Miracle Mile (1989)
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Physical Media
A payphone rings. A man picks up. A voice panics: "It's happening!" Nuclear warheads have been launched. Los Angeles will be gone in seventy minutes.
MIRACLE MILE (1988) is Steve De Jarnatt's masterpiece of tonal collision: a rom-com that pivots violently into apocalypse.
De Jarnatt's approach is radically different from disaster cinema's usual bombast. There's no heroic government response, no military intervention, no grand scale. The film is intimate, claustrophobic, focused obsessively on two people trying to navigate the end of the world in real time.
The 88-minute runtime becomes part of the strategy: Miracle Mile moves with the relentlessness of the doomsday clock. Every decision matters. Every moment stretches.
Warner Bros. offered De Jarnatt nearly half a million dollars to adapt his script for the Twilight Zone movie that was eventually released in 1983. He refused because the studio wanted an ending that changed his original vision. De Jarnatt ultimately bought back the rights for $25,000 to direct the film himself.
Tangerine Dream's synth-driven score runs almost continuously through the second and third acts to heighten the mounting panic, chaos, and dread.
On a budget of 3.7 million, De Jarnatt made a film that feels more urgent than blockbuster disaster epics with ten times the resources.
About the Film
There are 70 minutes to the end of the world. Where can you hide?
- Directed By
- Steve De Jarnatt
- Runtime
- 88 minutes
- Released
- May 19, 1989
- Certification
- R
- Country
- United States of America
- Starring
- Anthony Edwards, Mare Winningham, John Agar, Lou Hancock, Mykelti Williamson
More Credits
- Genres
- Science Fiction, Thriller, Comedy, Romance
- Language
- English
- Origin
- US
- Studios
- Miracle Mile Productions Inc., Hemdale
- Written By
- Steve De Jarnatt
- Produced By
- John Daly, Derek Gibson
- Cinematography
- Theo van de Sande
- Music
- Paul Haslinger, Edgar Froese
- Also Starring
- Kurt Fuller, Denise Crosby, Robert DoQui, O-Lan Jones, Claude Earl Jones
- Budget
- $3,700,000
- Box Office
- $1,145,404
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Love this movie. Definitely worth watching.
A favorite of mine, with an excellent OST by Tangerine Dream!
Randall Roberts I couldn’t believe the ending when I saw it. Not what I expected at all!
Love this movie! Severely underrated nuclear war thriller, imho…
One of the best thrillers of the decade.
This is due for a rewatch.
Good movie
Amazing film, and so memorable.
I both love and hate this movie.
Martin Boyle And I totally get that.
It’s Cloverfield but with nuclear war instead of kaiju.
Love this movie!
Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham having been married since 2021 is pretty perfect.
For those who didn’t grow up during the Cold War, this scenario was a constant threat
Masterpiece
This absolutely knocked me out when I first saw it a couple years ago.
One of the most heartwrenching endings of all time, her acting in that scene was Oscar worthy as she went into a panic and screamed “I’m not ready for this! I can’t do this!!”