Miracle Mile

What if there was only an hour left until the end of the world?

That's the haunting premise of "Miracle Mile," which stars "ER's" Anthony Edwards as a man who randomly answers a payphone outside a diner and hears the frantic voice of someone who says he is in a North Dakota missile silo and that America is beginning a nuclear strike within the hour.

Is it real or just a hoax? The main character (Harry, played by Anthony Edwards) doesn't know - and neither do we.

For the remainder of the film, we're taken on a paranoid journey as Harry tries to convince everyone to believe his story while he searches through the city for the girl he just fell in love with (Julie, played by Mare Winningham).

Although it deliberately leads us into a false sense of security at the beginning with dewy love scenes, this is very much a movie in the same vein as Scorcese's "After Hours" with a similarly harrowing dream-like journey through a city during the course of a single, long night.

Anthony Edwards has never been better, and he is surrounded here by a stellar supporting cast of memorable characters.

Although there are many movies from the era that depict nuclear war or the after effects, one of the key differences here is that the mood of Miracle Mile is far from the same depressing tone seen in most others.

Made almost at the twilight of The Cold War in the 1980s, "Miracle Mile" captures the fear of that era perfectly. With a superbly minimalistic story and staggering apocalyptic imagery, "Miracle Mile" truly is a miracle to behold on-screen. It is forgotten today, but far from dated.