What year is does this take place?
I saw the sign at the opera that said it was the 1934-1935 season was beginning in November. But that was a flashback to when Birnam met Helen St James, and I believe he said it was three years earlier when they first met, so that would place the movie most likely in either September or October (Yum Kipur) of 1938.
“Why are things so heavy in the future? Is there a problem with the Earth's gravitational pull?”