Miracle Mile

Miracle Mile

Sidey: it's a movie that has cropped up in a couple of different articles that I've seen about films that didn't do very well, that are worthy of a second look. Okay.

So bit of, so it was a flop. It was a great big flop. But half decent. So it's it's starring. So this is possibly why Anthony Edwards is the lead man who I like. But he's not your kind of like typical lead dude. So we're

Reegs: can't think who he is off the top of my head.

Sidey: Well he is er top gun,

Reegs: Oh yeah. Yeah.

Sidey: So he is not your like.

Dan: oh, he is a Yeah. One of the doctors in er,

Sidey: Yeah, he's the lead man in, in er. He's got glasses. He's kind of like,

Dan: yeah. Oh, I like him. Yeah. Yeah.

Sidey: good. I'm just gonna, in this, he's, not in a comedic way, but it's like, he's in his, let's say, thirties single fella looking for love.

He's just met a lady. They've had one date where they've gone to the tarts, those famous tarts in LA Yeah. And like, confessed their love for each other on this first date.

Dan: That what you do on a first date normally?

Sidey: No. She also [00:01:00] has one of the worst hair cuts I've ever seen. It is brutal.

Reegs: I punched a cup of coffee across the counter on the last first date I went on

Sidey: Really? Yeah. nice coffee. That's smooth.

Cris: You punched a coffee?

Reegs: Yeah, I went to, I'm a bit of a clut, so I went to grab it and I just kind of punched it, but accidentally just like over the counter and sort of across me and stuff.

Cris: Oh,

right. I just thought you were angry.

Dan: oh, that, that reminds me of my favorite knock, knock joke, actually.

Cris: Knock, knock.

Sidey: go on, go

for it.

Dan: do you wanna hear it? Yeah. Say knock, knock,

Cris: knock, knock.

Dan: Who's there?

Reegs: I know I've done this on my children about a million times.

Cris: Is

that a joke?

Dan: Yeah,

Reegs: yeah.

Sidey: Right. So they're gonna, they've, they've decided that they're in love with each other already after one date and they arranged to meet again.

She works at a diner and they're gonna meet at the end of her shift, I think. And he turns up at this diner really late and, the lady that's working aside, she's gone and she's fucking devastated that you didn't turn up. And he says, I'm sorry. There was some sort of [00:02:00] electrical failure at the building.

He's not lying. This is, this is apparently what's happened. His alarm didn't go off and he slept through and he is missed it. His, his fucking gut as well. So he is gonna phone her. So he goes to the call box, outside phone. She doesn't answer, so leaves her a message and then he is sort of pacing around outside, oh, I can't fucking believe it.

What a fucking dick. And the phone rings and he thinks, oh. It could be her. So he picks up the phone and it's someone screaming and shouting. And he is like, I'm sorry, like, what is it? And they're just going mad. And they,

they. Give him this message, I dunno who they're trying to phone, but they give him this message that nuclear war is happening and there are missiles are about to hit LA in 50 minutes and it's all gonna happen.

And then he hears gunshots and his person on the other end of the phone is apparently killed. So he goes back in and in the in the diner, there's all these people that you've seen like characters for millions of other films. There's the guy who interrogates Sarah Connor in.

The Terminator of one and two movies.

The Bald guy? Yeah, he's there. The chef [00:03:00] fellow is someone you'd recognize and if there's a few others, there's a guy from Waynes World who is the exec who works for Rob Lowe. Kind of funny looking dude. You'll see him later on. so

He's like, fuck, he's just had this message there. There's about to be some apocalyptic like fucking meltdown.

And he

Dan: And he wants to be shagging that girl, I imagine.

Sidey: And what is weird is that everyone fucking believes it. So he goes in, he is like, oh, this has happened and I need to find Julie because we need to get the fuck out of here. And like

Reegs: you're not gonna outrun a nuclear explosion though, are you?

Sidey: It's 50 minutes.

They've been given this 50 minute ticking clock of now this is what, how long it's gonna take to hit. So if you can get far enough away

but it,

Dan: miles an hour,

Sidey: It's sort of like I was watching it going, people are really buying this. Like it's quite a. You know, if you went just into a restaurant in Lio and said to people,

Reegs: there's a nuclear

Sidey: People are like, yeah, nice one

nice No one takes that much convincing in this. And so things sort of transpire [00:04:00] where they basically get everyone in the diner ends up in the back of this lorry and the chef drives it off.

Reegs: Is the national news onto this yet,

Sidey: It does get like that, yeah.

So the, the story does, it spreads like wildfire and you get the impression that the, they were killed this guy because this news wasn't supposed to get out. You know, you don't want a whole panic, but the whole city's gonna get wiped out if this is an accurate Yeah. And he's realizes that the guy driving the, the truck where they're, that they're legging it.

Not has said that he would stop and help him get Julie. He's not, he's just like, no, we need to just fucking get as far away as we can. We haven't got time to stop. For other people, this is like proper survival. So he grabs a gun that's lying around and says no, you need to stop. And the guy's like, listen, I know you're not, you're not gonna shoot that.

So he's like, you know, you're right. Call my bluff on that. So he just gets off. And, and as basically they end up in downtown la and this story just spread people calling other people and, and what the movie does is a really good job of showing just the chaos and the fucking, like, pandemonium that would [00:05:00] transpire if

Reegs: how quickly society breaks down

Sidey: breaks down.

People are

Dan: January sales.

Sidey: there's just

Reegs: looting

Sidey: yeah, there's looting. You think, and I was watching that game. Well, what you going use that stuff for?

Reegs: when you're dead from a nuclear explosion?

