Miracle Mile

Saw Miracle Mile, a breathlessly exciting but kind of dismal romance. The protagonist is a trombone-playing dweeb who meets the girl of his dreams just before accidentally overhearing a phone call indicating that nuclear armageddon is at hand. It is never quite clear, by the way, that his information is accurate (by the end it's apparent of course, but it could well be that everyone dies, or that everyone lives.) He has to rescue himself and his girl and gives up countless sure paths to salvation in pursuit of her safety.

Mostly the film is an action movie, with the world becoming increasingly chaotic and the protagonist becomeing increasingly desperate. The girlfriend is at times irritatingly used as a stumbling block, wandering off when she should stay put (as she was told to do by her Man. 1980s sexism makes a brief appearance.) Also very 80s-ish is the inclusion of gay characters. They are designed to add a layer of verisimilitude to the proceedings, as though they were a drug habit or a phobia, an unusual but honest quirk. At least they are included at all, although they still have the distinct feeling of token-ism about them.

Anyway, the film is very exciting and breathless. We are told that there's only an hour and a half left to live and we see the following adventures in essentially real time. The increasingly more self-assured dweeb lies, shoots and bribes his way through his last hours on earth. Under all of the music and the explosions though, the whole thing is of course very bleak. There is an existential sense that the dweeb and his girl cannot escape the inevitable and would almost be wiser to stop struggling and try to end their lives peacefully. The film's ending is amazing for a blockbuster-style 80s flick. Way more bleak than I would have predicted, it's the stuff of arthouse. An interesting film. Kind of an anti-action film.