Gone are the days when characters on screen had to find a phone booth to make a call or jot down a number on a piece of paper. Today, cell phones have become an integral part of our lives, and movies that were once a massive hit might have come across differently today. Let’s look at a few iconic movies that wouldn’t have been the same with smartphones.
Psycho
Driving through an old rural town as a stranger is always a recipe for disaster in any cinematic universe. But it was never as bone-chilling as in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho. The Bates Motel may have seemed innocent enough to Marion. But sadly, there was no way to know the owner was a mother-obsessed, knife-wielding murderer ready to pounce on her in the shower. With a smartphone, Marion could have found a Holiday Inn or even a Super 8 before becoming Norman’s next victim.
Home Alone
Home Alone is one of those movies we all love to watch with our loved ones, especially during the holiday season. But suffice it to say the movie would be five minutes long if there were cell phones.
All it would have taken was a simple “Hey mom, you forgot something” text to alert her that little Kevin McCallister was home alone. Fortunately for the viewing audience, it was the early 90s, and even though Kevin’s dad had enough money to buy the world, considering he could pay for multiple family members to go on a trip to Paris, there weren’t cell phones yet. Or, at the very least, he didn’t want to drop thousands of dollars for a suitcase phone, as history proved.
As we all know, Kevin stays behind, becomes pals with the “South Bend Shovel Slayer,” and makes Joe Pesci wish he were back in that room in Goodfellas instead of getting outsmarted by a runt.
Scream
One could argue any horror movie before the smartphone would be a totally difference story, with Scream being a prime example.
The movie’s plot revolves around a group of teenagers who get stalked and murdered by a masked killer. Hypothetically, this plot would be harder to accomplish in a post-smartphone era. For starters, in what world is someone answering the phone if there’s no caller ID?
That technology was relatively new then, so you’d have to imagine Drew Barrymore would have ignored the initial call if it said, “CALLER UNKNOWN.”
Somehow, they are still making movies in this franchise, but they must find more creative ways for why people are so ignorant.
Phone Booth
Phone Booth is an underrated thriller starring Colin Farrell as an unlucky recipient of an incoming call in a phone booth made by a conniving Kiefer Sutherland. Why wouldn’t this work today? It’s simple: Who is using a pay phone? They are essentially relics at this point.
One Hour Photo
Another addition to the underrated file is some of Robin Williams’s greatest work. One Hour Photo revolves around Williams’s character, Sy, as a lonely photo developer at a store. Sy became infatuated with the perfect family, inserting himself into their lives because of the rolls of film he developed for them. Sy could not do that today because all our cherished photos are on our phones or uploaded to the cloud.
It’s safe to say from this list of movies that they wouldn’t be the same with smartphones. Technology has completely transformed society. While some of these iconic movies would be nearly unrecognizable if cell phones were available to the characters, it also highlights the importance of keeping things simple.