Top 10 Times Movies Predicted Future Events
There must have been a crystal ball on set when these movies were being made. For this list, we’ll be looking at films that seemed to foreshadow real-world occurrences, either by accident or on purpose.
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Short filmTranscript
00:00 (gunshot)
00:01 - Cut, credit.
00:03 - Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down
00:05 our picks for the top 10 times movies
00:07 predicted future events.
00:08 - Wait a minute, Cubs win World Series
00:11 against Miami?
00:15 - For this list, we'll be looking at films
00:16 that seem to foreshadow real world occurrences,
00:19 either by accident or on purpose.
00:20 Which movie prediction freaked you out the most?
00:23 Be sure to let us know in the comments below.
00:25 Number 10, Traveling to the Moon, A Trip to the Moon.
00:28 (dramatic music)
00:31 Loosely based on works by Jules Verne,
00:40 this early silent film from French director,
00:42 Georges Méliès, features a group of men
00:44 who take a ride in a bullet-shaped capsule
00:46 fired out of a giant cannon.
00:48 Although humans have imagined traveling to the moon
00:50 for hundreds of years, this is the first film
00:52 to depict such a journey, and it was made
00:54 nearly 70 years before the real event.
00:56 - It's one small step for man,
00:58 one giant leap for mankind.
01:04 - At the time, space travel of any kind
01:06 was still decades in the future.
01:07 Although we now know that there are no giant fungi
01:10 or hostile inhabitants living beneath the lunar surface,
01:13 we can thank visionaries like Verne and Méliès
01:15 for helping inspire humanity to reach for the stars.
01:18 - Tell me when I hit the bottom step.
01:19 - Hit the bottom step?
01:21 - I'm on it.
01:22 - Yep.
01:23 - Oh, okay.
01:24 - Number nine, the first black president, "The Man."
01:27 - I hope we can make this brief, Mr. President.
01:29 - I see no reason why not.
01:31 I'll throw you a couple of questions,
01:33 and you can give me a couple of straight
01:35 and responsive answers.
01:37 - You might think that the election of an African American
01:39 to the highest office in the United States was inevitable,
01:41 but plenty of people didn't feel that way in the 1970s.
01:44 Remember, this movie was only a few years removed
01:46 from the Civil Rights Movement.
01:48 - Somewhere I read that the greatness of America
01:52 is the right to protest for rights.
01:55 (crowd cheering)
01:57 - Written by Rod Serling, yes, that Rod Serling,
01:59 "The Man" revolves around President pro tempore
02:01 Douglas Dillman, played by James Earl Jones.
02:04 He's sworn into office after the previous president
02:06 and Speaker of the House are killed in an accident,
02:08 and the elderly Vice President refuses the job.
02:11 - I am deeply indebted, Mr. Eaton.
02:13 - We'll make it, sir.
02:17 Somehow, we'll all survive.
02:19 And the country will survive, too.
02:22 - Although movies and shows with a black president
02:24 are common on our screens today,
02:25 "The Man" was the first feature-length film to include one.
02:28 Number eight, Scott Peterson in prison, "Demolition Man."
02:31 - Detective, I am Lieutenant Lenina Huxley.
02:35 The year is 2032.
02:38 - The California of this movie is quite different
02:40 from the one we know.
02:41 By 2032, everything fun has been banned.
02:43 - Smoking is not good for you,
02:45 and it's been deemed that anything not good for you is bad,
02:48 hence illegal.
02:49 - Alcohol, caffeine, contact sports, meat.
02:52 - But their reality does have one thing in common with ours.
02:55 Someone named Scott Peterson is in prison.
02:57 In real life, just before Christmas in 2002,
02:59 Modesto resident Lacey Peterson disappeared,
03:02 and her husband Scott soon fell under suspicion.
03:04 Eventually, he was arrested,
03:05 and after a highly publicized trial,
03:07 he was convicted of the murder of Lacey
03:08 and their unborn son.
03:10 - The verdict was read.
03:11 - First degree, yes!
03:13 - We were just numb.
03:14 - You brought your son!
03:16 - Peterson was initially given a death sentence,
03:18 but that was eventually overturned,
03:19 and he was instead sentenced to life in prison.
03:21 That means that he'll almost certainly still be locked up
03:23 in California in 2032.
