Movies set in the near future which is now the past in real life. (1 Viewer)

[Hunter P]

This reminds me of Starship Troopers. Technology advanced enough for interplanetary travel but their primary method of combat was still machine guns? Why bother landing troops on the bugs' planet? Just nuke it to hell!!!

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

Your so right about Starship Troopers, especially when you consider that it took hundreds and hundreds of rounds to kill one bug, they weren't using the right tool for the job.

They had the right idea with the rocket launchers and the nape drops from the air.

 

[todd s]

Hunter, You can't nuke an uninhabited desert planet. Seriously, I agree with you a 100% Also, I love bugs farts that can take out ships in orbit.

 

[Magnus T]

Regarding Starship Troopers, and I don't want to turn this thread into something political, but it was pretty apparent that they actually didn't HAVE to use machine guns. It was the governments way of creating sympathy for what they were doing (i.e. they wanted their agenda fulfilled). The idea was that to keep the fascist government in place they needed to kill people. They needed to distract people from knowing the truth. Killing soldiers (and civilians) makes their case stronger and more people will sign up for the military. It was pretty apparent that there really was no enemy in Starship Troopers, only the enemy that the government created.

 

[Don Solosan]

I've never understood why some company hasn't licensed the Star Trek communicator design and produced a cell phone that looks just like one, including the sound effects. I don't like cells and don't own one -- but if I saw a Star Trek communicator design, I'd be sorely tempted.

 

[Garrett Lundy]

Never directly said in the movie, but the ancilliary books, games, and the original script agree on "the 90's". '91, '97, and '99 have all been claimed by "offical" sources. Never the less, its creepy timeline, which seemingly makes the 1980s last forever gives us such thrilling technologies as Cocaine assembly lines, really big guns, and space platforms that destroy entire cities.

Also: The TV commercial advertising a line of artifical hearts may have aged badly (artificial hearts never became the "magic bullet" of medicine), but it was an excellant omen of every pharmecutical company advertising its wares directly to the consumer, as opposed to trying to sell to the doctors.

 

[BrettGallman]

Yeah, this is the case of "Freddy's Dead," which is why I said this one is debatable. The movie indicates that it takes place "10 years from now," which, at the time of the film's release, was 1991. So the movie takes place in 2001 according to some people. Some people say that the date changes depending on when you're watching it. So, if you watch it today, "10 years from now" is 2015. But that can't be possible for a multitude of reasons, but the continuity for that movie is way too screwed up anyway.

 

[Eddy-C]

I like that X-Men doesn't give you a date for when the movie is happening. It just says "in the near future".

I was also refreshed that Fifth Element takes place many hundreds of years from now instead of only a few decades.

 

[Sam Favate]

There is one on the way. I think it is due this fall, although I can't remember the manufacturer.

 

[Todd Hostettler]

 

[ThomasC]

Just Google it!

http://www.wired.com/news/wireless/0...=wn_10culthead

 

[RobertR]

Not in a mere 15 years. In fact, the whole "population bomb" idea has turned out to be a huge dud.

I love the narration at the beginning of Forbidden Planet, that says "In the final decade of the 21st century, men and women in rocketships landed on the moon".

We laugh at things that didn't happen as predicted, but it's also interesting to note the things that happened that no one predicted. I don't recall any movie from the 70s or earlier predicting anything like the Internet, for example (as opposed to having everything in big centralized computers). For that matter, no one ever seemed to think computers would shrink and become inexpensive enough for personal use. And everyone seemed to assume the Cold War would either go on indefinitely or result in a real shooting war.

 

[Ryan L. Bisasky]

well in total recall, they had a big screen tv, and this was when tv's were still small.

 

[SteveJKo]

I believe that according to the George Pal The Time Machine the majority of us should have been wiped out 39 years ago, and the third world war has about 261 more years to go.



I loved all the widescreen TV's that were all over Strange Days, but five years after the time it was taking place and I'm still the only person I know who owns a widescreen HD television.

I always felt if Strange Days had been made ten years earlier it would have been a bigger hit. Apparently five years into the future just wasn't strange enough.

 

[Don Solosan]

No, population growth has been slower and more insidious. So like the supply of cheap gas in the 80s and 90s, no one cares. Wealth is filtering upward to a lucky few. We've been changing the environment in little ways, but probably won't have to deal with the consequences because it's happening s-l-o-w-l-y. Got kids?

 

[RobertR]

Your description makes my point. It hasn't exploded like people said it would. In fact, the population growth rate is declining, and projected to keep declining for at least the next 50 years. The population could even plateau at less than 8 billion by then.

 

[Paul McElligott]

Don't forget Strange Days, where they drove equally "futuristic" Dodge Intrepids and we could record our thoughts for other people's jollies. Who knew other people's lives would be the new crack.

 

[Raasean Asaad]

Thats why Blogs are so popular.

 

[RyanAn]

Freejack,

6th Day


Heh,

Ryan

 

[Inspector Hammer!]

What about The Running Man, what year was that set in?

It's funny, with reality tv getting more extreme all the time, could that sort of show be far off? Or at least 'Climbing for Dollars'?

I used to thnk that movie was ludicris with it's insane premise of a game show where your life and freedom are on the line, now i'm not so sure.