1. The calendar on Sarah's wall in her room is for October 1985. The movie was released in 1985 and the calendar clearly matches a 1985 calender. For instance, the first day of the month is a Tuesday and the month is clearly labeled OCTOBER. October 1, 1985 was a Tuesday. See picture below. This is clearly BEFORE the events of Land as is evidenced by various elements of technology, cars, etc. seen in Land.
You can not use the release date of the movie as a time marker. (BTW, October 1st on a Tuesday also could be 1991,1996,2002, and 2013, just to name a few). But regardless, I think that everyone here agrees that the entire series is timeless. You can not point to better technology in Land anymore than you can point to hairstyles and clothing styles in Dawn. Those are 1979 type clothes and hairstyles...(and why not? The movie was made in 1979). Does that mean Dawn takes place 11 years after Night? Of course not. Without question, these types of things were definately not meant to be used as timeline references.
2. The military are, in fact, in the bunker with the scientists on orders from the civilian government in Washington. Washington being in control is referenced several times in the two Mess Hall Scences. One of the soldier's laments the recent loss of radio communication with Washington. Plus this dialoguge:
Rhodes: I'm not down in this cave for my health, I'm down here on orders.
Fisher: Your orders are to fascilitate the job of this scientific team. This is a civilian team captain, and we don't have to be subjected to your tyranny.
I never questioned the fact that the military is in the bunker on orders from the civilain government. That would be obvious, unless the United States had become a military dictatorship or something. But when those orders were made is not mentioned. You made direct quotes from the movie here, but not a direct quote about the soldier lamenting the loss of radio communication. I believe it was "we used to talk to Washington all the time". This does not inherently mean the recent past, just the past. COuld be a distant past. Remember, Rhodes had just taken over because Major Cooper died. The civilians acted like they didnt know why they were having these meetings, so it stand to reason that Cooper didnt have them. And the civilians and miltary do not seem very chummy, I dont think they were sitting around a fire roasting masrchmellows together, talking about how the research was going. Therefore, the soldier probably has not heard about or cared about the last time the radio was used, he was too busy saving his own ass when rounding up Zeds in the wild, and smoking weed. His comment can easily be intrepreted as someone who has not paid attention to these things in a vary long time, and now that he is forced to go to a meeting, he is way behind the state of how things are.
3. The zombie apocalypse is recent enough that Sarah, arguably the most rational human in the movie, believes there still to be people alive in Washington who will send help:
Sarah: There have to be survivors in Washington. They have more sophisticated shelters than this one. There have to be people in those shelters who know about us -- who know where we are. With no radio contact they'll come looking for us.
This suggests that radio contact with Washington was lost relatively recently; more evidence that things crumbled in the immediate recent past. Also, Conroy (the radio operator) references that their prior radio contact had been through relays which had failed once the "power went down on the mainland." Hardly an event which would have taken more than weeks to months to occur.
With no hope that there was even a slight chance of solving the problem, why would anybody do anything? John himself had run out of hope, wanting to "spend what time we have left soaking up some sun". He seemed pretty rational, intelligent and thoughtful. Would someone like him give up so quickly, only a few weeks or months into the problem? Sarah has to hang on to hope, without that, her research is useless, her reason for being is nil. She would have no feelings of self-worth. In order to maintain her sanity, she would have to believe that things were gonna be allright. And it would take a long, long time for those types of radio relays to fail. Why would they not work anymore just because there are zombies around? Do the zombies have two desires, one to seek out warm human flesh to eat, and to use their decayed limbs to destroy radio relays? I think not. Remember in the movie "Indepence Day"? The aliens had destroyed most of the major cities around the world. But everyone was still able to communicate with each other using good old fashioned morse code. Surely, those big ships exploding huge major areas of Earth's technoligical centers would do more harm to any relay system than zombies roaming aimlessly about. And by the way, the radio operator you refer to as "Conroy", do you mean the civilain who lives with John in "The Ritz"? If so, his name is Bill McDermott.
There's also the issue that in Day they still have a working helicopter, while in Land enough time has elapsed that few cars still run. And its not because they are well-supplied with parts in Day. There are constant references to lack of ammunition, lab equipment, chemicals, and spare parts for the radio. Just more evidence that it just hasn't been that long...
How are references to lack of ammo, equipement, chemicals, etc. evidence that it hasnt been long? That points to the fact that it has been an extremely long time, not a short one. I mean, what, in a few weeks time in Day, all their equipment is used up, but in Land, they have multiple vehicles hauling ass though the countryside, air conditioning, elevators, electricity, etc? Things were so bad after a short time in Day that not even simple radio relays work anymore, but things improve so much by magic before the start of Land?
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), we'd have been without doubt and a more ordered pattern.
Originally Posted by Philly_SWAT
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