Miracle Mile is one of those movies that never hit it big when it came out in 1988 and never quite caught on in the cable circuit. It might have fared better in the Internet age, where people who love this little movie could get together to talk about and promote it. But, every now and then, you might be able to catch it late night on a cable station, between the other movies of the same name. The movie plays off a single plot point and spirals out of control. It never completely achieves what it sets out to do, but it’s a hell of a ride along the way. Let’s check it out.

Harry (Anthony Edwards between Top Gun and ER)  is a musician who meets the cute girl Julie (Mare Winningham) and gets to spend a wonderful day with her. Then they have plans to meet after her late night waitressing shift at a diner. Harry oversleeps (totally not his fault) and the movie starts down its dark path. After unsuccessfully calling Julie at the payphone outside the diner, the phone rings again. Harry decides to pick it up. On the other end is a scared young soldier who is trying to reach his dad, but dialed the wrong area code. The soldier spills out that they just launched their nuclear weapons and then end of the world is only an hour away. Harry is, obviously, freaked out and the call ending with gunshots and another voice telling him to forget this call ever happened.

Harry wanders back into the diner and tells everyone about the call. They are consider him crazy until Landa (Tasha Yar), who we know is important because she has a cell phone, makes a call and reports back that something is wrong. At this point, Harry has two goals: get Julie and get the hell out-of-town. And he only has an hour to do it. The movie now becomes a real-time race for survival. Landa has contacts that can get them to safety, the cook grabs a diner truck and a bunch of food from the freezer and the people in the diner are off and running. As the hour goes by, more and more people are finding out about this and the silent 4am streets become a every man for themselves disaster at 5am The movie plays with the question of whether or not the call was genuine, but, as the movie continues, that goes away as no one questions it further.

The movie was obviously set during the Cold War and is an artifact of that time. But, the basic story line is fun to watch. I love that they spent the first 30 minutes setting up a romantic comedy, so that we got to know the characters and have something to root for. The movie would not have worked as well if we had jumped to the phone call to start with. Anthony Edwards does a wonderful job selling the over-his-head everyman who doesn’t know what to do besides go get the woman he loves. The supporting characters don’t drag the movie down and add some needed levity into the movie (such as when the late night diner denizens are trying to compile a list of people who they should save). Overall it’s a good movie based off a single idea that runs along so fast, you barely notice the faults. Recommended.