For nearly thousands of years, there have always been some form of media. From news stories, to books, to visual mediums like movies, tv shows, video games. With the exception of news related stuff, much of it was nothing more than harmless fiction that depicts events and situations that didn't seem likely to happen. That is with a few exceptions.

While there have been many fictional mediums, which through Satire and Expressionism, end up reflecting real life events. From Godzilla being a metaphor for Hiroshima and Nagasaki, to They Live satirizing Reaganomics. There have often been some times when they end up predicting something that doesn't happen yet.

Whether they tried or not, some media ends up predicting future events either to the letter or with some broad strokes that take things close. None more guilty of this than Movies or TV Shows.

In terms of TV shows, Star Trek, predicted the very future technology we hold in our hands. The big example being the invention of the Cell Phone. Which was invented because the person inventing it was a huge fan of the series and wanted to make a portable device similar to the communicators at the time. Not only did the person invent a new way of communication at the time, but it became the precursor to other forms of communication tech. For example this flip phone:

Was specifically designed to try to copy this communicator to the best of it's abilities:

But nowadays you can actually get phones or bluetooth devices that look exactly like it. Turning that inventor's dream into a reality. Even the newer show's badge communicators aren't exempt from this as they too use bluetooth tech:

In terms of Movies, Back To The Future Part II was a huge one, mainly because it wasn't Zemeckis' or Gale's intention to create a realistic future. In fact everything in their version of 2015 seems to fantastic to be true:

Yet they not only got some things right, but some was actually directly inspired by the movie. Here's a list of some I can name off the bat.

Antique stores selling Memorabilia and Merchandise that was considered modern in their present. While Pawn Shops already do that already. With Games and old Movies being a dead giveaway. Antique specific stores have yet to qualify these as antiques. However, it did inadvertently predicted the trend of Grading and selling old merchandise. From Trading Cards, to old video games. Just recently VHS are even on the list of things to grade and sell. What does the antique store show?:

Old games, old books, old cards and even old memorabilia. That Roger Rabbit Plush alone would have increased it's value today, because Disney simply cancelled Jessica Rabbit. Now granted these aren't graded, but it does give the jist of what I'm talking about. The tech that was considered new, is now the new Antiques.

Another thing they predicted was Nike inventing a shoe that has Power Laces. Shoelaces that can tie up on their own. While it was meant to be a publicity stunt to cash in on BTTF and the real 2015, they ended up proving beneficial in other ways. For starters, the first person to try on a fully functional pair, was Michael J. Fox. The Actor who played Marty McFly. Michael J. Fox is diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, which he spent most of his acting career trying and even succeeding in hiding until it became unbearable, then the rest of his life trying to combat the disease, by funding organizations and using himself as a guinea pig for various treatments. For those who don't know, one of the major symptoms of Parkinson's is the inability to control your motor functions. Which either don't move or move against your will. A classic sign is when you see someone shake their arms uncontrollably, barely able to walk and trouble speaking. So naturally even something as simple as tying your shoes would become a hassle if you have this. Needless to say, the Power Laces proved useful for him. As since they can automatically tie themselves with just the push of a button, there was no need to tie them manually.

However, that's not all. When Nike realized what they had, they improved on the tech. Turning a simple alternative to shoelaces:

To a shoe designed to adjust to the shape and size of your foot:

And this was from a publicity stunt of all things. I can't imagine what they'd do if they got serious. The other things they predicted are as follows. While it's jacket counterpart has some features like a heater to keep you warm and even smart shirts that monitor your vitals, we have yet to have a jacket that can adjust it's size like the shoes or dry itself when wet. No the heater doesn't count. You need at least a fan.

Two Screen Video/phone Glasses: Google Glass and other smart glasses related tech. As well as VR Tech that allows you to watch movies and TV in front of your very eyes. From Google Cardboard to Oculus Rift.

Video Phones: While many of these have been around since before the real 2015. Video phone technology has improved to the point where you can literally talk to friends and family on your television screen. As opposed to just your computer and phone.

Hoverboards: Many people tried replicating these. Some were somewhat successful.

Digital Payment: Not just debit and credit cards, but being able to pay through various means of digital technology such as your smartphone.

Hands free gaming: This one's a grey because most of the tech it did predict didn't start out as hands free and still required a controller for your hands as reference. Consoles like Wii and PS Move, using motion capture technology based controllers and sensors for said reference, while the lesser received Kinect and PS2's Eye toy before it were the true hands free examples.

