Miracle Mile (film)
Encyclopedia
Miracle Mile is a 1988
apocalyptic
thriller cult film
written and directed by Steve De Jarnatt
, and starring Anthony Edwards
and Mare Winningham
that takes place mostly in real time. It is named after the Miracle Mile
neighborhood of Los Angeles
, where most of the action takes place. The movie was well received by critics, but bombed at the box office. Despite the poor box office performance, the movie has attracted a cult following.
) and Julie (Mare Winningham
), meet and are immediately attracted to each other. They make a date for later in the evening, but fail to meet due to a quirk of fate. While they are apart, Harry receives a wrong-number phone call, and is told that, unbeknownst to everyone else, nuclear war
is about to break out in fifty minutes. He searches frantically for Julie, helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. Some of the strangers they meet arrange for a helicopter to ferry a few to the airport, to catch a plane to Antarctica and safety. Harry makes arrangements with a pilot to meet them at the top of the building.
As the story reaches a climax, the news of the nuclear exchange
breaks, and Los Angeles descends into violent chaos. Harry worries that he may be the cause of an unnecessary panic.
They reach the top of the building where the helicopter is supposed to be waiting to find the pad empty. After a missile streaks across the sky, confirming the war is real, the helicopter returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, three nuclear missiles hit L.A. and the EMP
from the detonations causes the copter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits
.
As the copter sinks and the cabin fills with water, Harry tries to comfort Julie by saying someday they will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or maybe they will take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie seems to take some hope in this, and the movie fades out as the water fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.
for Warner Brothers with the hope of directing it as well. The studio wanted to make it on a bigger scale and did not want to entrust the project with a first-time director like De Jarnatt.
Miracle Mile spent three years in production limbo until De Jarnatt optioned it himself, buying the script for $25,000. He rewrote it and the studio offered him $400,000 to buy it back. He turned them down. When he shopped it around to other studios, they balked at the mix of romance and nuclear war and the film's downbeat ending. This is what drew Anthony Edwards to the script as he remembers, "It scared the hell out of me. It really made me angry too...I just couldn't believe that somebody had written this." John Daly
of Hemdale Films gave De Jarnatt $3.7 million to make the film.
were used in this film: Johnie's Coffee Shop
; La Brea Tar Pits
; Miracle Mile District
; Pan-Pacific Auditorium
in the Fairfax District
; Santa Monica Pier
, Santa Monica, California
.
praised the film, claiming it had a "diabolical effectiveness" and a sense of "real terror". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "It seems he's (De Jarnatt) not committed to his story or his characters, but to the idea that he is saying something profound - which he isn't". Stephen Holden, in The New York Times
wrote, "As Harry and Julie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Winningham make an unusually refreshing pair". In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr called it, "a messy film, but it's got energy, urgency, conviction and heat and you won't soon forget it". British film and television critic Charlie Brooker
, in an article for the BAFTA website written in September 2008 awarded Miracle Mile the honor of having the "Biggest Lurch of Tone" of any film he had ever seen.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
reported that 86% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on twenty-one reviews.
Nominations
1988 in film
-Top grossing films :- Awards :Academy Awards:* Act of Piracy* Action Jackson, starring Carl Weathers, Craig T. Nelson, Vanity, Sharon Stone* The Adventures of Baron Munchausen* Akira* Alice...
apocalyptic
Apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic fiction
Apocalyptic fiction is a sub-genre of science fiction that is concerned with the end of civilization due to a potentially existential catastrophe such as nuclear warfare, pandemic, extraterrestrial attack, impact event, cybernetic revolt, technological singularity, dysgenics, supernatural...
thriller cult film
Cult film
A cult film, also commonly referred to as a cult classic, is a film that has acquired a highly devoted but specific group of fans. Often, cult movies have failed to achieve fame outside the small fanbases; however, there have been exceptions that have managed to gain fame among mainstream audiences...
written and directed by Steve De Jarnatt
Steve De Jarnatt
Steve De Jarnatt is an American film and television director, screenwriter, and short story author.He is best known for writing and directing the 1988 nuclear apocalypse thriller Miracle Mile and the film Cherry 2000....
, and starring Anthony Edwards
Anthony Edwards
Anthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.-Early life:Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika...
and Mare Winningham
Mare Winningham
Mare Winningham , born Mary Megan Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Drama Desk, 7 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won an Independent Spirit Award and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.She is...
that takes place mostly in real time. It is named after the Miracle Mile
Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California
The Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, California, is an area in the Mid-Wilshire region consisting of an almost two-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Western Avenues...
neighborhood of Los Angeles
Los Angeles, California
Los Angeles , with a population at the 2010 United States Census of 3,792,621, is the most populous city in California, USA and the second most populous in the United States, after New York City. It has an area of , and is located in Southern California...
, where most of the action takes place. The movie was well received by critics, but bombed at the box office. Despite the poor box office performance, the movie has attracted a cult following.
Plot
The film takes place in a single day and night, beginning as the two main characters, Harry (Anthony EdwardsAnthony Edwards
Anthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.-Early life:Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika...