03:26 Number seven, building of the Chunnel, the Tunnel.
03:28 - When this tunnel is completed,
03:31 sums of money hitherto wasted on wages of soldiers
03:34 and munitions of war will be diverted
03:36 into useful and peaceful channels.
03:37 - It seems like major human achievements
03:39 always take a bit longer
03:40 than idealistic artists think they will.
03:42 The Tunnel revolves around the ambitious goal
03:44 to build an Atlantic tunnel from England to the US.
03:47 In the film's universe, the Channel Tunnel
03:49 between England and France already exists.
03:51 In fact, one character implies
03:52 that it was built in a single year.
03:54 - I wanted you to meet Mr. Richard MacAllan,
03:57 who has a little proposition to put up to you.
04:00 You know him already as the man
04:01 who successfully constructed the Channel Tunnel in 1940.
04:05 - In reality, although engineers had proposed
04:07 building the Tunnel since at least the early 1800s,
04:10 construction didn't even begin until 1988.
04:12 The Tunnel finally opened for use in 1994,
04:15 but we have to admire the optimism
04:16 of these mid-1930s filmmakers.
04:18 - Today is a great day, perhaps the greatest day
04:21 in the history of the English-speaking people.
04:23 The Atlantic Tunnel is an accomplished fact.
04:26 - Number six, the Batman versus Superman poster,
04:29 "I Am Legend."
04:30 We really hope that this prediction
04:31 is the only one in this movie that comes true.
04:34 - Let's go, Sam!
04:34 (engine revving)
04:37 (dog barking)
04:45 - No, no, let's go!
04:47 - After genetically manipulated virus wipes out
04:49 nearly every human on Earth starting in 2009,
04:52 major cities like New York
04:53 are left almost completely abandoned.
04:55 Scientist Robert Neville remains behind in Manhattan,
04:57 surviving and trying to cure the infected humans left alive,
05:00 who have basically turned into vampires.
05:02 (man screaming)
05:05 During one scene in Times Square,
05:10 we see a clear shot of a movie advertisement
05:12 featuring the bat symbol overlaid with Superman's S.
05:14 The image actually bears an uncanny resemblance
05:17 to real promo posters for 2016's "Batman vs. Superman."
05:20 That production detail is pretty prescient
05:22 considering the DCEU wasn't a thing
05:24 when this movie came out.
05:26 - Let's go, Sam.
05:27 Come on.
05:30 - Number five, decline of US oil production,
05:40 rise of China, and more, "Americathon."
05:43 - And now, ladies and gentlemen,
05:45 welcome to the first minute of the first day
05:48 of the first "Americathon,"
05:50 with the greatest array of talent ever assembled,
05:52 all on one stage.
05:54 - It's a little spooky how many things
05:56 this critically panned comedy got right.
05:57 Set in 1998, the US has completely run out of gas,
06:00 and people wear tracksuits all the time
06:02 because they have to jog and bike everywhere.
06:04 The country is in tremendous debt,
06:06 while China has pivoted from communism to capitalism
06:09 and become one of the most powerful nations in the world.
06:11 They also had become total capitalists,
06:13 opening a chain of fast food restaurants.
06:16 The big seller was a Maozi Tong on rye.
06:19 - Any of these things sound familiar?
06:21 Although America has never actually run out of oil,
06:23 production did drop steadily
06:24 from the mid '80s to the late 2000s,
06:26 and the national debt has been spiking since about 1982.
06:30 - We want to hold a raffle.
06:31 - A raffle?
06:33 - McMurkin, this country is flat broke.
06:36 - Really?
06:37 - Not a pot to piss in, pal.
06:39 - Vince, please, let's move past it, okay?
06:41 - And of course, tracksuits were all the rage
06:43 around that time, partly thanks to the influence
06:45 of hip-hop music videos.
06:47 Number four, Cubs win the World Series.
06:49 Back to the Future, part two.
06:50 - I said I wish I could go back
06:52 to the beginning of the season.
06:53 Put some money on the Cubbies.
06:55 - The filmmakers almost nailed this one.
06:57 The Cubbies had a really good chance
06:58 at the World Series in 2015.
07:00 - The Cubs win!
