy.
Universal, Back to the Future 2 (1989)
Back To The Future 2: Donald Trump
In Back to the Future 2, Biff Tannen has become a millionaire who lives in a penthouse very reminiscent of the Trump Hotel and Casino. Then. he becomes a Republican politician who rules over a lawless wasteland, where he makes people call him “America’s greatest living folk here”.
Universal, Back to the Future 2 (1989)
Mr & Mrs Smith: Just A Movie
Mr & Mrs Smith is the story of a couple working as spies. One day, their respective employers instruct them to "end" the other. Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie were strangers when filming began back in 2004. Once on the set, however, fiction became fact.
Summit, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Mr & Mrs Smith: Method Actors
Pitt and Jolie did not remain strangers. They went "method" in their acting and ended up getting together on-set despite Pitt's marriage to Jennifer Aniston. But that's not all.
Summit, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
Mr & Mrs Smith: Not Secret Secrets
After becoming "Brangelina" and a paparazzi goldmine for years, the power couple infamously separated in 2019. Like their characters in the film, Pitt and Jolie have been trying to "end" each other in court proceedings ever since. Seems like Mr & Mrs Smith was a road map for their relationship.
Summit, Mr. & Mrs. Smith (2005)
