10 Real Tech Inventions The Movies Predicted First

Movies that predicted real tech and inventions underscored a crucial ingredient in creating great science fiction: a keen understanding of how technology really evolves. This allows seemingly impossible innovations in film to still be grounded in reality. Though many of these seemed ludicrous when the movie was released, their respective filmmaker’s vision was validated when the once-fictional tech and inventions later showed up in the real world.

Old-school sci-fi movies that actually predicted the future are quite common throughout cinema history. While scientists need to research and develop new technologies before even considering their viability for public use, filmmakers just need to put pen to paper to breathe life into futuristic inventions. This isn’t to say that these movies conceived of these technologies before real-world scientists and researchers, who had likely already conceptualized similar innovations before filmmakers put them on the screen. However, the tech innovations that the movies predicted first reveal the parallel thinking between real-world innovators and filmmakers whose eyes are dead set on the future.

10 The Smartwatch From Dick Tracy (1990)

• Release Date: 1990-6-15
• Director: Warren Beatty
• Cast: Warren Beatty, Madonna, Al Pacino
• Runtime: 105 minutes

Dick Tracy’s iconic wrist radio first appeared in the original comic strips in the 1940s. Decades later, it featured in Disney’s live-action film adaptation, which is one of the best non-Marvel or DC comic book movies ever. The wrist radio used in Dick Tracy foreshadowed the concept of modern smartwatches. While the movie didn’t invent the smartwatch, the movie positively influenced the cultural perception of wearable technology, planting futuristic seeds of inspiration for tech innovators. Smartwatches evolved independently, but both the original Dick Tracy comic strips and movie helped popularize the idea of portable and wearable communication devices, contributing to the eventual rise of smartwatches in the real world.

9 Autonomous Vehicles From Total Recall (1990)

Johnnycab, the robotic taxi driver in Total Recall, is an exaggerated version of today’s automated vehicles. Offering a glimpse into the possibility of automated transportation, it influenced public perception and inspired thinkers in the field. The movie’s portrayal of vehicles operating without direct human control sparked discussions on automation and its potential in the real world. Even though the Johnnycab taxi scene is played for laughs, Total Recall played a role in shaping the collective imagination around autonomous vehicles, contributing to the ongoing development of driverless transport technologies in the 21st century.

8 3D-Printed Human Organs From Darkman (1990)

• Release Date: August 24, 1990
• Director: Sam Raimi
• Cast: Liam Neeson, Frances McDormand, Colin Friels
• Runtime: 96 minutes

Darkman centers around Dr. Peyton Westlake, who develops a method of creating synthetic skin to help burn victims — 30 years before the real world caught up to the futuristic technology. Today, scientists in the real world are still working on perfecting bioprinting technology that could print not just human skin, but other organs as well. While not foreseeing 3D printing, Darkman explored the idea of creating artificial skin for regenerative purposes. This fictional narrative likely contributed to the broader conversation around advanced medical technologies. Darkman‘s speculative fiction possibly nudged the boundaries of what seemed possible, impacting the trajectory of scientific exploration in regenerative medicine.

7 Video Calling From Metropolis (1927)

• Release Date: 1927-1-10
• Director: Fritz Lang
• Cast: Gustav Fröhlich, Brigitte Helm, Alfred Abel
• Runtime: 153 minutes (original cut)

The first great feature-length sci-fi film, Fritz Lang’s Metropolis wowed audiences from the ’20s with futuristic innovations, including the earliest movie version of the video phone. Considering when the movie was made, some credit Lang with actually inventing video phone calls. However, it’s notable that the film was released in the same year as the invention of the television and over 50 years after the invention of the telephone. This means that, though Lang gets credit for predicting now-common video calling tech, he simply combined the then-new innovations near the beginning of the 20th century, which again exemplifies parallel thinking between future-forward filmmakers and real-world scientists.

6 Wearable & Biometric Devices From Back to the Future Part II (1990)

Back to the Future Part II didn’t invent wearable and biometric devices, but it accurately predicted how such technologies would become increasingly common in the future. While the invention of virtual reality headsets dates back to the ’60s, Back to the Future Part II envisioned how the devices would become streamlined, smaller, and viable for household use. The same is true for the movie’s depiction of biometric security scanners, which are now ordinary features for smartphones. There are many things Back to the Future Part II got right about 2015, but the future of wearable and biometric tech is the movie’s sharpest tech prediction.

5 Personalized Advertising From Minority Report (2002)

Minority Report predicted personalized advertising through its futuristic portrayal of targeted, individualized ads. In a world where retinal scans enabled advertisers to deliver highly personalized messages to individuals, Minority Report accurately foresaw a future where advertising adapts to individual preferences and data — a common marketing strategy today. As a result, the film contributed to discussions about data privacy during the turn of the century. While the reality evolved independently, Minority Report played a role in shaping public awareness and discourse around the potential future of personalized advertising, which is just a symptom of the larger privacy problems highlighted by the sci-fi action movie.

4 The Tablet From 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)

The modern concept of the touchscreen tablet first appeared in classic ’50s sci-fi stories like Isaac Asimov’s Foundation and Arthur C. Clarke’s The Sentinel. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick then gave the world the first cinematic version of the modern tablet in 2001: A Space Odyssey. It’s even eerily accurate how the astronauts of the future are watching their NewsPads while eating in the movie, much like people do with today’s tablets and smartphones. While touchscreen technology has been in development since the early ’60s, it wasn’t until the 21st century that tablets would take over the world, with almost the exact same design as 2001: A Space Odyssey‘s NewsPad.

3 Face Transplants From Face/Off (1997)

• Release Date: 1997-6-27
• Director: John Woo
• Cast: John Travolta, Nicolas Cage, Joan Allen
• Runtime: 138 minutes

Face/Off is a sci-fi crime and action thriller that centers around face transplant surgery, a fictional procedure at the time of its release. The film explores a high-stakes plot involving the swapping of faces between characters. While not a depiction of real medical procedures, it sparked interest and conversations about the possibilities of such radical surgeries. The movie’s imaginative take on face transplants contributed to its appeal and added a unique twist to the action-thriller genre. In reality, face transplant surgeries became viable about a decade after the film’s release, demonstrating the convergence of fiction and scientific progress.

2 Augmented Reality From RoboCop (1987)

• Release Date: 1987-6-17
• Director: Paul Verhoeven
• Cast: Peter Weller, Nancy Allen, Ronny Cox
• Runtime: 102 minutes

The original RoboCop still holds up today as a great sci-fi movie, and a big part of this is the titular cyborg’s POV scenes, which feature an early version of augmented reality. While not a direct representation of modern AR, it executed the concept of digital information overlaid on the physical world. Although the film’s vision was speculative, it played a role in shaping perceptions and discussions about the potential blending of digital and physical realities. Taking inspiration from the HUD units that were being developed for pilots during the same era, RoboCop bridges the gap between the roots and current developments of AR.

1 Artificial Intelligence From The Day the Earth Stood Still (1951)

One of the smartest sci-fi movies of all time, The Day the Earth Stood Still features a robot named Gort, the first true AI in film history. While the earlier film Metropolis includes an intelligent robot antagonist, false Maria was given sentience by being uploaded with a human mind. Meanwhile, though The Day the Earth Stood Still’s Gort does not speak, it is made clear that he is an artificial being capable of executing complex commands and adapting to real-world situations. Curiously, the first real AI program was also released in 1951 (via Britannica), and just like Gort, it predates modern adaptive AI by over 50 years.