I am not usually bothered too much about this kind of error, but since Super 8 is supposed to celebrate those years, I found it a bit strange that they should get something like this wrong.
Now, I stand to be corrected, but if the film is set in Summer 1979 and Rubik's Cubes (invented in 1974) were only licenced to be sold as a toy in the USA in 1980, would you expect 5 random kids in a small town to know about them?
They took little license with that. I forgive them since there are always fees etc to use product & also it was supposed to be what reminded JJ of his childhood. When you think about it, how many games from our childhood can we poinpoint the release date on. It's a minor issue & I wouldn't even call it a flaw since the movie is fiction. It should have that latitude. It's only off by a few months. I'm pretty sure there were no aliens in 1979 either. :)
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The problem is that Rubik's cubes (and Walkmans) are quintessentially 80's items. So their inclusion is a glaring error in a 70's film. Kind of like having Reagan as President.
Actually Reagan could have been president in the 1970's but it was that darn Ford guy who was nominated. I still like the fact that Reagan was president during the 80's. He was the best President this country ever had. We all love him.
shareYeah I agree, today the Rubik's Cube is really a cornerstone of the 1980s, and they referenced it in 1979 a few months before it was named that.
But, in reality, when you are actually old enough to remember, you won't really care(or perhaps even remember) about a few months.
"I'm pretty sure there were no aliens in 1979 either. :)"
There was an Alien, but you are right No Alien(s) in 1979, perfect joke! Great little subtle reference right there, even if you didn't make it on purpose.
I didn't see a Walkman in stores until about 1981. They took alot of liberties w/these things.
shareWalkmans was a lame way to have a major event happen and be "missed" by a dopey teenager. It wouldnt have mattered if it was 1960, I think they would still have stuck that scene in. Dissapointing they could not come up with a better scene to have events going on and no one notice. I expect better from Spielberg
But I did like some of the period things like film in cardboard boxes and rush jobs taking 3 days
PS my rich friend in our country town had the first walkman I saw and that was 1983 when his parents came back from Japan. I got a cheap? ($39) Sanyo in 1984. Two tapes and the batteries were dead plus the plastic belt clip snapped the first time I bent over lol. Things may exist a long time before they become popular. My uncle had a microwave in the 60's
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If you had 2 in 79 you would either live in Japan or perhaps your just a liar.
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True but still having two is 400$ around 2000$ in current $
But as i have said in other posts it would be possible since they came out in 79
Yeah, because nobody ever imported anything...
Prof. Farnsworth: Oh. A lesson in not changing history from Mr. I'm-My-Own-Grandpa!
Total Back to the Future awesomeness right there! "You know we had... two"
shareLiberties were taken and no you didn't unless you were a completely rich spoiled brat. Either way I couldn't care less what you had. It only supports the fact that liberties were taken as this kid in a small town working nights in a gas station happens to have a Walkman in 1979? Total BS. And no they wouldn't have heard of a Rubik's cube also. No way no how.
shareThe first continuity error I noticed was when the kid who directs the movie starts screaming oh my god every 5 seconds which I'm pretty sure no kid did back in those days.
"If they move......Kill 'em!"
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No i'm pretty sure it sounds more like how kids speak nowadays than in that time period. I only remember one character saying oh my god repeatedly in the Goonies and that was Martha Plimptons character (forgot her name).
"If they move......Kill 'em!"
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That's not continuity. Continuity is everything remaining the same between shots, for example, if a drink level changes several times in a scene without the actor taking a drink, that is continuity.
Regarding the phrase omg, I was a kid in the 70s, it was absolutely a part of the vernacular. My sisters said it all the time.
What we didn't say in the Midwest in 1979 was "gnarly", which Cary says of the older kid's car. The deputy also says something about having saved "some slices", which is a NY/LA thing. In the Midwest, we say "some pizza." And we wouldn't have dared to swear like Super 8's kids. They're worse than the kids in the Goonies.
Close Encounters is way worse about geography, tho. It depicts central Indiana as having cliffs and high ridges, toll roads, and tunnels.
I also didn't think kids back then said "Whatever". Didn't that only become common in the late 80s and 90s?
shareDid kids call each other "dude" back then?
shareNope. If you were a white kid, you didn't start calling people dude until Jeff Spicoli popularized that word in FTaRH.
On the contrary to the guy who said that kids weren't listening to Blondie in '79. I was nine years old when she came onto the scene and I thought she was great.
Actually, we did say Dude. Before FT.
WAY off BobCH. I graduated in 1973 and saying 'dude' was damn near mandatory. Heck, watch some early 1960s TV shows and you hear it.
shareMy husband and I are laughing at the "Oh my God" statement because we were about the same ages as these kids back then, grew up in two different states, and that statement was said quite frequently.
shareJust like to add, as someone from England, who was born in the early 70's...
They 'were' being called the Rubik's Cube in 1979.....and advertised...because I bugged my mum for almost 6 months for one.
And got one the day it was out (god I love my mum hehe)...
I hope that settles the argument.
Let it ride...share
I noticed that also lol!
sharewell, if you want full-on pedantry, i feel it's my duty to tell you that the counting system for years starts with the year 1, not the year 0.. so actually the 70s, like any decade, actually ended at the end of the tenth year, starting the count at 1 - so it ended on dec 31st 1980
"Yeah? Well, you know... that's just like, uh... your opinion, man"
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from that page:
'Wikipedia resolves this problem by only having "9" years in the first "decade".'
well, yes... i refute that resolution... and i'm not alone - you'll find quite a few bright people with a little imagination (and a strong enough mind not to accept blithely what wikipedia tells us) could easily accept nov 24th 1980 as being part of the seventies... the same people who insisted the millenium be celebrated on the night of 31st december 2001. Just 'cos wiki says it, doesn't make it right, and to give a link to a page which gives wikipedia on hearsay, hmmm
if you follow the thread, i was actually defending someone who was attacked for getting something wrong, i was explaining how in one way of thinking they are not wrong
"Yeah? Well, you know... that's just like, uh... your opinion, man"
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not really sure what you're getting at - the gregorian calendar was implemented retrospectively - people alive in what we call the year 1 didn't call it the year 1 did they? Curious to see how you plan on demonstrating 1970 didn't exist.
I am merely refuting whoever decided to write on wiki that they'll just arbitrarily change the definition of a decade for one instance - it's that that seems silly to me.
"Yeah? Well, you know... that's just like, uh... your opinion, man"
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why not? the OH town depicted in the movie is not exactly Deliverance country with no mail service or electricity. As you said Rubik's cube while may not have been officially sold in the US was already quite popular in Europe.
Don't know about you but even in 1979 there are already millions of Americans (yes even those in the mdwest!) who has travel to Europe and vice versa.
Why is it so hard to believe maybe a relative bought one of those back on vacation as a present? or maybe the kids themselves have been to Europe or maybe there was an exchange student in the school which gave a Rubik's cube to Joe?
Those are extremely normal and plausible explanations and not out of the ordinary at all!
You're insane. These kids were straight middle to lower-middle class. No Eurotrippers there.
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