Man spotted on real-life Back to the Future-style hoverboard costing $20,000

If 1980s sci-fi films are anything to go by, it seems most of us thought we’d be going around on hoverboards and in super-speedy cars by the year 2021.

While that’s not exactly the case, a new viral video has shown the assumption to be at least partly true.

In a clip shared on Twitter by user @RexChapman, a man can be seen flying through the air on a hoverboard, much like the one imagined in the 1985 film Back to the Future.

The man on the device can be seen wearing a helmet as he travels through the air at a considerable speed and a couple of metres off the ground on a large downtown street at night.

He is also holding what looks like a remote device that controls the hoverboard.

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The tweet reads, “Real life hoverboard. $20k.” and includes a link to the company that produced the hoverboard.

Omni Hoverboards is a Canadian company that makes propeller-based hoverboards. One of its prototypes broke the Guinness World Record as it travelled 275.9m.

Guinness called it “truly a mesmerizing and incredible feat in the world of engineering and transportation”.

In response to the video, one person on Twitter said, “Back to the future came true” and attached a clip from the iconic film.

Another pointed out the perilous danger of flying through the air, saying: “This should end well.”

The original tweet suggested the machines are sold for around 20,000 dollars, prompting a Twitter user to joke: “Epitaph on my urn: Worth every damn penny!”

We’ll leave that for you to decide.