89
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
In the Futurama episode "The Late Philip J Fry" they travel forward in time to the heat-death of the universe, and even further until a new Big Bang spontaneously occurs and they loop back to the year ...
- 1,576
63
votes
Accepted
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
I'm not sure how specific of a date you're looking for, but "Utopia", an episode of the third season of the revived Doctor Who, takes place in the year 100 trillion:
Doctor: We're ...
- 163k
46
votes
Accepted
Did Marty wipe his children from existence?
The movie never says specifically, but it may have been mentioned in the animated series. Marty declines to race against Needles, which did change the future. Marty and Jennifer's future did change ...
- 3,478
45
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000 AD
Part of Time by Stephen Baxter is directly mentioned to take place 10 ^ 113th ...
- 22.9k
42
votes
What's the most recent specific historical element that is common between Star Trek and the real world?
The International Space Station...in the opening credits of Enterprise.
Construction started 1998 and completed 2011.
Certainly latest 2009 as, per Wikipedia
The truss and solar panels are also a ...
- 21.8k
40
votes
who are all you zombies? a (mangled) quote from a 1980s(?) science fiction story
That's " '—All You Zombies—' " by Robert A. Heinlein. 1960, available to read here
The main character (a time traveler) winds up being his own father and mother, and says, just before the story ends, ...
- 40.3k
35
votes
Accepted
Beethoven driven mad by voice from future
This must surely be The Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven and Other Lost Songs, a short story by Carter Scholz, first published in Universe 7 in 1977.
As you recall, investigators use a mental ...
- 61.8k
33
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
I'm surprised nobody mentioned The Last Question by Isaac Asimov.
This short story traces humanity's evolution until it exists outside of space or time, after the heat death of the universe (10 ...
- 5,209
30
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
I'm really surprised no one has listed the second Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy book, The Restaurant at the End of the Universe, the titular Restaurant sits in a shield bubble and rocks back and ...
- 1,837
28
votes
Wouldn't giving the Grays' Sports Almanac to Biff change the outcome of the games after 1955?
Remember that when time travel causes changes in Back to the Future, there's a "ripple" that adjusts the timeline, and it even affects people and objects that have been displaced in time - for example,...
- 2,490
21
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
Warhammer 40,000 takes place in the 41st millenium (who'd have guessed, right?). And it uses quite an elaborate dating and time tracking scheme, so there are a lot of exact dates involved. For example,...
21
votes
What's the most recent specific historical element that is common between Star Trek and the real world?
The latest people referenced that match our reality were George W. Bush and Tony Blair, shown in the ENT episode Future Tense:
This was part of a historical database that included Bush's 2003 State ...
- 359
20
votes
Does time move slower inside Lothlórien?
This is a holdover from earlier drafts
Originally, Tolkien was planning to have time inside Lothlórien either move slower or come to a complete halt. He later decided it was more effort than it was ...
- 88.6k
19
votes
What's the most recent specific historical element that is common between Star Trek and the real world?
Films
I'm not sure you could strictly describe the creation of a music track as an historical event, but nuKirk playing the 1994 song Sabotage (by the Beastie Boys) on his Nokia phone would have to ...
- 677k
18
votes
Did Harry, Hermione and Ron see Buckbeak die?
If I remember correctly, they did not see Buckbeak executed, in the book or in the movie. They were watching from the top of a hill, so they couldn't see clearly; what they actually saw was the ...
- 321
17
votes
Accepted
Is there a difference between timelines and universes in the MCU?
The Sacred Timeline apparently isn't a single timeline, but rather a bundle of timelines all flowing in the same general direction. See this answer to another question for a more detailed explanation, ...
- 108k
16
votes
Accepted
Do Judy and Peter remember anything from the events in Jumanji?
No; Peter and Judy do not remember the events of the movie, as they do not remember Sarah and Allen.
As previously mentioned, there is a clear distinction between the surprise of Sarah and Allen, who ...
- 1,973
16
votes
Accepted
If the TVA exists outside of time, why are there still nexus events?
One important thing to keep in mind is that a creator simply cannot make a story that exists out of time.
For instance, take a look at this scene from the trailer:
MOBIUS: Loki, I’ve studied every ...
- 3,121
15
votes
What is the timeline for The Lord of the Rings trilogy?
Tolkien himself made a very detailed fourteen page Synoptic Time-Scheme
This is kept at Marquette University, at shelfmark Mss-4/2/18/1a-8a. A complete transcript of the time scheme has been published ...
- 88.6k
14
votes
Accepted
Why is Ocarina of Time the splitting off point for the Zelda timeline?
The Split Timeline concept is one that has existed since 2002. Eiji Aonuma first mentioned in an interview that Ocarina of Time had two endings, one where Link returned to his childhood (the one we ...
- 20.2k
14
votes
Accepted
Did Harry, Hermione and Ron see Buckbeak die?
The film script indicates that not only do we (the audience) not see the execution, but that the trio can't see it either. Their eye-line was obscured by a stand of trees.
The crows SHRIEK ...
- 677k
13
votes
When did the Harry Potter books take place?
Generally accepted answer: The books take place between 1991 and 1997
Evidence:
Nearly-Headless Nick's 500th deathday party in book two has a cake with the words:
Sir Nicholas de Mimsy-...
- 88.6k
13
votes
Accepted
Story ID: Lafferty? Conversation about a condensing/telescoping past
The setting is Barnaby Sheen's house in Tulsa, not a Greek taberna, and Napoleon is not mentioned, but I believe you're thinking of R. A. Lafferty's 1974 short story "And Read the Flesh Between ...
- 159k
12
votes
What is the latest date for the setting in a sci-fi text or movie?
I'll start bidding at 9595 from this
In the year 2525 If man is still alive If woman can survive They may
find In the year 3535 Ain't gonna need to tell the truth, tell no lies
Everything you ...
- 20.9k
12
votes
How could Janeway have used Holodecks as a child when they were new to Picard?
The episode you're talking about is "Once Upon a Time"--from the transcript here:
JANEWAY: Just checking on my future Captain's Assistant.
NEELIX: Right now, she's off to conquer a giant ...
- 56.5k
12
votes
Did Marty wipe his children from existence?
Unclear, but unlikely.
The drag race (and its negative repercussions) are something that wouldn't have an immediate impact on Marty's relationship with Jennifer. Apparently even in the "crapsack" ...
- 677k
11
votes
How could Janeway have used Holodecks as a child when they were new to Picard?
In "Enterprise" we encounter holodeck technology some 200 years before the Enterprise D, and other federation ships come equip with it as a standard. It is not a new technology, simply new for ...
- 66k
11
votes
When, exactly, does Justice League (2017) take place?
Somewhere between April 21, 2016, and late August, 2017
Throughout the movie, there are several elements that can be dated. Some of them definite (give or take a week), some of them speculate a bit. ...
- 55.7k
11
votes
Accepted
Timeline of events in/around 32 BBY
I've made a flowchart ordering the events whose relative order we know. Explanation of the ordering follows.
Canon
The canon version of events is the more straightforward one, and was recently ...
- 25.2k
10
votes
How can The Flash still exist, given the events of the last episode of season 1?
When Eobard Thawne ceased to exist, it should have reset the timeline so that Barry's mother was never killed, Barry grew up with his parents, and Harrison Wells' particle accelerator didn't come ...
- 115k
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible