History Film / MiracleMile

* ColdWar: It's apparently gone nuclear without any warning.

* ForWantOfANail:
** If his alarm clock had rung, Harry would have been out with Julie and wouldn't have gotten the phone call. Harry realizes this in the third act, and wonders why he couldn't just have found out [[IJustWantToBeNormal like everybody else]].
** If Julie had just waited for Harry at the heliport, they would've made it to the airport with time to spare.
** Even earlier, Harry could've simply waited for Julie's parents to take them to the airport. The streets don't get packed until the last 15 minutes.

* IdiotBall: Much of the plot occurs only because Harry (and others) make under the pressure of the situation dumb decisions in their efforts to get to safety:
** Harry routinely leaves keys in the ignition. This gets various vehicles he drive during the movie stolen, even ''before'' things start to go sideways.
** As Harry and the restaurant patrons argue over whether or not the foreboding phone call is real or not, no one considers calling Chip's father and asking him to correlate Chip's location. Made all the more grating when Harry ''does'' make the call in the last few minutes of the film.
** Harry rides in the back of Fred's catering van for several minutes before remembering that they should pick up Julie. This delay causes him to end up several ''miles'' away from Julie's apartment and get dumped on a freeway on-ramp.
** When Wilson mentions that he's low on gas, Harry insists they refuel at a taxi-only gas station, instead of taking 30 seconds to find another, non-restricted station on the way. That decision gets them confronted by an enraged attendant and ends with two dead police officers.
** Harry's decision not to tell Julie about the impending disaster causes her to also go on an improbable quest for a pilot, making them waste more time reuniting her.
** When a police car crashes into the department store, Harry and Julie stop to investigate, getting cornered by the police as a result.

* TheConspiracy: For whatever reason, the military deliberately wants to [[spoiler: keep the public uninformed about the upcoming end of the world, killing their own launch technicians in the process]].

** When Harry and Julie arrive at the office helipad and learn the pilot hasn't arrived yet, out of the sheer desperation Harry decides to wander the neighborhood (at ''4:00 AM, no less!) to see if he can find a passing stranger who can fly a helicopter. [[spoiler: He succeeds]].

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Harry leaves his keys in the ignition of his car before heading into the diner. Once everyone inside becomes aware that nuclear war is a very real possibility, someone steals his car due to the keys having been left inside. Had Harry just done what any sane person living in Los Angeles and owning a desirable classic car would do and taken the keys inside with him, he would have been able to pick up Julie, meet up with the other patrons at the airport, and gotten out of town with at least a half hour to spare.

The call turns out to be a wrong number, the caller is interrupted by someone else who tells Harry to forget everything he's heard, and Harry is left wondering whether the news is legitimate. The remainder of the film is spent more or less in RealTime as Harry looks for Julie, tries to confirm the news, and wonders what to do next.

* ContrivedCoincidence: Several are needed to make the story work.
** The main plot kicks off when Harry gets a wrong-number phone call from a phone booth right after he uses it to call Julie.
** Landa, the political aide who once dated a RAND researcher and is an expert on nuclear war procedures, is a regular late-night patron at Johnie's restaurant. She also carries a brick-sized portable phone whenever she dines, apparently so she can make calls at 3:00 in the morning.
** When Harry and Julie arrive at the office helipad and learn the pilot hasn't arrived yet, Harry decides to ''wander the neighborhood'' (at 4:00am in the morning, no less!) to see if he can find a passing stranger who can fly a helicopter. Against all reasonable expectations, he succeeds!

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot:
** Harry leaves his keys in the ignition of his car before heading into the diner. Once everyone inside becomes aware that nuclear war is a very real possibility, someone steals his car due to the keys having been left inside. Had Harry just done what any sane person living in Los Angeles and owning a desirable classic car would do and taken the keys inside with him, he would have been able to pick up Julie, meet up with the other patrons at the airport, and gotten out of town with at least a half hour to spare.
** The entire movie could have been avoided if Harry had simply not gotten into Fred's van with the others. As noted under BottleEpisode, Harry could have easily ''walked'' from the restaurant to Julie's apartment and then to the helipad in less than an hour and avoided all of his adventures.

** When Harry goes to get Julie and her parents, he leaves the car keys in the police car, which predictably allows Wilson to drive off to search for his sister. Note that this is the ''second'' time within the hour that Harry has a car stolen because he leaves his keys inside...

** When the police car crashes into the department store, Harry and Julie waste time investigating the crash, and end up being cornered by the LAPD SWAT team as a result.
* IdiotHero: Subverted; Harry is an idiot bumbling his way through the story, but his idiocy ''doesn't'' save him -- if anything, it makes things worse for himself and the others around him.

** Landa, the political aide who once dated a RAND researcher and is an expert on nuclear war procedures, is a regular late-night patron at Johnnie's restaurant. She also carries a brick-sized portable phone whenever she dines, apparently so she can make calls at 3:00 in the morning.

** Landa, the political aide who once dated a RAND researcher, is a regular patron at Johnnie's restaurant. She also carries a brick-sized portable phone whenever she dines, apparently so she can make calls at 3:00 in the morning.

* ContrivedCoincidence: When Harry and Julie arrive at the office helipad and learn the pilot hasn't arrived yet, Harry decides to ''wander the neighborhood'' (at 4:00am in the morning, no less!) to see if he can find a passing stranger who can fly a helicopter. Against all reasonable expectations, he succeeds!

The call turns out to be a wrong number, the caller is interrupted by someone else who tells Harry it was a joke and to forget everything he's heard, and Harry is left wondering whether the news is legitimate. The remainder of the film is spent more or less in RealTime as Harry looks for Julie, tries to confirm the news, and wonders what to do next.

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Harry leaves his keys in the ignition of his car before heading into the diner. Once everyone inside becomes aware that nuclear war is a very real possibility, someone steals his car due to the keys having been left inside. Had Harry just done what any sane person living in Los Angeles and owning a desirable classic car would do and taken the keys inside with him, he would have been able to pick up Julie, meet up with the other patrons at the airport, and gotten out of town with at least a half hour to spare.

** When Harry goes to get Julie and her parents, he leaves the car keys in the police car. Predictably, this allows Wilson to drive off in search of his sister.