Oct. 21, 2015 is “Back to the Future Day.” Fans of the “Back to the Future” trilogy are celebrating the day that Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled forward in time from 1989 in the second movie. “Back to the Future Part II” features a number of predictions of events and trends in 2015, including self-tying shoes, tablet computers, a win for the Chicago Cubs in the World Series and a female president.
Daily Bruin A&E compares the movie’s predictions of what the characters believed 2015 would be like to what 2015 actually is like.
Fashion
Students in 2015 should be wearing geometric hats, two ties around their necks and space shoes, according to “Back to the Future Part II.”
Hollywood costume designers of 1989 were off when it came to predicting 2015 fashion as futuristic, unconventional and colorful.
The clothing in “Back to the Future Part II” includes self-drying and self-sizing jackets, a catastrophic obsession with all things rainbow and shoes that tighten to the wearer’s feet.
While Marty McFly’s self-tying Nike shoes look similar to today’s Air Jordan 3.5 sneakers, shoelaces aren’t advanced enough to automatically tighten with robotic swooshing sounds.
Though these outfits aren’t seen on Bruin Walk, some pieces are acceptable on the runway, like a zebra-patterned dress at the beginning of the film that’s reminiscent of Nicki Minaj’s getup at New York Fashion Week. Even Doc’s mustard-colored silk jacket would not be outcasted, since muted tones are popular for autumn.
However, most viewers of the movie can watch and laugh, knowing that turning jean pockets inside out is not a trend and jacket sleeves don’t look like vacuum cleaners.
In retrospect, the outfits of “Back to the Future Part II” remind viewers more of space-themed ‘70s fashion than trends from this decade.
– Lindsay Weinberg
Tech
When Doc Brown’s DeLorean went racing at 88 mph in “Back to the Future Part II,” it emerged in a futuristic world of 2015, filled with new technology.
Hoverboards, anyone? And no, we’re not talking about the two-wheeled contraptions rolling around campus.
The flat-screen is among the bits of technology that are ubiquitous in the real world and the predicted world. Marty is also greeted in 2015 by another smaller electronic screen that is analogous to the modern-day tablet computer, even though the item depicted in the movie is less Apple iPad and more PalmPilot.
Marty’s at-home reprimanding from his boss on a big screen foreshadows videoconferencing services like Skype, WebEx and FaceTime. It also mirrors the current nightmarish reality of the fact that people can never escape the office.
Instead of cell phones glued to the hands of the “Back to the Future” characters, the primary communication techniques seen in the movie are phone booths and fax machines, relics of the long-dead 20th century.
– Kevin Truong
Sports
In the 2015 World Series, the Chicago Cubs will finally break its 107-year drought by defeating a Florida-based team with an alligator as its logo.
That was the prediction made in “Back to the Future Part II.” Today, this is impossible, given there is no MLB team in Florida with an alligator mascot.
When he penned his characters’ futuristic adventures, Bob Gale, one of the film’s co-writers and a lifelong St. Louis Cardinals fan, obviously couldn’t resist making a joke out of one of MLB’s least successful teams.
As Marty McFly stands in widemouthed incredulity, a giant holographic screen displays “Way To Go Cubbies!” and congratulates the Cubs on its sweep of a Miami team. However, the Cubs are currently in the playoffs against the Mets, so perhaps the film’s prediction may not be so outlandish after all.
The sporting predictions don’t end there. In a copy of USA Today that Doc passes to Marty in 2015, there is a reference to the “Slamball Playoffs,” a fictional sport that is clearly supposed to be very popular by now.
Even though Slamball does exist as a form of basketball involving four trampolines, it hasn’t gained much popularity as of yet. Maybe we’ll soon be watching the Slamball Playoffs rather than the NBA Playoffs?
– William Thorne
News
Even though some of the predictions “Back to the Future Part II” made for 2015 are humorous and accurate, one in particular was tragically far from the mark. In the film, a copy of a 2015 issue of USA Today reads “Washington Prepares for Queen Diana’s Visit.”
Unfortunately for the film’s writers, no one could have predicted Diana’s divorce from Prince Charles in 1996 and her death in a car crash the next year. The prediction reveals the unpredictable nature of fame – even though Princess Diana was on top of the world in 1989, she lost her life in a tragic accident only a few years later.
Another prediction that could turn out to be closer to the truth is a female president in 2015. This time, the clue is in much smaller print to the side of USA Today’s front page, where it reads “President Says She’s Tired of Reporters Asking the Same Questions.” With Hillary Clinton currently leading in the polls for the 2016 presidential election, it may be that the film was only a year off.
– William Thorne