56

The Truman Show never mentions, as far as I noticed, when it takes place. There are some technologies that definitely don't exist, but none of the outside world other than extremely brief sequences is shown.

Did the creators say anything about when it takes place, or is there any indication of when it takes place in the film?

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
Stormblessed
  • 11,359
  • 8
  • 62
  • 100

2 Answers2

54

1996 inside the dome. Between 1999-2029 outside the dome (and probably closer to 1999 than 2029)

Inside

All three newspapers shown in the show are dated for 1996. Since we know that Truman is literate/numerate and takes the newspaper daily, this must be the year inside the dome.

Thursday, December 12th, 1996

enter image description here

enter image description here

The third reads Friday, December 13 and is copyrighted for 1996.

enter image description here

The date on the cover of the 'Dog Fancy' magazine reads "Novmbr 96"

enter image description here

And Truman's copy of SHE magazine is dated "...R, 1996"

enter image description here

Outside

The date on a magazine shown outside of the show reads 1999. Since the show is in its 30th year, this gives us an upper bound of 2029 for the show to take place, given that we don't know whether the magazine was published in the show's first year or its current year.

enter image description here

We also see a lunch menu in a scene that takes place outside the dome. It reads "3- 27 - 97".

enter image description here

While it seems plausible that the menu has been stuck on the wall directly under the TV for a couple of years, it seems much less likely that it would be still there after 30 years, which suggests that the magazine date is roughly current.

Valorum
  • 689,072
  • 162
  • 4,636
  • 4,873
  • 20
    I think the timeframe inside the dome is make-believe to resemble a simpler time and place, and anything brought in from the outside would be highly scrutinized with a fine comb to avoid breaking that illusion, like everything else the production team clearly does. So it would make sense that the year on the newspapers would be fake, as the newspapers themselves are fake anyway. The real year outside the dome would have to be in the future, since human civilization doesn't currently have the technological desire to make such a dome for real, let alone the social aptitude to pull it off. – Remy Lebeau Aug 16 '19 at 06:42
  • 5
    @RemyLebeau - My feeling is that some things simply can't be manufactured inside the dome (cars, for example) and maintaining a real date means that you wouldn't have any accidental foul-ups if Truman encountered a date that was anachronistic. – Valorum Aug 16 '19 at 06:44
  • 8
    @RemyLebeau - Also, the show appears to be set in an alternate reality from our own (in the present), not our future. – Valorum Aug 16 '19 at 06:46
  • 1
    Additionally, all three newspapers show "VOL. XXIX...NO. 10,765" which both indicate the paper is in its 29th year of running (10765/365.25≈29.5). I don't understand why both the Thursday, Dec. 12 and Friday, Dec. 13 papers show the same issue number, though. – Engineer Toast Aug 16 '19 at 13:32
  • 3
    I was thinking it is probably like The Matrix, taking place back in time but being much later. Good, plausible, detailed answer. – Stormblessed Aug 16 '19 at 14:04
  • 2
    @EngineerToast It appears they didn't change anything about the newspaper headers except the dates. They even all have the same weather report in the top-left corner. Presumably just the artists cutting corners on details they didn't expect anyone to see as is commonly done when newspapers etc. appear in films. 29 years makes sense though, if you consider it's been running basically since Truman's birth, and he looks about that age. – Darrel Hoffman Aug 16 '19 at 14:22
  • 3
    It would be madness not to synchronize dome-time with real-time. They would have to create and print every newspaper, magazine, and any other media themselves at mind-blowing expense. If in sync, they can use common off-the-shelf $3 magazines and 30 cent papers, and would only need to screen them for references Truman must not see (e.g. To the show). – Harper - Reinstate Monica Aug 16 '19 at 18:45
  • 1
    Wouldn’t they want to decide in advance what sort of news they want Truman to see and react to (for the show’s sake)? – WGroleau Aug 16 '19 at 19:00
  • 8
    @Harper - You'll note that Truman has an incredible poverty of choice of magazines. There are only about ten different ones on the newsstand, not including his newspaper, as compared to hundreds IRL. Producing newspapers and magazines with fake dates for Truman would present no more difficulty than producing them for a film. – Valorum Aug 16 '19 at 19:01
  • 1
    @Valorum except you have to do them every month, and if Truman is literate, you have to create all the insides, too. – Harper - Reinstate Monica Aug 16 '19 at 20:06
  • 2
    @Harper - Well, for starters we know that the crew cut corners by having hollowed-out buildings and fake areas. He's on a set, not a real town. Secondly, since they know every word that he's read, they only need to change the contents after he's looked at a magazine, which might range from daily (Seahaven newspaper) to never (Dog Fancy) – Valorum Aug 16 '19 at 20:10
  • 2
    @Harper I'm not disagreeing with your analysis of the cost of producing their own in-show media, but producing the Truman show at all would have to be done at mind-blowing expense. Precisely examining the imagined cost of producing the show is probably not worthwhile, but if they were already producing the show anyways the extra cost of production service X might seem paltry compared to what spending is already locked in. – Upper_Case Aug 16 '19 at 21:32
  • I believe we also see plenty of things outside of the dome (Lauren/Syliva; the parking deck attendants watching the show, etc). For example, the cars in the garage were all model years consistent with what was inside the dome as well. – sonnik Aug 16 '19 at 21:40
  • 1
    @sonnik - That assumes technological progress. The influence of the Truman show and its harking back to the 1950s could mean that fashions have stagnated or regressed outside of the dome. – Valorum Aug 17 '19 at 08:00
  • Odd that She magazine is priced in £. – user Aug 18 '19 at 08:53
  • @user - I noticed that. It's not unusual for internationally produced magazines to be RRP'd in multiple currencies though. It saves having to sticker them. – Valorum Aug 18 '19 at 09:00
  • @RemyLebeau The real year outside the dome would have to be in the future, since human civilization doesn't currently have the technological desire to make such a dome for real, Very simply put, alternate realities are very much a thing. Technology in movies is in no way constrained to what humans can achieve in the year mentioned in the movie. – Flater Aug 18 '19 at 19:14
  • @Valorum my point is that I honestly don't see the evidence of an upper bound of 2029. The fact that the show says "in 30th year" just means Truman is about 30 years old. My conclusion is that it's more or less the same time inside and out of the dome. I think if you removed the 2029 upper bound your answer would be spot on, but I think 2029 is a bit of a stretch. I don't think there was any intent to make us think out of dome life was in 2029. I contrast this with "Westworld" (Series) - where there seems to be intended time disparities inside and outside the park. – sonnik Aug 19 '19 at 19:51
  • @sonnik - The problem is that while we see a magazine cover in the montage, we don't see whether it's contemporary or older, like some of the other magazines from the same montage with Truman as a baby. All we can say is that it a) Exists and says 1999 and b) That the show is in its 30th year. This gives us a boundary, but not a specific date. – Valorum Aug 19 '19 at 19:56
  • 1
    @Harper - Per the scriptbook; "*All of the magazines and newspapers were one-of-a-kind, customized props, since real periodicals would obviously be full of articles about Truman and "The Truman Show"*. – Valorum Aug 28 '19 at 18:21
40

