For those who grew up in the 70s, 80s and 90s, the year 2000 was like a monolith, a catchword for all things futuristic. As it approached, the enthusiasm for a new millenium (pedants begone) and the trepidation about the Y2K bug made it seem more like some sort of destination, something to arrive at, that wouldn’t simply pass us by like any other day, week, month or year.

With each passing year since then, it seems weirder.  We’re almost a quarter century since that time. Many (most?) of us on this forum have now lived more of our lives on this futuristic side of that milestone than the other.

Hopefully, now that 2015 is long gone, so have the photoshops of the Delorean’s readout claiming that this year is the year of Back to the Future II (altogether now, “Where’s my hoverboard?”) but which works of fiction in our past were actually set in 2022?

Disappointingly, not that many great ones, but having raised the idea, let’s take a look anyway:


Videogames

Cyberball Various - 1988
Long before Frozen Cortex, there was Cyberball. Robots playing American Football. In 1988, this had to be the zenith of cool ideas. The idea was, of course, significantly better than the execution, but the same could be said for most computer games back then.

Skyhammer Jaguar - 2000
Who doesn’t remember this G Police-inspired first-person (in an aerial vehicle) shooter? Anyone here have a Jaguar? Anyone here have this game that was released four years after the console was discontinued?

Perfect Dark Game Boy Colour - 2000
This prequel to the N64 classic sees Joanna Dark complete her training, and get sent on her first mission, in South America.  The bad guy, Mink Hunter, is not a mink hunter, although it would be nice to think they chose that name because mink hunters are bad guys (probably).

Year Zero ? - 2007
This was an alternate reality game based on the Nine Inch Nails album of the same name. That’s a sentence you probably didn’t expect to read when you opened this thread.

Dead Rising 4 Win/XBO/PS4 - 2016
Not that far in the future when it came out. Not much has changed, but the world has been overrun by braindead humans fixated on their own needs. So, yeah, not much has changed.

Earth Defence Force 5 Win/PS4- 2017
Even less far into the future, but with more outlandish ideas as to what that future looks like. The fifth (or arguably eighth) game in the franchise, set three years earlier than the third (sixth) game but five years after the first (fourth).


Movies

Soylent Green 1973
Honestly, this is the big-hitter on this list of films. There’s not much point in reading the others.
The Dark Side of the Moon 1990
Alien Intruder 1993
Time Runner / In Exile (as the title suggests, it’s not all in 2022) 1993
No Escape 1994
Deham 2001
Deathwave/2022 Tsunami 2009
The Purge 2013
Tihe Purge: Election Year (well, a bit at the start of it) 2016
Blade Runner Black Out 2022 2017
Duckweed 2017
Geostorm 2017
Unterwerfung (“Submission”) 2018
TAmong the Shadows 2019
Bill & Ted Face the Music 2020
Justice League Dark 2020
Safer at Home 2021
The Tomorrow War (again, a time travel thing, so some of it) 2021
A Year-End Medley 2021
Jurassic World Dominion 2022 Actually, that'll be the present by the time it comes out.


’Tempyfodder’

Future GPX Cyber Formula SIN 1998-2000
Japanese animated series about racing machines.

Aruvu Rezuru: Kikaijikake no Yōseitachi 2012-13
Japanese science fiction novel about mechanised fairies.


Other

I don't really know any of these, but they might mean something to other forumites.

The Grel Escape (Dr Who spin-off audio drama) 2004
The Uncertainty Principle (Dr Who spin-off audio drama) 2012
Breaking Dad (play) 2014
Be Our Guest (episode of TV show American Horror Story) 2016
Homecoming (TV show, split between 2018 and 2022) 2018-2020
The Silence (novel) 2020
The Penthouse: War in Life (Season 2) (South Korean TV show) 2021