When a Dropped Signal Means Dropping Dead
by Tony Fonseca
Cellular. Dir. David R. Ellis. 2004
12/20/2004
There’s a wonderful scene in Cellular (the follow-up to Phone Booth) where Jason Statham, speaking on a walkie-talkie, tells a fellow kidnapper to “look for the guy with the cell phone.” This occurs at a beach party / concert near the end of the film, at a meeting arranged between the kidnappers and the man who has what they want. Looking out over the crowd through binoculars, the kidnapper and audience sees that virtually each and every person on the beach, even those who are listening to the band on stage, has his/her ear glued to a cellular phone. This scene sums up director David R. Ellis’s message succinctly: the average American would need to be surgically removed from his/her cell phone, PDA, wireless laptop or notebook, or video camera.
Of course, at the center of this borg-like melding of technology and humanity is the wireless phone. By the end of the film, we are reminded that they are more than just the modern version of the old “pick up the line and ask Mabel to dial Hooterville” two piece, solid black contraption. These phones are mini-computer assistants: they keep records of some one hundred incoming calls, take pictures, record videos, and set off alarms to remind us of our responsibilities. Moreover, they can do this without even being held to a human ear. But Cellular does not become a science fiction dystopia film about the dangers of allowing technology to rule our lives. Rather, it is a fast-paced thriller about how technology can get us into a lot of trouble—and if we’re lucky—help us escape from that trouble.
The movie begins when high school science teacher Jessica Martin (played by Kim Basinger) is violently kidnapped from her posh home in Los Angeles (she is married to a real estate agent who is apparently doing rather well for himself). The invaders take her to a remote location, where she is held prisoner in an attic. Jessica does not know these men, and at first thinks they have made some kind of mistake and kidnapped the wrong person, but we soon find out that these toughs, led by Greer (played by Stratham, of Snatch fame) are interested in using her to get something from her husband. Jessica’s only link to the outside world, and her only hope for survival, is an old wall phone which Stratham has smashed with a sledgehammer. But being the ever resourceful science teacher that she is, she realizes that she can rewire the phone, and tap its wiring together to make outside calls. The only problem is that she has no idea who she is calling.
She manages to reach a young beach bum named Ryan (Chris Evans), who is currently on his way to pick up T-shirts for a rock concert, in order to prove to his ex-girlfriend that he indeed can be a responsible adult and complete a task he is assigned. Of course, a frantic call from a woman claiming to be kidnapped is the last thing Ryan needs, and at first, he thinks he is the victim of a silly joke. But Ryan does have some sense of social responsibility, for when a frantic Jessica tells him that he can at least take the ten minutes out of his day to take his phone to a police station (her implication is “or live with the fact that you may have been party to a murder”), he agrees. Ryan does take the phone to a police station, where he hands it to a veteran cop named Mooney (William H. Macy), a by-the-book kind of guy who has had enough of police work and is looking forward to retiring to help his wife open a “day spa” (this sub-plot offers much of the film’s comedy). Mooney takes down the information given him by Jessica, but a fight breaks out between young hoodlums in the waiting room, and he is forced to send Ryan upstairs to the homicide division, where he’ll be safe and can get help. In the first of many scenes where the audience is reminded of the limitations of cellular technology, Ryan never makes it to homicide (which is fortunate for him, but I won’t give any details so as not to spoil the ending) because he begins to lose signal in the stairwell.
And this is where the movie becomes a roller coaster ride of avoiding the pitfalls of signal blockers such as stairwells and tunnels. To keep the suspense at a breakneck pace, Ellis (and writers Larry Cohen and Chris Morgan) have Jessica’s family abducted piecemeal, and the next in line is her son. Once Jessica learns that is the kidnapper’s next target, she talks Ryan through a race against Greer and his goons to get to the boy’s school first. Ryan beats them there, but cannot find the boy (it doesn’t help that hi name is Ricky Martin, another source of humor in the film). When he does see Ricky, he is being forced into an SUV, and a chase ensues. The same happens when Ryan tries to beat the kidnappers to Jessica’s husband. These chase scenes are cheesy, but fun, because Ryan is not your superhero, and he constantly screws up and has to correct himself. At one point, for example, he fights against time to get to a cell phone store after he gets a low battery warning, only to find himself instructed to take a number and wait his place in line. One of the funniest robberies in film ensues. He also pilfers—twice—the Porsche of the most obnoxious lawyer you’ll ever want to meet (Rick Hoffman, in a scene stealing performance). We eventually do find out what the kidnappers want, and it isn’t drug related; rather it deals with that ole devil technology again: Jessica’s husband managed to get something on videotape (I won’t say what so as not to spoil the ending, but suffice it to say it will resonate well with audience members), and needless to say, Greer wants that tape badly.
As Roger Ebert points out, the plot of Cellular is a gimmick. But I agree with his assessment that it is “surprising is how convincing it is, under the circumstances, and how willingly we accept the premise and get involved in it. The movie is skillfully plotted, halfway plausible and well acted.” In addition, Cellular is extremely clever at offering audience members lots of opportunities to grip the edges of their seats. But what I liked best about the film were the performances by Stratham, Evans and especially Macy. William H. Macy always brings class to any project he is involved with, and this is no exception. Imagine Jerry Lundegaard from Fargo as an aging but resourceful cop and you have Macy’s Mooney. After fighting off one of the kidnappers, who ironically is given away by an incoming message on his walkie-talkie, Mooney handcuffs his would-be killer to a merry-go-round, and does his tiger-in-a-cage pace while nursing his injuries. He turns to the guy, and says with all sincerity, “you were gonna shoot me?” as if he can’t believe it. He then turns to the confused kids and shows his badge, saying “I’m a cop. And this guy is a real bad man.”
I suppose one of the best praises I can give to Cellular is to say that, despite the fact that the bad guys all end up dead or caught (ensnared in their own technological traps, no less) and the good guys and the innocent all manage to escape with their lives, the movie still works as a dark comic thriller, much in the vein of Fargo. It reminds us that we may have reached the point of no return when it comes to how much we have allowed technology to encroach upon our personal lives, but ends by pointing out that just maybe, we can master the technology to work for us, and possibly prevent the cold-blooded murder of innocent people in the process.