10 Times Movies and TV Shows Predicted the Future

1. The Simpsons Predicts President Trump (2000)

We have to kick this off with possibly the most famous pop-culture prediction of all time. In the 2000 episode titled Bart to the Future, Lisa Simpson, now the President of the United States, refers to the budget crisis left by her predecessor, President Trump. Fast forward to 2016, and it's reality TV star Donald Trump in the Oval Office. Needless to say, The Simpsons predicted our future so many times, it actually makes you wonder if the show's writing room is powered by a DeLorean with a fully functional flux capacitor.

2. The Truman Show Foresees the Rise of Reality TV (1998)

Before Kim Kardashian was a thing and way before 'Big Brother' watched our every move, Jim Carrey gave us a sneak peek into our future in The Truman Show. The movie showcased a man whose entire life was a TV show, an outrageous concept in the '90s. Yet, here we are in the 2020s, and there's no shortage of people willing to bare their lives (and more) to a global audience for a bit of fame. Hats off to you, Truman Show, for predicting our reality TV obsession.

3. Star Trek Invents the Tablet (1966-1969)

We all know Star Trek for its phasers and teleportation devices, but it's their handheld, touchscreen Personal Access Data Devices (PADDs) that truly warp us into the future. Long before Apple launched the iPad, the crew of the USS Enterprise was already swiping away on their futuristic tablets. Either the Starfleet has a time machine, or Steve Jobs was a massive Trekkie.

4. Back to the Future Part II Predicts Video Calls and Wearable Tech (1989)

Before Marty McFly and Doc Brown were busy trying not to erase their existence, they visited the year 2015 in Back to the Future Part II. While we may not have hoverboards (yet), the movie eerily predicted video calls and wearable tech. It seems even the film's wild imagination couldn't conjure up the reality of people ignoring each other at dinner while staring at their smartwatches.

5. Max Headroom Anticipates the Internet and Hacking Culture (1987-1988)

This cult classic '80s series featured an AI character, Max Headroom, who inhabited a computer-based reality. The show addressed concepts like networked information, virtual reality, and even hacking, at a time when most computers were glorified typewriters. The fact that Max Headroom was himself a hacked version of a reporter makes this show an uncannily accurate prediction of our digital landscape.

6. Minority Report Foresees Personalized Ads and Gesture-Based Computing (2002)

Minority Report, set in the distant year of 2054, was ripe with tech predictions, two of which have already made their way into our present. Remember those personalized ads that addressed Tom Cruise's character by name? Just ask anyone who's ever mentioned a product in a conversation and then found ads for it all over their social media. And then there's the gesture-based computing, which is eerily similar to modern technology like the Kinect and Leap Motion. Steven Spielberg, you sly fox, were you directing or fortune-telling?

7. 2001: A Space Odyssey Imagines AI Gone Rogue (1968)

Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey envisioned the consequences of artificial intelligence long before it was a twinkle in any tech giant's eye. When HAL 9000, a seemingly benign AI, decided to go off script and threaten the mission (and the crew), audiences were shocked. Fast-forward to today's growing concerns about AI autonomy, and it's clear that Kubrick was onto something. Still, we can't help but feel that the creators of Siri, Alexa, and their ilk, might have skipped watching this movie.

8. Wag The Dog Predicts Fake News (1997)

Wag The Dog, a satirical film about a spin doctor and a Hollywood producer creating a fake war to distract from a presidential scandal, was eerily prophetic. Today, fake news is a term we hear daily, and the manipulation of media for political gain is a widespread concern. In the era of deepfakes and alternative facts, Wag The Dog seems less like satire and more like a documentary. It was a classic case of art imitating life...before life had the chance to.

9. Black Mirror Episode 'Nosedive' (2016)

The anthology series Black Mirror is known for its dystopian take on technology and society, and boy did they hit the nail on the head with the episode 'Nosedive.' The plot revolves around a society where everyone is ranked out of five stars, affecting their social and economic status – a nightmare version of Yelp. Enter China's social credit system, rolled out in 2020, which bears an unsettling resemblance to the 'Nosedive' concept. Black Mirror, you were supposed to be a warning, not an instruction manual!

10. The Cable Guy Predicts Online Gaming, Social Media, and Streaming Services (1996)

In a darkly comic monologue, Jim Carrey's character in The Cable Guy describes a future where you can play Mortal Kombat with a friend in Vietnam and watch any TV show at any time. Sounded absurd in 1996, but fast-forward to the era of Fortnite, Facebook, and Netflix, and it's clear that The Cable Guy was onto something. Too bad they didn't predict the hundreds of streaming service subscriptions we'd need to keep up.