which movie takes place the farthest in the past?

[lester1/2jr]

I guess in terms of TV shows, that discovery channel show with the dinsaurs is the earliest.  Unless there is a show of rocks talking to each other or something.


1,000 years bc?

[daveblackeye15]

I don't think there's ever been a movie with talking single celled organisms but if there was then that would probably be it.

[Fearless Freep]

Fantasia

[BoyScoutKevin]

Title wise, a good candidate would be "One Million Years B.C."

[Chris Reynolds]

I think Fearless Freep made the best call with Fantasia (specifically the "Rite of Spring" section) which starts off with the earth being formed so that's around 4.5 billion years in the past. I can't think of any movie that really has anything much farther back than that although I'm sure that there must be some time travel movies that take place at the beginning of the universe or something.

If we're talking about whole movies set in distant past, it will have to be an all-dinosaur movies like "Land before time" or something. However, most dinosaur movies are set near the end of the Cretaceous period, because they usually involve threats from the impending extinction (65 million years ago) and also T-Rexes which only existed from  85 to 65 million years ago. Of course a lot of dinosaur movies just throw a load of dinosaurs together without regard for the time period with which they existed.

The trouble as you get further and further into the past is that it gets harder to make an involving movie as the life-forms get less and less complex and less intelligent.

[kriegerg69]

Fearless Freep wrote:

> Fantasia

.....and CFTBL both show the creation of the earth/universe. CFTBL has such a sequence following the main titles. FANTASIA also shows the creation of the earth/universe.

[AndyC]

Fantasia probably wins this one, with the creation of the world.

However, I think Eliminators comes second. It's only a brief scene at the end, but the villain, Abbot Reeves, fails in his plan to take over the Roman Empire, and instead becomes trapped in the Silurian Period - about 400,000,000 years ago.

[raj]

Probably all the correct ones have been answered, but just to be different, what about Star Wars?  It was set "a long, long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away. . ."  It could be set well before our sun even formed.  The current Battlestar Galactica also doesn't necessarily need to be set in the current time frame.

[lester1/2jr]

Fantasia is a good answer but it's not really "set" in the creation of the world era is it?  

We had a similar topic a month ago with which one takes place the farthest in the future.  the winner was Dune I think.  

So, Dune and Fantasia are....good