Happy New Year, everyone! I don't know if you stayed up late, but I didn't. I'm in the midst of a pretty wonderful conference called SHINE, which is put on by Actors, Models and Talent for Christ - an organization that has been training my son throughout this year in preparation for a career as an actor. So it's very much a work week for us here in Orlando, and it's going to be close to 80 and sunny today too!
So yeah, I was up at 5 a.m. getting ready for a full day. Hopefully you were sleeping, but not sleeping anything off if you know what I mean.
At any rate, there's not much news today apart from the official end of Harry Reid's reign of terror as Senate Majority Leader, and I've never been much for New Years Resolutions. But I am very much for something else - the Back to the Future trilogy. These have been my favorite movies since they came out, and I've seen the entire trilogy hundreds of times. So yes, the arrival of 2015 is a pretty cool event for someone who's been watching the fictionalized version for many years and wondered how much the real one might resemble it.
Now before we get into this, let's keep in mind: The things we saw in Back to the Future Part II were never intended as predictions. Zemeckis and Gale were trying to create a fun and interesting future that would entertain people with a lot of references to contemporaneous times (the film was made in 1989) and also make people think about what might be possible. If you paid attention, you caught pop culture references in the film, like a headline mentioning "Queen Diana" and the signature of "Kirk Gibson Jr." on Griff's bat. Ironically, the Queen Diana reference probably seemed much more likely to come true. Had Diana lived, of course, she would not be queen today because a) Queen Elizabeth is still alive; and b) she was divorced from Prince Charles before her death. By contrast, there actually is a Kirk Gibson Jr., and he did play ball at one point - but he never got close to the majors and he was a pitcher.
But like I said, none of these were meant as predictions. You weren't really supposed to think they would make 19 Jaws movies. It was just a poke at how movie sequels get out of control - which was pretty funny coming in a film that was a sequel itself, and was soon to be followed by another one.
So with that in mind, how prescient were Zemeckis and Gale? In some ways, very:
It's not as widespread - yet - as depicted in the film, but the technology to identify oneself via the thumbprint is definitely in the offing. We're not yet to the point where you can perform financial transactions with it, but I can see it happening at some point.
The binoculars Doc used to track down Marty Jr. in the town square look an awful lot like today's smart phones with a specialized app, although there's no evidence the device can also take pictures, make phone calls, etc. In fact, the prevalence of pay phones in the town square shows the producers failed to anticipate the almost total demise of that cultural icon.
I don't know if you can "surf Vietnam," but it's a lot more open than it was in the '80s.
A lot of people talk about this one, but yes, laser discs are obsolete. They've been obsolete for so long, though, I don't think you're likely to find a gigantic pile of discarded ones in the alley this morning.
That whole natural overhaul Doc got? Have you seen Daryl Hall lately? Dude is 68 years old.
Gigantic flat screen TVs that can show more than one channel at a time? Check.
Video phone calls? Skype and Facetime rule the day in the Hill Valley of 2015. And that crazy visor Marty Jr. is wearing at dinner has Google Glass written all over it.
About the Cubs winning the World Series, presumably the idea here was that through the 2014 season it would still not have happened - check - thus making its occurrence in 2015 truly historic and noteworthy. Is it possible? They did hire a big-time manager in Joe Maddon, and signed a big-time starting pitcher in Jon Lester. If the Cubs are to contend in 2015, though, it will have more to do with the maturation of their younger talent. I'm not sure that can happen fast enough to overtake the Cardinals in the National League Central this year, although any team that manages to sneak into the postseason as a wild card has a shot, as the Giants and Royals showed us last year.
By the way, there is now a Major League team in Miami, but they're not called the Gators and they won't be playing the Cubs in the World Series (although they've already won two of their own) because they're also in the National League.
It's perhaps more fun to snicker at the things in the film that were way off, like the prevalence of fax machines and all the print newspapers everywhere. And of course, flying cars are not common and we still don't quite have hoverboards, although it could be closer than you think.
Finally, since I guess this is a political site, there is not much about politics in the BTTF trilogy (and for that we can all be thankful), but it's worth noting that at the end of the film the restored newspaper headline that signals the success of Doc's and Marty's mission is that Ronald Reagan is once again president.
Ah yes. Dare to dream, and welcome to 2015!
