Discussion Main / PresentDayPast

I think this should be listed as a subtrope of "Anachronism Stew" since this is one.

Linking to a past Trope Repair Shop thread that dealt with this page: What is this trope about?, started by arromdee on Dec 8th 2010 at 9:39:45 PM

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled." - Richard Feynman

both the following examples weren't explicitly set in the past when they were made, so are closer to Sliding Timescale.

• Crank: High Voltage has a borderline example. The first film was released in September of 2006, and was implied to be set in the present day and thus sometime also in 2006. The second film is set three months after the first. This would put the second film in late 2006 or early 2007. However Amy Smart's character is shown using an iPhone in the second film, which was not released until mid-2007. One could argue the first film was set a few months in the future at the time, but a shot of a gas station with prices is quite clear in it, and those price were far lower than the prices in 2007 and correct for gas prices at the time of release and filming. The only explanation is that the first film was set further in the future such as in 2008 after gas prices crashed, but there's no way the creators could've known this at the time and clearly didn't intend this when it was first made.

• Harold And Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay is set the day after the previous film, which is set in 2004. Yet Harold is shown using a black MacBook, which wasn't released until 2006. Not to mention how in the first film he makes a big deal about his laptop being destroyed.

Edited by joeyjojo hashtagsarestupid Hide / Show Replies

Deleted this from Life On Mars, since it doesn't really seem to make sense as an example:

"but what kind of moron do you have to be, in any era, to believe "Detective Luke Skywalker"...?) Okay, the "Luke Skywalker" thing was because Sam completely blanked when his mother asked him his name, but still."

It doesn't make sense for this reason: the first Star Wars movie came out in 1977, and Life On Mars is set in 1973. "Luke Skywalker" as a name has no significance at all in 1973— except for being rather hippie-ish. There's no real reason for it to be an "unbelievable" pseudonym.

...if you don’t love you’re dead, and if you do, they’ll kill you for it.