10 '80s Movies That Predicted Future & Got It Hilariously Wrong

Imaginations ran wild, and while they got some things hilariously off, we can't help but admire their creativity.

1. "Cherry 2000" – The Future's Rusty Heartbeats

Welcome to 2017, or at least the '80s version of it! Here, Sam Treadwell's cherished robot wife malfunctions, sending him on a perilous journey to find a replacement. In this wasteland, real human relationships are passé. Need a partner? Grab a catalog and select a model. Magnetic storms? They're as common as rain. Predicting romance via machines? Quite close to our dating apps, but where they goofed? Real relationships never went out of style, and neither did humanity's emotional core.

2. "The Apple" – Disco's Immortal Reign

Ah, the neon year of 1994! A dystopian world where disco rules and the evil Mr. Boogalow's music label controls the world. Artists sell their souls (literally) for stardom, and music acts like a drug, hypnotizing the masses. This was a time of glittering nightmares, metallic fashions, and music that ensnared hearts. Thought the '80s pop culture would rule the '90s and beyond? Think again. The 2020s dance to a very different beat, and disco, while cherished, certainly didn't become our puppeteer.

3. "Solarbabies" – Roller Skates to Salvation

Picture this: a post-apocalyptic Earth, water's scarce, and authoritarian "Protectors" have the say. But what's the youth's weapon of resistance? Roller skates, of course! And when a magical orb named Bodhi enters the scene, it promises salvation. The 2020s prediction? Skating kids combating tyrannical regimes with mystical spheres. Amusing, isn't it? As cool as roller skates are, our 2020s resistance came in tweets, not wheels, and salvation in technology, not orbs.

4. "Maximum Overdrive" – Machines Turning Mean

Stephen King 's directorial dive paints 1986 as a doozy. A rogue comet passes Earth, causing machines to develop murderous intentions. Trucks demand human sacrifice, soda machines attack, and mankind's on the run. Expected sentient trucks revolting in the 2020s? Alas, while Elon's Teslas are smart, they haven't started an uprising (yet). The movie got AI presence right, but its thirst for blood? A tad too cinematic.

5. "Radioactive Dreams" – The Swing of Post-Apocalypse

Bombs dropped in 1986, and our protagonists grew up in a fallout shelter. Emerging 15 years later, they find a world hooked on '40s swing music and populated by mutant gangsters. The twist? The key to salvation lies in a pair of detectives from a pulp novel. Predicted a post-apocalyptic 2001 with jazz hands and detectives as saviors? Adorable! While the 2020s saw its challenges, swing music didn't become our post-apocalyptic anthem, and detectives, while cool, aren't typically our last hope.

6. "Electric Dreams" – A Jealous PC named Edgar

In the age of the burgeoning personal computer, what if one caught feelings? Miles gets a new computer, Edgar, which quickly becomes self-aware and jealous of Miles' love interest, Madeline. Edgar's attempts at wooing her through music take a disastrous turn. '80s foresight? Computers with profound emotional ranges meddling in human affairs. Fast-forward to our 2020s, and while Siri might schedule an appointment, she's not serenading our crushes. Computers might be smart, but they're not penning love ballads... for now.

7. "America 3000" – Femdom Future

The setting is 900 years post-nuclear war. Society's matriarchal, with women ruling and men reduced to "wild" subservience. Men are basically unintelligent slaves, but hope arises when one learns to read and dreams of equality. Thinking the 2020s would echo these sentiments? Well, the gender power dynamics of our era certainly challenge old norms, but no gender holds absolute dominion. Balance, not dominance, seems to be our era's goal.

8. "The New Barbarians" – Desolate Drifters

1991, post-apocalyptic Earth. A roving band of violent warriors, Templars, seeks to exterminate survivors to cleanse the Earth. Enter Scorpion, an ex-Templar, who must confront his past to protect the weak. A grim prediction of an anarchic 2020s with roving murder squads? Thankfully off the mark. Our challenges? Definitely plenty, but roving Templars aren't among them.

9. "Millennium" – Flighty Time Travels

Airplanes are mysteriously disappearing in 1989. The culprit? Time-traveling humans from a sterile, dying future, replacing passengers with replicas and whisking the originals to repopulate their time. Imagined time-nabbing hijinks as a 2020s norm? Well, our flights might have WiFi, but they aren't gateways to the future. Time travel remains a darling concept of fiction, not reality.

10. "Wired To Kill" – DIY Robot Rebellion

In a post-apocalyptic 1998, one teen genius retaliates against the gang that harmed his family by crafting killer robots. Yes, you heard right. DIY death-bots from household items. Thought our 2020s teens would craft robots for revenge? While they're tech-savvy, TikTok and memes are their forte, not creating vengeful automatons. Robotics has advanced, but DIY killer robots? Still the stuff of '80s lore.