Sep 29, 2009

hit the nail on the head…

Dead cell phones, the formulaic scary movie plot twist.  When all else fails, dead cellphones will do the trick. Watch this amazing compilation of scary movie, post cellphone age, using the excuse “no signal”.

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  • description: This clever video pieces together scenes depicting the already-hoary suspense-film cliche in which a cellular phone's signal (or battery) gives out at just the wrong (right) time so that the characters will have something to be in suspense about. One thing I will always and forever love Iain Banks for is his 2003 novel Dead Air, a gripping, taut suspense novel in which everyone has a cellphone that always works. I was struck when I read it, believing that Banks had just created an entirely new genre: suspense novels in which none of the tension comes from characters not knowing key facts. No Signal (and other cellular drama) posted in: Copyfight , Funny , Video , movies Favorite This! (2) Buzz up! Send this to a Friend Older Musician's open letter, sung to Lily Allen Newer Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Burqini Discussion Report this comment #1 posted by tonnys, September 26, 2009 2:50 AM dudes, is there any signal? :( Report this comment #2 posted by Takashi Omoto, September 26, 2009 3:20 AM Speaking of that, was X-Files the first shows where people would reliably use cellphones as a medium of reliable communication? On the level that in some episodes Scully and Mulder would hardly meet face to face? I thought at the time that was very forward, especially considering US hadn't caught up with the mobile craze. Report this comment #3 posted by Kenneth Extension, September 26, 2009 3:26 AM These scenes would all be 100% accurate if the protagonists were using iPhones on the UK's O2 network. Report this comment #4 posted by Cicada, September 26, 2009 3:56 AM @2- Maybe, but wasn't Mulder notorious for losing his cell phone? Dropping it, etc? Report this comment #5 posted by foobiebletch, September 26, 2009 4:32 AM The other day I watched a floating piece of suspense cinema dreck called 88 Minutes, which leans heavily on cellular phones and clueless characters as the only two plot/suspense devices. It didn't help that I had to watch zoom shots of Pacino's puckered puss the entire time, though his hair-tower could be the official Eighth Wonder of the World. I wish I had that 1.5 hours of my life back, and I hope I never see another cell phone in a movie again. Now excuse me, I've got to go chase some kids off my lawn. Report this comment #6 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 4:44 AM On a related note, in the future kids are going to have a hard time understanding why people aren't just calling each other on the sitcom 'Seinfeld'. A large number of the plot/humor points in the show are based on pre-cell phone technology, as in people need to talk to each other, but can't. Jerry's got a phone in his car, but that's it. Report this comment #7 posted by Manny, September 26, 2009 5:05 AM Hey, be fair. Cellular was all about using cell phones, not just one "gotta get the hero out of contact" gimmick. I think that the filmmakers must have started by listing all the things a mobile could do or be used for and then built the movie around the list. Report this comment #8 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 5:28 AM This brings up the growing trend of having mystery/suspense stories be set in the 70s or 80s, so characters can't have easy access to Wikipedia or cell phones. Report this comment #9 posted by copperpixie, September 26, 2009 5:32 AM I'd have to watch the movie again to make sure, but there is a fair chance the scene from Cry_Wolf isn't fairly being included. Plus the opening scene uses a cellphone wonderfully. Report this comment #10 posted by mydog, September 26, 2009 6:12 AM Maybe I shouldn't have watched these video clips. For years - for decades, in fact - I've had a recurring nightmare that I have an important phone call to make and my fingers won't fit on the buttons. In fact, it goes back so far that it started with big fingers that wouldn't fit in those round holes you used to use to turn the dial. Da dum, nightmare time tonight... Report this comment #11 posted by aml, September 26, 2009 6:15 AM I was talking to my two daughters a few months back on how many old movie plots make little sense to them because they've lived a life where mobile phones are ubiquitous: All of those "if you love me, meet me on top of the Empire State Building by 5:00PM." For ages, the climax of many plots involved two parts in two different locations that couldn't communicate. Any film made more than 10 years ago problem have my kids yelling at the screen "why don't you just call them?" Then we