As 2026 dawns, science fiction films that predicted this year offer a mixed bag of warnings and curiosities. From Doom to Planet of the Apes, Hollywood has rarely painted a rosy picture of this future. With AI and global upheaval dominating headlines, it is worth examining what these movies got right—and wrong.
The 2005 film Doom, based on the video game, suggests 2026 is the year humanity discovers a portal to an ancient city on Mars. While the catastrophic events—mutations from Martian chromosomes—occur later, the premise raises questions about our obsession with the red planet. Whether Elon Musk would celebrate or sulk over such a discovery remains speculative, but Mars rarely appears as a beacon of hope in cinema.
In the Marvel Cinematic Universe, several stories are set in 2026, including Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and the less successful Secret Invasion and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. These films depict frustrating, convoluted plots that mirror the real-world sense of spinning wheels. The message, if any, is that 2026 may feel like a series of nonsensical events that somehow shape the future.
The Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy places its pivotal virus outbreak and ape uprising around 2026. The end credits of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) show a global pandemic spreading in 2019, eerily prescient of COVID-19. While the ape intelligence boost is far-fetched, the warning about zoonotic disease and human hubris remains relevant.
