“Back to the Future” inaccurately predicts 2015

Emerson Levy, Eastside Staff

It has been three decades since the famous Doc Brown and Marty McFly traveled in time from October 21, 1985 to October 21, 2015. A lot has changed in the future, and Marty experienced many advances he didn’t expect. From flying cars to rejuvenated meals, the future is something to behold.

Now, since the past has come to the future, it seems very different than what Robert Zemeckis (the writer and director of the Back to the Future trilogy) predicted. The “Mr. Fusions” and hoverboards are not in the future that we live in. If you think about it, we don’t have a lot of advancements that were featured in the movies.  

Hoverboards are not what anyone expected, but the flying cars are something to behold. The technology for hoverboards and the flying cars actually does exist. However, real life hoverboards are hard to control.

Pro skateboarder Ross McGouran said, “I’ve spent 20 years skateboarding, but without friction it feels like I’ve had to learn a whole new skill, particularly in the stance and balance you need to ride the hover board.”

On the other hand, flying cars are about to go on the market. AeroMobil 3.0 has created the first flying car which has been in development since 1989. In 2017, the AeroMobil cars will be available for public distribution. In addition to Back to The Future, flying cars have been portrayed in the media many times including  Jimmy Neutron, The Jetsons, and the Mario Kart games, but in a few short years, a mass produced flying car may drive students to school. The roads will become a thing of the past; riding on air is the future.

Doc Brown uses a blender known as “Mr. Fusion” to power a time machine which he manufactured out of a DeLorean. However, the technology does not exist to convert garbage into automobile fuel. The closest thing we have to this is electric cars. They use electricity to operate and do not emit greenhouse gasses, but they are not cheap. These cars range from 20,ooo to 100,000 dollars. Despite the cost, electric cars are becoming more popular.

Transportation is not the only difference between Back to the Future and the present. We do not have the rejuvenated meals shown in the movies. If you want pizza, you must either buy it frozen or go to a pizzeria. It does not come in little bite size discs to be put into a rejuvenation chamber and grow to full size. The closest thing we have to this is astronaut ice cream and dried fruits. For dried foods, the moisture has been removed. When you eat dried food, the moisture from your mouth rejuvenates the food to its prior condition. Hopefully, in the future, there will be a way to dehydrate many of the foods we eat and enjoy.

It was a long shot to guess what would happen in 2015. In 1985, Robert Zemeckis made his best hypothesis, but anything could have happened. As Doc Brown said, “your future is whatever you make it.”