Timeline between the original film and SOTO

[The Turtle Terminator]

Is there a specific timespan given between these two films? The return of the Shredder seems like it should happen over a few days, however the film implies that the Turtles have been at April’s for several weeks

[Musashi]

It doesn't really make any sense at all. How long does the Shredder spend in the back of that garbage truck...? It's kind of odd that the first two movies were actually written by the same guy - although SotO probably in a hurry given how quickly they managed to release it.

Several weeks seems about right for April to build a whole new life in a new apartment having lost everything in the destruction of her old home... and also become a different person. In my fanfics, the two films actually take place in slightly different universes.

[snake]

Enough time for Casey Jones to be convicted of manslaughter and being mysteriously absent for the duration of the film.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by snake

Enough time for Casey Jones to be convicted of manslaughter and being mysteriously absent for the duration of the film.

I explain where he is, and answer a dozen other questions nobody ever wanted to know the answer to...

[pferreira]

I would say no more than two or three days. That would be enough time for the Foot to reassemble back at the junkyard. They all looked like they were in panic and still were clinging to their secret rendezvous spot in case something happened to them.

[Coola Yagami]

One or two days, the kids were acting like they just got there and were checking to make sure how many of them weren't caught by police and were able to make it.

Actually that would have worked better if the scene had some sort of 'several months later' thing right after it, cause it almost looked like that scene happened the same night Shredder was defeated.

What contradicts everything is April acts as if the Turtles had been living with her for quite a while, and not that they just moved in.

[Leo656]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

One or two days, the kids were acting like they just got there and were checking to make sure how many of them weren't caught by police and were able to make it.

Actually that would have worked better if the scene had some sort of 'several months later' thing right after it, cause it almost looked like that scene happened the same night Shredder was defeated.

What contradicts everything is April acts as if the Turtles had been living with her for quite a while, and not that they just moved in.

Yeah. It was always pretty obvious to me that no thought whatsoever went into it, due to all the conflicting information.

Logically, it couldn't have been more than a couple days for many reasons. Apart from what you mentioned, there's the fact that Shredder's still walking around wearing his Garbage Truck Variant armor and hadn't starved to death. And he bounces back almost immediately, so he absolutely couldn't have been very injured or malnourished or anything like that.

However, other things imply that at least a couple weeks had passed. It would have taken a while for April to find such a fancy apartment, for starters, and she seems to know her "new" neighbors sort of well, at least passingly. Meanwhile Keno implies that he's been delivering pizza to April's apartment for many days, sometimes multiple times per day. And I forget, but didn't April have a new boss in that one?

Logically, it couldn't have been more than three days for a few reasons, but other parts of the movie make it seem like it could have been about a month. I'm quite sure the filmmakers did not expect anyone to question it. "Time passed, let's move on." I get it, but even as a kid that bothered me, just because it's so incredibly lazy and wouldn't have taken any effort to fix. They simply didn't care.

[pferreira]

Originally Posted by Coola Yagami

What contradicts everything is April acts as if the Turtles had been living with her for quite a while, and not that they just moved in.

It can get a bit confusing due to that part. They really should of given some time stamp or something. However I wouldn't say anything more than four days due to the Foot regrouping at the beginning as well as Shredder emerging from the dump.

[Donnie]

Originally Posted by Musashi

I explain where he is, and answer a dozen other questions nobody ever wanted to know the answer to...

Cool project, I always wanted to write a fanfic comic based on the 90s movie universe. Not including SotO, though. I'd do an alternate take on events post movie 1.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by Donnie

Cool project, I always wanted to write a fanfic comic based on the 90s movie universe. Not including SotO, though. I'd do an alternate take on events post movie 1.

Thanks. Having recently rewatched the movies again, I have to acknowledge the first one is in a different league, largely down to Steve Barron's direction (Why didn't the other two directors oil the Turtles skin, or light their eyes...? Both great ways of making them look like real living creatures), but I still like II and III a lot.

Apart from a nostalgic fondness for the Fred Wolf cartoon, it's the 90s movies I'm really a fan of - not that fussed about any recent version. And I only read the Mirage Vol I comics - which are of course great - right before doing my fics so I could plunder ideas that might, in a parallel universe, have made their way into the movies if more had been made.

