When Does the First Remake of "Godzilla" (1998) Take Place?
"Godzilla" is an adventure horror (kaiju) film written by Terry Rossio with Ted Elliott, Don Macpherson, Dean Devlin, and Roland Emmerich [remaking "Gojira" (1954) by Takeo Murata with Ishirō Honda] that released May 20th, 1998. So when is "Godzilla" set?
It takes place in the year:
We know this because, as Manhattan is being evacuated early in the movie, reporter Charles Caiman refers to the circumstances as New York City's "worst act of destruction since the World Trade Center bombing". That's the famous and tragic bombing that damaged the city's World Trade Center towers on February 26th, 1993 AD. So it must be after February of 1993 AD.
1997 AD
We know this because, as Manhattan is being evacuated early in the movie, reporter Charles Caiman refers to the circumstances as New York City's "worst act of destruction since the World Trade Center bombing". That's the famous and tragic bombing that damaged the city's World Trade Center towers on February 26th, 1993 AD. So it must be after February of 1993 AD.
Multiple references are made to the real-world atomic bomb tests in French Polynesia starting in 1966 AD but the first is "over the past 30 years" and a later one "for more than 2 decades". This tells us it is sometime between 1987 AD and 1996 AD but it is later clear these statements are not only general but rounded up and rounded down, respectively.
Furthermore, Doctor Niko Tatopoulos and Audrey Timmonds dated previous to the plot's start and Audrey refers to Niko as "my college sweetie" so they met as college students. When Victor "Animal" Palotti asks, "How long did you guys go out for anyway?", she answers, "Nearly 4 years". Usually, people enter college at age 18 and leave college at age 22 in the United States of America. So their relationship ended when Niko was 22 to 26-years-old.
18 + 4 = 22
to
22 + 4 = 26.
When Tatopoulos and Audrey are reunited, after he says, "Well, you left without a phone call, a letter, nothing-- all this time", she replies, "That was 8 years ago." It's been 8 years since they've seen each-other so Niko is 30-years-old, at the youngest.
22 + 8 = 30
to
26 + 8 = 34.
Tatopoulos' file with the French Direction Generale des Services Exterieurs secret agents reads: "Mars 1964 á New-York" [March 1964 in New York], presumably under birthdate and birthplace. So 30 to 34 years after his birth brings us to between 1994 AD and 1998 AD. Since Audrey says she and Niko were together for "nearly" and not fully "4 years", it is probably before 1998 AD.
1964 + 30 = 1994
to
1964 + 34 = 1998.
More specifically, Mayor Ebert refers to something we have just seen on screen when he yells, "Now, hold on! Hold on! You're telling me that, in an election month, I've evacuated this entire city for nothing?!" New York City mayoral elections are held in the real-world every four years in November and there was one in 1993 AD as well as 1997 AD. Since it's "an election month" and Mayor Ebert says, "When I first came into office 4 years ago"... in his first scene, we know this pattern is followed in the fictional world (diegesis) of the narrative. Based on his file, Niko would be too young for the two spans of years Audrey describes having happened previous to the story's start (before he turned 30-years-old in March of 1994 AD) for the present to be November 1993 AD. So it is currently November of 1997 AD.
It has been retroactively absorbed into the MonsterVerse Universe at a chronologically early spot (a first chronological film to feature Godzilla).
