Films:

Freejack (1992)
According to Wikipedia:

In the polluted, dystopian year 2009, the super-wealthy achieve immortality by hiring "bonejackers," mercenaries equipped with time travel devices, to snatch people from the past, just prior to the moment of their deaths, for use as substitute bodies.

Those who resist being used as substitute bodies are, of course, the titular "freejacks." One of these freejacks is a Formula One racecar driver snatched up from 1991, played by none other than Emilio Estevez, being chased down by the ruthless mercenary, Mick Jagger. Yes, Mick Jagger. If that's what 2009 has in store, sign me up. Then again, you can't always get what you want, but if you try sometimes, you get . . .

2009 Lost Memories (2002)
This is a scifi action thriller from South Korea, taking place in an alternate 2009 where the Koreas are still part of the Japanese empire. The plot involves terrorists, an archaeological artifact of some kind, and, eventually, trying to restore history to its rightful path. More importantly, however, the plot also seems to involve a couple of good-looking Korean guys, which is always a plus of sorts.

I Am Legend (2007)
Although the film primarily takes place in 2012, it begins in 2009, when a supposed cure for cancer doesn't go quite as well as planned. Will Smith, welcome to the zombie apocalypse. (Using the term "zombie" kind of loosely, I guess.)

Cloverfield (2008)
The film takes place on May 22, 2009, presented as a recovered camcorder found in what used to be Central Park. This camcorder tracks the attack of a giant monster in New York City from the point of view of five people attending a going-away party. Here's where you make a note to avoid the city on May 22.

Eagle Eye (2008)
The events occur between January and April, as Shia LaBeouf plays a young guy terrorized by a terrorist organization, teaming up with a single mother (Michelle Monaghan) to do whatever the voice on the telephone tells them, in the hope of getting out alive. Meanwhile, Billy Bob Thorton and Rosario Dawson play the feds trying to get to the bottom of all this.

Television:

Family Matters: "Father of the Bride" (Season 5, Episode 17, 1994)
Carl falls asleep and wakes up fifteen years in the future (2009), where his daughter, Laura, has married Urkel and given birth to four little Urkels. Talk about a disheartening vision of the year 2009. (Especially since they all seem to play the accordion . . .)

Charmed: "Morality Bites" (Season 2, Episode 2, 1999)
Phoebe Halliwell (Alyssa Milano) has a vision of her own death: burning at the stake on February 26, 2009. The three sisters then travel ten years into the future and see their future selves, with Prue as a single workaholic, Piper as a divorced mother, and Phoebe, well, burning at the stake. At least they all now have really good answers to the question, "Where do you see yourself in ten years?"

Blue Gender (1999-2000)
In this anime, Yuji Kaido is diagnosed with a disease called the "B-cells" and therefore put into a cryogenic state in 2009. When he's brought out of it twenty-two years later, however, he finds himself in a world where heavily armored soldiers are fighting a war with "insectoid beings" known as the Blue. As it turns out, the soldiers are from a place called Second Earth and are also trying to recover any left behind humans, known as "sleepers."

Batman Beyond: "Out of the Past" (Season 3, Episode 5, 2000)
As it turns out, back in '09, Batman had a run-in with Ra's Al Ghul that was loving referred to as the "Near Apocalypse of 09." Although, since the series takes place in the future, it's good to know that it was only a near apocalypse. Meanwhile, Ra's Al Ghul is once again voiced by David Warner, who is, scientifically speaking, constructed entirely out of awesome.

Dark Angel (2000-2002)
At the age of nine, the genetically-enhanced supersoldier-in-training, Max Guevara, escapes from their secret government training center with a group of her peers. That same year, an electromagnetic pulse destroys the country's computers and communications, thereby throwing us into chaos and disorder. Ten years later, the country still isn't what it was and Max (now Jessica Alba) is still trying to avoid the secret government organization that created her.

The Sarah Jane Adventures (2007-present)
The series takes place a year and a half after the Doctor Who episode "School Reunion," thereby placing it in 2009. Elisabeth Sladen reprises the role of Sarah Jane Smith, former companion to the Doctor. This time around, she's fighting aliens with the aid of her adopted son, Luke (Tommy Knight), and a few other neighborhood kids, not to mention Mr. Smith, a giant, flashy, sentient computer. The series is intended as a more child-friendly, lighthearted counterpart to Doctor Who, and the Brigadier himself appeared on the show in the two-part story "Enemy of the Bane."

