History Film / MiracleMile

* BottleEpisode: The bulk of the movie -- from Harry's arrival at the restaurant to the end frame -- takes place almost entirely within a half-mile radius of Los Angeles' Miracle Mile district. If he didn't get in Fred's van, Harry could have easily walked from the restaurant[[note]]At Fairfax and Wilshire[[/note]] to Julie's apartment[[note]]Park [=LaBrea=][[/note]] and then to the helipad[[note]]5900 Wilshire Blvd.[[/note]] during the movie's run time.

* IdiotBall: Much of the plot occurs only because Harry (and others) make dumb decisions in their efforts to get to safety:

** Upon arriving at the helipad and discovering that the pilot isn't there yet, Harry gets the ''[[SarcasmMode brilliant]]'' idea to wander (on foot!) the nearby neighborhood and try to find someone who can fly a helicopter pilot. [[spoiler:Even more improbably, he succeeds!]]

** 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.

* BottleEpisode: The bulk of the movie -- from Harry's arrival at the restaurant to the end frame -- takes place almost entirely within a half-mile radius of Los Angeles' Miracle Mile district. Harry could have easily walked from the restaurant[[note]]At Fairfax and Wilshire[[/note]] to Julie's apartment[[note]]Park [=LaBrea=][[/note]] and then to the helipad[[note]]5900 Wilshire Blvd.[[/note]] during the movie's run time.

** 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 this in the last few minutes of the film.

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Chip the silo technician, for calling Harry on a wrong number and giving the warning, and Landa, who appears for less than ten minutes, for confirming it by calling local politicians she knows and finding out they've all left town for the Southern Hempisphere, which convinces most of the others at the diner.

* WhamShot: The moment when Gearstead points to the horizon, where we see ''a missle streaking across the sky'', confirming once and for all that Chip's call was real.

* WhamShot: The moment when Gearstead points to the horizon, where we see ''a missle streaking acrossthe sky'', confirming once and for all that Chip's call was real.

* FetchQuest: A seemingly never-ending string of them happens to Harry. [[spoiler: It eventually gets him and Julie killed, since he wasted almost the entirety of the very time they had without progressing even a step toward their own safety]].

----

* ApocalypseAnarchy: Since the message keeps on spreading without any confirmation from anyone over the course of the film, by the third act it hits the point where an entire city reaches a state of panic and utter chaos emerges.

* ArmiesAreEvil: They've probably started WorldWarIII, without any prior indications of tense international situation or ongoing conflict. [[spoiler:And they want to keep it secret from their own civilian population.]]
* BigDamnHeroes: Attempted by the helicopter pilot at the end, when he keeps his promise to return for Harry and Julie, even while injured, but it is negated when the EMP of one of the warheads knocks the helicopter out of the sky. Still, he gets points for trying.
* BigShutUp: Harry screams at the diner patrons to shut up when they ignore his talk about the man on the phone.

* TheCameo: Author, actor and former career criminal Creator/EdwardBunker plays the gas station attendant.
* ColdWar: The cold war has apparently gone nuclear without any warning.

** Harry starts out the film with a very nice 1960 Buick Electra 225 sedan. Unfortunately, it's stolen soon after he tells the people in the diner about the call.

* CopKiller: Wilson accidentally kills two police officers, as he sprays them with gasoline to escape arrest, and then the officers fire their guns, lighting themselves on fire. When Harry re-encounters the Wilson, the police are hot on his tail. They explicitly call him a cop killer on their bullhorn.
* TheConspiracy: Apparently, someone deliberately wants to [[spoiler: keep the public uninformed about incoming missiles, killing launch technicians in the process]].
* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Harry leaves his keys in the ignition of his car before heading into the diner. Once everyone inside becomes aware that nuclear war after the next hour 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.
* CreepyGasStationAttendant: An urban version of the creepy gas station attendant appears when Harry and Wilson the stereo thief stop at a service station to call Julie on the payphone. The gun-totting nightwatchman pointedly calls Wilson "Boy" and makes the customers pump their own gas. When the police show up to arrest Harry and Wilson, the attendant forms an EnemyMine situation with Wilson due to fear of being arrested if the police realize that he doesn't have a permit for his shotgun.
* DeadlineNews: The newscast about "reports of panic caused by unconfirmed nuclear attack" cuts to a reporter on the streets who gets shot in the next 10 seconds. The cameraman is shot soon after.
* DisproportionateRetribution: The man who tries to kill Harry for jumping on top of his car.
* DownerEnding: [[spoiler:The call was real. Nuclear war commences, and Harry and Julie fail to escape Los Angeles in time, dying as the missiles fall around them.]]
* EveryCarIsAPinto: In the third act, when everything is going to hell, one car attempts to ram through traffic and explodes on impact. It's referenced in the film's poster, providing the mushroom cloud.
* ExtremelyShortTimespan: The whole movie takes place over the course of a day. After Harry receives the phone call, the movie runs in RealTime.
* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Once the missiles strike and detonate, Gearstead covers his face to avoid the blinding light, though he wasn't quick enough as his eyes proceed to melt through his fingers]].
* {{Foreshadowing}}: Harry jokes with some schoolkids about what their skulls will look like if they're found in the tar pits in 10,000 years. In the end, [[spoiler:he and Julie are both submerged in the tar pits, and Harry notes that they might be found inside one day]].
* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Harry and Julie take comfort in dying in the La Brea Tar Pits to join the past extinct animals, and according to the director, they will become diamonds in the future.]]
* FetchQuest: A seemingly never-ending string of these happen to Harry. [[spoiler: It eventually get him and Julie killed, since he wasted almost the entire time they had without progressing even a step toward safety]].

