Eight Classic (And Not-So-Classic) Sci-Fi Movies Set In 2025

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. Welcome to 2025. It's the future. 

Or rather, it's the present, but 2025 is a nice round number for writers of sci-fi screenplays. It's fun to speculate, and sci-fi writers typically take a version of the present, extrapolate it forward, and present a high-tech utopia or dystopia based directly on what we're going through right now. For writers in the 1950s, sci-fi futures were drawn from present-day booms in travel technology, predicting leaps forward in the development of rockets and space vehicles. For writers in the 1980s, sci-fi futures tended to be nuclear post-apocalyptic wastelands, extrapolated forward from the lingering threat of nuclear annihilation hovering over the Reagan administration. For writers in the 2010s, sci-fi futures were more cell-phone-based, positing worlds where microtechnology telecommunications would invade every aspect of our lives. 

Now we're actually here in 2025, though, and we can see that few of those old writings came to pass. Indeed, from our standpoint, the future is looking positively bleak. There is a lot of authoritarianism to look forward to, and the curtailing of human rights seems to be on the docket worldwide. As such, we would do well to look back at the sci-fi of the past, perhaps merely as a sociological exercise. What did the writers of previous decades think 2025 would look like? Would we be fighting future Nazis, falling in love with computers, or piloting 100-foot Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots?

The following sci-fi movies — some good, some bad — all variously tried to predict 2025. Let's see how accurate they were.

In Guillermo del Toro's actioner, 2013 was the year a portal opened up at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean and a stream of giant Goldzilla-like monsters began pouring out. It took humanity a long time to respond to the threat, but we eventually invented giant robots to fight the monsters away. The robots are very complicated machines, though, and can only be controlled by special wiring that taps directly into the pilots' brains. The two people piloting the robots — called Jaegers — also become psychically linked. By 2025, there will be an elite international fighting force, always standing at the ready, to take down any monsters that come barrelling through. 

Del Toro clearly loves "Godzilla" movies and other Japanese kaiju flicks and merely attempted to make one of his own. "Pacific Rim" is too complicated for its own good, leaning heavy on mythology, and ladling great gobs of backstory onto each one of his characters. A movie about robots fighting monsters in the future shouldn't be this difficult to follow. Also, perhaps to eschew the limitations of the film's digital effects, del Toro staged most of his monster fights at night in the rain, making them visually indistinct and not as much fun to watch. The sequel, "Pacific Rim: Uprising," corrected many of these flaws. 

In concept, however, "Pacific Rim" is enjoyable, and it has attracted a great number of passionate enthusiasts. Luckily, it's not very accurate; I see no kaiju on the horizon. There were additional sequels planned, but sadly, the screenwriter didn't get to do what he wanted with them. 

Spike Jonze's tech-based romance asks questions about artificial intelligence and the place of technology in our lives. Set in a future where the population has exploded and all public places in Los Angeles are a little more crowded, "Her" is about a sad, middle-aged man named Theodore (Joaquin Phoenix) who professionally writes letters for others, and who is about to get a divorce. In order to help him through his professional obligations, he buys Samantha, an artificial assistant who speaks from his cell phone. Samantha (Scarlett Johansson) is hyperrealistic and speaks naturally and conversationally. Theodore and Samantha begin flirting, and it's not long before they have fallen in love. 

In the future of "Her," falling in love with your AI assistant is actually common, and there are conversations about other people who have had similar relationships. "Her" is surprisingly nonjudgmental of Theodore's emotional needs, and Samantha is presented as a fully realized entity. The film had such an impact, that OpenAI unethically imitated Johansson's voice for their virtual assistant after she declined. "Her" brings up sticky and interesting philosophical questions about our personal relationships to technology, but also the nature of human romance. Is this the future we are setting up for ourselves? And is it good or bad? "Her" explores both possibilities.

Of course, if one partner in a relationship has no body, how do they consummate? It turns out there are practical things to consider when dating a computer. 

John Carpenter's 1981 film "Escape from New York" was enough of a hit to spawn a whole subgenre of imitators. Carpenter's film was set in the future of 1997 when the island of Manhattan had been walled off and turned into a high-tech, guard-free prison where prisoners had to fend for themselves. In the many "Escape from New York" knockoffs, the post-apocalypse was equally grim, and New York City was turned into the epicenter of societal entropy. 

In Joe D'Amato's "Endgame: Bronx Final Wars," New York had become irradiated after a nuclear attack. By 2025, the city was crawling with scavengers, rogue motorcycle gangs, and mutant psychics. There are still rich a-holes in charge of the wasteland, however, and they keep the populace placid by broadcasting "Endgame," a lethal TV show on which people hunt each other for prizes. One of the stars of "Endgame" (Al Cliver) gives his masters the slip and aids some psychics through the New York wastelands, out into a safer place where they can live without fear of the police. 

While one might posit that "Endgame" was inspired by nuclear fears, one can see that it's more closely inspired by other cheap B-movies of the era. Not only is it knocking off "Escape from New York," but also "Mad Max" and "The Running Man." Of course, something is charming about films that are this cheap and derivative. Enthusiasts of schlock might want to give this one a look.

The premise and title of "Hot Tub Time Machine" doesn't seem like it would be amusing for anything more than a three-minute short on "Saturday Night Live," but somehow, filmmakers have milked two entire features out of it. The four heroes of "Hot Tub Time Machine" (Rob Corddry, Craig Robinson, Clark Duke, and Adam Scott) have discovered that their jacuzzi has the ability to send them back in time to the year 1986. They discover the social mores of the time and reassess their sexual dynamic with women. In "Hot Tub Time Machine 2," they accidentally use their hot tub to travel forward in time to the year 2025. /Film wrote about its preview, back when it looked like it was going to be a bigger deal.

The 2025 of "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" is a little gross. Notably, the world is entertained by a VR-based reality show wherein a studio audience can force a contestant to do, well, just about anything, including kill and assault each other. I'd say it's a far cry from our current reality, but there are currently TikTokkers who pretend to be NPCs (non-playable characters) who allow fans to control their movement/expressions. There is also an "It's a Wonderful Life" element to "Machine 2," as the four main characters learn how they are going to look and behave in the future, allowing them to rethink their choices in the present. 

The screenplay for "Hot Tub Time Machine 2" is more thoughtful than the title would lead one to believe, but it's still not very good. It kind of bombed in 2015, and now lives on as mere fodder for streaming services. 

Cirio H. Santiago's 1988 martial arts film begins in the year 2025, which is, as one might immediately predict, a post-nuclear hellscape. The story involves a political dissident who seeks to Spear of Destiny (the one said to have pierced Christ's side during the crucifixion) and the magical powers it contains. Fleeing a hostile futuristic warlord, the dissident (Richard Norton) travels back in time to 1988 and passes the spear to an innocent young couple who happens to be passing by. The couple is played by Robert Patrick and Linda Carol. They are tasked with reuniting the spear with its shaft, which will somehow undo its magic or something.

"Future Hunters" is a B-movie bouillabaisse of random action movie clichés. There is a kung-fu master, an army of sexy Amazons, and a team of Nazis in the mix. While it has a lot of martial arts fights and elements of science fiction, "Future Hunters" was clearly inspired by "Raiders of the Lost Ark," what with its mystical artifact and ancient-tomb-directed fetch-quest. 

As these things go, "Future Hunters" is better than your average B-movie. It's praised for its energy and innovation, which stand out over the film's cheap production values. True, only a portion of the film takes place in 2025, but that only adds to the film's overall variety. Also, Robert Patrick fans can see him when he was still rising to fame, playing a bland hero type with as much aplomb as he could muster. 

Schlock-lovers everywhere are likely intimately familiar with The Asylum, a low-budget film studio best known for their mockbusters (that is; clear and open imitations of contemporary blockbuster movies). Just as there was a "Pacific Rim," The Asylum churned out the zero-budget knockoff "Atlantic Rim." They did their own "Aladdin." Their sales model seems to be based on tricking consumers into renting their movies, confusing them for the genuine article. 

At least "2025 Armageddon" acknowledged that model, as one of the film's opening plot points was two twin sisters (Jhey Castles and Lindsey Marie Wilson) bonding over the Asylum movie "Snakes on a Train," which their grandmother rented for them, thinking it was "Snakes on a Plane." 

The purpose of "2025 Armageddon" was to gather the many absurd monsters from multiple other Asylum films, and assemble them in a single gigantic crossover event akin to "Destroy All Monsters." The film features the Mega Piranha from "Mega Piranha," the Mega Shark from "Mega Shark," robot monsters from both "Atlantic Rim" and "Transmorphers," and the croc monster from "Mega Shark Versus Crocosaurus." There's even a Sharknado for good measure. These creatures are all manifesting in the real world after a species of aliens watched a bunch of Asylum movies, and mistook them for reality. They used their high-tech monster-making machines to populate the Earth with Asylum monsters, as God intended. 

Michael Paré appears, of course, because it was either him or Eric Roberts.

Takashi Miike's 2004 film "Zebraman" has a weird premise on paper, but it's a surprisingly downbeat film in practice. The hero of the title (Show Aikawa) was a big fan of a silly 1970s tokusatsu series called "Zebraman," and secretly dresses as Zebraman at night as a means of escaping his horrible home life (his wife openly cheats, his teen daughter dates adults, and his son hates him). The first half of the movie is Aikawa's personal journey toward self-discovery. Of course, there will be an actual alien invasion, and Zebraman will develop actual superpowers. 

Miike returned in 2010 to make "Zebraman 2: Attack on Zebra City," a wilder, futuristic thriller set in 2025. Aikawa returns, this time, surviving under the authoritarian yoke of the new governor of Tokyo, which, thanks to the events of the first film, is now called Zebra City. Similar to "The Purge," there is a daily five-minute period in Zebra City where the police can commit whatever acts of brutality they want without consequence. Zebraman loses his memory and must team up with an old friend to rescue the new superheroine Zebra Queen, and eventually, the world. 

Miike is one of the most prolific filmmakers of all time, sometimes turning out as many as six feature films in a single year. He is best known for his use of extreme violence and surrealism, as in films like "Audition," "Ichi the Killer," and "Gozu," but has also made dramas, adventure films, and historical epics. "Zebraman" is an odd duck, and its sequel is even wilder. If 2025 turns out like this movie, we can all rest assured that a man dressed as a zebra will save the world from fascism.