Books:

The Year of the Quiet Sun by Wilson Tucker (1970)
Set partially in 2009, the novel is about (according to Wikipedia):

Brian Chaney is a demographer and futurist approached while on vacation with the news that his contract has been purchased and he is required for a physical survey of the future via a secretly constructed time displacement vehicle. At a military installation south of Joliet, Illinois, the reluctant Chaney is teamed with two diversely talented military officers and a civilian liaison.

The Postman by David Brin (1985)
Set in a post-apocalyptic country, Gordon Krantz dons a postal uniform for lack of better clothes, and finds people desperate to believe that he is, in fact, an actual postman. As he travels about the country, he assumes the persona of the postman in order to help keep hope alive. The novel was made into a film in 1997 (and set in 2013), directed by and starring Kevin Costner.

Research by Nick Denton

You may remember the mind-bendingly retarded car chase from this flick, but you haven't lived until you've seen the great "club scene" — featuring Mick's then-girlfriend Jerry Hall. Alex's lady pal has taken him to this club to hook him up with a dude who can make him "disappear." So there's Jerry to look at, but also the fashion. Ska glam? Hippie ska glam? Oh my. Luckily Alex gets dosed with something and winds up doing a drunken interview with Jerry while Mick watches and plays a lame "futuristic videogame." And to think all of this will be happening next year in 2009! Whoa.

Car chases are woven deep into the DNA of movies, says crime writer Elmore Leonard. We invented cars and movies at around the same time, and both experiences are about speed, exhilaration and technophilia. And you can't write a good car chase — you have to film it. With explosions and crazy weird vehicles. So here are our favorites:

Freejack (1992). Emilio Estevez is a racecar driver, who dies in a car crash. But he doesn't really die, he's kidnapped into the future so Anthony Hopkins can steal his body. Or something. It's all just a set-up for a giant car chase. You can tell it's the distant future because everybody has laptops with video-chat clients in their cars. How else could Estevez tell Jagger he couldn't catch the clap in a whorehouse? CB radio? I also love Jagger giving him driving tips via vid-chat. I want a video Mick Jagger critiquing my driving to be a standard feature in my next car.

Andy Gill, the stunt driver for Freejack also did all the driving for the original Knight Rider, and here are a couple of his favorite stunts:

Death Race 2000 (1975). David Carradine is a super-driver created by the world's greatest surgeons to drive the world's fastest car, which just happens to have jaggedy fake teeth. He's up against Sylvester Stallone in the world's most vicious race, where you win or die. Here's the trailer:

Mad Max: Road Warrior (1981). Mel Gibson is escorting a hella giant oil tanker across the wasteland of post-apocalyptic Australia. But a whole gang of New Wave savages with mohawks and spikes sticking out of their vehicles want to jack him. Crossbows, flaming projectiles, funny helmets and weird-looking machine guns are just some of the weapons they use to try and put Mel off his game, while he gets his swerve on.

Cyber Tracker (1994). Someone in law enforcement took RoboCop a little too seriously, and now all the cops are mean cyborgs. Plus an evil corporation wants to replace political leaders with bots. It's up to Don "The Dragon" Wilson to stop this mess, the only way he knows how... with car chases. Cyborgs are crazy driving fiends in this movie. At one point, a van hits Wilson's car, flips over in mid-air, soars about twenty feet up and then crashes and explodes. Wilson, of course, is unharmed. Cyber-crashes are just better than regular crashes. The shot is so awesome, it appears three different times in the movie's trailer:

Looker (1981). Michael Crichton directed his own weird story about an evil company that scans models and creates perfect computerized facsimiles of them... then disposes of the originals. The company also comes up with a weird hypno raygun that works like roofies... it temporarily blanks out your mind and makes you unable to remember your assailant afterwards. At one point, Albert Finney and a hit-man drive around chasing each other and trying to shoot each other with hypno-rays. D00d, it's drive-by hypno!

Total Recall (1991). This one is more comedy than anything else. Arnie is on the run, with a wet towel around his head to block the tracking device in his skull and a suitcase containing an important secret from Mars. To get way from the spooks chasing him, he steals a JohnnyCab, but first he has to disable the chirpy auto-driver and take control of the joystick steering. Here's the video:

Tomorrow, we'll have the greatest car chases of science fiction from the mid-90s onward. What are your favorites?