So how much of Back To The Future came true?
Today’s the day Michael J Fox was transported to in the classic Eighties movie . . .
IN TIME-TRAVEL comedy Back To The Future II, released in 1989, heroes Marty (Michael J. Fox) and Doc (Christopher Lloyd) land in the future at 4.29pm on October 21, 2015. The film’s creators, Robert Zemeckis and Bob Gale, imagined some technological marvels that do now exist — but they didn’t get it all right. GUY WALTERS looks at how good their zany predictions were ...
PREDICTIONS THAT CAME TRUE
THE VIDEO TELEPHONE
Marty makes video calls to two characters by talking to a screen. anybody who has used internet video-calling services such as Skype or Facetime will find this familiar. What the film did not realise was that we would be able to make such calls on machines so small we can carry them in our pockets and handbags.
Smartphones don’t feature in the sequel — or the fact that we can use them to watch TV, shop or store things such as music tracks.
DRONES
When the film’s baddies are arrested, a drone from the USA today news organisation is flying around to film the action. today, the BBC has an in-house drone journalism team, although they call their devices hexacopters. amazon plans to use them to deliver products, and drones will probably be one of this year’s most popular Christmas presents.
FINGERPRINT IDENTIFICATION
In 1989, the idea of thumb and fingerprint identification was pure science fiction. Such technology is shown twice in the film, when a charity worker solicits donations by using a portable thumb-payment unit, and as a means of unlocking the front door of McFly’s house. today, fingerprint identification door locks are common, made by electronics giant Samsung, for example, and sold on amazon.
the technology is used on iPhones, and is being tested as a payment method in the U.S. and norway. Mastercard has also created a fingerprint system called Zwipe, which does away with the need for chip and PIn.
COSMETIC SURGERY FACTORIES
Marty’S girlfriend, Jennifer Parker, is accused by a policeman of visiting a ‘cosmetic factory’ because he thinks she looks so much younger than her 47 years. today, clinics all over the world offer a bewildering variety of cosmetic surgery options such as facelifts and Botox injections.
MULTI-CHANNEL SCREENS
SEEING Marty McFly Jr watch six TV channels simultaneously, viewers in 1989 would have been bewildered by the idea that someone could take in so much information. On many of today’s smart TV sets it is possible to display at least two channels at the same time, with the second channel screened in a smaller preview box.
SELF-SERVICE PETROL STATIONS
THROUGHOUT the Back to the Future movie franchise, viewers could watch a texaco petrol station evolve from the Fifties through to 2015, by which time it features robots and computerised payment system.
today, although few if any petrol stations have robots, many allow drivers to serve themselves and pay for petrol with no interaction with another human whatsoever.
HOLOGRAPHIC FILMS
In the fictional 2015, cinemagoers watch Jaws 19, a holographic film. although today’s movies are not shown as holograms, 3D technology is commonplace.
. . . JUST AROUND THE CORNER
FLYING CARS
NOT a year goes by without reports of someone making a flying car that will solve all our transport problems. although no inventors claim to be able to make a car that hovers like Marty’s DeLorean, a firm called terrafugia has made a road-legal flying car called the transition. On the ground its wings fold up and it can be driven at 70mph. If you can find enough room to take off, it can fly at 107mph. So far there have been several successful test flights.
DUST-REPELLENT PAPER
In an antiques shop, Marty is recommended a book that has a dust-jacket — something seen as a quaint relic, as dust-repellent paper has been invented.
In 2012 a patent was filed in the U.S. for creating a high-tech dustproof film that could be applied to almost anything.
SELF-TYING SHOELACES
Marty puts on a pair of nike ‘powerlacing’ shoes that feature laces which tie themselves — a lazy child’s dream.
now, a Canadian firm called Powerlace is raising funds to mass-produce a running shoe with laces that automatically tighten around the wearer’s foot, using a fiendish arrangement of pressure sensors and pulleys. In 2011, nike also sold a small number of self-lacing shoes for charity.
TALKING COATS
Marty’S talking jacket foresaw the fashion world’s focus on ‘wearable tech’. While talking coats are yet to materialise, we have clothes that can charge smartphones, others fitted withtracking chips, and garments with flashing LeD lights built in.
ROLLABLE TV SCREENS
the McFly household boasts a video screen that rolls over a window like a blind, and on which is displayed the video image of a scenic view. Such screens should soon be reality, with companies such as Philips, Sony and Samsung all displaying rollable video screens at technology fairs.
THE IDEAS THAT FLOPPED
ROBOT DOG-WALKING
ALTHOUGH dog-walking services are a must for many of today’s working urbanites, those who walk the dogs are still human.
DEHYDRATED FOOD
In the movie, people in 2015 prepare miniaturised dehydrated food — like an extreme version of a Pot noodle — in machines a little like microwaves, that enlarge the food to palatable size. It may happen in outer space, but not down here.
NEON KERBS
the future is very garish in the movie, with unappealing neon kerbs that make the average 2015 street look like a cheap nightclub.
ONE THAT HAS NO CHANCE
MOBILE REACTORS
the idea of powering cars and homes with small nuclear reactors that run on rubbish such as banana peel and beer cans is attractive but unlikely to happen.
the holy grail of nuclear energy is a process called cold fusion, in which a nuclear reaction takes place at room temperature, so theoretically one could power a whole country with no more fuel than would fill a milk bottle.
although some scientists have claimed to have produced cold fusion, it remains a fantasy — or at the very back of the future.