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15 Movies Set in a Future That Has Already Passed (And What They Got Hilariously Wrong)

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In the year 2020...

Ignacio Weil

Entertainment - July 19th 2026, 13:00 GMT+2

Pacific rim — 15. Pacific Rim (2013) — Set Primarily in 2025

Humanity reached 2025 without interdimensional sea monsters crawling through a portal beneath the Pacific, making our timeline considerably quieter. Guillermo del Toro’s *Pacific Rim* imagined nations pooling resources to build towering Jaegers, giant machines controlled by two pilots whose minds link through the Drift. Beneath the glorious robot-on-kaiju violence, the movie presents a worn-down future where these mechanical heroes are already becoming obsolete. We missed the apocalypse, but we also missed Idris Elba canceling it. | © Legendary Pictures

Cropped A Boy and His Dog — 14. A Boy and His Dog (1975) — Set in 2024

Nuclear war turned the United States into a lawless wasteland, yet the strangest part of this future remains the telepathic dog with a sharper mind than his human companion. Don Johnson plays Vic, a young scavenger traveling with his dog, Blood, through the ruins before discovering an unsettling underground society. The bleak humor, sexual politics, and unapologetically cynical ending made the film a major influence on post-apocalyptic fiction. The real 2014 arrived with far fewer mutants and talking pets. | © LQ/JAF Productions

Cropped The Purge — 13. The Purge (2013) — Set in 2022

The annual Purge was already a national tradition when viewers met the wealthy Sandin family in their secured suburban home. For twelve hours, almost every crime becomes legal, allowing Americans to release their aggression while keeping unemployment and poverty artificially low. The home-invasion setup is simple, but the film exposes how easily comfortable people accept brutality when they believe the system protects them. Our version of 2022 brought plenty of anxiety, though nobody officially legalized murder. | © Blumhouse Productions

12. Soylent Green (1973) — Set in 2022

New York suffocates under overcrowding, permanent heat, and environmental collapse in this grim science-fiction classic starring Charlton Heston. Fresh food has become a privilege for the wealthy, while everyone else survives on processed wafers distributed by the powerful Soylent Corporation. The infamous revelation dominates modern conversations about the film, but the script's strongest prediction is the way scarcity becomes another corporate business opportunity. The movie’s concerns about climate, inequality, and corporate control mirror our modern world with uncomfortable accuracy. | © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Johnny Mnemonic 1 — 11. Johnny Mnemonic (1995) — Set in 2021

Keanu Reeves plays a data courier who stores confidential files inside his brain, a setup that limits his storage capacity to a fatal 320 gigabytes. This messy cyberpunk thriller packs corporate warfare, virtual reality, street rebels, and a technologically gifted dolphin into a world suffering from information overload. The theatrical vision of the internet feels dated, but the depiction of human attention fractured by excessive data remains painfully accurate. | © TriStar Pictures

10. Real Steel (2011) — Set in 2020

Traditional boxing has been replaced by robot fighting, leaving Hugh Jackman’s former contender to make a living controlling machines that routinely get punched into scrap metal. His unlikely comeback begins with Atom, an outdated sparring robot discovered by his estranged son and transformed into an underdog sensation. The futuristic setting provides an excuse for metallic uppercuts, but the movie succeeds because its emotional stakes remain stubbornly human. The real 2020 gave us athletes competing in empty arenas, a reality that felt far stranger than robot boxing. | © DreamWorks Pictures

9. The Island (2005) — Set in 2019

Residents of an isolated facility believe the outside world has been contaminated and that winning a trip to "the Island" offers their only chance at freedom. The truth is much uglier: they are clones created as replacement parts for wealthy clients who have no idea their insurance policies can think and feel. Director Michael Bay wraps the ethical nightmare in glossy action, futuristic motorcycles, and an impressive amount of shattered glass. Human cloning never became a luxury healthcare package, but corporations treating bodies as products remains a reality. | © DreamWorks Pictures

Cropped akira movie — 8. Akira (1988) — Set in 2019

Neo-Tokyo rises from the ruins of destruction only to find itself consumed by protests, gang violence, government experiments, and one teenager with catastrophic psychic abilities. Katsuhiro Otomo’s animated masterpiece made 2019 look furious, overcrowded, and permanently seconds away from exploding. The film famously predicted Tokyo hosting the 2020 Olympic Games, a detail that became eerily relevant decades later. The iconic motorcycles still look cooler than anything on modern roads. | © Tokyo Movie Shinsha

