Miracle Mile (film)
Miracle Mile | |
---|---|
Directed by | Steve De Jarnatt |
Written by | Steve De Jarnatt |
Produced by | John Daly Derek Gibson |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Theo van de Sande |
Edited by | Stephen Semel Kathie Weaver |
Music by | Tangerine Dream |
Production company | Miracle Mile Productions |
Distributed by | Hemdale Film Corporation |
Release dates |
|
Running time | 87 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Budget | $3.7-4 million[1][2] |
Box office | $1.1 million[3] |
Miracle Mile is a 1988 American
Plot
Harry Washello and Julie Peters meet at the
Harry, confused and not entirely convinced of the authenticity of the information, wanders back into the diner and tells the other customers what he has heard. As the patrons scoff at his story, one of them, a businesswoman named Landa, places calls to politicians in Washington and finds that they are all suddenly heading for "the extreme Southern Hemisphere". She verifies that the launch codes Chip mentioned are real and, convinced of the danger, immediately charters private jets out of Los Angeles International Airport to a compound in a region in Antarctica with no rainfall. Most of the customers and staff leave with her in the owner's delivery van. When the owner refuses to make any stops, Harry, unwilling to leave without Julie, arranges to meet the group at the airport and jumps from the truck.
Harry is helped and hindered by various strangers, who are initially unaware of the impending apocalypse. In the process he inadvertently causes several deaths, which leaves him deeply shaken. When he finds Julie and tells her what is happening, she notes that there has been no confirmation of the attack. Desperate to reach the airport and not having a car, Harry finds a helicopter pilot and tells him to meet them on the roof of the
When they reach the top of the Mutual Benefit building they find the pad empty, with only Landa's drunk co-worker on the roof. Any doubts about a false alarm are eliminated when a missile can be seen streaking across the sky. As they fear the end, the helicopter suddenly returns with the pilot badly wounded but fulfilling his promise to come back for them. After they lift off from the roof, several warheads hit and the nuclear electromagnetic pulse from the detonations causes the helicopter to crash into the La Brea Tar Pits. As the helicopter sinks and the cabin fills with natural asphalt tar, Harry tries to comfort a hysterical Julie by saying someday their fossils will be found and they will probably be put in a museum, or that they might take a direct hit and be turned into diamonds. Julie, accepting her fate, calms down and takes comfort in Harry's words, and the movie fades out as the tar fills the compartment. A final explosion seems to imply a direct hit has taken place.
Cast
- Anthony Edwards as Harry Washello
- Mare Winningham as Julie Peters
- John Agar as Ivan Peters
- Lou Hancock as Lucy Peters
- Mykelti Williamson as Wilson
- Kelly Jo Minter as Charlotta
- Kurt Fuller as Gerstead
- Brian Thompson as Helicopter Pilot
- Denise Crosby as Landa
- Robert DoQui as Fred the Cook
- O-Lan Jones as Susie the Waitress
- Claude Earl Jones as Harlan
- Alan Rosenberg as Mike
- Danny De La Paz as Roger the Transvestite
- Earl Boen as Drunk Man in Diner
- Raphael Sbarge as Chip
- Lucille Bliss as Old Woman in Diner
- Diane Delano as Stewardess
- Edward Bunker as Nightwatchman
- Peter Berg as Band Member
- Richard Biggs as Brian Jones
- Jenette Goldstein as Beverly Hills Chick #1
Production
Before Miracle Mile was made, its production had been legendary in
Miracle Mile spent three years in production limbo until De Jarnatt optioned it himself, buying the script for $25,000.[5] He rewrote it and the studio offered him $400,000 to buy it back. He turned them down.[5] When he shopped it around to other studios, they balked at the mix of romance and nuclear war and the film's downbeat ending.[5] At one point, it nearly became the script for the eventual separately made Twilight Zone: The Movie.[6] Before Anthony Edwards was cast, production nearly began with both Nicolas Cage and Kurt Russell.[1] Of the script, Edwards said, "It scared the hell out of me. It really made me angry too ... I just couldn't believe that somebody had written this."[5] John Daly of Hemdale Films gave De Jarnatt $3.7 million to make the film.[1]
Edwards later recalled:
That was a script that everybody wanted to make, but they wanted him to change the ending. It was this great adventure, but they wanted it to have a happy ending. But he stuck it out, and luckily he stuck it out long enough that I was old enough to play the part. [Laughs.] So I got to do it, and we did it at a time when there really was no green screen for special effects. You had to shoot what was there. It's amazing how dated that film looks now, because of our ability to do things technically now. I mean, it really looks antiquated. Mare Winningham is one of the greatest actresses ever. It was eight weeks of night shooting, though, so you'd be driving home from work at, like, 6 in the morning, having had a wrap beer, and then you're suddenly going, "Oh my God, what do people think of somebody having a beer at 6 in the morning whenever everyone else is on their way to work? [Laughs.]