noticed that most plots now involve a two step process. Make the mobile phone inoperable (have the batteries run out, have the phone fall down the garbage disposal, etc.) and then the plot is reduced to the previously solved problem. Report this comment #12 posted by daneyul, September 26, 2009 7:20 AM When phone coverage is truly universal (or we communicate via brain implants) I wonder what they'll do to maintain the "can't communicate" trope. (But, jeez, all I can think of is the poor guy that had to watch all those horrible movies to get these clips.) Report this comment #13 posted by Tdawwg, September 26, 2009 7:23 AM I guess I don't get the critique? Sure, this trope looks dumb when multiple instances are spliced together this way, but how else to deal with the obvious fact of cell-phones' ubiquity? Like AML notes, nearly everyone in a movie audience would expect the characters to use their cell phones: thus, we "need" a moment in which this possibility is dealt with and removed. Plus, the simple fact is that cell phones don't always work, often in situations where we'd wish otherwise. It's almost a new symbolic resonance for the dark, dark, dark woods: monsters and uncertainty await, sure, but perhaps what's worst is that your phone won't work there. I think Manny's right, though: the possibility exists to craft a tighter script that makes actual use of the cell phone as a structural device in multiple ways, not as a simple "O NOES IT'S BROKE" way. If anything, this points out the hoary old genre of horror-suspense, not so much the inclusion of non-working cellphones therein. Report this comment #14 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 7:32 AM Cell phones in the states aren't that reliable, even though people pay more in the states than in any other country for them. I don't find the movies that unbelievable in that respect. Report this comment #15 posted by sievetronix, September 26, 2009 7:35 AM After spending 4 days in and around the Pine Barrens all I have to say is... it happens. Report this comment #16 posted by Tdawwg, September 26, 2009 7:38 AM Maybe this issue points to a problem with plot-heavy storytelling in an increasingly deterministic, mapped-out, known, surveilled, mechanistic, etc., world. Think of a similar genre, the Wanted Man-Technothriller: Enemy of the State is an early example from the nineties. In these films, endless (and endlessly tiring) instances must be concocted whereby the harried protagonist just barely manages to slip by the evil conspiracymongers' (or corporation's, or gubbmint rogue death squad, or....) Nefarious Web of Ubiquitous Surveillance. Whereas if we're to accept the central premise of the film, that there exists a They Who Are Evil And All-Powerful, They'd have fucked the hero three ways to Sunday in reel one: but somehow the hero always always slips past the ever-tightening net of surveillance and control. In the suspense-horror case, the fear comes from the existential threats of not being able to plug into the Grid (loss of safety and security); in the technothriller case, the fear comes from the existential threats of not being able to jack out of the Grid (loss of freedom and agency). And since these aren't so much reflective or exploratory arty films, but plot-heavy popcorn summer blockbusters or the reliable, cheap thrills of contemporary horror flicks, so these completely stupid, adventitious reasons for tech failure keep popping up. Thinking more about it, I really like how the clips above make technology the real monster-threat of the films. Good stuff. Report this comment #17 posted by technogeek, September 26, 2009 7:53 AM Larry Niven summed up the real problem many years ago. In the Known World series, he had invented at least three different super-strong materials (if you include things reinforced with the Slaver force field) available in the same timeline/culture. He then found that this threw a real monkey wrench in his writing, since a great many SF situations could be solved with the proper application of one of these. The cell phone's ubiquity has forced authors to explain why people who get in trouble don't just call. Hence all the "we've got to take the phone out of the story" moves, and the flipside "here's a phone but for some reason it doesn't help" situations. It's a lot harder to build tension without isolation. Not impossible, but... well, most movies aren't exactly the Great American Short Story. Report this comment #18 posted by InsertFingerHere, September 26, 2009 7:58 AM Well thanks, now I'm super paranoid that when MY phone has no signal, I'll be chopped up, hunted down, burned alive, tortured, run over, abducted and otherwise face death. I needed a scene.. dark.... tight face shot.. girl is holding the phone to her right ear.. you hear the beep-beep