The Best Tech Movies Predicted Three Features Of The Digital Age
The films that hold up best went beyond gadgetry to consider how technology changes human connection.
Nearly thirty years ago, The Truman Show provided an early example of invasive surveillance and spectacle.
Photograph: AJ Pics/Alamy
For much of the 20th century, “the year 2000” was shorthand for the distant future. Predictions ranged from flying cars to colonies on the moon. By the 1990s, the number itself carried so much futuristic weight that Conan O’Brien turned it into a running gag. He’d hold a flashlight under his chin and chant “In the year 2000 … ” before making absurd predictions about life after the millennium.
By the time 2000 arrived, the allure of the digital age had also sparked a wave of movies reflecting the techno-optimism and techno-anxieties that had crept into public consciousness. The evolution of technology since then has been frenetic — from social media and smartphones to AI and advances in automation. With technology now at another inflection point, I’ve found myself looking back at tech movies from around the turn of the century and thinking about which ones have aged well, and why.