So when a consumer-grade cellular telephone is invented, screenwriters may eventually incorporate them into the script, but they will have no effect on the story itself. It’s rare that the use of a cellular telephone, and the fact that someone can communicate from any location, is used as a plot point. There are a few noble exceptions to this. Oliver Stone’s 1987 economic deconstruction Wall Street used a cellular telephone to stress exactly how wealthy the film’s villain was. Wes Craven’s 1996 classic Scream put a cellular phone in the hand of his killer, allowing their voice to be heard while their actual location was kept secret. David R. Ellis’ 2004 thriller Cellular is a film specifically about how important it is to maintain a cellphone signal, as the person on the other end may be a kidnapping victim.
There is also a neat scene in Roman Polanski’s 2010 film The Ghost Writer wherein the main character tracks a potential bad guy by hacking into their car’s GPS, and taking the car to where they last went. Tracking quarry is an old story trope, but this was a graceful way to incorporate that old trope into a new movie.
For the most part, though, a crisis story demands being alone, and forcing the hero to survive on their own wits. Screenwriters, as a result, have had to fold cellular telephones into the crisis. If there’s no phone, or it doesn’t work, then the crisis is all the more threatening. That way, they can have their old-fashioned story without having to worry about technology getting in the way. Hence, the common use of that scene. The one where “Gasp! The phone doesn’t work!”
Consider this: movie car chases are as old as the genre, and as cars have become faster and sleeker, the chases have likewise become faster still. The most iconic car chases in movies – Vanishing Point, Bullitt, The French Connection, Death Proof – all involved loud muscle cars with big engines and manual transmissions. Even the Fast & Furious movies fetishize the cars themselves, taking place largely within customized cars with customized engines. The cars in cars chases are rarely just regular cars anymore. This might be because the vast bulk of cars on the market have automatic transmissions, or even hybrid motors, if they’re not outright electric. Regular consumer-grade vehicles have gone from loud, powerful machines, to more friendly, easy-to-access movement devices. These are not vehicles that are conducive to high-speed chases any longer. In order to have a proper chase, screenwriters now have to stress the old-school power of an old-fashioned (or at least customized) car.
Consider this: Atom Egoyan’s 2009 sexual thriller Chloe features a scene wherein the title character, played by Amanda Seyfried, presents a CD to a teenage crush. She hands him the album, asking him to listen to her favorite band. The boy hands the CD back, claiming he has already downloaded it. This is a moment of real-life technology playing into the drama. Most modern teens download their music rather than buy CDs of it. The boy handing a CD back to a girl would seem like a small dramatic moment, but the screenwriter chooses to undo the awkwardness by belittling the downloading technologies – and hence calling the modern use of tech in movies to attention. “Did you download the artwork?” Chloe asks. “Did you download the liner notes? Did you download this moment of me giving this gift you to you?” This is not only Chloe describing the superiority of her romantic gesture, but a screenwriter pointing out the dramatic salience of the old story.
Eventually, screenwriters do come around, but new technology infiltrating the populace is, for the most part, considered an inconvenience for them. I can’t wait for the day when cancer is cured. Not so much for the thousands of lives it will save, or the untold misery it will alleviate, but because screenwriters will finally have to stop using the boring old trope of dramatically killing off a character with Movie Cancer. Then we can all look back at Stepmom and laugh and laugh.
Homework for the Week:
What movies gracefully incorporate new (non-sci-fi) technology into their actual stories? What old classics could be undone with the mere inclusion of cellular telephones? If you were to write a screenplay, how would you keep an eye on the technology used therein? Would you use it to tell the story, or would you merely include it because it is ubiquitous? How important is it that modern technology be addressed? Can it be ignored to tell a good story, or is ignoring it irresponsible writing?
Witney Seibold is a featured contributor on the CraveOnline Film Channel, co-host of The B-Movies Podcast. You can read his weekly articles Trolling, Free Film School and The Series Project, and follow him on “Twitter” at @WitneySeibold, where he is slowly losing his mind.
