this post was submitted on 04 Sep 2024
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Most films that require some degree of miscommunication couldn't work because cellphones are ubiquitous.
Additionally a lot of old sci-fi films based on a hypothesis that later turned out to be pseudoscience are here as well.
Modern media just handwaves this easily with phones being broken or low battery whatever. It still works
Even makes it a tiny bit funnier (if it's a comedic miscommunication, not if it's "someone gets killed" miscommunication)
I like when movies kill off characters though
I have no issue with movies killing off characters, I just meant that miscommunication can be funny, but usually not if it's tragic. But then again, deaths can be comedic if we're talking Final Destination or Tucker and Dale vs Evil. So it's all in the context
It's going to get harder and harder to do that as cellphones get better though.
iPhones already have satellite SOS feature which works worldwide, and are starting to roll out satellite texting for non-emergency use. There are a few Android models that are slated to do the same, and it's only a matter of time before most phones can do this.
There are plenty of phones that are waterproof (or rated for submersion in 5 meters of water for 30 minutes or whatever) and that's only going to become more common too.
My phone lasts for about 2 days on a charge with how much I use it, and I charge it every night. That's only going to get better with better battery technologies (the trend of phones getting thinner in response to increased battery capacity has actually somewhat reversed in recent years).
So, in a classic horror movie scenario with 5 or so people they'd need a reason why every single person is out of charge or has their phone broken. Even if the protagonists can't get themselves out of the situation they're in using their phones (because they're broken or whatever) you still need to answer how they got into that situation in the first place if they have offline maps and GPS navigation. That's not as big of a problem but it eliminates "they got lost" as a premise for why they're in some spooky woods or wherever.
It seems to me that you'd either need to set the story in an abandoned mine or make the antagonist explicitly supernatural.
Or find a reason for everyone to not have their phone available in the first place. Like if you pull a From Dusk Til Dawn and have them be fugitives, you could have them ditch their phones to not be tracked and the whole group is sharing one shitty burner phone or something.
Even in movies before mobile phones, more often. Than not, they could resolve any problem by just telling the other people something, but they don't because the movie would be over.
Also, ever since covid, a lot of movies became way more believable. Man if only the people knew that a pandemic was coming. If only we knew how dangerous it was, if people in other countries could've been warned from other countries where it's already ravaging
Didn't stop any of the wacky bs in iRobot from happening. Cellphones do cure a lot of what ails older pics, but they can be waved away by things like 'oopsies! Forgot to charge it.' or 'the club is so loud I didn't hear the ringer.' and my personal favorite 'forgot to take it off dnd'.
It seems you're oblivious about drunks and addicts whom always talk shit on any kind of communication doesn't matter the medium.