Welcome to Back to the Future day. On 21 October 2015 we will finally be at the point in time to which Marty McFly (Michael J Fox) travels in Back to the Future II, the 1989 sequel to the time-travelling classic. The future he finds is one which has captured the imagination of millions – and one which has proved remarkably prescient. Save for a few key oversights (the internet, mobile phones) and a couple of over-hopeful punts in the dark (flying cars, hoverboards), the world dreamt up by writer Bob Gale and then brought to the screen by director Robert Zemeckis resembles our own in strange and uncanny ways. Here’s an A-Z guide to the gaps between that fictional world and our own, in the hope that inventors will spend the next 10 months wisely.
Automation
The film correctly anticipates an increased use of robot technology: petrol stations these days are pretty much computerised (albeit not suspended in space) and non-military drones - such as the one dispatched by USA Today in the film to take a photo – have recently experienced a surge in popularity.
Yet the film overstates the pace: we don’t yet have remote-control litter bins or dog walkers, and waiters have not been replaced by TV screens (though automated supermarket checkouts have led to some redundancies).
Biometrics
The scanning of eyes and fingerprints is used in the film to check people’s identities, just as it is today. Yet the movie goes further, anticipating a widespread rollout of such technology to the domestic realm. The McFly’s home, for instance, comes with a scanner, rather than a doorknob.
Clothes
Perhaps the most glaring error made by the film-makers was in overestimating how much fashion might move forward. That said, it’s a relief that the double-tie fad hasn’t, in fact, taken off, nor the gold raincoat or sound effect-programmable vest (as sported by one of baddie Griff’s goons).
Marty’s size-adjustable, self-drying jacket has also not yet been manufactured, despite public appetite, though there have been advances in wicking technology.
Dust-repellant paper
For all the innovation, the 2015 of Back to the Future Part II is still a print-heavy world, in which USA Today comes as a thick sheaf, faxes spew from machines in every room and the shop assistant in an antiques store casually mentions the invention of “dust-repellent paper”.
Eyewear
Almost everyone in the film at some point dons a pair of high-tech specs with remarkably Google Glass-style capabilities, such as cameras, magnification and access to some sort of unspecified database of information. They also have bluetooth-anticipating headsets.
Flying cars
One of the film’s most obvious errors. Yes, they do exist, but in nothing like the numbers choking the skies in the movie, and with nothing like the same manoeuvrability. Terrafugia unveiled a prototype several months ago, the Aeromobil 3.0, which they say could do more than 400 miles on one trip. But these are not currently on sale, and air traffic control plans have not been drafted.
Games consoles
We don’t see anyone playing a 2015 console, but their dominance - and hands-free nature - is hinted at by the scorn with which some kids from the future regard an old-style shooter game Marty plays in the nostalgia restaurant Cafe 80s.
Hoverboards
Ever since the film was released, a desperate market for these has existed. Yet problems, such as gravity, have meant that, while they’re in production, they are not yet available. A company called Hendo is working with Tony Hawk on a prototype. Interestingly, Hendo’s website doesn’t credit the movie for its inspiration, but rather their founder’s epiphany about “Magnetic Field Architecture™”.
Footage of Hawk shows a board not quite as sleek as that in the film. Whether it works on water (unlike Marty’s model) isn’t specified.