The pacing and build-up to the climax are brilliantly handled.
If you were alive during the Cold War, you know first-hand how much the threat of nuclear war was always present. Most of us tried to put it out of our minds as much as possible but reminders of the threat were everywhere. Movies from that time period, especially the 1980s, were happy to remind us how perilously close the end of the world we really were.
Miracle Mile, a 1988 thriller from writer/director Steve De Jarnatt, is a film that gets typically gets overlooked when one thinks back to those days. While films like The Day After and Threads are remembered as high level attempts to look at nuclear war and its after effects, Miracle Mile gets personal and even a little romantic.
Shortly after meeting the girl of his dreams at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles, trombone player Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) answers a ringing phone booth call at a local diner at 4 AM. The caller is a missile silo technician attempting to warn his father that a nuclear war is imminent. Harry thinks it’s a prank but the caller assures him that it’s really happening. In less than an hour, the United States will launch nuclear missiles. In 70 minutes, the retaliatory strike will hit back. Mutually assured destruction will no longer just be a term on the news. It will be reality.
Understandably horrified, Harry tries to contact his new girlfriend, Julie (Mare Winningham), and convince people that the end is really happening. The film follows the path that he and the other people he comes in contact with take to deal with the unbelievable news. I’ll save the details because the journey they take is the real meat of the film.
Although elements of Miracle Mile may seem a bit dated today, the film as a whole still works as an effective thriller. The pacing and build-up to the climax are brilliantly handled. Combined with excellent cinematography and an atmospheric electronic score by Tangerine Dream, it’s a true edge-of-your-seat experience.
In a way, Miracle Mile is more frightening than other movies about nuclear war because the characters (and the audience) aren’t completely sure the attack is going to happen. Everyone still has some level of hope. The level of suspense is multiplied because the film starts as a romance and tries to continue as one. Surely, the movie won’t end with the world really coming to an end? It can’t, can it?
4.5 out of 5.0 stars
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