Sci-Fi Movies That Predicted Our Present (2 of 6)

Inception

Even dreams aren’t safe anymore. In Inception (2010), characters enter others’ dreams to steal secrets or plant ideas. In 2021, researchers actually communicated with lucid dreamers in real-time using eye movements and facial twitches. Then in 2024, a startup called A Space enabled two people in separate houses to “talk” to each other while dreaming. With the help of AI and MRI scans, scientists are also beginning to decode dream imagery. That “someday” is starting to look like “soon.”

Contagion

Steven Soderbergh’s Contagion (2011) looked like an exaggerated what-if scenario until COVID-19 hit in 2020. A virus emerging from China, a global fear of bats, nationwide lockdowns, media chaos, and so much misinformation and tinfoil hat conspiracy theories – the film predicted it all. It became a survival manual in the middle of a real-world pandemic, although people still didn’t get the message.