No one knows what the future holds, and that was especially true in the 1990s. The decade saw several movies give their take on what the future would look like, but basically all '90s movies got the future completely wrong. "The year 2000" used to sound like something out of science fiction, but now it's laughably retro (I mean, people born that year will be able to vote in the next midterm elections). But what did '90s movies think the 21st Century would look like?
Rather than predicting the things that have actually come to dominate modern life, like iPhones and social media, '90s sci-fi movies were much more interested in post-apocalyptic societies, robots, and time travel. They were also into weird technologies aimed at extending life, like cryogenic freezing and "bonejacking" — whatever that is. And for some reason, nearly every '90s movie with a vision of the future featured Los Angeles either destroyed by an earthquake, overrun with crime to the point where it was ungovernable, or in many cases, both. I guess filmmakers of the decade had a pretty dim view of the city where their industry is based. So to see just how off they were, take a look below at 13 '90s movies that were completely wrong in their future predictions.
1
‘Terminator 2’
According to this film, "Judgement Day" takes place in 1997. I'm still waiting, thankfully, two decades later.
2
‘Class Of 1999’
Remember back in 1999 when the nation's public schools were essentially war zones? Me neither.
3
‘Hardware’
The year 2000 was a post-apocalyptic wasteland filled with nefarious robots masquerading as humans — or so this 1990 movie would have you believe.
4
‘Predator 2’
Never mind the alien, I'm more concerned over 1997 Los Angeles being essentially run by international drug cartels.
5
‘Freejack’
Rich people in 2009 are able to live forever by hiring time-traveling mercenaries called bonejackers to kidnap people from the past just before they die so they can use their bodies as hosts. Hard to believe that's been going on for eight years now.
6
‘Demolition Man’
You'd think that the program that's been cryogenically freezing criminals since 1996 would have gone public by now.
7
‘Double Dragon’
Why is it that in 2007 Los Angeles, which is a dystopia thanks to an earthquake, everyone still dresses like it's the '80s?
8
‘Time Cop’
This movie, released in 1994, took a strange route in depicting the future by setting its time-traveling cop program in... 1994. This thing was debunked before it was even released.
9
‘Strange Days’
Directed by Oscar-winner Kathryn Bigelow and written by her former husband James Cameron, this 1999-set neo-noir film featured discs that allowed people to see and feel what their original users had experienced. That's kind of like Snapchat, I guess.
10
‘Barb Wire’
TBH, this movie's depiction of a Second American Civil War in 2017 could technically still happen. Now let's just make sure Pamela Anderson is fighting for the right side.
11
‘Escape From L.A.’
L.A. was a popular dystopian target for '90s movies, but this one really takes the cake. In 1998, the city is put under permanent marshal law due to its crime issues. Then in 2000, L.A. is turned into an island by an earthquake. Then, a religious radical is elected President of the United States for life, and anyone who doesn't follow his strict laws faces either death or deportation to now-lawless L.A. Island.
12
‘The Postman’
This film takes place in 2013, a full 15 years after the "Doomwar" that essentially sent civilization back to the Stone Age.
13
‘Deep Impact’
No crazy future tech or dystopian societies here, but the 1998 film does feature a potentially Earth-ending comet headed straight for us in the year 2000 that thankfully never arrived IRL.
