As I talked about in my Cherry 2000 review, filmmaker Steve De Jarnatt had a special project in the works. The project had become legendary well before getting made as it had been floating around Hollywood for ten years. The script even made the American Film magazine’s list of the ten best unmade screenplays in 1983. Originally written for Warner Bros, it was dropped because they wanted it bigger and directed by someone else. After managing to buy the script back after years of production limbo, De Jarnatt tried pitching it to other studios. Unfortunately, many balked at the script because of its blend of romance and apocalyptic thriller genres and its bleak ending. Eventually, Hemdale Films picked up the script and gave De Jarnatt a $3.7 million budget to make his dream project. That passion project became the late 80s cult classic, Miracle Mile.
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Harry Washello (Anthony Edwards) is a trombone player who’s been unlucky in love for 30 years looking for the one. Then one day, he meets Julie Peters (Mare Winningham) and the two instantly fall in love with each other. After spending the afternoon together, they plan to meet later that night after Julie’s shift at a local coffee shop. Unfortunately, Harry accidentally oversleeps due to a power outage and doesn’t make it to the coffee shop until 4am. Harry tries calling to apologize, but only gets an answering machine, and he thinks things with Julie are over. Things turn ominous when Harry picks up a ringing payphone to the sound of a guy panicking with a message. He claims that nuclear war is coming in 70 minutes and nothing can stop it from happening. Initially unsure, Harry realizes it’s true and has to save Julie before nuclear annihilation comes.
Generally, I’m not the biggest fan of romance films since they’re often sappy and tend to be formulaic. However, Miracle Mile is a very uniquely told romance film, mixing a love story with a nuclear thriller. Just the concept of getting a mysterious warning over the phone really makes you wonder what you would do. It’s a perfect way to establish tension and allow the movie to continually build up overtime. What also makes this film work is the acting, especially between Anthony Edwards and Mare Winningham. While the leads in Cherry 2000 felt like a couple just because, Edwards and Winningham have great chemistry here. They feel like a genuine couple and you really want to see them make it out in the end. In addition, you’ve got great character actors like Kurt Fuller, Brian Thompson, John Agar, Earl Boen, and Robert DoQui.
Of course, given the circumstances, not everything has a happy ending and things turn pretty bleak. I won’t say what the ending is, suffice it to say that it will hit you in the feels. While tragic, it also reminds you how important it is to keep the people in your lives close. It’s a movie that places its audience in the character’s shoes and makes them wonder what they’d do. Sadly, the movie wasn’t a very huge hit when it came out, and this would be De Jarnatt’s last movie. However, he did go on to have success working on TV shows like The X-Files, ER, and Lizzie McGuire. Luckily, the movie has gone on to have a huge cult following and the people involved talk highly of it. A sweet romance mixed with a cold war thriller, Miracle Mile is an underrated gem not to be missed.
