The term 'predictive programming' was popularized by conspiracist Alan Watt (Cutting Through the Matrix broadcasts and books, early 2000s), building on 1990s conspiracy media. The claim is unfalsifiable as practiced: any coincidence between fiction and later events counts as confirmation, misses are never catalogued. The documented adjacent science is cultivation theory, George Gerbner's research (1970s onward) showing heavy TV exposure shapes perception of social reality, which is about attitudes, not announcements.
The genre's proof-texts are The Simpsons episodes, the 1997 'Lisa Goes to Washington' 9/11-adjacent framing, the 2000 President Trump joke, clustered via hindsight from thousands of episodes. Researchers note the base rate: decades of satire produce inevitable near-hits, the birthday paradox at industrial scale.
The deeper claim inside the genre is karmic-legal: the planners must show you the plan, because your ignorance must be consent. This is the same ritual-logic as revelation of the method, power acquiring legitimacy by disclosure, and it converts every screen into a courtroom where you testified without knowing.
If every movie is a memo, why did you need the movie to notice the plan?