How Filmmakers of the Past Imagined The Future

Our vision of the future has changed much over the last century. In “A Look Back At The Future In Film,” Las Vegas-based video editor Robert Jones compiled clips from classic sci fi movies, showing how filmmakers dating back to the silent era imagined the years to come. The supercut is filled with robots, spaceships, aliens, and laser guns from nearly every decade of the 20th century. 

Covering an impressive amount of sci-fi territory over the course of three short minutes, the video features clips from Fritz Lang's 1927 masterpiece Metropolis, Bong Joon-ho's 2013 dystopian Snowpiercer, and everything in between. It’s interesting to note that many of these films have a pretty dark vision of the future: Lang’s Metropolis and Bong’s Snowpiercer both imagine a stratified world in which the rich have all the resources, while the poor are literally left in the dark. Other films, meanwhile, depict persecuted robots (1982's Blade Runner, 2001's AI: Artificial Intelligence), ultra-violent humans (1971's A Clockwork Orange), and a world run by apes (1968's Planet of the Apes). 

But, fortunately, not all of the films are so pessimistic: There’s also the touching techno-love story in Spike Jonze’s 2013 Her, and of course, the rock and roll future of Bill and Ted’s Excellent Adventure (1989), where everyone has learned how to be excellent to each other, and party on. The supercut provides a fascinating look into the last century's vision of the future, as well as some pretty good movie recommendations. Check it out above.

[h/t: Gizmodo]