By definition, science fiction is forward-thinking, but it’s not always fiction.

Whereas some sci-fi films missed the mark entirely (we’re talking to you, Escape From New York), others have been scarily prescient. And while we know that shoo-ins like 2001: A Space Odyssey (computers outsmarting man), Blade Runner (rampant, disposable consumerism), and Minority Report (touchscreen everything) are at the top of everyone’s list, indulge us as we geek out on some films you might not have seen, but will hopefully soon want to…

— Metropolis (1927)
Treat yourself to a film history lesson and check out Fritz Lang’s wicked cool silent masterpiece, set in the year 2026 in the utopian city of Metropolis, where wealthy industrialists reign from glorious high-rises while the poor workers toil underground. When a sexy robot named Maria is introduced in order to control the workers, a revolution starts to brew. The film’s vision of capitalism run amok, where the rich get richer while everyone else works harder for less, is a pretty accurate portrait of where we are now.

— Warning From Space (1956)
Before our own planet started self-destructing, postwar cinema spent big bucks on stories about alien invasion. In this film, UFOs fly over Tokyo, and starfish-shaped extraterrestrials appear, scaring the bejesus out of everyone. Never mind that these are intelligent and benevolent beings — everyone’s too caught up in media-fueled hysteria to notice. The “other” as a threat is a theme that’s driving many elections these days. Also, “Planet R” — a rogue planet hurtling toward Earth which the aliens try to warn us about — causes rising oceans and warming temperatures. Sound familiar?

— Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb (1964)
When our top nuclear scientist warns there’s an “even chance” for nuclear catastrophe in the next decade, we better learn to love the bomb, too. Stanley Kubrick’s black satire was controversial when it was released, criticized for being “implausible.” Today, not so much. The film depicts a deranged general ordering a nuclear attack on the Soviet Union without approval from the president, Merkin Muffley (Peter Sellers). Today, IRL, the deranged general is now president, and it’s doubtful anyone’s in control of anything. In the words of the film’s closing song: “We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when…”

— Seconds (1966)
A miserable Manhattan bank clerk is recruited by “the Company,” which offers to stage his death and give him a new identity through plastic surgery. The man is “reborn” in the body of Rock Hudson and resettled into a posh midcentury home in Malibu. The poor thing soon decides his new life is unsatisfying, however, and tries to go back. (Big mistake.) Man’s obsession with youth is nothing new, and “starting over” is the American dream. Well, here we are, still reinventing ourselves and plastic surgery is de rigueur, and yet we’re still not happy. Yeah, we suck.

— The Road Warrior (1981)
Remember when Mel Gibson was cool — before his Lethal Weapon mullet and racist meltdowns? This sequel to Australia’s Mad Max (1979) features a leather-clad M.G. defending an oasis of good guys and oil reserves, in a postapocalyptic world lacking in both. Government officials might want to watch this film to see what kind of world we’ll be left with if we don’t start conserving the resources we have, and pursue alternative energy for realzies.

— The Terminator (1984)
There’s a reason for James Cameron and the Governator, and it’s this film. And for the one person on the planet who hasn’t seen it: Schwarzenegger is a cyborg sent back from 2029 to 1984 L.A. to kill Sarah Connor (Linda Hamilton), future mother to the savior of mankind. Drone warfare and AI that’s learned how to outsmart man (aka the singularity) are behind mankind’s downfall — two issues that are of growing concern today. We know this one’s obvious, but we just love Ah-nold as the bad guy, and that synthesizer score is the shit.

— Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind (2004)
Sad and cynical but ultimately uplifting (yay!), this mind-bending gem is about a couple whose breakup drives Clementine (Kate Winslet) to undergo a procedure to wipe out memories of Joel (Jim Carrey), who in turn does the same to her. The film takes place in present-day Long Island (though Charlie Kaufman’s original script began 50 years in the future), but treatments to induce amnesia were pure science fiction — until 2014, when MIT neuroscientists announced they’d developed a drug that can erase traumatic memories in mice.

— Idiocracy (2006)
Mike Judge’s sci-fi comedy about an America populated (and run by) morons is pretty goddamn terrifying. Luke Wilson plays an Army dolt who’s accidentally sent 500 years into the future, to a land where language has morphed into “hillbilly, Valley Girl, inner-city slang, and various grunts,” former pro wrestler and ex-porn star Dwayne Elizondo Mountain Dew Herbert Camacho is president, and the No. 1 movie is titled Ass. When asked about his film’s prescience during the 2016 election, even Judge admitted, “I was off by 490 years.”

Getty Images / Ben Stansall / Staff