Some sci-fi movies last longer than others because they don't put a date on the futures that they create. That doesn't mean they're better or more classic, just different. The predictions in 1984 are over thirty years behind us now but that doesn't mean the world discusses the book or the film any less regularly.
Perhaps it's easier to discuss now since that "future" never came to pass, though something similar may still find its way into real life. Here are just a few other future predictions we seem to have safely gotten away from, even though, where the future is involved, it's hard to ever say for sure.
10 1984
As mentioned in our opening the future predicted in 1984 never came to pass. The real 1984 saw the Soviets boycott the Olympics and the first American Woman perform a spacewalk. What we didn't see, thank goodness was Big Brother taking over the world maintaining control through technology and propaganda.
While some of the story's predictions about the likes of fake news and doublethink may feel very relevant today, we still made it out of 1984 in relative safety.
9 2001: A Space Odyssey
We are now twenty years into the "new" millennium and we're still waiting on artificial gravity but luckily we're still waiting on the appearance of a "Hal" as well. Hoping for the future we see on screen, even in 2001 a Space Odyssey can often be a double-edged sword.
While Siri and Alexa have certainly made their way into our everyday lives, there is still a lot of button-pushing and manual control that goes into controlling most of our technology and computers today (and certainly back in 2001). That may not be a terrible thing.
8 The Running Man
It is only this year that we can finally, and safely, say the future of The Running Man did not come to pass. The 1987 movie, based on a Stephen King book, and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger was said to take place in the year 2019.
What did it predict? The world economy collapsing, murder on reality television, and regular army patrols in the streets. While we certainly deal with reality television and the problematic power of the media, luckily we didn't quite hit this dystopian future.
7 The Island
A lot of people must have been very worried about 2019 because once again The Island, a 2005 film starring Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson was supposed to take place in 2019. As far as the general public knows there is no utopian island full of clones that can be picked up by the rich should they need a new organ of some kind for a medical procedure.
While we can all be very pleased with the great strides made in medical science we can also be happy we haven't started harvesting human beings yet.
6 Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Back in the late 80s and early 90s all cats and dogs were supposed to perish and humans were supposed to stark domesticating apes instead.
This, of course, led to those wise animals then being used as slave labor and, surprise, surprise, leads to a rebellion. Luckily humans haven't yet come close to being overthrown by any other species on the planet (though some may argue we should be). Still, we made it through the 90s only subjugating one another, rather than animals.
5 I, Robot
So, technically if our best engineers work really really fast it still might be possible to fall into the future predicted by I, Robot for the year 2020, but it doesn't seem likely.
While we all know about Alexa and the Roomba it doesn't sound like we are close to seeing the U.S.R. robotics company being founded and thus leading to the near overthrow of the human race fifteen years from now. Of course, we'll have to wait and see, but it seems like another terrible future may be more likely.
4 Fahrenheit 451
Post-1990 we were supposed to win two atomic wars and then start policing the reading material of the world, mostly by burning all of it. Yay for firefighters still putting out fires and not starting them. Still, in an age when the National Archives are editing images from recent historical events, we may still want to watch out for a future similar to what Fahrenheit predicted. Constant vigilance still seems to be a necessity, despite this future not coming to pass.
3 I Am Legend
The news is talking a lot about coronavirus today and quarantines in China, but the universe did make it safely through 2009 - 2012 without 94% of the population turning into vampires, so good show everyone.
Will Smith is still with us and New York City is still full of people, as well as their beloved pets. I Am Legend can now just be a fun horror film that we don't have to fear in the immediate future.
2 A Clockwork Orange
The novel, A Clockwork Orange, was set in the near future and was published in 1962. I think it's fair to say we've left the "near" future behind and have safely left this horrific prediction behind as well.
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Ultraviolent sociopathic teenagers are not running wild on every street corner, thank goodness. We also don't yet sell drug-laced drinks in general, but especially to miners. As far as the public knows we're not doing aversion therapy brain experiments on prisoners either. Cheers to that.
1 Blade Runner
Again we revisit 2019, November 2019 to be exact, and thank our lucky stars Los Angeles does not resemble the Ridley Scott vision from the film, Blade Runner. While it's sad to say we still don't have flying cars or colonies on other planets, or helpful robots, we also don't have replicants or robot murder.
It's a trade-off, but for now it looks like one most people can live with.
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