Today, some kid named Marty McFly will arrive (or already has) in a flying car.
Oct. 21, 2015, is when the first act of Back to the Future Part II is set. In the sequel, Marty McFly goes forth and back in time, and complications ensue. It’s a 2015 that’s different from the one we know now — but not that different.
On one hand, in the movie, electric cars quietly hum around the streets. We’ve got those. A hologram for Jaws 19 pops out of a theater marquee and freaks Marty out. You can find holograms like that on the Atlantic City Boardwalk. When bad guy Griff gets arrested for wrecking the clock tower near the lake? A drone takes his picture for USA Today. And the Chicago Cubs, in the Back to the Future universe, win the World Series in 2015. As of right now, they can still make that happen.
Of course, there’s a lot of stuff that Back to the Future Part II doesn’t get right. Our cars don’t fly. Our shoes don’t tie themselves. Our clothes don’t blow dry themselves, either. And what we call “hoverboards” today don’t really hover, if we’re going to be honest.