The “end of the world” sub-genre is filled with all kinds of variations from thrillers to horror to comedy, but some of the best (and least seen) are the ones that use mankind’s annihilation as the backdrop for romance. Two relatively recent films — Seeking a Friend for the End of the World and These Final Hours — touch on it well and are great movies too, but neither match the romantic drive at the heart of 1988’s Miracle Mile.
Writer/director Steve De Jarnatt‘s film — his second and, inexplicably, last feature — is a terrific little genre-bender that eases viewers into the first hours of a new relationship only to shift gears, both tonally and speed-wise, as the clock starts ticking towards an unknown possibility. It’s a great entry in the category of films taking place over one night, offers action beats, comedy, and a fun variety of interesting side characters, and commits in ways a big studio film can’t.
KL Studio Classics recently brought the film to Blu-ray featuring a wealth of special features. It’s well worth a buy for the film alone, but supplements like the commentary track we listened to should make it a no-brainer for film fans.
Keep reading to see what I heard on the Miracle Mile commentary.
Miracle Mile (1989)
Commentators: Steve De Jarnatt (writer/director), Walter Chaw (film critic/moderator)
1. Chaw has actually written a book about the film called, wait for it, Miracle Mile.
2. The opening shot “doesn’t really make sense narratively,” says Chaw. “It can’t happen in the film.” De Jarnatt agrees but says it gives some viewers an out by allowing them to think the rest of the film is a dream.
3. An earlier version of the script featured a scene with Walter Cronkite reporting on the events before saying “fuck it” and walking off camera. “We actually got a script to Walter,” says De Jarnatt, “and he thought about it.”
4. The opening credits misspell Mykelti Williamson’s name wrong as “Mykel T. Williamson.” De Jarnatt was already in debt for $150k on the film and was unable to afford to fix the error.
5. Another credit he wanted fixed is “Edited by Stephen Semel and Kathie Weaver” because he feels Weaver deserves sole credit. He says she edited “every frame of this movie” while Semel only did some early work.
6. The observation deck at the La Brea Tar Pits where Harry (Anthony Edwards) and Julie (Mare Winningham) share a brief chat is no longer there.
7. Future director Peter Berg (The Kingdom, Battleship) plays “Band Member” and can be seen briefly playing an instrument in front of Harry at the outdoor concert. It was enough to get Berg his SAG card. “I bumped into him the other day,” says De Jarnatt, “he talked about a remake.” I love this movie but would not say no to a bigger-budgeted remake — except we all know that bigger budget would result in a major change to the ending.
8. The original script focused on a pair of older protagonists, essentially Julie’s grandparents, with the long-separated lovers reuniting on the night the world ends.
9. The film was made for $4.4 million.
10. De Jarnatt was apparently attached to direct the Great White North classic, Strange Brew. He settled for co-writing it.
11. Chaw points out the “nerd joke” of Landa (Denise Crosby) reading Gravity’s Rainbow as Thomas Pynchon’s title refers to the trajectory of a missile.
12. The original actor voicing Chip, the panicked soldier in the missile silo, had to be replaced with the script supervisor during shooting as his performance was hindering Edwards’ on the other end of the line. They later recorded a different actor to deliver the dialogue.
13. Crispin Glover tried out for the role of Chip. It was a twenty minute audition.
14. The image of Harry pouring the creamer directly into the pot of coffee is meant to suggest the image of a mushroom cloud.
15. Warner Bros. initially put the film into development as part of Twilight Zone: The Movie.
16. The film sparked a friendship between De Jarnatt and Harlan Ellison who was a fan of both this and Cherry 2000. The two were going to collaborate on an adaptation of Ellison’s story “Killing Bernstein,” but sadly it never came to pass.
17. Chaw points out a few instances that maybe don’t look that great in retrospect — he calls them “land mines” — including having the Hispanic busboy hot wire a car and the car stereo thief be a black man. De Jarnatt cops to both, but he disagrees with the implied sexism in saying Landa “dated” someone who works at the Rand Corporation. Earlier script versions had her working there herself, but that would have created a concrete confirmation of the threat which in turn would have minimized the suspense.
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