The Future is Now

 

The year 2023 Its always a highly anticipated themed concept in Hollywood movies when the stories depicts' a future. It's something we can't predict, yet as an audience we willing to go on this journey to this dystopian future or else worlds story. There were 4 theatrical released films where the story or part of the story takes place in the year 2023. Its sometimes fun to see what they got right, and how far they got wrong when reviewing these movies and theorizing the potentials, So let's begin with the biggest and easiest.

Avengers: Endgame (2019)

The MCU for the most part kept their film's stories in the actual year of their release. After the first 10-15 minutes of this movie blew the minds of its audience when the story picks up 5 years later.  The film actually begins in the year 2023 after the recap of the events of Avenger's Infinity war.   The hero of that film can be argued to be Thanos, his story had a full arc, where he had a full journey, He viewed himself as a hero/savior, in the process he had sacrificed and painfully loss his adopted daughter, he faced enemies who stood in his way from his quest and came out triumphant.

We as an audience naturally assumed the role of the Avengers to be the hero of this story. And with looming speculations of who wanted out of their role and what films lucrative box office draw would prevent what heroes would die.  Story wise everyone was pretty much wrong in the outcome.  It took a while to realize the original cast of the Avengers were the sole survivors with a couple members from the Guardian of the Galaxy to form the last one's standing.  Thanos' snap was so powerful that Netflix's Power man (Luke Cage) and Iron Fist were immediately cancelled, Superman's Henry Cavil had quit and Affleck went into rehab - eliminating half of the justice league in what seemed to have took place in over one week. What the film marginally got right was the decimation of the population. Less than a year of the film's conclusion the world faced its own invisible war with the pandemic and world population facing a loss in the millions.  Dolphins where spotted swimming up coastal lines, and with reduction of cars driving, pollution and atmospheric levels where visibly reverting.

The Purge: Anarchy (2014)

This was immediate sequel to the original home invasion movie, it now take's place over an entire city with audience following 4 stories.  The film takes place March 21, 2023, whereupon the nation celebrates its 6th year of their annual purge.  Unbeknownst to the film's creators the Trump presidency would commence two years after the film's release and Purge Forever would indirectly address possibilities of that leadership; as Purge Forever was completed and waited for its initial release, America had the Capitol riots which pushed the film to be released in the late summer. 

Purge Anarchy informs us the government experienced an economic collapse, and a way to prune itself from oblivion was the Purge. The final deadline of June 5, 2023 the American government was facing a default on their debt ceiling, which would have plunged America into a recession, and with an unprecedented year of daily mass shootings, A mix of poverty, and already existing divide within the nation from abortion rights to gun violence to border crossings, we could see an unsolicited variant of The Purge coming into pass.

Don't Breathe 2 (2021) 

Actor Stephan Lang reprises his role and sees him as perhaps the hero of this story. If you saw what his endgame was from the original 2016 movie.  The set-up right from the beginning would feel disturbing, we begin with his character a retired Navy Seals officer Norman Nordstrom living in a Detroit suburb with his 11-year-old daughter.  The film takes place 8 years after the events of the first film and we are told that his daughter's mother died in a tragic fire. 
      Child abduction and lost children is not new in America, the insidious level and extent of murderous villains are an exaggeration for the plot of the story.  The film as horror film is grossly uncomfortable on both ends of the plot and the actual well being and future of the child is genuinely in question by the end of this movie. In 2023, the Supreme court made some final rulings regarding areas in civil rights, some decisions were decisive. but change in the process is a long way away and not everyone can come out happy.

Click (2006)

This was the only film from Adam Sandler that garnered an Academy Nomination thus far. Click was nominated for an Oscar in make-up. The closest Sandler ever got to recognition was in the Safdie film Uncut Gems, both the movie and it's actor received multiple awards and nominations throughout the film critics and festival circuit runs but was completely snubbed at all levels by the Academy. In the movie Click we see Sandler play a husband and father whose work is so demanding he misses out on the time he should have had with his family.
That is until a strange man played by Christopher Walken provides him with a universal remote that can alter his current time and move him ahead to enjoy all the highlights of his life.  Marketed as a comedy, the film takes a unsuspected turn into a Christmas Carol. One of the final stops in time is the year 2023, as his character can see how both he and everyone in his life whines up. Its a chilling tale of regret, inspiration, ego, desire, and drive.  The landscape of 2023, in regards to technology is still theoretical, Apple came out with a $3000+ visor that can be interacted by eye movement and simple motions, obesity, diabetes and poor heart conditions are a real staggering problem in the world in 2023 and since covid divorce rates have gone up.