In 1987, the movie ‘Persecuted’ (‘The Running Man’), I imagined that in 2019 we would see fights to the death live on television. And, in that same year, another film released just 16 years ago, ‘The Island’, predicted that human clones would be raised as cattle for their organs.
However, it is true that some sci-fi classics , many of which we might even call true futuristic movies , did adequately well when it came to successfully announcing the emergence of certain modern technologies . This is what has happened, for example, with visionary films like ‘Blade Runner’ or ‘Terminator’ or ‘Total Challenge’.
Travels to space – ‘Journey to the Moon’ (1902)
Originally titled ‘Le Voyage dans la Lune’, ‘Journey to the Moon’ in Spanish, it is a French film that was shot when the camera was barely 10 years old, and the first cinema held only three years open.
It is a 13-minute film, shot by French-born filmmaker Georges Méliès, full of special effects, about explorers traveling to the Moon in a capsule powered by a cannon.
This curious “space capsule”, which puts a satellite into orbit, has been the object of study for decades. Thus, in the 1960s, and under Project HARP, the United States Navy used a cannon to fire projectors up to an altitude of 180 kilometers.
Although it is true that today it is unlikely that we will send someone into space with the help of a cannon, ‘Trip to the Moon’ managed to spark the imagination of many spectators. And possibly paved the way for Neil Armstrong and the Apollo 11 mission.
Robots – ‘Metropolis’ (1927)
With the title of ‘Metropolis, and released in 1927, it is considered by many moviegoers as a truly important work, since it became an excellent innovation by bringing to the cinema what would stand out for being the first representation of robots on the big screen .
In the aforementioned film, an inventor designs a metallic-looking humanoid robot that takes on the features of a young woman. Although it is surprising, nowadays it is not very easy to watch a silent movie, in black and white, and with a duration of more than two hours.
Visionary for the time, there is no doubt that the creation of android robots is already part of the daily life of some companies. Without going any further, in 2014, Japan witnessed the birth of “Kodomoroid” and the surprisingly realistic android “Erica.”
Wireless headphones – ‘Fahrenheit 451’ (1966)
Ray Bradbury’s novel, ‘Fahrenheit 451’, adapted for the cinema by François Truffaut, is considered one of the futuristic works par excellence. While, as early as 1966, some enjoyed listening to the radio after inserting their ears into huge headphones, the French filmmaker imagined a world with tiny headphones , the size of a thimble.
Interestingly, it wasn’t until 2001 that Apple released its first headphone models, plunging the planet into the era of digital music players.
Mobile Phones – ‘Star Trek’ (1966)
Although the galactic saga ended up being exported to the big screen, starting with ‘Star Trek: The Movie’, in 1979, a few years earlier, in 1966, it had originally started as a television series.
And we could almost say that ‘Star Trek’ “devised” the modern mobile phone. At that time it was conceived as a “pocket communicator”, but it is surprising to discover how it had a display with a flip-top cover which, almost certainly, inspired Motorola engineer Martin Cooper to design what would become the world’s first mobile phone, developed in 1973.
Its prototype, which would later become the Motorola DynaTAC (1983), weighed 2.5 kg and its battery lasted only 20 minutes.
Smart Homes – ‘The Proteus Generation’ (1977)
In ‘The Generation of Proteus’, from 1977, a scientist develops Proteus IV , an artificial intelligence computer that begins by curing leukemia . But the machine literally gets out of control when he falls in love with his creator’s wife, to the point of deciding to connect to the investigator’s house to take control of all the technology and devices that were there.
We could say that Proteus IV can be considered as the first modern smart home , since the computer is capable of activating the door locks, controlling the lights, activating the pool cover automatically or managing the house alarm system. . Technologies that, today, we can use more easily.
Flying Cars – ‘Blade Runner’ (1982)
The truth is that few science fiction films are as revered today as Ridley Scott’s ‘Blade Runner’. In fact, the film came to present some predictions that today we can consider bold, from snakes on the verge of extinction as fully human androids, to the arrival of Spinner , the flying car that we see parading through the city.
While it is true that flying cars are not yet on the market, it is clear that they will soon be. Among them Aska, an electric flying car that can already be reserved and that, according to the company that develops it, will be available for sale in 2026.
Autonomous Cars – ‘Total Challenge’ (1990)
Do you remember the “Johnny taxis” ? The movie ‘Total Recall’ offers, it is true, a rather “eighties” vision of autonomous cars driven by an android robot . But the reality is that we are getting closer to using them in our day to day life.
Packed with sensors, different companies have developed vehicles that can drive themselves without anyone having to sit in the driver’s seat. And semi-autonomous vehicles are not far behind, although it is true that they require the driver to maintain control for safety.
