Comments on: “No signal” is the new air duct

By: Clint Johnson

Clint Johnson — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:29:52 +0000

Or you could set the film in Canada. There is coverage in the cities and a swath along the Canada/US border but it is really spotty along even the major highways. Back home in the interior of BC, I actually have to drive thirty kilometres to get to a place that occasionally has enough of a signal to make a phone call. It is a stretch of road on the peak of a hill that is about a hundred meters long and there is nothing else for another forty kilometres past that.

As for sat phones, we have two and they only have a usable signal about a quarter of the time... and when we do manage to get a call through it rarely maintains the connection for more than a minute.

By: Dave Morris

Dave Morris — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 10:24:55 +0000

You're right. Even though often you can't get a signal in real life, in a story you know the reason there's no signal is because the writer just decided there wouldn't be.

I have a similar problem with any scenario where a character wins just by fighting. Okay, I do realize that applies to a lot of stories. But take Buffy Season 7. The ubervamp turns up and Buffy can't lick it. And then she fights it again and this time she wins. And it doesn't look like she had to win the second time, it looks like she was very lucky. Instead of "surprising yet inevitable" it was "unsurprising yet random".

My point here: the victory doesn't seem earned the way that a character can earn a victory morally (they do something brave) or even intellectually (that's why we like tricksters). In a fight, the character wins just because the writer typed: "And then she hits the other guy and he doesn't get up."

I'm not saying fights can't make interesting stories. Look at Rocky. But you need to see the hero do something clever or brave - or for the fight to not reach the conclusion you expected. When it all hinges on whether the hero turns out to be the tougher (or luckier) fighter, and that's all - well, that's just the same as a cellphone that conveniently doesn't have a signal.

By: mara

mara — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:46:51 +0000

Does anyone live anywhere near open country? In the middle of Houston, there are plenty of places where coverage drops out. Tall, large, or clustered buildings interfere. And you can drive not too far out, particularly if you head about 10 minutes off any major freeway, and completely lose coverage. Perhaps this isn't the case in East/West Coast country, but it is so central.

And I swear, when my friend in New Mexico (VERY spotty coverage) calls from the car and the signal keeps fading in and out, we can hear each other say "Can you hear me now?" every single time, but absolutely nothing else! We've tested this repeatedly. Over years. Sometimes 10 times in five minutes.

I'm with the people who say, it happens, don't call attention to it.

By: DP

DP — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:18:07 +0000

There’s another Alien vs. Predator? Where have I been to miss out on that?

By: DP

DP — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 18:15:56 +0000

I was buying it for the guy in the desert, but then he had to be too on the nose about the 3% of the country without coverage. There's way more land in this country without signal than 3%, by the way, maybe he meant by population, in which case, being in the boonies is plausible enough.

I have all kinds of excuses not to be able to make a cell phone call in my real life. Batteries, signal, SD card acting up, forgot it ...

Just use it to increase tension. Accidentally call your grandma and ask her to call 911, but you're still in the boonies so there wasn't enough triangulation to find you before your cell phone died. Now your grandma knows you're in danger, but can't do anything about it and won't understand it wasn't her fault if you die.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 21:02:03 +0000

Love the topic -- thanks, John.

@Veikko: Right on! Although I also agree with bfwebster's ice-cream sandwich observation.

I guess the sense of realism around all this is relative. If I were starring in a movie about my own life, for example, it would be completely believable (and in fact, expected) to have my cell battery cut out at the most inopportune of moments. Or even due to the fact that I forgot to go online and pay the bill.

By: Ross

Ross — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 18:11:34 +0000

in 30 days of night, some of the people had satellite phones which work anywhere and don’t need cell towers.

Also check out this video about cell phones usage and current trends in tech. 93% of adults in the US have a cell phone. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ILQrUrEWe8

By: Grumpy

Grumpy — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 03:12:29 +0000

This is more specific to the clip from 30 Days of Night: why did Renfield waste time burning every cell phone in Barrow when it would've been easier to sabotage the town's 2 cell towers?

By: Synthian

Synthian — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 08:15:45 +0000

Its an axiom.

Any given set of six blond teenagers will inadvertently generate a coverage-disrupting force field within the 24 hours prior to their unfortunate death.

I know. I've tested.

And you can make your car stall simply by being chased by either a vampire, or Steve Buscemi. (I have find in my experiments that the two are basically interchangeable. - Though the latter tends to generate much louder music.)

By: griff

griff — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 21:33:35 +0000

they made a Rest Stop 2?

By: Tim W.

Tim W. — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 19:12:07 +0000

Like Jonathan Peters, I don’t and have never owned a cell phone. Why not have a character who actually doesn’t own one? Too unbelievable to people in the industry who all have cell phones?