Movies have incredible visions of the future, ripped off poorly from sci-fi books' incredible visions of the future. But as the history of tomorrow catches up with the present of yesterday, today's past becomes the tomorrow of the future (following me so far?). Predictions carved out by starving screenwriters living on steady diets of HG Welles, Jules Verne and psychedelic drugs sometimes don't pan out the way they thought they would. So we are left scratching our heads wondering "hey what happened?" Where exactly is this future they promised us? Shouldn't we have flying cars by now? Hollywood's sure made some pretty silly predictions. Let's look at the cinematic futures that didn't make it.

(for the record: I for one welcome our new robot masters, so long as they all look like Darryl Hannah and Sean Young)

2001: A Space Odyssey
What we're missing: Let's get the obvious out of the way. 2001 has come and gone. We still have no giant orbiting space stations, no long-distance flight, no menacing computers, and no grand epic Johann Straus concertos accompanying aristocratic future living (something known as the Star Trek law of pop culture: in the future, people are boring, pretentious snobs who only listen to classical music, read Shakespeare, and play chess).
Why we're missing it: In a word: money. It's expensive sending things into space (Challenger), and equally expensive getting them back (Columbia). And no one wants to foot the bill for it anymore. Besides, the Space Race was never about science. It was about looking good in front of the communists, an international version of trying to impress your friends by getting to first base with Cindy at the Junior high dance. That, and no desire to look for giant monoliths on other planets (I mean, who would want to if all they're going to do is accelerate our species into a new level of comprehension and understanding? Do we really need omnipotent awareness and universal consciousness in our lives?). As for the computer thing, technically we already have computers far more powerful than HAL; we're just not stupid enough to put them in charge of everything.

Bill & Ted's Excellent Adventure
What we're missing: Utopia, by the sounds of it. Bill & Ted were supposed to lead us all into a new era of era-ness based on squealing air guitar music and California surfer slang. Everyone in the future ultimately comes across the great realization that the true path to righteousness is apparently banging your head, flashing the devil sign and yelling out "Wyld Stallyns ROCKS!" whenever you can find the time to. It's so right, so pristine, so perfect. How could we be deceived?
Why we're missing it: Actually, for what it's worth, Bill & Ted probably did more to kill 80's heavy metal excess than foster it. Maybe the first mistake was making the whole music, style and culture something that will be officially sanctioned and supported by the establishment. For the trendy teenage rebel, that's practically a primal sin. Also, the heinous mistake of portraying future societies (even totally awesome, rad-to-the-max ones) as having no cultural diversity whatsoever, where everyone is excellent to each other and will always party on. Not to worry, though. Since we have yet to hear about the lip-synching scandal of the Reaper's solo album, I think we're safe from the evil spectre of a groadie, gag-me-with-a-spoon bogus future. Like, whatever. It will probably be pretty def.

The Terminator
What we're missing: They had it down to the exact date: August 29, 1997. Three billion human lives lost. Miles Dyson's neural net microprocessor becomes self-aware at 2:14am eastern time, declares humans as the enemy, and wages a mecha jihad on mankind. The ensuing war against the machines, if not for the whole near-extinction of mankind thing, was so god damn cool that toy manufacturers have yet been able to impress kids since with their new line of GI Joe weapons that can hit everything but their intended targets.
Why we're missing it: A future hell ruled by evil machines might still happen. We haven't gotten the whole self-aware computer thing yet, but already parallel processors and other advancements in really really tiny technology thingies allow hardware to write their own software. More and more these days it's getting increasingly difficult to discern between a human and a robot. In addition, 1010110110001010100100010101010100010100101111001000111.

Mad Max
What we're missing: The scenario is still quite plausible, but Mad Maxians predicted it would happen sometime in the 90s. A dispute between nuclear heavyweights India and Pakistan leads to world War III. Superpower Australia gets involved for some reason, and then everyone else launches nukes because it's the fashionable thing to do during the apocalypse. The world thereafter is a barren desert taken over by punk culture, and everyone fights for steel and oil while wearing hockey pads and driving 1974 Ford Falcons.
Why we're missing it: Because we don't need another hero. We don't need to know the way home. All we want is life beyond the Thunderdome.

The Matrix
What we're missing: You really think that's air you're breathing?
Why we're missing it: The idea that life is just a simulation and everything you know is wrong has been toted around by solipsists, illuminatists and your parents since the day you were hatc…err, born. But that's not the real reason why there is no Matrix and we're not really in pods full of amniotic fluid plugged into a power plant drawn by HR Giger. No, the real reason is far simpler than that. It's Keanu Reeves. I can accept a cyber punk ethos where super skills are uploaded into your brain. I can accept a machine race that is so inept at accruing sources of power that it's resorted to harvesting human synapses for sustenance. I can even accept the transference of human consciousness through telephone lines. But I can't accept the delusional supposition that Keanu Reeves is some genius computer hacker. Just look at him in that one scene in his office, right before he's handed the cell phone. What is he doing? His monitor isn't even on. His desk is clean. What kind of company is that, anyway? Get to work, you slacker. You aren't The One yet.

Robocop
What we're missing: Mastery of cybernetic-organic interfacing, public services under the care and control of intimidating corporations, a one-dimensional criminal element who pursue mirth and mayhem purely for its own sake, television advertising and programming even more insidiously daft than our own 3am infomercials, $20 million dollar military-grade war death machines that can be defeated by a simple change in terrain elevation, and Detroit as the baddest motherfucking city on the planet.
Why we're missing it: Well, other than the Detroit part, all that is complete and total hogwash. There's no way anyone would be able to buy anything for a dollar in the future. This is all just batshit loony fantasy junk.

Anime (any anime, doesn't matter)
What we're missing: People running around yelling things a lot, making a whole bunch of shit blow up.
Why we're missing it: Giant robots, children controlling the fate of the world, Tokyo getting destroyed by a giant monster, voluptuous little girls in school outfits, small robots combining to form bigger robots who then transform into guns, Neo Tokyo getting destroyed by a nuclear explosion, children controlling the fate of giant robots, voluptuous little girls in tight clothing, Neo Tokyo IV getting destroyed by a giant monster's nuclear explosion fighting a giant robot transformed into a gun being controlled by voluptuous little girls in tight clothing, for the fate of the world....... Japan is fucking weird, man.