# Old Movies about Future Past **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 18, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582 "2013-08-18T19:00:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/1 "2013-08-18T19:00:45Z")
In 1968, [2001: a space odyssey](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0062622/) was released. In 1989, we saw what 2015 might be like in [Back to the Future Part II](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0096874/). And of course, I can’t leave out 1956’s 1984. What other movies were set in the future, but that future has now passed, or has almost passed? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/2 "2013-08-18T19:07:51Z")
_Rollerball_ came out in 1975 and was set in 2018. I may be wrong, but I don’t think we’ll ban all war and replace it with an ultraviolent game for our corporate masters. Uh, not in the next five years, anyway. _Terminator 2: Judgment Day_ came out in 1991, but was set in 1995. Fortunately, things didn’t quite turn out that way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/3 "2013-08-18T19:12:22Z")
[The future that never was](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=621822) ---
**Author:** ![Justin\_Bailey](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/justin_bailey/32/8792_2.png) [@Justin\_Bailey](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Justin_Bailey)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/4 "2013-08-18T19:19:20Z")
> [@Keeve](#): > > What other movies were set in the future, but that future has now passed, or has almost passed? We’re a little over five years away from **Blade Runner**. I don’t see any sex droids. **Terminator 2** ’s “Judgment Day” was in 1997. I don’t see any super advanced AI. We’re a little over three years away from **The Running Man**. I don’t… actually, there’s still time for this one to be relatively accurate. ---
**Author:** ![drewtwo99](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d07c76/32.png) [@drewtwo99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drewtwo99)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/5 "2013-08-18T19:24:03Z")
> [@Justin\_Bailey](#): > > We’re a little over three years away from **The Running Man**. I don’t… actually, there’s still time for this one to be relatively accurate. I LOL’d. I’m a fan of both the book and the movie. And yeah, we might not be too far off 😃 Haha! ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/6 "2013-08-18T19:24:16Z")
From Thomas Dixon’s [Fall of a Nation (1916)](http://www.amazon.com/Fall-Nation-The-Thomas-Dixon/dp/1410107876), Germany did not invade New York in 1918. ( A sequel-in-title only to "Birth of a Nation.) ---
**Author:** ![Lamia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Lamia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lamia)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/7 "2013-08-18T19:49:39Z")
It hasn’t yet been adapted as a movie (although there’s supposedly a film version in the works), but Philip K. Dick’s 1974 novel _Flow My Tears, the Policeman Said_ is set in 1988. The US is under some sort of military rule, there are adult humans who were genetically engineered, and people regularly travel around in flying cars. Actually, they may have been small personal helicopters, but they were effectively flying cars. Funnily enough, the technological detail that strained my suspension of disbelief the most was one that was actually pretty accurate: people in the novel still listen to records. And not just hipsters, either. It’s apparently a mainstream way of listening to music and there’s an important scene that involves playing records on a cafe jukebox. In reality 1988 was the first year that compact discs outsold records, so the format was still popular although it was quickly on its way out. But it seemed really off to me that a world with FLYING CARS wasn’t even up to the CD yet. ---
**Author:** ![Keeve](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/f07891/32.png) [@Keeve](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Keeve)\ **Post date:** [August 18, 2013, 7:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/old-movies-about-future-past/666582/8 "2013-08-18T19:52:22Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > [The future that never was](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=621822) Wow. (what else can i say?) Wow. And thanks to everyone else too!