of the phone.. no signal... and then from the darkness to her left, you see a shadowed disfigured face next to her left ear... "Can you hear me now?" and then cut to black, sounds of metal cutting into bone. Report this comment #19 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 8:01 AM Like Danyul, all I can think of is: What poor fool had a collection these awful movies? Report this comment #20 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 8:05 AM I am constantly noticing the exact opposite phenomena in movies and books - remember that John Revolta movie where cell phones were working perfectly in a freakin' mine? Report this comment #21 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 8:29 AM Ha. I clicked play on this at exactly the same moment as my iTunes randomly started playing 'Wasted Call' by Ivor Cutler (from Jammy Smears). So much opportunity for a remix... Report this comment #22 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 8:30 AM My favorite variant on this is in "Harold and Kumar Go to White Castle". After getting high and starting out to munch on some White Castle they have the following exchange in the hall outside their apartment. Kumar: I forgot my cell phone. Harold: You wanna run back and get it? [both turn and look at their front door 20 feet from them] Kumar: No, we've gone too far. Report this comment #23 posted by Jason Rizos, September 26, 2009 8:49 AM @8 Your subconscious is speaking to you, you rely too much on your phone (subconsciously) as a safety mechanism. @13 Why all of a sudden is the word "existential" being bandied about all the time, especially in conjunction with "threat." So f'n sick of that. Report this comment #24 posted by Nelson.C, September 26, 2009 8:56 AM Didn't Mulder's phone keep showing him text messages to go and kill someone once? Then there was the time IRL that Mossad rigged someone's cell phone with explosives so that when he answered (and they confirmed it was him) it blew his head off. Lots of interesting ways of making cellphones threatening in themselves yet to be written, I think. Report this comment #25 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 9:01 AM I'm just reminded of this old (by web standards) video, If All Movies Had Cell Phones: http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832002 Report this comment #26 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 9:03 AM Panic Room used the cell phone plot device pretty well. Report this comment #27 posted by dano, September 26, 2009 9:11 AM to be fair, the montage should only include clips from movies in which lack of reception is explained solely by "spotty reception" or "not in range." in movies like "the mist," the cell phone's lack of reception is due to the actual phenomenon happening outside. Report this comment #28 posted by ofindustry, September 26, 2009 9:14 AM I stopped watching when almost all of the first dozen or so clips portrayed the characters out in the wilderness. I get bad signals in rural areas of michigan when visiting family. areas with roads and houses. I saw people in these clips in mountains, forest and deserts. and if its a movie thats suspenseful you'd expect them to be lost in these places, rather than pleasantly hanging out in them. and if they are lost in them, then they are in a perfectly natural place to not have a signal, and therefore to be constantly checking for the off chance that one is attained. I dunno. this seems more like a sort of anthropic principle that can be applied to these types of stories rather than lazy writing. isn't it odd how often horror movies feature antagonists with knives and guns? we could probably do a good montage. Report this comment #29 posted by Tdawwg, September 26, 2009 9:19 AM Hmmm, perhaps, Jason Rizos, because it's a handy phrase that connotes more than its denotative meaning of simply "deadly threat," "a threat to one's life," etc.: it combines these with more ontological-epistemological-existential concerns about deep-seated and deeply-felt human values, experiences, and questions. Do monsters exist? Is the unknown a threat? How will I die, and will that death be meaningful, painful, etc.? Does my society keep me safe? What do I sacrifice for this? That's the way I'm using it, and I rather like that it's the same phrase "bandied about" by politicians: drain the linguistic swamp, reappropriate, copyfight, no? I'm not Condi Rice, I'm talking about movies, so chill. Report this comment #30 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 9:30 AM Can You Hear Me Now? Report this comment #31 posted by Jason Rizos, September 26, 2009 9:32 AM Well, Dawg, I'm looking at these clips and I'm still going with "deadly threat." No need to get Sartre involved whatsoever. Also, I'm calmer than you are. I'm perfectly calm. Report