Fancy a Flick Set in 2026?
It's a lovely little tradition of spouse and me to start the new year with a few movies set in this brand-new year, to see what has been envisioned for the now-present.
The rules for this are simple, all movies in question should be listed on this Wikipedia category, and they should be at least ten years old (because newer films usually don't provide much of an interesting vision; they just happen to play a bit in the relatively near future). For 2026, these rules apply to just three movies. No comparison to last year's list, but at least spouse and I were already able to watch all of them in the first few weeks of this year. Let's see what we have:
Metropolis. A 1927 German silent movie classic. The year is never mentioned in the film, but the original novel, published in 1926, is set exactly 100 years in the future, and it's the by far most interesting contestant, so of course that counts. As I had hoped for, this is the by far most interesting vision. The makers of this vision absolutely had no idea that personal computers will be A Thing one day, but there's some tech bro creating an automaton that mimics a human, spreading false information and hate speech while making rich dudes go crazy. It does not end well. It still is quite the entertaining ride, though maybe a bit long. And the ending is by today's standards terribly naive (the savior is a nepo baby; that idea just got out of style). Still, it's 7 out of 10 points for me. And the best film of this short list.
Doom. A 2005 video game adaptation. Yes, cinemas can run Doom. No, the original game is not set in 2026, and neither does it contain some ancient gate to Mars used by present-day scientists. But then again, who cares about the plot of that game? No, the flick is not good. But Doug Jones plays not one but two monsters in it, and we have some fascinating pieces of technology like nano walls that can become permeable or impermeable at just the touch of a button. Whyever one should want this instead of, you know, a door. The story is a bit hilarious, and there are four whole minutes of first-person-view action, but it's still as stupid as one would think. However, it stars Karl Urban and Rosamund Pike, and one of 'em is usually sufficient to bait me into a movie, so I don't regret my decision to watch this (spouse does, though 😅). 5 out of 10 points.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. The 2014 sequel to Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the all-in-all third attempt to adapt the classic Planet of the Apes story by Pierre Boulle. In Rise we learn that chimpanzees and other hominidae can be made clever with the help of a new Alzheimer's medication. side effects include a deadly pandemic that leads to the post-apocalyptic world of Dawn. Prediction-wise, there's not much to hope for when in-movie civilization ended ten years ago (bonus points for that classic weird feeling of watching some post-pandemic flick after COVID). That being said, we see the story of, on the one side, individuals that can hardly hide the deep, deep grudge against the remnants of the system that once oppressed them and, on the other side, humans that are willing to do almost anything to secure the survival of what's left of their civilization. A story that never gets old, I fear. It's not very well told, though. The motion-capture effects are okay (Andy Serkis is doing his level best), but they don't save the movie either. 6 out of 10 points.
So, AI slop and post-pandemic times have been forecast (albeit incorrectly when it comes to any details), but that weird gate to a hellscape on Mars is yet to be discovered. But then again, 2026 has just started. So we'll see.