Fairfax District.[1]Soundtrack
1989 release
Miracle Mile Soundtrack album by Released July 1989 Recorded 1988 Genre Electronic music Length 41:13 Label Private Music Producer Edgar Froese, Paul Haslinger Tangerine Dream chronology
Optical Race
(1989)Miracle Mile
(1989)Lily on the Beach
(1989)
Professional ratings Review scores Source Rating Q Magazine[8] Miracle Mile is the thirty-sixth major release and twelfth soundtrack album by Tangerine Dream. Monty Smith in Q Magazine described it as an "euphonious mixture of gloomy melodic synthesizers and hypnotically insistent drum machines".[8]
Track listing
No. Title Length 1. "Teetering Scales" 3:39 2. "One for the Books" 3:04 3. "After the Call" 5:11 4. "On the Spur of the Moment" 3:00 5. "All of a Dither" 3:24 6. "Final Statement" 3:14 7. "In Julie's Eyes" 3:15 8. "Running Out of Time" 3:30 9. "If It's All Over" 4:34 10. "People in the News" 5:10 11. "Museum Walk" 3:12 Personnel
2017 release
The complete score in film sequence order was released in 2017 representing the score as delivered by Tangerine Dream to the director, essentially as heard in the film's mix with tracks 14 through 23 containing music effects.[9]
Music From The Motion Picture Miracle Mile (Original Score) Film score by Tangerine DreamReleased 2017 Recorded 1988 Genre Soundtrack Length 58:52 Label Dragon's Domain Producer Edgar Froese, Paul Haslinger Track listing
CD1: The Complete Film Score
No. Title Length 1. "Galaxy/Tarpits" 4:47 2. "Pier/Trolley Montage" 1:55 3. "Cigarette, Bird, Sleep" 3:12 4. "Car Drive/Phone Call" 2:46 5. "Landa" 3:16 6. "Truck Scene" 4:50 7. "Wilson's Car/Gas Station" 3:28 8. "Police Car/Julie's Bedroom" 3:41 9. "Through The Dark/Run Across The Street" 3:37 10. "Gym" 0:47 11. "Gym: In-Exterior/Phone Call Theme" 4:02 12. "Helicopter/Back to the Tarpits" 5:07 13. "End Title" 4:54 14. "MX-01" 4:47 15. "MX-02" 2:14 16. "MX-03" 1:00 17. "MX-04" 0:51 18. "MX-05" 1:07 19. "MX-06" 0:36 20. "MX-07" 0:51 21. "MX-08" 0:53 22. "MX-09" 0:42 23. "MX-10" 40:55 CD2: The Soundtrack Album
No. Title Length 1. "Teetering Scales" 3:39 2. "One for the Books" 3:03 3. "After the Call" 5:11 4. "On the Spur of the Moment" 3:01 5. "All of a Dither" 3:24 6. "Final Statement" 3:15 7. "In Julie's Eyes" 3:15 8. "Running Out of Time" 3:30 9. "If It's All Over" 4:34 10. "People in the News" 5:10 11. "Museum Walk" 3:12 Personnel
Reception
Miracle Mile received generally positive reviews among critics. The review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 91% of critics gave the film a positive review, based on 32 reviews and the consensus: "Miracle Mile brings about its small-scale doomsday tale with achingly rich bleakness and hypnotically nightmarish fervor."[10]
BAFTA web site written in September 2008, awarded Miracle Mile the honor of having the "Biggest Lurch of Tone" of any film he had ever seen.[15]Awards
Wins:
Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival: Best Special Effects; 1989.[16] Saturn Award: Saturn Award for Best Classic Film DVD Release; 2016.[17]Nominations:
