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32 Things Pop Culture Got Right About the Future

Prophetic bull’s-eyes, every last one

32 Things Pop Culture Got Right About the Future

April 09, 2024

Any ol’ fool can offer a prediction about the future. After all, we’ll never know if they’re right or not. Go ahead, take a wild guess at the year 2176. While we wait for whatever insanity you’re about to shoot out there, let’s applaud yesteryear’s pop-culture time archers who totally hit the mark!

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32

In The Muppets, Jason Segel wrote a scene that involved Elmo trying to join the Muppets but being stopped by lawyers. The scene was cut out of the movie because Sesame Street lawyers didn't want Elmo to be involved in a Muppet movie. CRACKED.COM — Source

31

McDonald's sold like the Seinfeld tops, just joke. muffin NEW McCafé Muffin Toppers Elaine convinces her boss to open a shop that just sells the top of muffins. Decades later, McDonald's tested selling Muffin Toppers. CRACKED.COM — Source

30

CollegeHumor made a Dora the Explorer parody that was eerily close to a real movie that came out years later. The 2012 gritty live-action parody trailer seemed extremely similar to the gritty live-action 2019 movie. CRACKED.COM — Source

29

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt hurt his Achilles tendon while playing Achilles. While filming Troy, Pitt injured his left tendon. CRACKED.COM — Source

28

Star Trek: The Next Generation featured the PADD, sci-f technology extremely similar to the iPad. The fictional mobile touch-screen Personal Access Display Devices has many similarities to the very real iPad created 30 years later. CRACKED.COM — Source

27

Super Mario Bros. King Коора destroys the WTC. Mario defeats King Koopa after a dramatic battle on the Brooklyn waterfront, which includes Коора briefly disintegrating the World Trade Center towers. CRACKED — Source

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Predicting the Trump Wall. Arrested Development Season 4 predicted the idea of a US- Mexican border wall, which President Donald Trump later adopted, and the show acknowledged this in its fifth season. CRACKED — Source

24

The dark power of the internet. The Cable Guy The Cable Guy is a dark comedy about pop culture obsession and toxic friendships, with Jim Carrey playing a rubber-faced fartsmith who foreshadows the power of the internet and its possibilities. CRACKED — Source

23

House of Cards 2017's Grenfell Tower tragedy The similarities between the deadly fire at Grenfell Tower and a 1993 episode of the BBC's series are chilling, with both scenarios featuring a gas explosion in a run-down tower block, and the UK government facing accusations of neglect. CRACKED — Source

22

Entourage Vinny heads underwater to make a splash. Vincent Chase stars in a fictional adaptation of Aquaman in Season 2, directed by James Cameron and featuring Mandy Moore and James Woods. CRACKED — Source

21

Hackers ACEDHORNO OLOVE LOVE to GODOSEXЬ ROSECRETOLE 28PHREAK12U SKILL LORDNIKO LOCRA LAVERRIDE SECRETOS NEW On-demand TV, RV gaming, and more. The 1995 thriller is often mocked for its campy portrayal of teenage tech-whizzes, but it was surprisingly prophetic about modern technology, accurately predicting on-demand TV, tech world sexism, virtual reality gaming, and the dangers of simple passwords. CRACKED — Source

20

The Lone Gunmen

IN THEIR PILOT EPISODE, THE LONE GUNMENTHWARTED A PLOT TO HIJACK A PLANE AND CRASH IT INTO THE WORLD TRADE CENTER. (Cue X-Files theme music.) It aired in March, 2001. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/9rsMG2hHsLo — Source

19

THERE'S A POSTER ON ROBBIE'S WALL IN POLTERGEIST FROM THE 1988 SUPERBOWL. An odd choice of 1988 a set decoration, considering the movie was released in 1982. And downright creepy when you realize that on SuperBowl Sunday in 1988, Heather O'Rourke, who played Carol Anne, became violently ill. She died the next day. She was 12 years old. CRACKED.COM https://youtu.be/au-QUyjOF7A — Source

18

ALBERT BROOKS PREDICTED REALITY me TV IN 1979. FILMING THANKSGIVING His mockumentary film Real Life featured an obnoxious, intrusive camera crew trailing a family and deliberately stirring up conflict. It was meant as a sendup of a PBS documentary series, but with the twist that most of the drama was generated artificially by the producer. CRACKED.COM http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/real-life-1979 — Source

