Monday, March 12, 2007

Back to the Future: Part II (1989)

While the most common rhetorical question of paleo-futurism seems to be, "Where's my flying car?" I am personally frustrated with the absence of a much more fun, futuristic innovation. The hoverboard.
In 1989, Back to the Future: Part II gave us a glimpse of 2015 and the next generation of personal, recreational transportation. I remember playing on a skateboard and imagining that in just a few years we'd all be whipping around like Michael J. Fox.

Sony has patented a "Segway-sans-the-handlebars" device, but it appears that we have quite a ways to go before we're hovering. Although, the geniuses at Mythbusters are certainly helping us along.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

The recent Spiderman 3 preview had the entire sequence of Spidy and James Franco's character (sorry, I'm not a comics guy) where Franco flies around on what's essentially the logical progression from BttF's hoverboards. It's a pretty exciting sequence that really takes the hoverboard idea to the next (highest?) level. I'm sure it's on YouTube by now.

Unknown said...

The hoverboard was the movie prop that I wanted more than anything else (of course, a hoverboard with a lightsaber would've been perfect).

BttF II remains one of my favorite Hollywood glimpses of the future, completely with Pepsi Free, TV glasses, and self-adjusting clothes.

Anonymous said...

I Remember that when HBO aired this movie; they aired it with a "special". It was 30 minutes I think. Anyhow, it was about the "making of" for the most part,... and "behind the scenes" stuff, but when they came to discuss the hoverboard scenes, they astoundingly announced that it was a REAL technology and that they were announcing it's invention in the film!!! I actually believed it at the time!... byt I was about 13...

Avatar X said...

it is also my favorite representation of the future..

and we still got 8 years to go, a lot of the future presented there has become true (at least in japan) so, it think we could get most of what we saw there as possible by then.. :P