Such scenes as using the telephone have almost always been in movies at some point and time, but the manner in which they’ve evolved has been phenomenal thanks to the advent of the cell phone. Even landlines have evolved a great deal since the early 1960’s and are now almost as obsolete as the rotary dial phone. As the technology keeps advancing so does the importance of the telephone and what it allows a movie or a character to convey. In many cases a phone call in a movie is a serious matter and must be seen to immediately. In such cases it usually means the good guy or the bad guy are about to reveal something extremely important.
Here are just a few scenes showing how pivotal the phone can be in a movie.
5. Taken
Even over a phone line Liam Neeson must sound like the boogeyman coming to get you. His voice is gravelly enough in person but over a phone line it must come through like a vengeful demon just waiting to snack on your liver. Okay that might be a little much but seriously the guy is intimidating enough without having to place a threat directly over the phone.
4. Jerry Maguire
Here’s where the phone call gets hilarious and rightfully so. Jerry Maguire starts out as the sleazy sports agent that will do and say anything to protect his clients but seems to have a conscience that’s somehow on vacation. As the movie goes on however he starts to realize just how important it is to actually connect with his clients and understand their point of view.
3. Phonebooth
These things still exist? You can’t help but think that this would be a great way to imprison someone if you were a sniper intent on showing someone a lesson. All you’d have to do is create a well-thought and well-executed plan in order to imprison someone for as long as you’d like, or at least until they learn some humility. It’s interesting to think about but also kind of creepy.
2. Ransom
The guy is playing a game of chicken with his son’s life on the premise that the kidnapper wouldn’t dare harm a hair on the kid’s head since they would no longer get their ransom. How messed up is that? It’s revealed during the movie that he pays out to save his own airline from going under but he won’t just hand over the cash for his own flesh and blood. That’s cold man.
1. The Matrix
If an unknown voice on the other end of the line tells you that people are coming for you it might pay to listen. And then it might pay to shut up and just go where you’re directed. But really, how many of us would do that? A lot of us might do the same thing that Neo does and simply accept the reality of the Matrix as it is, not as we would have it.
Phones can be used as plot devices too, to great effect I might add.
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