I read it was suppose to be set in the mid 70s, according to wikipedia, but it doesn't look like the future at all.
Why not just set the movie in modern times, since I do not see anything futuristic about the story even at all. Unless I missed something?
It was set in the "near future", from the perspective of the time the film was made (1964). A basic plot element was the controversial nuclear disarmament treaty between the U.S. and Russia, which hadn't occurred in 1964, so obviously that had to be in the future.
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Okay thanks, but I read it was suppose to take place in 1974, but the filmmakers didn't really bother to make it look 10 years into the future at all. Everything still looks like the early-mid 60s.
If that's the case, then why didn't they just set it one year into the future, rather than 10?
I suppose if it were set too close to the present, then people might have complained that the events shown hadn't happened and the people depicted didn't exist. Jordan Lyman wasn't the President at that time, James Scott wasn't the chairman of the Joint Chiefs, there was no Senator Prentice, etc. So it was set far enough in the future to make it credible for such changes to have occurred.
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Yeah but lots of movies have a fictitious present and fictitious generals and joint chiefts. Fail-Safe, Independence Day, Air Force One, etc, and are still set in modern times.
What's the difference here?
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I thought the vid phone between the President and whoever he wanted to talk to seemed futuristic. Nothing else did.
No, video phones were used in the 1950s by the military, especially in NORAD and SAC facilities. It's just closed circuit TV next to a telephone, a bit expensive but not super high tech.
shareWell I dunno - if you made a move today set in 2026, and made it look "futuristic", you probably wouldn't add too much stuff that looks that much different than what we have now.
And realistically, the difference between now and 2026 will be WAY more dramatic and pronounced than the diff between '64 and '74 really was, let alone how they thought of it in '64.
It's supposed to make the subject, a military coup in the US, a bit more hypothetical by placing it in the near future.
shareThe movie is set in 1970, not 74. You can see the date on the big map in Scott's office up on the big screen.
shareIt can be hard to imagine what things might be like even ten years ahead.
I know this....JFK lobbied to have this film shot and released because he hinted a Joint Chiefs/Military coup was more possible than anyone knew.
We had Lemay and others at the time who were enraged that JFK worked out a deal to get the missiles out if Cuba, they actually thought we could win a nuclear exchange with the Soviets.
I had no idea it was set in the near future, i assumed it was 1963-64
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