What 2024 will be like, according to the movies
2024 is predicted to be very different to what Back to the Future promised in 2015
Predicting the future has always been a interesting aspect of cinema, like Back to the Future Part II which imagined 2015 as the year we had flying cars. But what about 2024?
Read more: The most exciting movies of 2024
Well there are several movies set in 2024, the most famous of which are the Phase 4 Marvel movies like Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness and Spider-Man: Far From Home and No Way Home. These films are all set at different points within the year, but because they are grounded in the storytelling of its superhero source material feels separate to what we might expect of the year.
But there are plenty of other films that have taken a guess at what 2024 might be like, and Yahoo has looked back at what these science-fiction narratives have suggested.
Beyond the Time Barrier (1960)
In 1960 nuclear panic is gripped the world, resulting in several films to lean into this as a narrative tool for predicting the future. Beyond the Time Barrier follows U.S. Air Force pilot William Allison (Robert Clarke) who finds a futuristic city known as The Citadel. Through his stay there he learns that he has travelled through time to the year 2024, where Earth's atmosphere has been decimated by nuclear testing that took place in 1971 and created what is known as the cosmic plague.
The cosmic plague has affected both those who were able to escape underground and those that survived above ground, and it has impacted humankind by making them death and mute, they have also been rendered sterile so there hasn't been a birth in two decades.
A Boy and His Dog (1976)
Directed by LQ Jones based on the book of the same name by Harlan Ellison, A Boy and His Dog is set in 2024 America, where nuclear war has left the country devastated. It follows 18-year-old Vic (Don Johnson) as he scavenges across the wasteland of the southwestern states with the help of a telepathic dog.
The film is full of gruesome brutality and sexual violence, but it imagines a world where a utopia has been built around an artificial biosphere where the residents live as if they are in a pre-World War II era. In this society, men are required to help with reproduction rates within the colony via artificial insemination. When Vic is shocked by this he learns that those who don't comply are sent to a "farm" where they are killed, but also finds out that once 35 women have been impregnated by him then he will be sent to the "farm" as well. Talk about bleak.
Underworld Awakening (2012) and Blood Wars (2016)
The Underworld film series imagines a world where Vampires and Lycans exist, the latter being a breed of werewolves. A government programme meant to study the two breeds' powers in order to harness them turns dark when it leads to an all-out purge, leaving both on the brink of extinction when Selene (Kate Beckinsale) wakes up from a forced cryogenic suspension. It's then that she and her fellow vampires must fight the Lycans to survive. Given its supernatural elements it's no surprise this vision of the future didn't take place.
Illang: Wolf Brigade (2018)
Based on Mamoru Oshii's manga and the 1999 Japanese anime Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade, this South Korean film is set in 2024 and 2029. To begin with, 2024 sees South and North Korea agree to reunify after political and territorial disputes in China, South Korea and Japan lead to the latter remilitarising. As the US and Russia move to consolidate its power in East Asia, the reunification of the two Koreas is thwarted at every turn and South Korea is forced into a period of civil unrest, crime and leads to the rise of a terrorist group known as The Sect. A special unit, the Wolf Brigade, are created to stop them.
Songbird (2020)
Inspired by the Covid pandemic, Songbird imagines that 2024 has seen Covid-19 mutate into Covid-23, with society forced into its fourth Quarantine year. As a result the US has resorted to establishing a fascist police state where those that are infected are taken to camps known as Q-Zones. It's a good thing that prediction didn't turn out to be true.
Godzilla Vs Kong (2021)
Another more fantastical vision of the future comes in Godzilla Vs Kong, the fourth film in the MonsterVerse that continues the story following the Kaiju's emergence in 2014's Godzilla. In it, the world has become to be terrorised by Titans that were awakened in Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and this culminates in a battle between King Kong and Godzilla.
Watch a trailer for Godzilla Vs Kong:
