History Main / FailedFutureForecast

* In ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'', an ad for a cryogenic storage company in the 80s promises that by 1997, Manhattan will be a maximum-security prison, [[IWantMyJetpack off-world colonies will be established by 2019]], and [[TechnologyMarchesOn the billionth Betamax will be sold in 2052]].

* In ''Manga/TheKurosagiCorpseDeliveryService'', an ad for a cryogenic storage company in the 80's promises that by 1997, Manhattan will be a maximum-security prison, [[IWantMyJetpack off-world colonies will be established by 2019]], and [[TechnologyMarchesOn the billionth Betamax will be sold in 2052]].

* ''Literature/LookingBackward'', published in 1888, predicted that by 2000 the US, Europe, and much of the world overall would be socialist. Not only did this not happen, but most socialist states collapsed in the late 80's/early 90's. However, it did accurately predict skyscrapers, credit cards, and television.
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* Both the book and [[Film/ThingsToCome the movie]] of Creator/HGWells's ''Literature/TheShapeOfThingsToCome'' predicted that UsefulNotes/WorldWarII would lead to the collapse of civilization and the rise of a technocratic new world order. Among Wells's howlers was the prediction that the German army would be fought to a standstill by Poland.

-->The human race, to which so many of my readers belong, has been playingat children's games from the beginning, and will probably do it till the end, which is a nuisance for the few people who grow up. And one of the games to which it is most attached is called,"Keep to-morrow dark," and which is also named (by the rustics in Shropshire, I have no doubt) "Cheat the Prophet." The players listen very carefully and respectfully to all that the clevermen have to say about what is to happen in the next generation. The players then wait until all the clever men are dead, and bury them nicely. They then go and do something else. That is all. For a race of simple tastes, however, it is great fun.

** MillenniumBug: With some exceptions, our computers did not all crash and burn on January 1, 2000.

--> -- '''UsefulNotes/WinstonChurchill'''

* ''DestroyAllMonsters'', released in 1968, guessed that by 1999 humanity would have a base established on the moon and the technology needed to keep nearly a dozen {{kaiju}} in containment on a small chain of islands. Of course, some films in the {{Godzilla}} universe depict technology even more advanced than that already existing in the 1960s, but continuity was never the franchise's strong point.

** The sequel, ''Film/EscapeFromLA'', predicted that in 2000 a massive earthquake would separate a chunk of California from the mainland, creating a new island, which also became a penal colony. This was followed by the president moving the capital to Lynchburg, Virginia, making his term lifelong, and reshaping the US into a puritanical hellhole where things like alcohol, cigarettes, and pre-marital sex are crimes worth of the death sentence.

* ''Film/DeathRace2000'' presents the turn of millennium as a barbaric period where millions of people gather around their televisions to gleefully cheer on racers as they run over and kill innocent pedestrians to earn points. [[Film/DeathRace The remake}}, released in 2008, predicted that by 2012 the economy would have collapsed so severely that prisons would become massively overcrowded, making it profitable for prisoners to compete in lethal races.

* "[[CatchPhrase You will.]] And the company that'll bring it to you: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5MnQ8EkwXJ0 AT&T."]] Many of the technologies shown in this 1993 ad campaign exist today, but a lot of them are brought to us by Google, not AT&T. CRT monitors, sending a ''fax'' from a tablet, and video phone booths are hilariously dated concepts.

* Creator/KAApplegate's ''Literature/{{Remnants}}'' series has Earth struck by a planet-killing asteroid in 2011. Though funnily enough a much more minor prediction in the book ''did'' come true: that the United States would have [[BarackObama a black president]] in 2011 (though a man, not a woman).

* ''The Man Who Saw Tomorrow'', a 1981 SpeculativeDocumentary about Nostradamus, has become an amusing example of this trope. [[BlatantLies Apparently, we're in the late stages of World War III right now, New York City is a radioactive crater, Ted Kennedy was the Democratic presidential candidate a while back, and Loma Prieta's Quake of '89 happened in '88.]] {{This Is the Part Where}} we explain that Nostradamus typically made his predictions so vague as to be interpretable six ways from Sunday in a successful bid to stay off the ChurchPolice's radar.

* The predictions Creator/{{Nostradamus}} made in ''Literature/TheProphecies'' were, as previously mentioned, usually pretty darn vague, but he did have a few unambiguous ones. For instance, his very specific prophecy for July 1999 -- he could only have dated it more precisely if he'd specified which day of the month -- which completely and utterly failed to happen. Paris was not, in fact, smitten by winged terror from the skies. Or if it was, they kept quiet about it.

* TheGreatPoliticsMessUp: A major historical event is not foreseen, making the prediction impossible. The classic example is writers during the ColdWar not predicting the breakup of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union in 1989 and 1991 respectively.

* Creator/GeorgeOrwell's ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'': Although there are some concepts in the novel that we'd be wise to heed as milder versions have crept into RealLife ("Orwellian" political euphemisms or doublespeak, control of information and "the memory hole", increased surveillance and "Total Information Awareness", perpetual war and war footing, etc.), the developed world in 1984 wasn't divided into three totalitarian superstates (although the Third World, in terms of ColdWar proxy wars, bore some similarity to that geographical southern quadrant constantly fought over by the three big powers as described in the novel), and the West at any rate wasn't living anywhere near the level of oppression as described in the setting of Airstrip One (Britain), Oceania.

* ''Series/DoctorWho'': A stranger in a suit and duster did not, in fact, carry the Olympic Torch in the final leg of the 2012 Summer Olympics.

* ValuesDissonance: Changes in a society's attitudes occur in a different way and/or different areas than predicted or else had not been predicted to occur at all. Or maybe society tried the changes the author endorsed, only to reject them as doing more harm than good.

Before adding examples, please make sure it doesn't fit better under one of the subtropes, which include:

* JustForFun/ApocalypseDayPlanner: The world continues to exist despite many predictions to the contrary. Two subtypes common enough for their own tropes are:

!!Examples:

* HistoryMarchesOn: Improved understanding of historical events renders the prediction outdated.

--> -- '''WinstonChurchill'''

* ValuesDissonance: Changes in a society's attitudes occur in a different way and/or different areas than predicted or else had not been predicted to occur at all.

* ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'': By 1997 the United States has become a totalitarian theocracy, and NewYorkCity is a penal colony.

* ApocalypseDayPlanner: The world continues to exist despite many predictions to the contrary. Two subtypes common enough for their own tropes are:

* CrystalSpiresAndTogas: In major cities the first half is often true, but the latter continues to be unpopular.

* The New Breed, a 1986 tag team who claimed to be from 2002, said (among other things) that DustyRhodes was President of the US in the future. They also thought that [=LazorTron=] (Hector Gurerro) was real because in their time there really were robots.