USAT | Today's tech lives in yesteryear's sci-fi films

[E-tertainment: Minority Report featured tablet-like USAT]

Futuristic scenarios are delivered to you courtesy of Hollywood in the science-fiction film Elysium, which premieres today across the nation with Matt Damon in the lead. But if the past few decades are any indication, the fiction seen on the screen this weekend might become fact 10 or 20 years down the road, correspondent Jon Swartz reports in this morning's USA Today.

In an example close to home, 2002's Minority Report starring Tom Cruise featured a tablet-like electronic USAT and GPS ID tracking. In that blockbuster set in USAT's Northern Virginia backyard, John Anderton (Cruise) tries escaping from fellow cops. He boards a commuter train, hoping to lose himself in the crowd. As he enters the train, he's scanned and identified.

As we look over the shoulder of a train passenger, we see the electronic USAT come into focus. The headlines change from "Molecular nano-technology?" and "Medical nanodevice triumphs!" to "Breaking News! Precrime Hunts its Own!"

We know how that movie ended. And USAT's mobile apps are no longer Hollywood fantasies. But the newspaper industry's future remains anything but certain.

Related: watch the official Minority Report trailer.