this comment #32 posted by apocalyptos, September 26, 2009 9:43 AM This predates cell phones. The Bo and Luke Duke used to get on the wrong side of Iron Mountain and lose CB contact with Uncle Jesse and Daisy at the most inconvenient times. Darn the luck! Report this comment #33 posted by ackpht, September 26, 2009 9:59 AM Alternate but equally realistic cell phone plot devices could include people unknowingly endangering themselves or others because they're using a phone, phones that ring at the worst possible time, a phone supplying important information to the bad guy, calls providing fatally wrong information, or calls for help that are answered by machines (for English, press 1) or someone who is totally useless. Report this comment #34 posted by Tdawwg, September 26, 2009 10:09 AM Sick and calm, Jason? Whatever works for you. A further wrinkle is when cellphones are the device by which the hero is located, surveilled, recorded, etc. Or where the cellphone records provide bits of useful information, either damning or exculpatory. Can't think of any examples outside of cop shows or The Wire, like that whole deal with the kid from Marlo's crew who forgets to buy burners from different gas marts: classic. The cellphone planted by McNulty that rings in the evidence room at the end of the penultimate episode is another great use: damn you, McNutty, that won't hold up in court! Report this comment #35 posted by Tdawwg, September 26, 2009 10:12 AM And the idea that there's no need to get Sartre involved makes me feel Nausea: maybe that's what's making you sick, too? Hey now! :P Report this comment #36 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 11:03 AM @30 If it's any consolation I laughed. Report this comment #37 posted by PalookaJoe, September 26, 2009 11:34 AM Anon@26 I liked the cell phone bit in Panic Room too although I can't remember exactly how worked. I just remember thinking that it was kinda clever. Report this comment #38 posted by Halloween Jack, September 26, 2009 11:59 AM Stephen King has used this trope, but the first time (in Desperation), it was completely plausible that the character wouldn't be able to get a signal in the middle of nowhere out West at the time the novel was published (1996). Conversely, in Cell, it's the very ubiquity of cell phones that drives the plot. On a tangent, I get the feeling, from the relatively low ratings for Dead Air relative to Iain Banks' other novels on Amazon, that there were a lot of people who downrated it because it was too different from Banks' other books. Report this comment #39 posted by jfrancis, September 26, 2009 12:09 PM I used to think any coincidence which hurt the main character was ok, while any one that helped the main character was bad. Thanks to this post I now think- Any coincidence which makes the storyteller's job easier is generally bad. Any coincidence which makes the storyteller's job harder is generally good. Report this comment #40 posted by Will_Tingle, September 26, 2009 12:44 PM Yeah, but... Most of those clips featured people in the middle of nowhere / in a basement - it would be out right silly if their phones DID work! Report this comment #41 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 12:47 PM By the way, this video was made by Rich of FourFour (who also created the "I'm not here to make friends" supercut as well): http://fourfour.typepad.com/fourfour/2008/07/im-not-here-to.html Report this comment #42 posted by sinisterscrawl, September 26, 2009 1:26 PM @#10 mydog- One man's private nightmare is another man's hoary suspense-film cliche. http://www.angelfire.com/film/tsss/ss/toofat.wav Report this comment #43 posted by Will_Tingle, September 26, 2009 1:55 PM True story: I've just (as in, 5 mins ago) had a late night jaunt to the supermarket (small town living: I can walk to the supermarket, but cheese, and be back all within 20-25mins). There was a delay at the deli counter, so I went to phone her indoors to explain the delay - my battery was dead! OH NOES!!!!! I must live in a badly / lazyly scripted movie, as this, apparently, never happens in real life. Report this comment #44 posted by historyman68, September 26, 2009 1:55 PM That College Humor video was pretty funny- "Hi Romeo, this is Juliette, I'm gonna fake my death tonight, so don't freak out or anything" Report this comment #45 posted by 2k, September 26, 2009 2:14 PM @10. Thanks MYDOG, can't wait for that one. Ewwwww. Report this comment #46 posted by mneptok, September 26, 2009 2:37 PM All you commenters have it absolutely wrong, as does Cory. The really important issues here are ... .... KKKKKSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH *click* Report this comment #47 posted by theemu, September 26, 2009 2:38 PM Back in the day, in the scary movies, anyone who tried