Steven Spielberg’s tech-heavy “Minority Report,” starring Tom Cruise, is now 15 years old. Considered one of the most prescient sci-fi movies to grace the big screen, it predicted multiple future innovations, including facial recognition, personalize advertising and predictive crime fighting. In honor of the movie’s anniversary, click through here to revisit 18 more movies that accurately peered into the future of technology:
We’re so used to touch screens at this point — we use them every day on our smart phones, and even at McDonald’s — that it’s easy to forget that Tom Cruise used the technology in “Minority Report.”
Long before Siri, there was HAL. The ominous yet soft-spoken computer system was the antagonist in 1968’s “2001: A Space Odyssey.” Stanley Kubrick’s sinister talking computer ended up turning on its crew in a Siri user’s worst nightmare.
Tech giant Elon Musk is at the helm of SpaceX, which will send two tourists to space in 2018. But “2001: A Space Odyssey” imagined commercial space travel decades ago.
Elon Musk, Google and Uber have been duking it out to bring self-driving cars to the masses, but Arnold Schwarzenegger might have jumpstarted the competition when he took a robot-controlled ride in 1990’s “Total Recall.”
“The Terminator” predicted military drones in 1984 — long before they were introduced to police forces and militaries.
Virtual reality is taking over the tech scene. You can play games in VR, watch movies and experience Coachella all from the comfort of your living room. But Hollywood predicted we’d have VR more than 20 years ago in 1992’s “Lawnmower Man.”
The 1982 cult classic “Blade Runner,” starring Harrison Ford, predicted digital billboards, which you can see now all over the country, from Times Square in New York to the Vegas strip.
Remember when the TSA rolled out invasive body scanners and a lot of people freaked out? “Airplane II: The Sequel” imagined airport scanners that revealed a person’s naked body to agents.
Just like other industries, robots are taking over jobs in the military, too. There are even listicles outlining the “coolest” military robots. “Short Circuit” predicted this technology with the prototype robot Number 5.
Woody Allen’s “Sleeper” had robots assisting surgeons by offering advice during surgery. Today, doctors use robotics to add precision to procedures.
The beloved 1960s cartoon “The Jetsons” — which was made into a movie in 1990 — predicted the use of robots to clean homes. They had a robotic vacuum and a robotic maid. Can you say Roomba?
In vitro fertilization and at-home genetic testing are common place these days. “Gattaca,” with Uma Thurman and Ethan Hawke, predicted this tech in 1997.
3D printing is used today in industries ranging from aerospace to medical. In “Weird Science,” the boys 3D printed an actual girl.
We know how dangerous cyber warfare is, and countless companies have been hacked recently. 1983’s “WarGames” with Matthew Broderick is all about a kid who walks the line between gaming and reality.
FaceTime, and Skype before it, are commonplace today. But it was cool new technology in 1989’s “Back to the Future Part II.”
There are a ton of different options out there for smart watches. This was predicted in 1990’s “Dick Tracy.”
It’s so easy to order Domino’s online — you can even watch how far along in the process your pizza is. In 1995’s “The Net” with Sandra Bullock, they showed ordering pizza online for the first time.
Tinder, Bumble and OKCupid are only a few of the many, many online dating options out there. But Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks were on the forefront of the online dating trend in “You’ve Got Mail.”
VR porn is growing in popularity. Or as it’s called in 1993’s “Demolition Man” — “digitized transference of sexual energies.”
The 1929 movie “Woman in the Moon” predicted space travel. Obviously, we hit that milestone decades ago. And hey, they even got the shuttle shape right!
