David Pescovitz is Boing Boing's co-editor/managing partner. He's also a research director at Institute for the Future. On Instagram, he's @pesco.

  • Kenmrph

    I think we all know full well that R2D2 is not from the future.

    • Kenmrph

      (… although I’m sure all the droid builders clubs will continue to grow exponentially)

    • Brainspore

      I think I also caught a few shots from “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow,” which is set in an alternate history version of 1939.

      • Kenmrph

        Right. Although one could make the case that as a retro-futurist film, it’s still a vision of the future, just one as imagined from an earlier time. (or , I guess, how we imagine it was imagined.  ok now i’m confused).

  • oasisob1

    Full movie list forthcoming?

  • millie fink

    Cool idea, but at least half of them went by so fast that I couldn’t really register what I was seeing.

  • http://www.facebook.com/postelwait Cameron Postelwait

    but cute dog at the end.

  • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

    It’s almost like if the Germans hadn’t made “Metropolis” in 1928, Hollywood would have had no clue how to make the future look.

    • Kenmrph

      Agreed… this compilation really drives home the influence that movie has had!

  • spacedoggy

    Excellent, I think it’s awesome that 2001 a space odyssey, was used so heavily considering it’s age. it hardly looks dated today. startling when you consider that it was made 2 years prior to the first moon landing and only a few years after the scientific discovery of LSD. I can’t help but thinking out grandkids in 50 years time will look at this compilation and laugh, as we do the old black and white visions of the future from the 1950s60s. Back to the Future predicted the commercial availability of the hoverboard and flying car by 2015. part of me remains hopeful I haven’t been lied to by TV.

    • Nicky G

      pretty sure the future in bttf2 was 2012?

      • AnthonyC

        No. All decade increments. 1985, 1955, 2015, 1885

  • http://www.facebook.com/lricecsp Larry Rice

    No scenes of Starfleet Academy in San Francisco?

    • Brainspore

      I find it rather amusing that Starfleet Academy is usually depicted in the Presidio, which is the same part of San Francisco that currently plays home to Lucasfilm.

  • Preston Sturges

    Future may not be available shown. 
    Future not available in parts of India, Asia, Africa, Central and South America.
    Individual fates may vary.

  • Boundegar

    Interesting how many of the gizmos have become reality.  We all carry Star Trek communicators these days.  And I saw some megapixel billboards that were supposed to seem futuristic…  when?  Five years ago?

    • retepslluerb

      My pet peeve.  No, we do not carry Star Trek communicators these days. 

      What we carry relies on a vast network of cells towers, many of which are connected by cable.  Purely radio-based communication with the same range as Star Trek communicators is not available to the general public – especially not at the size.

      Not to mention that the communicator worked on subspace frequencies, i.e. faster than light. Also, try to destroy a cliff with two cell phones – it’s take a little bit longer than the few minutes shown in TOS.

      • Brainspore

        Yeah, but Kirk didn’t have “Angry Birds.”

        • retepslluerb

          He had Angry War Birds, which are way cooler.

  • http://thisisonlya.blogspot.com robcat2075

    Cinema future can never be too far from our present.  For it to resonate it has have a bit of “the more things change, the more they stay the same” to it.

    • retepslluerb

      Cinema past, too.  Even cavemen or ancient Egyptians act more or less how people act in the time a movie was made.

  • georgia

    I would love to have a list with all the movies used to make this video! :)

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=200304139 Jonathan Phillip Sherrill

    Missed the Striped Sweater Sandmen from Logan’s Run? http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0074812/