Blade Runner 1982 — 7. Blade Runner (1982) — Set in 2019

Rain never stops falling over Ridley Scott’s Los Angeles, where flying vehicles pass gigantic advertisements and artificial humans struggle with artificial memories. Harrison Ford’s Rick Deckard hunts rogue replicants, but the investigation gradually makes the distinction between human and machine feel incredibly fragile. The film's corporate domination, invasive advertising, and ethical questions surrounding artificial intelligence have aged remarkably well. The future did not look exactly like *Blade Runner*, but it certainly learned how to sell us things. | © Warner Bros. Pictures

Rollerball 1975 — 6. Rollerball (1975) — Set in 2018

War and national governments have disappeared, replaced by corporations that keep the population distracted with an ultraviolent global sport. James Caan plays Jonathan E., a veteran Rollerball champion whose individual popularity begins threatening a system designed to prove that individuals are powerless. The matches combine motorcycles, metal balls, and casual attitudes toward severe injury, targeting entertainment as a tool for social control. Corporate empires never replaced global governments, but companies certainly still compete aggressively for our attention. | © United Artists

The Running Man 1987 — 5. The Running Man (1987) — Set in 2017

Television audiences cheer as convicted prisoners are hunted by costumed killers in the highest-rated program of a totalitarian United States. Arnold Schwarzenegger plays Ben Richards, a falsely accused officer forced onto the show after refusing to fire on civilians. The action is gloriously excessive, but the movie’s obsession with manipulated footage, manufactured villains, and entertainment disguised as justice lands harder than its neon costumes. Our reality television never went quite this far, but our appetite for public spectacle remains the same. | © TriStar Pictures

Back to the Future Part II 1989 cropped processed by imagy — 4. Back to the Future Part II (1989) — Set in 2015

Marty McFly arrives on October 21, 2015, expecting the future and finds hoverboards, self-lacing sneakers, holographic sharks, and bizarre fashion trends. The comedy comes from piling optimistic inventions on top of one another, yet several quieter predictions, including video calls, flat-screen televisions, and biometric tech, were surprisingly accurate. Even the Chicago Cubs nearly cooperated, winning the World Series only one year after the film predicted. | © Universal Pictures

Cropped 2001 Space Odyssey — 3. 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) — Set Primarily in 2001

Stanley Kubrick pictured the new millennium as an age of commercial space travel, lunar settlements, and artificial intelligence capable of quietly deciding that humans are the problem. The measured pace and immaculate production design make every spacecraft feel like expensive corporate infrastructure. HAL 9000 remains the film’s most famous creation because his calm voice makes betrayal sound like routine customer service. Humanity reached 2001 without a moon hotel, but video calls and unsettling conversations with computers eventually arrived. | © Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer

Death Race 2000 1975 — 2. Death Race 2000 (1975) — Set in 2000

A fascist American government keeps citizens entertained with a transcontinental road race where drivers earn points by killing pedestrians. David Carradine’s masked champion Frankenstein competes against Sylvester Stallone’s Machine Gun Joe, turning state propaganda into a blood-soaked spectacle. Roger Corman’s production embraces cheap effects and cartoonish violence, but the satire understands how easily cruelty can be marketed as patriotic entertainment. The millennium came and went without an official national death race. | © New World Pictures

Escape from new york cropped processed by imagy — 1. Escape from New York (1981) — Set in 1997

Manhattan has become a maximum-security prison surrounded by walls, mined bridges, and armed guards, making New York tourism incredibly complicated. When the president’s plane crashes inside, authorities send convicted soldier Snake Plissken to retrieve him before a crucial international summit. John Carpenter turns a once-near future into a stripped-down urban Western, carried by Kurt Russell’s eyepatch, growling delivery, and complete lack of enthusiasm for authority. The real 1997 was less apocalyptic, but it failed to provide anyone as cool as Snake. | © AVCO Embassy Pictures

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Science fiction loves putting a date on the impossible, but eventually the calendar catches up. Flying cars, killer robots, lunar colonies, and corporate dystopias were all promised for years now, firmly behind us. From Blade Runner’s 2019 to Back to the Future Part II’s 2015, these movies show what Hollywood got right, what it missed, and which futures we were lucky to avoid. For predictions that could still come true, these movies look a little further ahead.

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Science fiction loves putting a date on the impossible, but eventually the calendar catches up. Flying cars, killer robots, lunar colonies, and corporate dystopias were all promised for years now, firmly behind us. From Blade Runner’s 2019 to Back to the Future Part II’s 2015, these movies show what Hollywood got right, what it missed, and which futures we were lucky to avoid. For predictions that could still come true, these movies look a little further ahead.