** 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]].

* FourLinesAllWaiting: For a story told in RealTime, the film is crowded to the brim with characters, each of them playing their own part and [[HeroOfAnotherStory each with their own story going on]].
* GenreShift: From RomanticComedy to apocalyptic thriller. It even manages to mislead the audience, as the first scenes are shown as if it's happening in the future, with Harry having lost Julie.
* GymBunny: The helicopter pilot is a weightlifter whom our heroes recruit straight out of a gym. He turns out to be ManlyGay.
* HalfwayPlotSwitch: The first 15 minutes, until the inciting incident, is a romance between two quirky young adults. When Harry gets the phone call, the genre promptly shifts.
* HellishCopter: Played with. [[spoiler:The pilot does return for Julie and Harry, though he is badly wounded. They do manage to take off but three missiles hit the city and detonate, the EMP blast knocking out the helicopter's engine and causing it to splash down in the La Brea tar pits where it starts sinking and filling with tar and all Harry can do is comfort Julie in their final moments.]]
* HeroOfAnotherStory: Since the film is loaded with dozens of characters, but focuses on Harry's adventures exclusively, it's a given. There are all the diner patrons, the thief between meeting Harry for the first and second time, the yuppies at the skyscraper's roof, the pilot between his flights, Julie's parents...

** At one point, it seems that [[spoiler:Chips had been in fact lying, as the nukes fail to appear at the time he said they would. This trope is played straight when, only a few minutes later, a missile flies by overhead, confirming Chip's story.]]
** [[spoiler:The helicopter pilot appears at the landing pad, although wounded, and tries to fly Harry and Julie out of Los Angeles. Then a nuke detonates over the city, causing an EMP, and the helicopter crashes]].
* JerkassHasAPoint: The diner's owner's steadfast refusal to do anything else than going straight to the airport with as much supplies as he can carry. At this point, wasting even few seconds on just about ''anything'' can be lethal, so he doesn't even slow down that much when [[spoiler: Harry jumps out of the truck]]. He ''doesn't'' let Harry go for Julie because he knows that anyone ''else'' would immediately ask to pick up ''their'' loved ones as well, sending them all into a FetchQuest, losing valuable time.

* ManOnFire: The police officers who accidentally light themselves on fire.
* MeetCute: Harry and Julie meet at La Brea Tar Pits, where Harry amuses her with various jokes, but the moment he tries to make his move, an old couple gets between them, and she walks away. Just as he's lamenting his bad fortune, she finds him, and they go on a date.
* MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Harry after Julie tells him [[spoiler: all of this was just a cruel prank, since they've should be dead already. And even after ''she'' is proven wrong and the missiles are really closing in, Harry is still in shock due to the widespread carnage he caused]].

* PosthumousNarration: Harry narrates the opening scene of the film about falling in love with Julie, but [[spoiler:they both die in the end]].
* PrankCall: Discussed. The diner patrons insist that "Chip" is just a prank caller before Landa starts corraborating parts of his story. Even Harry starts to doubt in the third act.
* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Justified. The group from the diner consists of random strangers, who all happend to be in the joint in the middle of the night, ranging from a bussinesswoman to a homeless hobo. From what's seen, they create a suprisingly effective team.
* RealTime: After the opening, the story is told exclusively in real time.
* ShootTheShaggyDog: [[spoiler:Harry and Julie spend most of the movie trying to get to safety. They don't make it; their helicopter is affected by the EMP and crashes in the La Brea Tar Pits. Cue credits.]]

