The future arrives on Wednesday

Are you ready for the future? It arrives on Wednesday.
Oct. 21 at precisely 4:29 p.m. (Pacific) is the time that Doc and Marty arrived in the future in “Back to the Future Part II.” Traveling 30 years into the future from 1985, the intrepid time travelers from the 1989 movie (not quite 30 years, but who’s counting) arrive in time to rescue Marty’s son from making a huge mistake.
It has been entertaining to say the least to see how the predictions of the future match up with reality. Since the future is only a week away, it is safe to assume that none of the futuristic contraptions like flying cars and Hoverboards will be invented. Still, the movie is rife with predictions that did, did not and sorta came true.
On Sunday I re-watched the movie and made note of some of the things that were supposed to have happened by now.
First off, Doc used a strange device to knock out Marty’s girlfriend Jennifer just after they arrived in the future. No such contraption exists.
The flying Delorean was powered by garbage dumped into a Mr. Fusion thingy. No such thingy, sorry.
Marty’s future shoes laced themselves and his jacket sized itself and dried itself automatically. Strike three.
Doc informs Marty that in the future all kids wear the clothes inside out. Today kids wear their saggy pants and undergarments are fashion statement. I’ll give that one a sorta. The men in the movie wore a kind of double tie. Today one rarely sees a tie anymore (thank God!). That is a fashion prediction fail.
Doc gave Marty $50 to buy a Pepsi Perfect to drink in Café ’80s. Pepsi is still around, but it’s not Perfect and it’s much cheaper than $50. Another sorta for that one.
Gas was around $6 a gallon. It’s not that high, though it was $4 a gallon in 2008. Another sorta for that.
There was a passing reference to bionic implants in the brain. If you count things like cochlear implants, then we do have that.
Marty was attacked by a holographic shark from a marquee advertising “Jaws 19.” We don’t have functional holograms yet and the “Jaws” franchise mercifully ended at four. If only the “Rocky” franchise would have done the same…
There were robots at a Texaco station servicing cars. We still have Texaco and we have robots but they’re not working together yet in the service industry, so no go here.
One of the more bold predictions was that of the Chicago Cubs winning the World Series over a team from Miami. This one is still on hold. As of now, the Cubs are still alive in the playoffs, but have not won the World Series in 70 years. The team from Miami, which did not exist when the movie was made, did not make the playoffs this year.
“Gray’s Sports Almanac,” the book that gave all the sports scores and stats from 1950 to 2000, became obsolete before its time thanks to the invention of the Internet.
Once in the future, Doc retrieves his dog from a suspended animation kennel. That has not been invented yet. Another dog in the movie was being walked by a leash attached to a floating device. That’s also a no-go.
In Marty’s future house, a window was replaced with a Scene Screen. I’d say that came to fruition with the creation of screensavers for our computers. We also have the ability to watch multiple TV channels at once, just like Marty’s son.
Unlike our future counterparts, we can’t pop a small pizza into the hydrator and instantly have a piping hot dinner.
It was also interesting to note that people could pay for things by using their thumbprint on a screen. We have that technology but it is not commercially used yet. Stay tuned!
One thing I did find miraculous was how they fit three adults and a large dog in the Delorean for the return trip to 1985. I’ve sat in a Delorean before. Trust me, there is no room!On the positive side, I was highly encouraged to see that newspapers still played a dominant role in the fictional future. I like to believe they still do in the real future. Otherwise, I’m wasting my time writing this and you’re probably not reading it.
On a side note to movies predicting the future, in 2001 I had the privilege of asking Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood, the stars of “2001: A Space Odyssey,” if they ever thought about being alive in 2001 back when they made the movie in 1968. They said no, they were too busy making the movie.
Now, if I can somehow manage to live another 48 years I will make it to First Contact Day, the day humans first meet extra-terrestrials in the “Star Trek” movie franchise.