) and Julie (Mare Winningham
Mare Winningham
Mare Winningham , born Mary Megan Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Drama Desk, 7 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won an Independent Spirit Award and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.She is...
), meet and are immediately attracted to each other. They make a date for later in the evening, but fail to meet due to a quirk of fate. While they are apart, Harry receives a wrong-number phone call, and is told that, unbeknownst to everyone else, nuclear war
Nuclear warfare
Nuclear warfare, or atomic warfare, is a military conflict or political strategy in which nuclear weaponry is detonated on an opponent. Compared to conventional warfare, nuclear warfare can be vastly more destructive in range and extent of damage...
is about to break out in fifty minutes. He searches frantically for Julie, helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. Some of the strangers they meet arrange for a helicopter to ferry a few to the airport, to catch a plane to Antarctica and safety. Harry makes arrangements with a pilot to meet them at the top of the building.
As the story reaches a climax, the news of the nuclear exchange
World War III
World War III denotes a successor to World War II that would be on a global scale, with common speculation that it would be likely nuclear and devastating in nature....
breaks, and Los Angeles descends into violent chaos. Harry worries that he may be the cause of an unnecessary panic.
They reach the top of the building where the helicopter is supposed to be waiting to find the pad empty. After a missile streaks across the sky, confirming the war is real, the helicopter returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, three nuclear missiles hit L.A. and the EMP
EMP
EMP or Emp may refer to:Science and technology*Electromagnetic propulsion*Electromagnetic pulse, a burst of electromagnetic radiation*Electron microprobe microanalyzer, a tool for chemical composition determination...
from the detonations causes the copter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits
The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water...
.
As the copter sinks and the cabin fills with water, Harry tries to comfort Julie by saying someday they will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or maybe they will take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie seems to take some hope in this, and the movie fades out as the water fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.
Cast
- Anthony EdwardsAnthony EdwardsAnthony Charles Edwards is an American actor and director. He has appeared in various movies and television shows, including Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Top Gun, Zodiac, Revenge of the Nerds, Northern Exposure and ER.-Early life:Edwards was born in Santa Barbara, California, the son of Erika...
as Harry Washello - Mare WinninghamMare WinninghamMare Winningham , born Mary Megan Winningham, is an American actress and singer-songwriter. She has been nominated once for an Academy Award, Golden Globe and Drama Desk, 7 times for Emmy Awards , and has also won an Independent Spirit Award and two Screen Actors Guild Award nominations.She is...
as Julie Peters - John AgarJohn AgarJohn George Agar was an American actor. He starred alongside John Wayne in the films Sands of Iwo Jima, Fort Apache and She Wore a Yellow Ribbon, but was later relegated to B movies, such as Tarantula, The Mole People, The Brain from Planet Arous, Flesh and the Spur, and Hand of Death...
as Ivan Peters - Lou Hancock as Lucy Peters
- Mykelti WilliamsonMykelti WilliamsonMichael T. "Mykelti" Williamson is an American actor best known for his role as Benjamin Buford Blue in the 1994 film Forrest Gump, as Detective Bobby "Fearless" Smith in the critically acclaimed but commercially unsuccessful crime drama Boomtown, and recently for appearing as the head of CTU for...
as Wilson - Kelly Jo MinterKelly Jo MinterKelly Jo Minter is an American actress who has starred in many feature films. Her first feature role was in the 1985 hit drama film Mask...
as Charlotta - Kurt FullerKurt FullerKurt Fuller is an American character actor. He has appeared in a number of television, film, and stage projects. He graduated from Lincoln High School in Stockton, California in 1971.-Career:...
as Gerstead - Denise CrosbyDenise CrosbyDenise Michelle Crosby is an American actress best known for portraying Security Chief Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation...
as Landa - Robert DoQuiRobert DoQuiRobert DoQui was an American actor who starred in film and on television. He is best known for his role as King George in the 1973 film Coffy, starring Pam Grier, as Sgt. Warren Reed in the 1987 science fiction film RoboCop, the 1990 sequel RoboCop 2, and the 1993 sequel RoboCop 3...
as Fred the Cook - O-Lan JonesO-Lan JonesO-Lan Jones is an American actress. Her name came from the novel The Good Earth by Pearl S. Buck.-Selected Filmography:-References:...
as Waitress - Claude Earl Jones as Harlan
- Alan RosenbergAlan RosenbergAlan Rosenberg is an American actor of both stage and screen. From 2005 to 2009, he was president of the Screen Actors Guild, the principal motion picture industry on-screen performers' union.-Early life:...
as Mike - Danny De La Paz as Transvestite
- Earl BoenEarl BoenEarl Boen is an American actor and voice actor. He is perhaps best known as criminal psychologist Dr. Peter Silberman in the Terminator series...
as Drunk Man in Diner - Diane DelanoDiane DelanoDiane A. Delano is an American character actress, sometimes credited as Diana Delano. Her best known roles might be "Bobbi Glass" as well as her twin sister nurse "Jessi Glass "on the 1999 series Popular and the recurring character "Barbara Semanski" on Northern Exposure...
as Stewardess - Edward BunkerEdward BunkerEdward Heward Bunker was an American author of crime fiction, a screenwriter, and an actor. He wrote numerous books, some of which have been adapted into films....
as Nightwatchman
Production
Before Miracle Mile was made, its production had been legendary in Hollywood for ten years. In 1983, it had been chosen by American Film magazine as one of the ten best unmade screenplays. Steve De Jarnatt wrote it just out of the American Film InstituteAmerican Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
for Warner Brothers with the hope of directing it as well. The studio wanted to make it on a bigger scale and did not want to entrust the project with a first-time director like De Jarnatt.
