In the '90s, people thought that the 21st century would immediately bring on the next total technological revolution: we'd be flying through the air or teleporting ourselves to the grocery store. That may not be the case just yet, but the best sci-fi films of the '90s predicted inventions that are now in existence. We can enter virtual reality like in the Matrix movies, and talk to our household appliances via the Internet of Things.
The Back to the Future trilogy predicted quite a few of our current technologies. There's glasses that look like precursors to Google Glass
Another cult series set in the future is Star Trek, which featured many devices similar to those we might now consider commonplace: smartphones, tablets, and e-books like the ones brought to us by Amazon
In Star Trek they often communicate with computers using just their voices, which we can do too thanks to Siri from Apple and Google Now. There are also automatic translators that can translate many languages into English, with the exception of Klingon. Star Trek is a treasure trove of inspiration for R&D departments, from holograms (now imagined via Project Holodeck VR) to the possibility of teleportation.
These sci-fi predictions don't just hold for our 21st century technologies, but also our way of life. In Gattaca (1997), we are introduced to a future world where genetics have become a way of segregating society, and now it is possible to both manipulate and detect damaged genes.
And while we're far from the Matrix, we can enter virtual reality in video games or simulations.
Some other film prophecies: autonomous cars like in Total Recall and Minority Report are now being created by Google via Waymo.
Film and television have contributed to the rise and popularity of new technologies, from email (You've Got Mail) to the Truman Show, which predicted not only reality TV but a society where we are closely monitored. With all the movie predictions that have come true, perhaps its really just a matter of time before we're teleporting home.