Dan: I've always wanted those jeans.

Sidey: What you do have is the freeways just piled up and then people are just like ramping, trying to ramp their car over shit

Reegs: Oh my God.

Sidey: and you can tell it's a lot, you know, it is not a big budget.

I think the budget is 3

Reegs: the ambition stretch the

Sidey: but it does actually do a good job of conveying that, so it's like, well, what do we need to do? We need to either get to an airplane or get to get to the chopper. Yeah. And there is a chopper on top of one of the buildings. They go up there and that's where you see the, the dude from Waynesville, I wish I knew his name.

He's gone completely like manic. They've got some supplies, but they what don't, they've got a helicopter, but they don't have a pilot. They could do a trinity just, yeah. Port me into some details. But, so the mission now is Julie runs off to find someone and, and he runs off, he'd gone off to find a, a pilot and told Julie to stay there, but she goes off anyway, [00:06:00] so he's still got this gun and he is going around to like gymnasiums and all these different places, like just walking to anyone here, helicopter pilot.

They look at him like. No, it, it does, it does eventually in the gym find this guy like pumping iron, who is a, who does know how to fly a helicopter. So he takes him, this guy has to bring his misses. That's the one condition. And in amongst all the fucking chaos they do eventually sort of take off and it's a, like a breezy movie.

It's like 80 minutes this. Yeah. So it does all like ch along and you see it on the news and everyone's just going completely mad. So it is now national news that this is happening. Still, it's like the,

The,

the, story that has got out is on the news. Whether it's

Reegs: because

this must be unfolding pretty much in real

Sidey: right? Yeah. Yeah. It's all in real time. Yeah. And so they get back up to the the helicopter and they get on it. And now you do see you do see some, and this is weird because you think even for 3 million you could do a more, you just see some sort of vapor trouss in the sky and they'd look really sort of amateurish.

And, they, they end up crashing the helicopter [00:07:00] crashes and they, him and the girl are sort of underwater and it seems like they might actually drown before any, any sort of nuclear thing happens. And he is given her all this spiel saying, oh, don't worry. You know, if we're gonna go out maybe we'll get a direct hit and we'll met more for sudden into some, we'll mutate into some sort of different thing.

You're like, this is a weird, like deathbed plan. But they're chatting and chatting, chatting, and you see more Miss has come over and they do hit and everyone's fucking wiped out. La you know, the Western Seaboards completely fucking vaporized. And, and that's it. The end.

Reegs: how it ends,

Sidey: credit credit's come up.

And I was like, man, this is almost as bleak as fucking the myth, the, the

Reegs: Yeah.

Sidey: Yeah, yeah,

yeah. And there's no like. This is why it's happened. This is who's like, who's sending the missiles? Anything like that. There's no survivors. No fucking nothing. Just everyone's fucking dead. Smy.

Dan: disaster. Movie that,

Reegs: It's based on a

Dan: that remains

Sidey: Yeah. Yeah. It's happening right now. Yeah. Mad I wanna tell you about her haircut. She's a red head and she has a kind of spiky, [00:08:00] sort of top to a hair, and then where the ears are, there's just a straight line, like shaved in it.

But it's not like a hipster mullet. She has a sort of bit of like length at the back, but not very much.

It's a really, really odd

Cris: hairstyle. Well, like a David Bowie kind

Sidey: a little bit like that. Yeah. Yeah.

Cris: Wow.

Reegs: the top of a Pat Sharp.

Sidey: Yeah, it's a bit Pat Sharpie, but doesn't have the length of the back and it's ginger. Really, really weird

Reegs: But That is,

Sidey: look, they're strange looking Couple together.

Reegs: What year

was this movie made?

Sidey: Yeah. I dunno. Hang on.

Reegs: But

Dan: Well, what, what, yeah. Was the,

Cris: I have to say, I can't believe the transformation of this actor from Top Gun to how he actually looks in without the hair and

Sidey: This is 1988. Okay.

Cris: So he still had hair and

Sidey: it was written and directed by Steven Deja.

And it was apparently like a really sought after script and it was in development health for ages.

And then when it was actually made, it was a big flop. I made just about a million dollars. That's about

Reegs: ending, I wanna see [00:09:00] it almost for the ending.

Sidey: it's so bleak. You know, you probably get one or two people seeing this and going,

Dan: no,

They're not making a, they're not making a sequel.

Sidey: It weird. And then so they, they did the film in 88 and then they went their separate ways, like the cast and whatever, and an Edwards and, ma, his name is Ma. MARE. Ma, ma Mary. Is that Mary? Is that how you, is that a weird way of saying Mary? Winningham. And then 20 odd years later they met again, and in real life did strike up a romance. And I'm married to this day. Wow. Yeah, it's a weird film. It's a really, really weird film. I, I really enjoyed it actually.

Super bleak.

Reegs: Yeah.

Dan: Okay. Might be one for the future when I'm, when I'm

Sidey: Score

Reegs: it on prime?

Dan: feeling happy,

Sidey: yeah. You can watch it for nothing. Soundtrack by Tangerine Dream. Remember them

Reegs: Oh, that's getting me going

Sidey: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So that's, that's a strong

Reegs: check this out.

Sidey: I liked it. It is, so the articles twice they read about it being you know, one to, to check out and I would heartly agree, strongly recommend.

Reegs: lots of good like actors you talked about in there.

Very intriguing. And that ending sounds

Sidey: oh, Denise Crosby is in it. She was in Star [00:10:00] Trek. Next gen she was Tasha Ya. yeah. So another reason to watch it.

Dan: Strong. Recommend strong.

Cris: Yeah.