Miracle Mile spent three years in production limbo until De Jarnatt optioned it himself, buying the script for $25,000. He rewrote it and the studio offered him $400,000 to buy it back. He turned them down. When he shopped it around to other studios, they balked at the mix of romance and nuclear war and the film's downbeat ending. This is what drew Anthony Edwards to the script as he remembers, "It scared the hell out of me. It really made me angry too...I just couldn't believe that somebody had written this." John Daly
John Daly (producer)
John Daly was a British film producer.-Personal life:John Daly was born in South East London, a part of London which was badly bombed and damaged in World War II. He attended a Roman Catholic school. Daly was father to Jenny, Michael, Julian, and Timothy...
of Hemdale Films gave De Jarnatt $3.7 million to make the film.
Filming locations
The following locations in Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
were used in this film: Johnie's Coffee Shop
Johnie's coffee shop
Johnie's Coffee Shop is a former coffee shop and well known example of Googie architecture located on the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Fairfax Avenue in Los Angeles, California...
; La Brea Tar Pits
La Brea Tar Pits
The La Brea Tar Pits are a cluster of tar pits around which Hancock Park was formed, in the urban heart of Los Angeles. Asphaltum or tar has seeped up from the ground in this area for tens of thousands of years. The tar is often covered with water...
; Miracle Mile District
Miracle Mile, Los Angeles, California
The Miracle Mile in Los Angeles, California, is an area in the Mid-Wilshire region consisting of an almost two-mile stretch of Wilshire Boulevard between Fairfax and Western Avenues...
; Pan-Pacific Auditorium
Pan-Pacific Auditorium
The Pan-Pacific Auditorium was a landmark structure in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles, California which once stood at 7600 West Beverly Boulevard near the site of Gilmore Field, an early Los Angeles baseball venue predating Dodger Stadium...
in the Fairfax District
Fairfax District, Los Angeles, California
The Fairfax District is an area of neighborhoods in the Mid-City West area of Los Angeles, California.- Geography :It is roughly bordered by West Hollywood on the north, Highland Avenue on the east, West Hollywood and Beverly Hills on the west and Wilshire Boulevard on the south...
; Santa Monica Pier
Santa Monica Pier
The Santa Monica Pier is a large double-jointed pier located at the foot of Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, California and is a prominent, 100-year-old landmark.-Pacific Park:...
, Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica, California
Santa Monica is a beachfront city in western Los Angeles County, California, US. Situated on Santa Monica Bay, it is surrounded on three sides by the city of Los Angeles — Pacific Palisades on the northwest, Brentwood on the north, West Los Angeles on the northeast, Mar Vista on the east, and...
.
Critical reception
Miracle Mile received generally positive reviews among critics. Roger EbertRoger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
praised the film, claiming it had a "diabolical effectiveness" and a sense of "real terror". In her review for the Washington Post, Rita Kempley wrote, "It seems he's (De Jarnatt) not committed to his story or his characters, but to the idea that he is saying something profound - which he isn't". Stephen Holden, in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
wrote, "As Harry and Julie, Mr. Edwards and Ms. Winningham make an unusually refreshing pair". In his review for the Boston Globe, Jay Carr called it, "a messy film, but it's got energy, urgency, conviction and heat and you won't soon forget it". British film and television critic Charlie Brooker
Charlie Brooker
Charlton "Charlie" Brooker is a British journalist, comic writer and broadcaster. His style of humour is savage and profane, with surreal elements and a consistent satirical pessimism...
, in an article for the BAFTA website written in September 2008 awarded Miracle Mile the honor of having the "Biggest Lurch of Tone" of any film he had ever seen.
The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
reported that 86% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on twenty-one reviews.
Awards
Wins- Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival: Best Special Effects; 1989.
Nominations
- Sitges - Catalonian International Film Festival: Nominated, Best Film, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989
- Sundance Film FestivalSundance Film FestivalThe Sundance Film Festival is a film festival that takes place annually in Utah, in the United States. It is the largest independent cinema festival in the United States. Held in January in Park City, Salt Lake City, and Ogden, as well as at the Sundance Resort, the festival is a showcase for new...
: Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989. - Independent Spirit AwardsIndependent Spirit AwardsThe Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
: Best Screenplay, Steve De Jarnatt; Best Supporting Female, Mare Winningham; 1990
External links
- Miracle Mile soundtrack sample by Tangerine DreamTangerine DreamTangerine Dream is a German electronic music group founded in 1967 by Edgar Froese. The band has undergone many personnel changes over the years, with Froese being the only continuous member...
at You Tube