2019: The Year of "Blade Runner"

[Rory McRory Fitzrory]

And yet there are no flying cars, no off-world colonies, no attack ships heading for Orion, and no Replicants.

It's something I refer to as Fast-Forward Future Syndrome, in which a movie, TV series, novel, etc., features a setting not far into the future wherein humanity has nonetheless made centuries of progress. 2001: A Space Odyssey and its quasi-sequel 2010 both suffer from it, as does the Planet of The Apes remake starring Mark Wahlberg, set in 2029. The year 2032 is the setting for Demolition Man, where characters refer to the 1990s as Ancient Times!

Books and TV haven't fared much better (remember Space: 1999?) Even Jem, one of my favorite sci-fi novels, is guilty of this sin, as is Ben Bova's Millennium, another great read.

There are many, many more examples that I can't think of right now, cuz I haven't gone to bed yet and am shitfaced. If anyone here can refresh my memory, I would greatly {hiccup!} appreciate it. Happy New Year to all.

[Dave Starsky]

1. Escape from New York: 1997. Released in 1981.

Manhattan still hasn't become a maximum security prison, though it may feel like it sometimes.

[Mister Ed]

2. Perhaps the grandaddy of them all: "1984". n/t

[gordianot]

3. The Manchurian Candidate came true in unexpected ways.

It did not take torture conditioning but greed. We now have to live along with our own people who in another time would have been considered mortal enemies. Soviet Communism rebranded and with stealth won the Cold War without a shot.

[marble falls]

4. I'm thinking "Time after Time", you know the old TV series ...

where the main character shows up week after week as someone else.

[Aristus]

5. The original 1975 "Rollerball", in which the entire world is run by corporations,

was set in, I think, 2015.

War, crime, and poverty are things of the past. But everyone must obey their corporate masters. To sublimate the energy needed to start a worker's revolution, the corporations invent a violent, full-contact sport, Rollerball, in which the players, on skates or driving small motorcycles, can and often do kill one another for possession of the ball. The sickening violence not only placates the fans, but also tends to kill off strong, healthy, competitive young men with leadership potential, thus preventing insurrection.