The Chicago Cubs winning the world series: This one is also a grey, because it was the right prediction, yet the wrong year and team. In Back To The Future, they predicted that the Cubs would win the World Series, by beating a Miami team in 2015. However the cubs never made it to the world series in 2015 as it was the Kansas City Royals beating the New York Mets 7 - 2 in their final game. The Cubs did win in 2016, but not against a Miami Team. Not even the Miami Marlins. The only real life Miami MLB team since 1993. Instead they were 4 - 3 against the Cleveland Guardians, back when they were still originally called, The Cleveland Indians. So close enough.

Of course not all predictions are idealistic and hopeful. Some of which are down right scary.

In terms of TV, The Simpsons for example had an episode called Bart to The Future, in which Bart sees a vision of what his future is like. He's a slacker rock star and Lisa is President of The United States. Her first order of business, trying to clean up the mess of her predecessor. Who you may ask? Donald Trump. Now at the time this was considered a joke, until 16 years later. When Trump became president for real and while many disagree, he did do major damage to the country where anyone picking up after him would risk making the country broke trying to fix things.

In terms of movies. The Terminator of all things predicted that eventually Robots would become foot soldiers that could potentially wipe out humanity. Sounds far fetched right? Well:

That's right a robot built in Russia, designed to kill. A real life Terminator designed to replace foot soldiers in the army. I can't see anything go wrong here.

So the question is. Can medial predict the future or is it all a coincidence?

Personally I believe the former and I'll tell you why. There have been three movies I have seen so far, that predicted Covid. Spoilers for those who haven't seen them yet.

First there's John Carpenter's The Thing. In it, an Alien Virus terrorizes an antarctic research station. With the ability to consume, infect and imitate any organic life it touches. While the movie itself is a gorefest, it's real terror is in the mystery angle of it. Specifically the paranoia that one or more humans are infected and people going insane wondering who could it be or god forbid thinking they themselves are infected. Sound Familiar? It should. Because that's exactly how everyone acted when Covid spread all over Earth. It was literally the Thing's worst case scenario as Blair figured out in the movie. People were panicking, making accusations and doing stupid things thinking it would stop it. Like panic buying Toilet Paper.

Of course that could have been a happy coincidence.

Then you have the next Carpenter Classic They Live. Which as a jab to Reaganomics was meant to depict the world being controlled by rotting mockeries of the human race. Yet their actions seemed to inadvertantly reflect on a lot of events that happened the past 20 years. The police raiding the Shanty town predicting the increased Police brutality from the 90s to now. Many of which leading to death. They also double as how our respective governments reacted to the outbreak when it was out of control. By creating Lock Downs and Restrictions that did more harm than good, yet some people are convinced are a good thing. Despite the fact that the lock downs should have applied to only those that went to the spots the outbreak were most prominent at the time. It wouldn't have stopped the spread, but it would have at least slowed it down to a more managable level. Instead everyone suffers for the mistakes of the few.

John Carpenter himself once mentioned that those movies could have a connection to Today's events like Covid and to put his point across applied the Reagan satire of They Live to Trump's administration as well. Maybe both connected together in the movies pieced together a huge prediction.

Now one could think it was just John Carpenter being lucky, but he wasn't the only horror Icon to accidentally predict it. His prediction was merely over 40 years old. Here's one that is both 24 - 6 years old. Let me explain.

As most know, I recently made a remake to a theme song to one of my favourite horror films. Phantasm:

Which I explain most of the plot of the movie. However in this case I am referring to the 4th and 5th movies OblIVion and RaVager respectfully. In it the Tall Man in at least one plane of reality has successfully taken over Earth. One of his weapons, a deadly incurable virus that wiped out most of the human population and as a result, caused world governments to collapse. Sound familiar? It should.

With the exception of the collapsing government part, which even then is hanging by a thread, we have a nigh incurable virus that so far has killed over 5 million people. literally over 995 million away from taking a huge chunk of the world population. Assuming the virus lasts long enough to keep the death rate up. In two more years it will be another 5 million. Assuming they increase rather than decrease as the years go by, it would happen much faster. The fact that the final movie of the series, would end with a future like that, is too scary to be a coincidence. The only difference between real life and that, is there's no Tall Man to fight for this....that we know of at least.

What do you think? Has there been any media that you think predicted the future? Let me know.