Back to the Future II: What did it get right and wrong? By Leo Kelion

Technology desk editor Published duration 19 October 2015

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It's Back to the Future Day - the date Marty and Doc crashed the future in the second of the three time-hopping sci-fi adventure films.

The sequel was released in November 1989.

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And watching it back nearly 26 years later, it's impressive to note how many tech trends it predicted, even if it also contained its fair share of misfires.

Getting around

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"Where we're going, we don't need roads..." - well, that's one promise that didn't work out.

Flying cars have always seemed to be just over the horizon. Boston-based Terrafugia, for example, promised to start selling a model in 2012 , but is still trying to get its business off the ground.

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But while BTTF was overly optimistic about vertical take-offs becoming the norm, it did nail one detail.

Listen to the sound effects used for its automobiles as they pass, and you hear the near-silent hum that's become associated with Toyota's Prius and other electric-powered four-wheelers.

Throwing your rubbish into a car's Mr Fusion energy converter to provide it with power remains fanciful.

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But there have been moves towards powering vehicles with waste.

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Furthermore, Biff's payment of his taxi ride with a thumb-print isn't totally dissimilar to how we now hail cars and cashlessly pay for them using Uber, Hailo, Lyft and innumerable other pick-up services.

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Even the film's iconic hoverboard chase scene is no longer totally outlandish.

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Looking good

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The tech world's current fascination with wearable tech was foreshadowed by Marty's talking jacket.

And while today's clothes can't yet blow-dry us when we get wet, some fashion pioneers are experimenting with weaving electronics into their fabrics.

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When it comes to our own bodily care, we can't yet exfoliate away the years with a Doc-style "rejuvenation clinic" facial.

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But the 6.7 million botox injections and 1.2 million chemical peels carried out in the US last year suggest many are at least trying.

Rise of the robots

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BTTF's drones may only make fleeting appearances, but feel very "of the moment".

Media organisations, including the BBC, have started deploying camera-enabled aircraft to get new perspectives on the news - even if they might not be comfortable sending them into the kind of crowded situation USA Today's model films in the movie.

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Dog-walking drones are also a real thing - at least if you believe everything you see on Vimeo and YouTube

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Another type of robot featured in the film is a mechanical car fuel attendant.

Entertainment

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We've, thankfully, been spared Holomax sequels to Jaws.

But the film industry hasn't given up on the idea of 3D technologies - its latest pitch is a laser-projection system said to deliver "brighter, crisper and clearer" images.

Rather neatly, the innovation premiered in London earlier this month with Robert Zemeckis' latest film The Walk - he is, of course, also the director of the BTTF trilogy.

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Back to the Future II was closer to the mark when it came to home entertainment.

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Meanwhile, voice-controlled televisions are already a reality thanks to smart TVs from Samsung and Sony as well as set-top boxes from Amazon and Apple.

Smartglasses but no smartphones...

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We get little hint at what Marty Jr sees via his hi-tech specs in the film, and their brand, JVC, is a much smaller force in consumer electronics than it once was.

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The film's biggest miss, however, is arguably its lack of a smartphone.

Marty Jr is even seen using an AT&T payphone at one point - all the more ironic since the company was first to offer the iPhone.

It's not that BTTF's filmmakers didn't envision a data-connected world - a Skype-like video chat program features at one point showing off not only the caller but also private details about them - but repeatedly communication occurs via a TV rather than a handheld display.

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Likewise, it's hard not to feel the film missed a trick by using a newspaper to warn of Marty Jr's impending arrest, instead of a touchscreen.

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And a campaigner trying to restore Hill Valley's clock tower even seems to be using a tablet in one of Back to the Future II's other scenes.

An offline future

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It's hard to be too critical, however, when you consider that the World Wide Web was only invented the same year that the film was released, and Tim Berners-Lee did not create its first browser until the following year.

That might explain why CD-Roms and their larger counterparts Laser Discs feature so prominently in piles of rubbish.

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Similarly, in an age before email even got its name, it's perhaps not surprising that the film's futurists imagined we would want to fax from the pavement.

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But even that does not quite explain why the McFlys' home has quite so many fax machines.

Other hits and misses

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Computer-controlled ovens are still a relative rarity - although a robotic chef was indeed one of the highlights of a recent start-up showcase in San Francisco.

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BTTF does score a hit with computer-controlled door locks - Yale was the latest to release such a product earlier this month.

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