This post originally appeared on the DVD Netflix blog “Inside the Envelope.” That company folded in 2023, and the blog was shut down, but you might find some good stuff here.
Looking toward the future can be a daunting activity, especially today, when information is immediately accessible at our fingertips. Before the digital age, though, imagination reigned, rather than hard data and predictive software.
The future often was imagined as dystopian with little regard for human life. Many early sci-fi films and television programs depict the 21st century as a time in which war and environmental destruction cause the collapse of civilization.
Arguably, in social ways, today’s world fares better than pre-internet sci-fi imagined, but when it comes to technology in many aspects we’re far behind what the early sci-fi writers envisioned.
Let’s take a look at seven titles available at DVD Netflix that forged bravely into the future and how they compare to reality today.
Metropolis (1927)
Metropolis, set in 2026, is a story of haves and have nots, a very relatable topic today. The rich live in vertically built cities with elevated roadways and railways and also flying machines that flit here and there. The have nots keep everything running and comfortable for the rich, but they must do it all from underground. As for mass media, the film makers didn’t make it past newsprint.
10th Victim (1965)
The makers of 10th Victim waxed prophetic in developing a plot that revolves around exhibitionism and reality television. In this society, killing for sport is sanctioned in game-show style and one of the contestants sells rights to cover their conquest on camera to a tea company. The writer didn’t envision mobile communication quite right, though, as the telephones have a rotary dial in the base of the handheld device. In addition, their televisions are still bulky and deep.
Lost in Space (1965-68)
The Lost in Space TV series began at a time when the future looked bright for space travel. It seemed reasonable that 35 years into the future a family of four would be sent on a five-year mission. They were to explore another inhabitable planet because Earth had become overpopulated. The family possessed laser guns to protect themselves in their new frontier. A robot that could perform scientific experiments and could even read minds was part of the crew. One of their domestic tools was an automatic laundry that would wash, dry, and fold.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Although we now have virtual assistants, we don’t yet enjoy conscious-entity computers like 2001: A Space Odyssey’s HAL. It’s probably good that our assistive technologies don’t yet have the ability to go off script, even though it sometimes seems as if they are doing it already. We also don’t have the ability to travel light years through space in suspended animation. But when it comes to everyday communication, we are ahead of Kubrick’s video phone with our fast and compact cellular technology. When Heywood Floyd calls home from space, he can see his daughter on the screen, but his wife is out shopping, so Floyd says he’ll call back the next day.
Silent Running (1971)
Set in the not-too-distant future, all of Earth’s plant life has been decimated by pollution and overpopulation, but never fear, some species were saved and they are being cultivated in floating greenhouses in space. This begs the question of why they didn’t use all their smarts to keep the plants from going extinct in the first place.
A Boy and His Dog (1975) R
Set in 2024, Vic is 18 years old and can telepathically communicate with his dog, named Blood. Although Vic has not had the benefit of formal education, being an orphan in a post-apocalyptic world, his dog is quite well read. The dog educates Vic on the history of the world wars, the third having taken place between 1950 and 1983. Then, of course, there’s World War IV and also the Nuclear War of 2007. Vic and Blood discover an underground civilization and Vic, who’s been wreaking violent havoc with the fairer sex for some time, is now conscripted into procreation.
Death Race 2000 (1975)
The United States has crumbled due to a financial crisis and a military coup. Church and state have merged. The population is kept entertained by a modern version of gladiator games, and the chariots are now sports cars fitted with tusk like projections from their front grills. It’s a transcontinental race where points are scored for the number of pedestrians they bag. The TV cameras that capture the exciting event are powered by a battery in a backpack. Even camcorders in the 1980s were better than that!
