Wednesday is the future: What ‘Back to the Future II’ got right

After the Chicago Cubs made the playoffs, the creators of “Back to the Future II” were heralded as oracles. In 1989, the possibility that even the Cubs could win the World Series was a joke about the future, but it turned out to be prescient. The Cubs are now in the playoffs and could win it all.

But if the Cubs do win, they will not beat Miami, the team the Cubs beat in the “Back to the Future II” World Series of 2015.

And that’s how it goes with most of the movie’s predictions: Even with what the producers predicted correctly – the movie takes Marty McFly and Doc Brown to Oct. 21, 2015 – they didn’t get it completely right.

Here’s what the movie got right, what it got wrong and what the producers didn’t even think of.

City planning: The movie correctly predicted that city planners would start promoting community spaces and the preservation of buildings. The town square in the movie, which was a parking lot in 1985, was turned into green space for the 2015 future.

Movies: “Back to the Future II” parodied a future of sequels with “Jaws 19.” But there are a plethora of overlapping superhero movies, which is evidence that the model of creating blockbuster sequels is basically alive and well – they just don’t use numbers in the name as frequently (although some, such as the “Fast the Furious” franchise, do).

Drones: The movie got this one half right. It included a USA Today drone taking photos, and photography and videography is one of the main uses of drones today. But it also included a drone walking a dog, and it turns out humans still want to do this chore on their own.

Cars: The movie predicted flying cars and low-lying cars with sleek, clean designs. Car design has clearly become bolder, if not as much as the movie predicted, but the movie missed the move from minivan to SUVs. And instead of flying cars, we are on our way to self-driving cars. But the movie nailed the price of cars: An advertisement in the movie displays the cost at $39,999.95, which seemed like a ridiculously large sum in 1985 but which now seems pretty typical for a nice car. But for some reason, the producers thought there would still be Pontiac dealers around. Oh, the 1980s.

Antiques: A store display of antiques correctly predicted that lava lamps would quickly become a charm of the past. The typical Barbie doll has also become a symbol of the past: Even if they still sell well, there are a lot more kinds of dolls and some that are even realistic-looking. The antiques display shows an original “happy face,” but instead of disappearing, the happy face has proliferated in the form of emojis, the latest way we continue to repurpose the ancient Egyptian technology of hieroglyphs.

Holograms: Although there have been some holographic concerts with Tupac and some companies that champion hologram technology, overall hologram projections haven’t really caught on. In the movie, a holographic shark tries to bite Marty. Inside movie theaters, however, 3-D technology has become pretty standard, if not as massively popular as people once predicted.

Politics: This movie was made in stark contrast to the dystopian films of the time, such as “Blade Runner,” focusing on the potential positive ways technology could affect the future. But the movie also misses on all the big political developments, from the end of the Cold War and the rise of terrorism to the legalization of gay marriage and the increasing diversity of America. It also misses on small events: The newspapers referred to Queen Diana. Not only did Princess Diana die tragically, but Queen Elizabeth II is now the longest-serving queen of all time.

International competition: In the movie, Marty works for a manager from the Japanese company Fujitsu. But while 1980s America was hyperconcerned with Japanese competition, today China holds that position.

Fax machines: When Marty is fired in the future, it comes through in a fax in multiple locations throughout the house. For those who don’t know what a fax machine is, in 1985 they were high-end ways of sending PDF files through phone lines to printers and onto physical paper. The movie predicted that homes would have fax machines installed everywhere.

Ceiling gardens: In the movie, Marty’s son asks for some fruit, and a mini-garden descends from the ceiling. Maybe they assumed everyone would have UV lights in their homes to make plants grow before it became clear that UV rays cause skin cancer. The technology exists to move potted plants from the ceiling to above the dinner table with the click of a button, but it’s unclear whether anyone would really want that enough to build it. Perhaps the closest current trend to the prediction is the push to garden and grow local foods – but that happens outside.

Video games: The movie correctly predicted that kids would no longer need joysticks to play video games. The Kinect for Xbox is probably the best known of the new joystick-free gaming devices, but even if joysticks were still the way to play today, many people do not. The movie did miss one key gaming change: It’s not just kids playing video games anymore.

Televisions: Flat screens are the norm now, as predicted. Although some cable TV options offer the ability to see multiple channels at once, most people still prefer to watch one channel at a time. Some of the only people for whom the prediction applies completely are fantasy football fans, who watch five games at once in bars.

Music: The creators avoided making bold predictions about music, because they knew it’s so hard to predict. But they did hint at the ubiquity of sounds on demand: One of the bullies in the film plays a chicken noise instead of actually calling Marty a chicken. It’s hard to imagine a world in which random sounds and images were not always at our fingertips.

Fonts: The fonts in the movie are horrible and ugly, and the screens they are displayed on make the letters look blurry and chunky. Thank goodness for higher-resolution screens and the flourishing of creative new font styles.

Coffee: It’s served out of a weird-looking pitcher at home. But where are are lattes? Where is my French press? Where is the pour-over?

Lights: Back in the 1980s, people apparently were tired of having to flip light switches. Not only did they invent “the clapper” to turn lights on and off remotely, but in the movie, they fantasized about a time when lights would be programmed like your air conditioning. The kitchen also has significant fluorescent lighting, which still exists in homes now but has been passed over by most interior designers for warmer lighting.

Google Glasses: Marty’s son in the movie acts like a horrible teenager, watching TV on his glasses instead of talking at dinner. The movie correctly predicted that people who wore Google Glasses would be idiots, but they didn’t realize that they would be made from translucent material.

Phones: The creators of the film have said that the rise of the one-device-to-do-it-all cellphone was the most egregious change that they missed about 2015. But just as bad was including phone booths in their predictions for 2015. The movie did nail Skype-style video calling and the smartphone’s larger half-sibling, the tablet computer.

Clothing: Although some of the futuristic clothing in the movie looks weird, it correctly predicted the move toward wearing athletic clothing even when not playing sports. Although the producers could not have predicted yoga pants. They predicted changes in tie fashion backwards: Marty wears two ties in the movie, whereas the modern workplace has become less and less formal.

Irons: In the movie, irons are sold in antiques stores rather than department stores. But the iron has not become an antique: Although many people use the dryer to get out wrinkles in a tight spot, there is still no substitute for the old-fashioned iron when it comes to “looking fresh.” Although “iron free” clothing means many go without actually using irons anymore, our clothing technology hasn’t improved as much as the movie predicted: We don’t have one-size-fits-all clothing or clothing that is self-cleaning.

Nostalgia: In McFly’s version of 2015, one of the main restaurants on the square has a 1980s theme. The current trend seems to be nostalgia for the 1990s (e.g. a “Full House” reboot) but the movie’s creators knew we’d always be pining for a past that once existed, even as we in the past pined for a future that might be.

Composting fuel: Doc fuels his flying car with beer, which is kind of ridiculous. Except that it’s not all that uncommon to find a car that runs on vegetable oil, and most fuel comes with at least 10 percent ethanol.

Pictures: Marty finds several framed photos of his family displayed in the home of his future. The movie correctly predicted that all those electronic photo frames people were supposed to buy a few years ago would not be as good as actual photo frames. But it did not predict how ubiquitous photos would become or Facebook and Instagram – the main place photos live now.

This story was originally published October 21, 2015 at 5:49 AM with the headline "Wednesday is the future: What ‘Back to the Future II’ got right."