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OceanGate tragedy and 'The Simpsons' -

On June 18, 2023, the Titan submersible, operated by the American tourism and exploration firm OceanGate, tragically imploded while on a mission to explore the wreck of the Titanic in the North Atlantic Ocean near Newfoundland, Canada.

Fans of 'The Simpsons' couldn't help but notice that the disaster is reminiscent of an episode released in 2006. The episode sees Homer reunite with his long-lost father, Mason Fairbanks, who salvages lost treasure from the ocean floor for a living. He takes Homer with him on an expedition and the two descend in small submarines, finding the wreckage of an old ship. However, things go wrong when Homer loses sight of Mason, and then finds his own sub trapped as his oxygen supply reaches a critical level. Luckily, Homer wakes up in the hospital surrounded by his family. The episode was written by Mike Reiss, who in 2022 took a trip on the OceanGate submersible.

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'Armageddon' (1998) -

On November 23, 2021, NASA oversaw a historic rocket launch. The agency was testing its first-ever asteroid defense mission, aiming to redirect a non-threatening asteroid. They called it “the world’s first full-scale planetary defense test, demonstrating one method of asteroid deflection technology.” It's hard not to think of Bruce Willis' 1998 action movie 'Armageddon' when the word asteroid is mentioned... It seems like NASA is finally preparing for an 'Armageddon' scenario, more than 20 years after the movie was released! 

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'Burn After Reading' (2008) -

The film 'Burn After Reading' (2008), about two gym employees (played by Frances McDormand and Brad Pitt) in Washington, D.C. who try to sell CIA information to the Russian embassy, is one such phenomenon. The Coen brothers' film started trending in 2021 after Politico announced that "The FBI is investigating a claim that a PA woman who rioted at the Capitol on January 6 stole a laptop from Speaker Pelosi's office and intended to sell it to the Russians." Does life imitate art, or is this just a really bad sequel?

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'The Simpsons' -

'The Simpsons' has a long history of predicting future events. From the invention of FaceTime to Donald Trump's presidency, there are some that are funny coincidences  and others, like Russia's invasion of Ukraine on February 24. It was foreshadowed in a 1998 episode entitled 'Simpson Tide,' in which Homer ends up on a submarine during a military exercise and accidentally fires the captain out of the vessel and into Russian waters. Russia immediately retaliates by sending troops and tanks to take over the streets of Berlin and resurrect the Berlin Wall.

The showrunner, Al Jean, says that he and the writers of 'The Simpsons' grew up during the Cold War with the shadow of the Soviet Union and threats of nuclear war hanging over their heads. To him, a storyline about a shocking Russian invasion "is sadly more the norm than it is a prediction."

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'The Simpsons' -

In a 1993 episode, 'Marge in Chains,' a virus called Osaka Flu takes over Springfield after residents order juicers from Asia (more specifically, Japan). In that same episode, a box is knocked over that releases killer bees (2020's murder hornets?). What's more, a news reporter in a helicopter is heard repeatedly saying “going around and around,” which some conspiracy theorists are saying foreshadowed Kobe Bryant's death in a helicopter crash. 

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'Contagion' (2011) -

The Steven Soderbergh epidemiology thriller, which features Gwyneth Paltrow as patient zero, an outbreak linked to an infected bat starts in China before killing people across the globe with flu-like symptoms. Sound familiar?

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'Outbreak' (1995) -

'Contagion' isn't the only film that brings to mind the coronavirus. Medical disaster film 'Outbreak' focuses on a fictional Ebola-like virus that spreads beyond its country of origin to threaten the United States. The plot line speculates how far military and civilian agencies might go to contain the spread of a deadly, contagious disease.

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'Children of Men' (2006) - A plague of infertility strikes humanity. Although this hasn't happened as dramatically in the real world, studies show that between the years of 1970 and 2014, many countries have experienced lower fertility rates.

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'1984' (1984) -

This movie is based on the book by George Orwell. In the story, people are controlled by a totalitarian regime, in a nation engaged in an endless war. This story could be compared to the real life situation of the 'endless' war against terrorism and the revelations that the NSA was spying on citizens.

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'Hackers' (1995) - The movie was able to predict the ease of deciphering weak passwords and the rise of cybercrime and networks of hackers.

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'Gattaca' (1997) - In this futuristic movie, people can order a DNA home-testing kit. It is now possible to do this.

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'Weird Science' (1985) - This movie takes place in 1985 and involves the story of two teenagers who create a perfect, artificial woman out of magazine cut-outs and a computer. Although 3D printers still do not allow the creation of people, they have been able to create guns.