to phone for help would discover that the lines had been cut. Report this comment #48 posted by otherthings, September 26, 2009 3:35 PM The dead cell phone trope doesn't bother me... at least it means they're trying to make things make sense! I was more annoyed by the use of Wikus's phone in District 9. If you're a fugitive with a cell phone, and your enemy has access to phone tower data, you're gonna get found very quickly. And yet, they ignored this fact, and then did the old "keep him on the phone for 45 seconds so we can trace the call" routine with his wife. It's not a landline, people! You don't need 45 seconds to trace the call! Report this comment #49 posted by jeremyhogan, September 26, 2009 3:46 PM Seems like they always work on 24. Even in the basement of a high rise or a parking garage or in a generic torture chamber or another country. Report this comment #50 posted by jfrancis, September 26, 2009 3:54 PM @46 We traced the call. He's on your other line! Inside the house! Report this comment #51 posted by Jardine, September 26, 2009 4:02 PM Considering I can see the cell tower from my kitchen and I still get "no service" popping up on my phone every once in a while, I have no problem with people not being able to get a decent signal in movies. Report this comment #52 posted by Lobster, September 26, 2009 4:32 PM Every time I look at my cell phone the battery is either half dead, almost dead, or totally dead. The conveniently dying cell phone is probably the most realistic thing in those movies! Report this comment #53 posted by jfrancis, September 26, 2009 4:45 PM @51 - a story is more entertaining if the storyteller creates events that make things harder for him, not easier. Report this comment #54 posted by jfrancis, September 26, 2009 4:48 PM I found a column on the topic: If our hero has a gun on the villain and the hero's gun jams, it's called drama. If the villain has our hero dead in his sights, and the villain's gun jams, it's called a lousy cheat, a not-very-inventive way to sneak the hero out of his predicament. http://www.wordplayer.com/columns/wp14.Anthropic.Principle.html Report this comment #55 posted by joncro, September 26, 2009 7:54 PM Was it 'Play It Again, Sam' that stars Tony Roberts as the man most in need of a cell phone? Report this comment #56 posted by Anonymous, September 26, 2009 8:03 PM when you're watching old horror movies though do you ever think "this whole situation could have been avoided if someone had a cellphone"? i guess these are for the people who think that. Report this comment #57 posted by Anonymous, September 27, 2009 3:15 AM @Takashi Omoto Yup, very astute of you to note X-Files cell phone use. I also believe they were the first to use the non-brick folding cell phone. I think that it has become too commonplace/cliche' as a plot device in shows and movies. I'm pleased that warehouse 13 had the sense to be using a fansworth more than cell phones. Though they did result to reversing the polarity in the season finale. Report this comment #58 posted by Anonymous, September 27, 2009 6:16 AM You all might enjoy the TVTropes article on this phenomenon. Lots of fun examples. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/CanYouHearMeNow Report this comment #59 posted by LYNDON, September 27, 2009 1:46 PM I was told the UK's 'The Bill' was the first police show to properly use cellphones. Report this comment #60 posted by Anonymous, September 27, 2009 9:51 PM IIRC in one of Iain M Banks' novels there's a moan about how lots of drama produced in The Culture has to feature a tortuous reason for the protagonist going off the grid in order for them to be in peril. Report this comment #61 posted by mjj12, September 28, 2009 5:09 AM On the other hand, think about "Clueless" from 1995. In that film, the rich Californian teenagers were talking to one another constantly on cellphones in fairly ordinary social contexts. At that point cellphones were sufficiently rare and expensive that the fact that they were being used constantly in this seemingly frivolous context was new and was being used to say something about these rather spoiled Californian teenagers. Plus of course the phones were also being seen as fashion accessories. Publicity materials for the all emphasised the cellphone use, because it was novel. http://tinyurl.com/ydv5tuj Now, of course, the behaviour with cellphones in the movie seems totally unremarkable. It captures a moment in time though. The phones look a little clunky compared to today, but not ludicrously so. This was only eight years after they were Michael Douglas in Wall Street ludicrous. http://tinyurl.com/yc9bdb7 Leave a comment Sign in to comment, or comment anonymously. Warning: Anonymous messages are held for moderation. 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