[sgtfbomb]

Originally Posted by Leo656

However, other things imply that at least a couple weeks had passed. It would have taken a while for April to find such a fancy apartment, for starters, and she seems to know her "new" neighbors sort of well, at least passingly. Meanwhile Keno implies that he's been delivering pizza to April's apartment for many days, sometimes multiple times per day. And I forget, but didn't April have a new boss in that one?

April had a new boss, new clothes, and a fully furnished, lived-in apartment decked out with all her things which is amazing because most of her possessions went up in the fire. The Foot's even had enough time to place a spy in her crew and April seems familiar with him, like he's been her cameraman for at least a little while. So to me, it feels like the film takes place at least a few months later if not longer and the only scene that doesn't imply that is Shredder's first scene.

[Andrew NDB]

I took it that April always had that apartment. That her place at the antique shop was just a home away from home.

[Musashi]

Originally Posted by sgtfbomb

April had a new boss, new clothes, and a fully furnished, lived-in apartment decked out with all her things which is amazing because most of her possessions went up in the fire. The Foot's even had enough time to place a spy in her crew and April seems familiar with him, like he's been her cameraman for at least a little while. So to me, it feels like the film takes place at least a few months later if not longer and the only scene that doesn't imply that is Shredder's first scene.

A lot of the stuff cluttering the apartment up belongs to the Turtles. If we assume that the place came fully furnished - I reckon it's a perk of her new contract, hastily negotiated at the end of the first movie - and that we see most of the clothes April owns in the course of that movie, some of which may even have been donated by a couple of similar-sized friends and/or colleagues, it doesn't seem impossible that she has had to basically rebuild her life in the past couple of weeks.

As for Freddy the spy, we actually see him dispatched on his mission by Shredder and Tatsu. The very fact that Channel 3 is getting used to a new (temporary?) boss suggests it's an ideal time for Freddy to make himself useful, and remember he is trained to hide in plain sight.

I have actually had to try to make sense out of some of this stuff.

[oldmanwinters]

Just for fun, a link to all that remains of Peter Laird's original pitch for the film:
http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot....on-second.html

[Wesley]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

Just for fun, a link to all that remains of Peter Laird's original pitch for the film:
http://peterlairdstmntblog.blogspot....on-second.html

Thanks for sharing. I only saw III as a kid, but the original pitch sounds like it would’ve been the right direction to take II and how I imagined it would be like.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Wesley

Thanks for sharing. I only saw III as a kid, but the original pitch sounds like it would’ve been the right direction to take II and how I imagined it would be like.

AndrewNBD, you think Laird's could make a starting point for a future fan-canon comic book? You would have my support!

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by oldmanwinters

AndrewNBD, you think Laird's could make a starting point for a future fan-canon comic book?

Probably. I'm not super interested in that, though.

[oldmanwinters]

Originally Posted by Andrew NDB

Probably. I'm not super interested in that, though.

Cue a "Sad Puppy Dog Eyes" meme for me.

I do think it would be fun to write out a TMNT 2 movie draft or comic book outline trying to do it like Eastman and/or Laird would have wanted it. Definitely no new mutant goons like Tokka/Rahazar, but more emphasis upon a sci-fi mystery story with TCRI/TGRI and the Utroms, but trying to incorporate a Baxter Stockman/Mousers angle to slice up the plot. I doubt the sequel would have ever had the Turtles using the Transmat to travel to far space, so the scope would still need to be confined to the city, especially the TCRI/TGRI building.

Man, I'm tempted to write something up now for my own amusement.

[sgtfbomb]

Something I've never thought about before, does anyone think it's funny everyone left Shredder in the garbage truck and that his body just got dumped into the junkyard? Like, did no one tell the cops about the strange man who fell from the rooftop and if not, wouldn't the garbagemen see his body (or at the very least, his blood) when they go to throw in more trash?

[Andrew NDB]

Originally Posted by sgtfbomb

Like, did no one tell the cops about the strange man who fell from the rooftop and if not

The only person that even knew about that was Casey, and that'd be confessing to a murder.

wouldn't the garbagemen see his body (or at the very least, his blood) when they go to throw in more trash?

Not necessarily, since Casey hit the compactor button and mashed him up in there. And for all we know it was done picking up trash and its next stop was the dump.