Valorum's images show the alleged date inside the show, but I disagree with the upper bound of 2029. The real-world date could not have been more than a couple of years different.

The show made heavy use of product placement in lieu of traditional advertising. It would be unreasonably difficult to build a world that appeared to be 1996 while filling it with products that you were trying to sell to a 2029 audience. A difference of more than say 2-3 years would be enough for the product placement items to either make the world feel inconsistent, or to make it hard for viewers to believe that it's not the present day. You could fool Truman since that's all he knows, but you'd destroy the show's realism for the millions of viewers watching it (a.k.a. your revenue stream) and that realism is why the show is so popular.

If you have an isolated world in a bottle and you can script and control the people, culture, economy, weather, etc, then there's really no need to fudge the date as well. It's much more likely that the date inside the show was more or less the real date.

bta
  • 551
  • 3
  • 5
  • 1
    Product placements being a problem if they don't match the interior time seems to be a decent argument, but can you provide a couple of examples that wouldn't work if pitched to a substantially later audience than the setting of the show? (Like you couldn't sneak in a pitch for a new iPhone.) The only placement I really recall is the beer his "brother-in-law" brought over. – DavidW Aug 16 '19 at 21:08
  • 5
    You might note that the articles they're selling are largely timeless; Kitchen gadgets, beer, lawnmowers, takeout food, etc. I don't know what the world of 2029 will look like, but I'm willing to bet people will still eat, drink and have lawns that need mowing. – Valorum Aug 16 '19 at 21:08
  • 3
    @DavidW - In all of the "top 10 companies by TV ad spend" type lists I could find, half or more of the companies were in the automotive, technology, or telecom sectors. Those would all be difficult to product-place anachronistically, and something as expensive as the Truman Show couldn't afford to write off their largest potential advertisers. Anything fashion-related would be hard to do as well. Some products may be timeless, but companies do most of their advertising for them when they're new. – bta Aug 16 '19 at 22:16
  • 2
    Evidence from props seen on screen would suggest that the date in the real world was different from the dome world, albeit only by a few years – Valorum Aug 17 '19 at 12:39
  • 6
    @Valorum kitchen gadgets are actually a very good example - you can't put an advertisement for a 2019 smart fridge with internet connectivity or a 2019 microwave with a touchscreen interface in a 1996 environment without it being very, very weird; much less whatever will come out in 2029. Technology gets everywhere, and for kitchen gadgets the ad spending is devoted towards the new and shiny stuff that does include the latest technology, not the same-old-boring dishwashers that are still being produced. Also, 2019-2029 takeout would be ordered in an app - how do you advertise that in "1996"? – Peteris Aug 17 '19 at 20:17
  • @Peteris - The show is chock-full of anachronisms already; there's only one TV show and it mostly only plays old films, for example, so there are already restrictions on what can and can't be advertised. That being said, don't forget that Christof is pushing a retrograde society. That has to have an influence on the world outside the dome too. – Valorum Aug 17 '19 at 20:20
  • 2
    @Valorum The gadgets might be timeless, but not the brands. "2001: A Space Odyssey" has Pan Am operating the space shuttle, but they actually went out of business in 1991. And AT&T still existed, but they didn't use the Bell System logo any more. – Barmar Aug 19 '19 at 06:14