Do you remember how cars became so mainstream that producers began to make movies about cars? Well, the same is happening with mobile phones. More and more movies about cell phones, mobile aps, and wireless networks, are being released. I have watched a handful, and they were quite entertaining. As a mobile phone connoisseur and reviewer, I find this sort of thing quite interesting.
The first movies about cell phones that I saw were JEXI and Countdown. Both also turned out to be stories that played on the fear of how our mobile phones could influence our lives. Great themes. Anyway, let’s jump to our list.
List of movies about cell phones
- JEXI: First on my list of movies about cell phones is JEXI. This 2019 comedy and science fiction in one features a reclusive young man whose life revolves around his phone. he installs an artificial intelligent assistant app called JEXI, which helps him improve his social life, until it didn’t.
- Countdown: This 2019 American horror features a Countdown app that tells people how much longer they have to live. It is all fun and games until people begin to die as predicted. Don’t download that ap!
- CELL: Featuring top stars, Samuel L. Jackson and John Cusack, this American movie tells the story of how a mysterious cell phone signal turns people into zombies. The movie was released in 2016.
- Cellular: Talking about star-studded movies about cell phones, Cellular delivers high-octane action, which is no surprise considering that Jason Statham is in it. This is a 2004 American film about an abducted schoolteacher who tries to get help with a dying phone. The movie also features Chris Evans (Captain America) and Kim Bassinger. It is one of the older films listed here, but it is also one of the most exciting.
- The Black Phone: This is a 2022 horror movie in which an abducted teen is able to hear the voices of previous victims on a phone in the basement room he is held captive in. The wall telephone is not exactly a cell phone, but we are permitted to cheat like that. It features Ethan Hawke.
- App: This 2013 thriller takes us through the story of how a student found a mysterious app on her phone. When she tries to delete it, people in her circle begin to die.
- The Call: Released in 2013, The Call is the story of an emergency services telephone operator who has to use her experience to save an abducted girl’s life. It is one of the few movies about cell phones that is not horror-themed.
- When A Stranger Calls: 2006 is a long time ago, but it was the year that this American movie about a teenage babysitter who starts receiving anonymous telephone calls. the story is inspired by the real life story that resulted in the mysterious death of a babysitter.
- 2.0: In this 2018 Indian movie, mobile phones begin to fly out of people’s hands and experts are called in to help find out what is behind the phenomenon.
- One Missed Call: What do you do when you receive a strange voice message in your own voice but from a future date. You will probably freak out. Well, you should prepare to go up against aliens. One Missed Call is a 2003 American movie and the oldest of the movies about cell phones that I know of. Now, that is old, but it is a movie that will cause the hair on your skin to rise.
- Phone: This is a 2002 South Korean horror movie (again!) in which a woman finds out that every single person before her who had owned her cell phone number had died in sudden and mysterious ways. And so begins the battle for her life.
- Mr. Harrigan’s Phone: Last on our list of movies about cell phones is Mr. Harrigan’s Phone. Released in 2022, this American movie shows us how a young boy befriend an elderly billionaire, who gives him a mobile phone in gratitude. However, when the rich old man dies, the boy discovers that he can communicate with him using the cell phone.
There is a thread that runs through most of these movies about cell phones and mobile apps; almost all of them have a factor of mystery or horror in them. While not all of them have the theme, but the fear factor of how a phone, an app, or a telephone call might hijack your life, or wreck it. Is anyone working on a movie about a superhero whose powers derive from or are channelled through a cell phone, a smartwatch, or electromagnetic waves of wireless networks? Something along the lines of Green Lantern (who is getting some more screen time in the new DC universe). I’d love to see that.