* SmallRoleBigImpact: Chip the silo technician, for spreading the warning by calling Harry on a wrong number, and Landa, who appears for less than ten minutes, for confirming it by calling local politicians she knows and finding out they've all left town, which convinces most of the others at the diner.
* TooDumbToLive: The two cops who get sprayed with gasoline. Both cops know what they got sprayed with yet [[spoiler: one of them fires off her gun which ignites the gas and sets her ablaze. Once she's on the ground burning, the other cop runs over and tries to instruct her to get away from the pumps. However, due to being covered in gas as well, he catches on fire, falls on top of his partner and the fire only gets stronger, burns both officers alive and causes the gas station to explode]].
* UnreliableExpositor: Chip, the anonymous caller. The entire suspense of the film is build around the inability to check if his call was real.
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Harry drops a lit cigarette without putting it out. As a result, a bird picks it up, accidentally causing a fire that knocks out the power in Harry's apartment. As a result, he's late in picking Julie up, and arrives at the diner in time to pick up the phone call.
* TheVoice: The caller, Chip, and [[spoiler:whoever picked the phone after shooting him]].
* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The film is told entirely from Harry's perspective, so we never find out what happened to the other diner patrons or staff. When the car thief reappears near the end, he's clearly had an adventure as crazy as Harry's but [[spoiler:he dies before he can explain what happened to him]].
* WholesomeCrossdresser: The transvestite at the diner is a pretty early example and displays no CampGay stereotypical features. Instead, she spends most of her dialogue simply trying to give an old man proper directions across town. When the diner patrons start panicking over Harry's story of the caller, she calmly decides to disregard the the story as a PrankCall.
----

* ArmiesAreEvil: They've probably started WorldWarIII, without any prior indications of tense international situation or ongoing conflict. [[spoiler:And they want to keep it secret from their own civilian population]].

** This is [[TropesAreTools despite the fact]] that it is 5am and most of the city would just be waking up and getting ready for work.

* CoolCar: Harry starts out the film with a very nice 1960 Buick Electra 225 sedan. Unfortunately, it's stolen soon after he tells the people in the diner about the call.

* TheCameo: Author, actor and former career criminal Eddie Bunker plays the gas station attendant.

* LateArrivalSpoiler: The home video cover pretty much gives away that [[spoiler: the call is real]].

* FaceDeathWithDignity: [[spoiler:Harry and Julie take comfort in dying in the La Brea Tar Pits to join the past extinct animals, and according to the director, they will become diamonds in the future.]]

* FetchQuest: A seemingly never-ending string of these happen to Harry. [[spoiler: It eventually get him and Julie killed, since he wasted almost the entire time they had without progressing even a step toward safety]].

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: For a story told in RealTime, the film is crowded to the brim with characters, each of them playing their own part and [[HeroOfAnotherStory each with their own story going on]].

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Once the missiles strike and detonate, covers his face to avoid the blinding light, though he wasn't quick enough as his eyes proceed to melt through his fingers]].

* CouldHaveAvoidedThisPlot: Harry leaves his keys in the ignition of his car before heading into the diner. Once everyone inside becomes aware that nuclear war after the next hour 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 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.

* RagtagBunchOfMisfits: Justified. The group from the diner consists of random strangers, who all happend to be in the joint in the middle of the night, ranging from bussinesswoman to homeless hobo. From what's seen, they create a suprisingly effective team.

* ColdWar: The cold war has apparently to nuclear without any warning.

* TooDumbToLive: The two cops who get sprayed with gasoline. Both cops know what they got sprayed with yet [[spoiler: one of them fires off her gun which ignites the gas and sets her ablaze. Once she's on the ground burning, the other cop runs over and jumps on top of her in an attempt to put out the fire. Since he was also covered with gasoline, the fire only gets stronger and burns both officers alive]].

''Miracle Mile'' is a 1988 apocalyptic thriller film written and directed by Steve De Jarnatt (''Film/Cherry2000'').

Harry (Creator/AnthonyEdwards) makes a date with Julie (Creator/MareWinningham), but his alarm clock fails to ring due to a power failure and he oversleeps. Waking up in the middle of the night, Harry races to the coffee shop where they were to meet and leaves her a message on a pay phone. After he hangs up, the phone rings and Harry answers it; a panicked voice tells him that missile strikes have been ordered, and all-out nuclear war will begin within the hour.

* GenreShift: From RomanticComedy to apocalyptic drama. It even manages to mislead the audience, as the first scenes are shown as if it's happening in the future, with Harry having lost Julie.

* CopKiller: The car thief Harry briefly partners up with accidentally kills two police officers, as he sprays them with gasoline to escape arrest, and then the officers fire their guns, lighting themselves on fire. When Harry re-encounters the thief, the police are hot on his tail.