- Alien invasions, global
brainwashing, dragons.
Over the past few decades,
quite a few films and shows
have considered 2020 the future,
and tried to envision life in it.
Most of it wasn't great.
But through it all, there
were heroes who stepped up
to bring humanity back from the brink.
These are the folks who
canceled the apocalypse
in other versions of 2020.
(dramatic electronic music)
2018's "A Quiet Place"
fast forwards two years into the future,
to a world destroyed by aliens
who could hunt by sound.
Regan, a young woman played
by deaf actress Millicent Simmonds,
discovers her hearing aid can emit a sound
that temporarily paralyzes the creatures.
Armed with her new weapon
and Mom's shotgun, of course,
the family rises up to defend their home
and tease a sequel, that's been delayed.
This 2002 film sends us into
the far distant future of 2020,
which has been ravaged
by a plague of dragons.
- You ever seen one of these?
- Quinn Abercromby,
played by Christian Bale,
leads a community of survivors,
but has to step up and become the big hero
by killing the only male dragon.
Matthew McConaughey was gonna do it,
but he's kinda busy being dragon barbecue.
Major Cage might be the
one Groundhog Daying it up.
(man yelling)
But he would be nothing
without Rita Vrataski.
"Edge of Tomorrow" takes
place five years after
aliens called Mimics invaded Earth.
Tom Cruise's character finds
he can hack into their ability
to reset time, but only
discovers this thanks to Rita.
She's a war hero, who previously
had this time loop ability,
and spends each day
teaching Major Cage to,
well, not suck at everything.
- Which way, focus, which way?
- I'm thinking, I'm thinking.
Oh man!
- By the end, the two
of them work together
to stop the alien invasion,
resetting the time loop,
as well as their relationship.
But it looks like she's gonna
have to save the world again
because a sequel is finally on the way.
"Dollhouse" was a series about
a group that served the rich
by wiping people's
personalities and replacing them
with characteristics the clients wanted.
There were also two episodes,
a bonus from the season one
DVD and the series finale,
that jumped forward to
a post-apocalyptic 2020.
There, the tech had been weaponized,
turning everyone in the world
into brainwashed zombies.
Echo, the protagonist of the series,
leads a small army to the weapon's source,
helping to destroy it and
restore everyone's minds.
- Today we are canceling the apocalypse!
(dramatic music)
- Technically, Mako didn't
come into the picture
until 2025, but it was the events of 2020
that led her to become
a vital Kaiju killer.
"Pacific Rim" is about a bunch of monsters
that invade Earth through
an inter-dimensional breach
in the ocean.
This creates a new wave
of celebrity fighters,
who co-pilot giant Jaeger mech suits,
like Raleigh Becket
and his brother, Yancy.
In 2020, we see the
first Kaiju get killed,
but Yancy loses his life in the process,
and Raleigh quits the Jaeger
program shortly after.
Five years later, Mako Mori rises up
to take his brother's place, and together,
they venture into the
breach to stop the Kaiju
once and for all.
- The war we thought we
finished is just beginning.
(dramatic music)
- But it looks like even
the dystopian future
is not safe from unnecessary sequels.
(dramatic music)
