Timeline Essay
I read this in Fangoria when JGTH came out "It takes place as though the previous films were just that, they were films based on real events and what Jason Voorhees was a real killer.... at least in the reality of this movie," says Sean Cunningham. (that quote was written from memory, I didn't have the magazine right in front of me at the time, but it is pretty much the same as he said.)
So, because JGTH was made to happen as though 1-8 were films based on real events, that means that the movies of f13 parts 1-8 existed in the JGTH reality, but the events they were based on also existed. It is sort of like the movie New Nightmare, in that movie the Nightmare films existed and the Freddy demon possessed the Freddy character in the movie. Obviously this is slightly different in JGTH. In JGTH, it takes place many years after the events of part 8, but we don't really know for sure how many years after the events of part 8 happened that they made the movie of part 8 in JGTH's reality.
In JGTH Robert Campbell says "for over 20 years the mere mention of the name Jason Voorhees has been enough to send a shudder of fear through the hearts of an entire nation". Well, that means from the time the real events of part 1 or 2 happened, until the time of JGTH, probably 1999, it has been 20 years or more. So part 1 was made and took place in 1979, and part 2 was made in 1981 but took place in 1984 - but that would mean that if these were based on real events in the JGTH reality timeline, they would have happened in the early/mid seventies. It doesn't matter that parts 1-8 look different than the time the events they were based on could have taken place, because they were supposed to be films based on events, so "based on" means they could have taken place in another time.
Also when the trailer for JGTH came out, it said for 13 years Jason Voorhees has been killing. I know it is a trailer and it doesn't necessarily mean anything to the film but since Sean said what he said about JGTH and 1-8, it makes sense. It means that time as we know it is not on the same timeline as the time in JGTH's reality. That just means that when part 1 came out in 1979 it didn't necessarily mean that the movie took place in that year, even though the tombstone of Mr V said so. So maybe part 1 was in 1979 in the film reality, but in JGTH reality the true events which that movie was based on could've happened in 1970.
All the JGTH trailer meant was that Jason has been on the run for 13 years, from whenever the events of part one were till the events of JGTH. And also remember that just because directors of those 1-8 movies say that it has been 6 years between parts 4 and 5 and that Tommy is 18 in part 5, that doesn't mean anything cause they were just movies, which have no relevance to JGTH except that they were based on real events which happened earlier in JGTH timeline. When John Buechler said that part 7 opened months after the end of part 6 and then after the Tina flashback we go 10 years into the future, it doesn't mean that that 10 year period has anything to do with JGTH. I mean, hell, Wes Craven's New Nightmare took place in 1993, but in that reality the movie Freddy's Dead has been made along with the other Nightmare movies. Freddy's Dead takes place in 1999, which is almost 10 years after the conclusion of part 5. So, when the movie is made does not dictate when it takes place.
I mean even though this concept doesn't put parts 1-8 in the same timeline as JGTH it does mean that part 8 could happen after 2000, even though JGTH is 1999 because the filmmakers in the JGTH reality might have made the films to take place many years after the year they made it in, so consequently this timeline would work just fine for the 1-8 films in the JGTH reality:
PART 1 - 1979
PART 2,3,4 - 1984 TOMMY 12
PART 5 - 1990 TOMMY 18
PART 6 - 1991 TOMMY 19 / TINA 9
PART 7 - 2001 TINA 19
PART 8 - 2007
This timeline is not set in stone. For instance, the script for part 7
originally said it was 6 years after part 6 but Buechler changed it to 10. And there is no definite time between parts 7-8 but Mancuso said it was about the same time different like was between 4-5. The director of part 5 said Tommy was 6 years older, but as we all know from Beverly Hills 90210, actors that are in their twenties play characters who are in their teens so Tommy could have easily have been 15/16 in part 5. So this would work too:
PART 1 - 1979
PART 2,3,4 - 1984 TOMMY 12
PART 5 - 1988 TOMMY 16 (his birthday could be in between films)
PART 6 - 1988 TOMMY 17 / TINA 9
PART 7 - 1998 TINA 19
PART 8 - 1999
But like I said, this could work, but it doesn't reality matter. In fact the first timeline is much better because it work better with the "they are just films" notion. In the "films notion" parts 7-8 are after JGTH's 1999 reality, and since they are films within the film of JGTH it can work this way, the filmmakers of 1-8 wanted to make the movies farther into the future from when they made them so that it keeps them from being judged as present day work. It was their creavity liscence.
So, this has been my realization about the FridayThe 13th series based on Sean
Cunningham and Adam Marcus' words.
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