On October 21, 2015, flying cars were supposed to fill the skies, teenagers were supposed to ride hoverboards, and nobody was supposed to worry about tying their shoes.
At least, that’s what Hollywood told us.
The date became famous thanks to the 1989 movie Back to the Future Part II, when Marty McFly and Doc Brown traveled from 1985 to October 21, 2015, in a time-traveling DeLorean. The movie imagined a future filled with extraordinary technology, strange fashion choices and inventions that seemed almost impossible at the time.
Now, on October 21, 2026, we’re 11 years beyond the future Hollywood imagined. And while some predictions were surprisingly accurate, others missed the mark completely.
For starters, where are the flying cars?
In the movie, ordinary automobiles had been converted into flying machines, allowing drivers to soar above traffic instead of sitting in it. Anyone who has spent time waiting at a railroad crossing or sitting behind a slow-moving vehicle on a two-lane Louisiana highway can probably appreciate that particular invention. Unfortunately, flying cars haven’t become an everyday transportation option.
Then there were hoverboards.
Marty famously escaped a group of bullies on a floating skateboard that glided above the pavement without wheels. The real world eventually introduced devices marketed as hoverboards, but most were simply two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters. Engineers have demonstrated actual hovering prototypes, though nothing approaching the convenient transportation imagined in the movie.
Self-lacing shoes were another memorable prediction.
Nike eventually developed shoes with automatic lacing technology, proving that at least one of Hollywood’s stranger ideas could become reality. But the movie also predicted several technologies that now seem completely ordinary.
Video calling was a major feature of the fictional 2015. Today, people routinely use FaceTime, Zoom and other video communication services to talk with family, attend meetings and conduct business. Large, flat-screen televisions appeared throughout the movie, along with voice-controlled technology and fingerprint identification systems. All three have become familiar parts of modern life.
Perhaps the funniest prediction involved fax machines.
The filmmakers imagined a future where fax machines were everywhere, even delivering personal messages inside people’s homes. Instead, smartphones, email and internet messaging largely replaced the technology. And speaking of smartphones, the movie somehow overlooked what would become one of the most influential inventions of modern life.
Marty’s futuristic world had flying vehicles, holographic advertisements and automated clothing, but nobody was walking around staring at a tiny computer in their hand. The filmmakers also imagined a 2015 filled with unusual clothing, including jackets that automatically adjusted their size and dried themselves. That particular invention might still be useful during a humid Louisiana summer.
The movie’s predictions were never intended to be a serious scientific forecast. They were an entertaining interpretation of what life might look like three decades into the future. Yet the comparison raises an interesting question.
In 1989, the idea of carrying a device capable of instantly accessing nearly all the world’s information, taking photographs, navigating highways and communicating with someone across the planet might have sounded just as ridiculous as a flying DeLorean. Today, that device is probably sitting in your pocket.
So, as October 21 rolls around again, it’s worth remembering that the future rarely looks exactly the way we imagine. We may not have flying cars or real hoverboards parked in our garages, but we have technology that would have seemed extraordinary just a few decades ago. And somehow, despite all that progress, we still haven’t figured out how to avoid getting stuck behind a tractor on a country road.