From a certain point of view, every movie is a documentary.
No matter their subjects, films are snapshots of the place and time they are made, and of people in them, captured forever.
When we look back at old movies, we’re getting a window into what life was like in an earlier era, even if the film is totally fictional. A 1950s sci-fi film about the future, for example, does not capture the actual future, but it does tell us what people of that era thought the future would look like — and it could also include actual technology of the age passed off as futuristic gadgetry.)
Fiction movies can also capture flashes of popular culture, fashion trends, and actual consumer products — many of which no longer exist. It’s that last category that forms the subject of this latest ScreenCrush list. It contains 20 different defunct products, stores, and services. Once upon a time (i.e. the 1980s, ’90s, and 2000s) they were all extremely common. Today, all of them are essentially extinct. That lends an extra twinge of nostalgia to the movies below. In documentary-like fashion, they recorded a glimpse of something that used to exist, but has since been lost to history.
(Then again, you could bring the past back to life by heading to eBay and buying a still-sealed bottle of Jolt Cola from the 1980s to open and drink. I wouldn’t recommend it — for legal reasons, I strongly advise you not to do this — but you could.)
Famous Movies Featuring Once-Beloved Products
These movies now work as time capsules, capturing a time when these now-defunct products existed.
READ MORE: Once-Beloved Fast Food Items That No Longer Exist
10 Once-Beloved TV Shows That Have Faded Away
The history of television is littered with once-beloved series that are now all but forgotten.