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'Return of the Jedi' (1983) -

This 1983 movie includes flying speeder bikes. These vehicles now exist.

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'Westworld' (2016–2022) - The 1973 movie was about an amusement park in a desert where people go live out their fantasies. It has recently been remade as a hit TV show. Similarly, Disney has announced their intention to create a theme park based on the 'Stars Wars' universe where people can dress in costume and live out various adventures.

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'The Terminator' (1984) - The 1984 movie featured unmanned aerial drones that are now used by armies from all over the world.

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'Gremlins 2: The New Batch' (1990) -

The movie takes place at Clump Tower (a play on Trump Tower). The tower has automatic lights and doors and predicted the arrival of the smart home.

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'Minority Report' (2002) -

In this sci-fi thriller, police can apprehend criminals based on foreknowledge provided by psychics, thus preventing any wrongdoing before it happens. Gesture-based computing features prominently in the film, but in reality was still in early stages of development.

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'Jetsons: The Movie' (1990) - Although flying cars still do not exist, the 1990 animated movie shows automatic vacuum cleaners, digital newspapers, and video calls.

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'Escape from New York' (1981) -

The futuristic movie from 1981 may have failed in most of its predictions but it got one thing right: holograms.

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'A Clockwork Orange' (1971) -

Once banned, this film focuses on how a city suffers at the hands of gangs that commit various types of crimes. There is a prison that allows inmates to be released after being brainwashed. Although this exact concept doesn't exist, in Tennessee, there is a prison that reduces the sentence of its prisoners if they agree to a vasectomy.

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'Darkman' (1990) -

The use of medical technology is central to this sci-fi crime melodrama, and it's way ahead of its time with the reference to synthetic skin and the use of 3D printers to create human organs, including skin—technology that's in use today.

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'Game of Death' (1978) -

In the movie, Bruce Lee's character suffers an accident when a gun goes off and shoots him. Many years later, the actor's son, Brandon Lee, was fatally shot while filming a movie. Bruce Lee himself died during the filming of 'Game of Death,' which was eventually completed in 1978 using stand-ins for Lee's character.

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'RoboCop' (1987) -

We might not yet have Robocops patrolling the streets, however, what the movie did get right was the use of facial recognition technology, robot prosthetics, and the industrial decline of the city of Detroit.

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'Wag the Dog' (1997) - The movie is about a United States president who gets involved in a scandal after assaulting a woman in the Oval Office. The Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinsky scandal happened a year later, though it was not a case of assault.

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'Starship Troopers' (1997) -

The movie, a story revolving around conflict between humans and giant insects, predicted quite a few tech possibilities of the future, among them video calls and tablet computers.

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'Jurassic Park' (1993) -

While real dinosaurs don't exist in the actual movie, the film involves the use of technology that could recreate dinosaurs, something that scientists are now looking very closely at.

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'Enemy of the State' (1998) - The movie predicted something similar to the controversy caused by the discovery that the NSA was spying on citizens. In 1998, many people did not think this was possible.

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'Rufus Jones for President' (1933) -

Released in 1933, this movie is about a young black man who becomes president of the United States. One might say that it predicted the election of Barack Obama.

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'Back to the Future' (1985) -

In this sci-fi fantasy, gadgets including drones to photograph the news, fingerprint recognition, and augmented reality are revealed. Anything there sound familiar?

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'Total Recall' (1990) -

While the colonization of Mars by humans is still a distant reality, autonomous cars with driver support systems are already well beyond the blueprint stage. For now though, the fictional "Johnny Cab" taxi as seen in the film is as close as we've gotten.

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'2001: A Space Odyssey' (1968) -

Groundbreaking in so many ways, this epic sci-fi film offered a startlingly prescient vision of the future: artificial intelligence and voice recognition were just two of the burgeoning technologies featured in the movie.

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'Blade Runner' (1982) -

One of the great visual treats in 'Blade Runner' are the huge advertising billboards affixed to high-rise buildings onto which are projected images of smiling oriental women selling various products. This was long before the invention of what today are called jumbotron billboards, now seen in malls and public spaces around the world.

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'You've Got Mail' (1998) -

Long before Tinder, Bumble, and other dating apps, there was this movie, which showcased the early days of awkward online interaction and the worrying reality of meeting up with a stranger when you've only communicated digitally.

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'The Truman Show' (1998) -

Once upon a time, 'The Truman Show' was pure fiction, a made-up tale about an unwitting star of a TV reality show. Today, 'Big Brother,' 'Keeping Up with the Kardashians,' and 'The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills' rank among the most-watched shows on television.

See also: Shocking shows and films about climate change.

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