8 Back to the Future Technologies That Actually Exist

Toward the end of the time spent in 2015 in Back to the Future II, young Jennifer witnesses old Marty gets fired via a video call from his very angry boss, just moments after he made a shady deal with his old pal and coworker Needles, played by Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Flea. At the time, people probably thought it was absurd to suggest people would be making face to face calls like that, but look at pretty much every piece of technology around you. Skype is one of the most commonly used communications technologies in the world, and if you have an iPhone chances are you’ve used FaceTime before. Of all the technologies from Back to the Future II, this is probably the most widely used.

Okay, so this is a technology that doesn’t quite exist yet, but Nike has announced that next year, to coincide with the timeframe of Back to the Future II, they will be unveiling the exact power lacing sneakers that Marty wore when he traveled into the future.

These shoes were awesome even when watching the movie as a kid, so to think Nike is actually going to release them is the next coolest thing to getting a Hover Board for a lot of children of the 1980s. It’s still not known how widely these sneakers will be released, or what exorbitant price you’ll have to pay for them if they actually are made available to the general public, but the mere fact they’re being released at all is enough to make our inner child giddy.

In the same sequence that sees old Marty gets fired from his job via a very Skype-like device, a few minutes earlier we see Marty McFly, Jr. turn on the TV and use voice commands to tell it what channels he wants to watch.

For people who watched the movie back in 1989, it seems like such an astounding leap forward for laziness that it felt almost too good to be true. Well, here we are in 2014, and thanks to Smart TV’s you really can change the channel, increase the volume, and so forth with a few simple voice commands.

Now the idea of 3D movies wasn’t new at the time of Back to the Future II. After all, the technology had already been around for a few decades, though it was largely nonexistent by the time the movie came out in 1989. However, when Marty finds himself wandering around 2015 he sees an ad for a Jaws movie presented in stunning new 3D technology.

Well, look at the showtimes for the theater nearest you right now. At this point, pretty much every single blockbuster is released in state of the art 3D, and some movies are even released in 3D on the IMAX screen. Sadly, we’re still waiting for that next Jaws movie, so Back to the Future II really missed the mark on that one.

Hey, remember the scene in the 1980’s themed diner in which Marty shows a very young Elijah Wood how to play the game Wild Gunman? The scene ends with little Frodo and his buddy telling Marty that playing a video game with your hands is the equivalent of a baby’s toy, before shuffling off to, we can only assume, try to finally destroy the ring in Mt. Doom.

Thanks to technology like the Xbox Kinect, little Elijah was dead-on accurate about how video games would advance. Sure, most people still use controllers to play games, but between Kinect and the Wii, motion-controlled games are very common, so we’re going to give some major props to Back to the Future II for calling that one.

Drones are a bit of a controversial subject since the primary use has been for military purposes. You know, like unmanned bombing missions and so forth. However, that’s not all drones can be used for, and in fact, they have been used in the same way that a drone was used in Back to the Future II.

Remember when Griff crashes into the clock tower and his photo is immediately taken for USA Today? Well, the flying machine taking the pictures was pretty much a drone, right? This technology has been used for journalistic purposes, as well, such as during the Occupy Wall Street movement. It’s also been talked about for delivering beer and pizza, which to us would be the best possible use for that kind of technological advancement.

2Computer Tablets

What you may not have noticed though is that he’s using what is very clearly a rough idea for a tablet. No one really could have predicted that computers would advance as far as they have, let alone small, interactive tablets like the iPad, Kindle, and so forth, so it’s a pretty cool prediction by the folks behind Back to the Future II that they actually managed to get right.

At the beginning of Back to the Future II, Doc Brown shows up at Marty’s house telling him he’s got to accompany him to 2015 to save his kids. Marty, having been used to the Delorean requiring plutonium to make the trip, is astonished to learn that Doc has had some changes made to the Delorean including the ability to power the flux capacitor, and the car in general, on general waste.

Doc starts shoving garbage into his “Mr. Fusion” and soon enough, they’re off and running. Well, we may not have a Mr. Fusion quite yet, but people have developed the necessary technology to run a car using nothing but compost. The most notable company to conceive of this technology is E-Fuel, a Silicon Valley-based company. And while we applaud their incredible ingenuity, let’s face it: we’d all still rather have that damn Hover Board.