Many films interpret a future dominated by flying cars with vast and complicated highways to drive (or to sit back and watch while your car flies for you). The future allows anyone to communicate with anybody at any moment. Books are no longer needed as thoughts and stories and knowledge can be passed with the simple touch of a button.
Some films present the ugly side of the future. The aftermath of the current trajectory of the human race. Identities are usually stripped away. Everyone is a number. Books and other forms of resource or entertainment are banned or destroyed. A computer controls our daily routine. And there's always that cool little montage involving a retina-scan of some kind.
Other films and series, like Star Trek, present the future as a Utopia, where man has gotten past all of its corruption and greed. No monetary system is needed in this future. Humanities main goal is exploration.
And while many of these examples mirror much of what life is like today, only Back to the Future II seems to get the right tone of our modern day. It's the trivial view of the future I appreciate.
Lets start with technology. Do you remember that scene where Marty is walking the streets of Hill Valley and comes upon the town movie theatre? A giant advertisement for Jaws 19 is plastered all over the theatre and suddenly a thirty-foot high, badly animated 3-d image of Jaws pops out of the theatre and takes a huge digital bite at McFly. At the time no one was thinking 3-d anymore. Ironically Jaws 3-D came out and was a huge bomb and most movies that were shot in 3-d were gimmicky at best. Best example would be the end of Jaws 3 where the shark smashes through the glass of a control center and fake shards of glass fly out everywhere with the intent of scaring the hell out of everyone who is watching. If you're watching this right now, just try and not laugh. Our 3-D kicks ass nowadays you might say. Seemingly every movie that comes out is also put out in 3-D, especially with 3-D television being the new reason to sell more tv's. I betcha that if a Jaws 19 were to be made, you could guarantee its coming out in 3-D.
How about that retro restaurant that Marty goes to that has the uber cheesy 50's meets 80's vibe? It's a far more deranged version of Johnny Rockets (single handedly the most terrifying atmosphere ever...ever) , maybe crossed with your normal everyday chain restaurant. How about the overall interest in the Back to Future-future in everything retro? Dust busters, old sports almanacs, preserving old clock towers? Seems like we see a new vintage-style wardrobe every season and new takes on old bits of funny technology, like that very modern looking dust buster that Dirt Devil put out. Remember how McFly was a crackshot at the NES game Wild Gunman? The kids in this scene aren't impressed by his skills because he "had to use his hands!". Well look no further as Microsoft has recently revealed its new Kinect system which will allow players to play games without the need for controllers.
What I'm coming to here people, is that while BTTFII may not have the deep and scathing critiques on modern society in films like Blade Runner and Brazil, it's the most trivially accurate view of the future you'll find in any film. We may not have flying cars or hoverboards...but you know damn well that when the technology comes out for such we'll be seeing a Delorean-Model Flyer, to go with Back to the Future 7 (Now in theatres--in 3-D!).