07:01 The Chicago Cubs are heading
07:05 to the National League Championship Series!
07:09 They made it to the National League Championship Series
07:11 where they lost four games to nothing to the Mets.
07:13 Just one year later, of course,
07:15 they took home the pennant and went on to beat Cleveland
07:17 for the national title in a seven-game shootout.
07:19 - The Cubs win the World Series!
07:23 Bryan makes the play!
07:25 It's over, and the Cubs have finally won it all!
07:29 - The win ended a historic dry spell
07:31 as Chicago hadn't won a World Series since 1908
07:34 and didn't even make the playoffs from 1945 to 1984.
07:37 You might've noticed that Marty is even more surprised
07:39 that they were playing against Miami.
07:41 That's because Miami didn't have a major league team
07:43 until 1993.
07:44 Number three, Tokyo Olympics, "Akira."
07:47 - A skirmish has broken out
07:48 between student protesters and riot police.
07:51 There appear to be some casualties.
07:53 Next.
07:54 - This beloved anime classic takes place
07:56 in a dystopian future in 2019.
07:58 After the destruction of Tokyo in 1988,
08:01 Neo-Tokyo is preparing to host the 2020 Olympics.
08:04 (airplane engine roaring)
08:08 In a shot seen early in the film,
08:13 a sign displays a countdown to the start of the games,
08:15 and beneath it, someone has graffitied the words,
08:17 "Just cancel it."
08:18 In real life, Tokyo was chosen
08:20 to host the 2020 Summer Olympics,
08:22 and because of the COVID-19 pandemic,
08:24 many people, including plenty of people in Japan,
08:26 argued that it should be canceled.
08:28 Instead, the Tokyo Organizing Committee
08:30 decided to postpone the event for one year,
08:32 and the competitions eventually took place in 2021
08:34 with no spectators in the stands.
08:36 Number two, "Pandemic," "Contagion."
08:39 As soon as COVID-19 began to spread around the globe,
08:41 people were drawing comparisons
08:43 between a real-life pandemic and this film.
08:45 - People can be contagious without even having symptoms.
08:48 We need to know that, too.
08:49 And we need to know how big the population of people
08:52 susceptible to the virus might be.
08:54 - The virus in "Contagion" started in China,
08:56 was initially carried by a bat,
08:58 and is transmitted mainly through respiratory droplets.
09:00 But the similarities don't end there.
09:02 The human behavior that accompanies the illness
09:04 is also eerily prescient.
09:05 (people shouting)
09:08 People head to the grocery store to stock up on essentials,
09:19 a fraudster peddles a fake treatment
09:21 that doesn't actually work,
09:22 and some express skepticism of the CDC.
09:24 - Dr. Chiva is being a bit disingenuous
09:27 when he says "every American citizen."
09:30 - We're working very hard to find out
09:32 where this virus came from, to treat it,
09:33 and to vaccinate against it if we can.
09:35 - Ultimately, the fast-track development of a vaccine
09:37 enables people to return to some semblance of a normal life.
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09:55 Number one, "Brandon Lee's Death," "Game of Death."
10:00 (grunting)
10:02 The coincidences here are almost too many to count.
10:11 Bruce Lee plays Billy, an actor
10:13 and the target of an organized crime syndicate.
10:15 On Billy's movie set, an assassin posing as a stuntman
10:17 swaps a blank round in his prop gun for a real bullet
10:20 and shoots Billy but doesn't actually kill him.
10:23 (dramatic music)
10:30 Instead, Billy fakes his death
10:31 and returns to get revenge on the gang.
10:33 In a tragic twist of fate, Lee's son, Brandon Lee,
10:36 was accidentally killed while filming "The Crow"
10:38 when a prop assistant loaded a gun with blanks,
10:40 not knowing there was a dummy bullet
10:42 already lodged in the barrel.
10:44 - You're all going to die.
10:45 (gunshot)
10:58 - "The Crow" also revolves around Brandon Lee's character
11:00 returning from the dead and seeking revenge
11:02 on the members of a crime syndicate.
11:04 (dramatic music)
11:07 (suspenseful music)
11:10 (suspenseful music)
11:13 (suspenseful music)
11:16 (suspenseful music)
11:19 (dramatic music)
11:22 (whooshing)