Sitges - Catalan International Film Festival: Nominated, Best Film, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989- Sundance Film Festival: Grand Jury Prize, Dramatic, Steve De Jarnatt; 1989.[18]
- Independent Spirit Awards: Best Screenplay, Steve De Jarnatt; Best Supporting Female, Mare Winningham; 1990.[19]
See also
- List of apocalyptic films
- List of films about nuclear issues
- List of nuclear holocaust fiction
- Nuclear weapons in popular culture
- Survival film
References
- ^ a b c d Bertrand, David (November 5, 2015). "Interview: Director Steve De Jarnatt Looks Back on Cult Classic MIRACLE MILE". comingsoon.net. Retrieved September 5, 2017.
- ^ a b Miracle Mile at the American Film Institute Catalog.
- ^ "Miracle Mile". Box Office Mojo. Retrieved December 19, 2022.
- ^ "Tangerine Dream Soundtrack to "Miracle Mile"". ground and sky. Archived from the original on May 7, 2006. Retrieved February 13, 2009.
- ^
St. Petersburg Times.- ^ Hunter, Rob (January 28, 2016). "35 Things We Learned from the Miracle Mile Commentary". Film School Rejects. Retrieved January 11, 2019.
- ^ Harris, Will (February 15, 2013). "Anthony Edwards on Zero Hour, ER, and being Top Gun's "Mr. Lefty Liberal Peace Lover"". The A.V. Club. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
- ^ a b Smith, Monty (March 5, 1991). "Tangerine Dream - Miracle Mile OST". Q Magazine. 55: 80.
- ^ "Tangerine Dream – Miracle Mile (Original MGM Motion Picture Soundtrack)". Discogs. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
- ^ "Miracle Mile". Rotten Tomatoes. Los Angeles: Fandango Media.
Wrapports LLC). Archived from the originalon February 19, 2013. Retrieved March 3, 2010.- ^ Kempley, Rita (June 14, 1989). "Miracle Mile to Nowhere". The Washington Post. Washington, D.C.: Nash Holdings LLC. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ^ Holden, Stephen (May 19, 1989). "Waiting in California for the next Big Bang". The New York Times. New York City. Retrieved March 3, 2010.
- ^ Carr, Jay (June 9, 1989). "Miracle Mile". The Boston Globe. Boston: Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC. Archived from the original on September 11, 2016. Retrieved August 14, 2016.
- ^ Brooker, Charlie (October 1, 2009). "Six of the Best". Wayback Machine. San Francisco: Internet Archive. Archived from the original on September 15, 2010. Retrieved September 15, 2008.
{{cite news}}
: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link) MUBI. Retrieved December 20, 2022.- ^ Cohen, David S. (June 23, 2016). "'The Force Awakens' Rings Up Eight Saturn Awards". Variety. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
- ^ "25 Movies That Defined The Sundance Film Festival". IndieWire. January 21, 2014. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
- ^ "1990 Nominees" (PDF). Film Independent. p. 51. Retrieved December 20, 2022.
External links
- Miracle Mile at
IMDb- Miracle Mile at the American Film Institute Catalog
- Miracle Mile at AllMovie
- Miracle Mile at Box Office Mojo
- Miracle Mile soundtrack sample by Tangerine Dream at YouTube
- Miracle Mile film trailer at YouTube