The class template std::future provides a mechanism to access the result of asynchronous operations: An asynchronous operation (performed via std::async, std::packaged_task, or std::promise) can provide a std::future object to the creator of that asynchronous operation. The creator of the asynchronous operation can then use a variety of methods to query, wait for, or extract a value from the ... A future represents the result of an asynchronous operation, and can have two states: uncompleted or completed.

Understanding the Context

Most likely, as you aren't doing this just for fun, you actually need the results of that Future<T> to progress in your application. You need to display the number from the database or the list of movies found. Bleeping Computer: Windows "inetpub" security fix can be abused to block future updates