How prescient this movie was for 1992 still blows me away.

**Martin:** I keep thinking about something Greg told me. He said that our codes were based on an entirely different system than Russian codes, so this box really wouldn't work on them. The only thing it would really be good for is spying on Americans.

**Mother:** Sure, with a box like that, they could read the FBI's mail.

**Whistler:** Or the CIA's, or the White House's.

**Crease:** No wonder they don't want to share with the other children.

Nine years before 9/11 would embolden the American government to break loose of the shackles they felt held them back from discovering the plot, and 21 years before Snowden blew the whistle on PRISM, XKeyscore, Tempora, and other worldwide global surveillance efforts to spy on citizens.

The scene before, with Marty and Cosmo on the roof of PlayTronics was already prescient for 1992, what with Cosmo's understanding of how important data was about to become on a global level, but Marty and the team recognizing why the [spoiler]NSA _really_ wanted the box, and paid for Janek to develop it,[/spoiler] was scarily accurate for an early 90s heist thriller with a comic slant about aging phone phreakers and hackers.

Abbott responding to Whistler's request for peace on earth and goodwill toward men with "We are the United States government. We don't do that sort of thing" is still as hilariously and sadly accurate in 2024 as it was in 1992.