I was shocked to see that blast in Beirut like everyone else. Terrible business. All those lives lost, property destroyed due to negligence. Their political leadership is pointing fingers at each other and looks like Hizbollah wants no finger pointed at them. Nothing can bring back the dead though. My heart goes to the affected people.

Seeing that explosion on many videos, I immediately thought— is that a mini-nuke? Imagine my relative relief when I heard it was “only” thousands of tons of chemicals. A nuke would be far deadlier with long-lasting effects. I’m sure a lot of people felt that angst right after it happened.

The blast reminded me of a film I saw a few years back. It was called ‘Miracle Mile’. I want to discuss the film a bit as it portrayed the panic I felt quite well.

Some historical context

During the cold war, people were actually living in constant fear that nuclear warfare might break out. Everyone knew if that happens, no one would be safe. Yes, we probably wouldn’t be able to destroy the earth or scratch it for that matter (still true) but most lifeforms on earth, including ourselves, can and would be completely eradicated through the use of nuclear weapons.

Thus, the fear of nuclear weapon, Nucleomituphobia—rather a fancy way of saying this—was a recurring theme in popular media back then. Movies, literature, music — all of them had anti-nuclear-warfare messages. The plot of “Miracle Mile” was built upon this ‘Nucleomituphobia’.

In the beginning, the film starts as a steady romantic film and slowly anarchy takes over as it progresses.

How it is laid out

In horror/supernatural films, there’s a trope. Somebody witnesses something preternatural, tells everyone about it and everyone laughs at him. Call him names. The usual.

Miracle Mile starts like that. The protagonist, Harry (played by Anthony Edwards) picks up a booth phone, which was kept ringing. A throbbing voice from the other side warns him. Nuclear warfare is knocking at their doors. Now people wouldn’t really believe this if it was something else. But that time? When everyone was speculating it? When their fear was enough to doubt themselves?
This ‘rumor’ starts to pass around one by one like wildfire.

Now, I understand this panic quite well. In the year 2000, I was a schoolboy. A rumor spread out. The end of the day is coming. The set day was Friday. In my religious mythology, armageddon is supposed to occur on Friday as well. Even though almost none believed it would happen, people around me and within my little town started to hurry for home, panic in their eyes. School closed early, they let us all home. Our teachers rushed for their abodes as well. Shopkeepers shut down their business, went to spend time with their loved ones. Everyone was thinking about the same thing—how does ‘end of the day’ happen, truly?

Back to the film. A new sun starts to radiate its love in the sky of Los Angeles. In that half-light, the face of anarchy was really a thing to see! Lots of cars, jamming into each other. People are on their bonnets. Shouting. Throwing stuff. Harry too, the protagonist, isn’t staying still. He has someone close he wants to save. And then there’s that small window of hope—what if the phone call was a hoax? Harry has much to answer for in that case as all that anarchy is ultimately his doing.

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Outro

Whether there was a nuclear war or not in the story (I’m not gonna spoil the film for you), that is not the point. The film portrays an important aspect of the human thought process—we will readily accept something that has a high probability of happening. As if we’re waiting to release a lot of potential energy in the ether and by doing so, we will attain stability. Whatever will happen, let it happen. We don’t like to be in the dark pool of uncertainty.

To make the story a bit more fast-paced, the director did include some stuff that felt redundant to me, but he was largely successful. The film appears as a thought-provoking thriller. I believe, everyone loves that package.

Thanks for reading. Have a great day. 🎬