What the Movies Know: How Film Predicts the Future (and What It’s Telling Us Now)

After a few days at MAD//Fest, a theme began to quietly emerge—not from the scheduled talks or breakout topics, but from how people made their points.

Over and over again, speakers turned to movies. To illustrate big ideas and future. To explain new technologies. To show what comes next.

This isn’t new, but it was unmissable this year: film has become our most trusted way of talking about and visualising the future.

Not charts. Not research decks. Not even consumer data.

Just a well-placed scene from Her, Wall-E, or Inside Out.

Why Film Still Shapes How We Imagine the Future

Movies have always helped us understand what’s coming—before it arrives. They give shape to abstract fears, humanise complex tech, and help us emotionally process the unfamiliar.

Some stories don’t just reflect the world. They predict it.

Take:

  • The Truman Show (1998): The surveillance age and curated identity.

  • Minority Report (2002): Gesture controls, personalised ads, predictive crime.

  • WALL·E (2008): Tech dependency and consumer apathy.

  • Her (2013): Emotional intimacy with AI.

And then there are the more recent examples that have slipped into our cultural shorthand:

  • Black Mirror didn’t invent tech dystopia—it just made us feel it on a Sunday night.

  • Inside Out taught millions how to talk about mental health long before brands felt comfortable doing it.

  • The Hunger Games gave us a shared language for inequality, rebellion, and media spectacle.

  • Don’t Look Up wasn’t subtle—but it didn’t need to be. It told the truth through satire. Perhaps even more meme’d than watched?

What Are the Movies Saying Now?

Look at the stories audiences are gravitating toward in 2024 and 2025, and it’s clear we’re still using cinema to process the world:

  • The Creator (2023): Compassion in the age of weaponised AI.

  • Civil War (2024): Tribal politics, media collapse, and truth as a casualty.

  • Inside Out 2 (2024): Emotional complexity, anxiety, and adolescence in a post-lockdown generation.

  • 28 Years Later (2025): A return to chaos and the discomfort of what we’ve survived.

These stories aren’t just popular. They’re resonant—because they capture something about now and next.

What This Means for Brands

At elevenfiftyfive, we help clients use entertainment as a route into culture—because brands can’t just show up in culture, they need to understand it. And to do that, you have to pay attention to the stories people are watching, rewatching, quoting, and feeling.

Movies aren’t just entertainment—they’re emotional R&D. They help people test ideas before they live them. And they give brands an extraordinary opportunity: not just to be seen, but to be part of the conversation.

Films and streams don’t just reflect culture—they drive it. Understanding what’s coming next on screen is often the clearest signal of what your audience will connect with tomorrow.

If you’d like to look into that crystal ball for your brand, you know where to find us.

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