What ‘Back to the Future II’ got right (and wrong) about Oct. 21, 2015

By The Washington Post

We have finally made it to the future -- or at least the day in the "future" that Marty McFly goes forward in time to in "Back to the Future II": Oct. 21, 2015. Soon, the entire "Back to the Future" series will have actually taken place in the past.

But just how well did "Back to the Future II" predict our present? Here are a few places where the movie hit -- and missed.

Hoverboards. Perhaps no single piece of predicted technology from the film has caused more buzz than the hoverboard. It was basically a skateboard that floated over the ground instead of using wheels. And we have hoverboards now, sort of. But the versions around now typically need to have a metal course to fly around -- so it's not really useful for the kind of boarding seen in the film.

Handsfree gaming. In a scene at an '80's retro cafe in the movie, kids taunt McFly for playing a video game with his actual hands. And while gaming consoles still come with controllers today, add-ons like the Xbox Kinect have made hands-free gaming a reality.

Video calls. Future McFly gets fired from his job via a video call in the movie -- and that could happen in real life now, thanks to Skype, Facetime, or Google Hangouts.

Flying cars. Cars zoom through the sky (and get caught in air traffic) in "Back to the Future II." But in the real world, cars are still earthbound with the exception of a few prototype vehicles that are more planes you can drive than cars you can fly.

Drones. Smaller flying machines also made ample appearances in the movie: Drones are seen walking dogs and even assisting journalism. In reality, drones are taking off, if you'll pardon the pun, and media organizations arekeen to explore how they could be used to assist newsgathering operations.

Video Glasses. McFly's rude future kids ignore everyone at the dinner table, engrossed in their video glasses. And in the real future, we have "glassholes" too, thanks to Google Glass and the virtual reality revolution currently in process.

Sequels. A "Holotheater" in the movie is showing "Jaws 19." In real life, the Jaws series petered out after the fourth film. But "Back to the Future" did manage to predict that sequels (and reboots) have proliferated in a film industry that likes to bet on a sure thing. And while holographic movies aren't the norm, a 3-D option is pretty standard now for action movies.

Biometrics. In the McFly future, your finger prints can unlock doors and even validate digital payments. That's pretty close to the biometrics boom we're having now -- Apple Pay, for instance, uses a finger print scan to authenticate you for payments. And while newspapers in the fictional future warned about "thumb thieves," in the real world a massive heist of fingerprint data from the Office of Personnel Management has privacy and security experts worried.

Newspapers. Speaking of *cough* newspapers, people are still reading them in "Back to the Future II" -- specifically, USA Today. In the real world, that paper and others have had a bit of a rough time managing the digital transition.

Chicago Cubs. And last but not least, the Chicago Cubs win the World Series in the movie. The Cubs could still technically pull that off -- but they'reone loss away from being out of the National League Championship Series, so it's pretty unlikely they stay on track to win the World Series.