Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Movies are just beautiful lies that never actually promise you anything. No studio executive has ever taken the stage and explicitly said, "We promise Scarlett Johansson will be your emotional fuck-buddy." And yet, for decades, we've been holding Hollywood accountable for futures it never guaranteed.
Back to the Future Part II showed us self-lacing Nikes, a Cubs World Series, and hoverboards by 2015. Nike made the shoes. The Cubs won in 2016. Hoverboards showed up a little early, except they had wheels, caught fire in living rooms across the country, and got banned from every airport on earth.
The future has a lot of asterisks.
So it got me thinking, is it the future yet?
It's one of those things that's hard to tell as you're living through it. Call it a hard look at our current trajectory or, more accurately, an elaborate excuse to talk about old movies in a way that ties them to the hellscape we're currently living in. Either way, today we're going to find out if the future is on the way or already here.
The Internet
The Cable Guy (1996)
The Cable Guy is a deeply uncomfortable film that bombed because audiences wanted transphobic Jim Carrey, not dark comedy Jim Carrey. People were not ready for a character study about loneliness and parasocial obsession.
For a thirty year old movie, it holds up. The only thing that feels off is Jack Black playing the cool, straight man sub-role. He had yet to find his niche of singing words loudly that others would normally just talk.
What matters here is this monologue, delivered with the unhinged certainty of a guy who definitely writes a newsletter nobody asked for:
"The future is now! Soon every American home will integrate their television, phone and computer. You'll be able to visit the Louvre on one channel, or watch female wrestling on another. You can do your shopping at home, or play Mortal Kombat with a friend from Vietnam. There's no end to the possibilities!"
Not a bad description of today made three decades ago.
Is it the future yet?
The Louvre has a virtual tour. Female wrestling has a streaming service. Multiple, actually. Amazon is a terrifying omnivore that now makes movies and delivers prescriptions. And Mortal Kombat dropped its twelfth mainline entry with a whole rebooted film franchise that people care about beyond the US and Vietnam.
Sadly I don't know anyone currently living in Vietnam. You probably don't either. That one stays open.
The multiple channels prediction is the only one that feels slightly off and kind of conservative based on today's media consumption. It's more like seventeen browser tabs, two screens, and a phone you're scrolling while Netflix plays in the background.
Self Driving Cars
Total Recall (1990)
Total Recall was probably the first time I saw a movie with a plausible futuristic technology: paying for brain damage in the hope of experiencing a fake vacation.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Writer, filmmaker, and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. Aaron's work covers culture, economics, and the occasional vintage Volkswagen. Media veteran and purpose-driven creative.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
Adam Kovic is a creative director and co-founder of Null+Void Creative. He spent a decade producing video content and brand campaigns for companies mostly owned or devoured by WarnerMedia.