17

ROBERT HEINLEIN PREDICTED THE SCREEN SAVER, IN 1961. They went to the living room; Jill sat at his feet and they applied themselves to martinis. Opposite his chair was a stereovision tank disguised as an aquarium; he switched it on, guppies and tetras gave way to the face of the well-known Winchell Augustus Greaves. -Stranger in a Strange Land CRACKED.COM Robert A Heinlein, 1961 Stranger in a Strange Land — Source

16

The movie JFK resulted in Congress to releasing information about the assassination. Oliver Stone's strange conspiracy theory movie drove Congress to release The President John F. Kennedy Assassination Records Collection Act, which released some documents early. CRACKED.COM — Source

15

The Chris Rock Show called O.J. Simpson's Ki confessional hypothetical MY tell-all. Wite! The 1999 show featured a sketch where Simpson had an instructional VHS called I Didn't Kill My Wife, But If I Did, Here's How I'd Do It while Simpson's actual book, titled If I Did It. CRACKED.COM — Source

14

UK's House of Cards predicted the fall of Margaret Thatcher The episode in which Margaret Thatcher's character resigned aired only four days before the actual Prime Minister resigned. CRACKED.COM — Source

13

Airplane! 2

Airplane! 2 predicted the use of full-body A CRIME scanners by airport security TO PO FEDERAL SAFETY PIES BEA As a throwaway gag, pervy airport security watch NSFW full-body scans in the 1982 sequel, hitting a little too close to home in a post-9/11 world. CRACKED.COM — Source

12

11

Rocket Countdowns

NASA uses the T-minus countdown because of the movie Woman in the Moon Before NASA existed, the 1929 sci-fi silent film used a countdown clock before launching a rocket. CRACKED.COM — Source

10

An episode of Full House featured Aunt Becky in admissions scandal Uncle Jesse lies on his kids' preschool application, but in the TV show, Aunt Becky 'fesses up. CRACKED.COM — Source

9

Saturday Night Live

Saturday Night Live put Princess Leia in a gold bikini 5 years before Return of the Jedi In the 1978 episode hosted by Carrie Fisher, Fisher plays her iconic character who drops by a 1950s beach. CRACKED.COM — Source

8

Identity theft: a reality foretold in 1995. The Net WEAR Sandra Bullock stars as Angela Bennett, whose life is put in danger when she discovers a strange glitch in a computer game. The movie follows Angela as she is subjected to identity theft and attempts to clear her name, while exploring how vulnerable people can be to surveillance through computers. CRACKED — Source

7

Christopher Reeve's last role was eerily prophetic. Reeve's last film before his accident follows a police officer who is paralyzed after being shot in the line of duty. Reeve visited a spinal cord trauma unit to prepare for the role, and famously commented it could happen to anyone. Above Suspicion CRACKED — Source

6

Spooks writers: Prophets? Spooks The writers of BBC One's hit MI5 drama have an uncanny knack for predicting real-life events, from the 7/7 bombings to the global financial crisis, which has led to the show being nominated for a BAFTA award in its eighth series. CRACKED — Source

5

Minority Report Targeted advertising. Advertisers are spending more money on advertising, but only half of the targeted market can remember the message and the other half want to forget it. The answer may lie in immersive direct targeting, such as the scene from Minority Report where a billboard calls out to Tom Cruise's character. CRACKED — Source

4

Star Trek 20th-century sci-fi predicts 21st- century agriculture. In The Trouble with Tribbles, Quadrotriticale is a genetically- engineered hybrid grain, predicting GMO, and used in 2268 to attempt to develop Sherman's Planet as an agrarian colony. CRACKED — Source

3

Scrubs The janitor knew Osama bin Laden's whereabouts. The janitor correctly predicted in 2007 that the U.S. should be looking for bin Laden in Pakistan, and a clip of this prediction went viral. CRACKED — Source

2

and DANN WALL-E SpaceX's Axiom Mission 1 launch. The 2008 Pixar movie predicted our current reality of climate change, obesity, Zoom calls, and meal replacement firms, and SpaceX's Axiom Mission 1 launch to the ISS apparently confirms this suspicion. 884 CRACKED — Source

1

The future is now-Marty McFly predicted it all. Needles, Douglas J. Age: 47 Birthday: August 6 1968 Back to the Future Part II Citizens are shown using screens for video calls and devices instead of cash in a way that is similar to modern day technology. CRACKED — Source

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