MovieChat Forums > Go (1999) Discussion > No Mobile Phones

No Mobile Phones

posted 17 years ago by bigbud_120
144 replies | jump to latest

Did anyone else notice that even though the film was shot in 1999 and focused on young people that no mobile phones appeared in the film.

Unless I missed something it seems like this was a deliberate decision by makers of the film. I like the choice.

Edit: The stripclub guy who Simon shot may have used a mobile phone to call the Rivierra to find out which room Simon and his friends were staying in. I don't recall, it may have been a carphone.

It still doesn't explain why no other characters in the movie use a mobile when they had the opportunity.

[–] kairingler 15 years ago

yeah i found that kinda odd also, but yeah in 99 it wasn' as popular as it is now.. i had my first one in 99 and it wasn't cheap.
are you going to bark all day little doggie,, or are you going to bite

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] CALICOWBOY1017 15 years ago

"Like the scream franchise for example?

"what are you doing with a cellular phone son?"

"everybody's got one sheriff"

That was in '96."

Cell phones also appear in CLUELESS (1995).

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] tsw453 13 years ago

The cell phones in Clueless were clearly meant as a joke as they all had one and were rich. That scene would make no sense today.

[–] crazyhellboy 13 years ago

Pagers were back in the day what mobile phones are today. Remember Claire kept on paging Ronna and that cop that was going to bust Ronna saw her pager going off and saying "busy night"

I remember back in High School they banned pagers because only drug dealers could afford them and that was a dead giveaway that you were a drug dealer.
I shall call him Squishy and he shall be mine and he shall be my Squishy.

[–] tsw453 13 years ago

I still had never even seen a mobile phone in 99'

[–] Littlebitsofgaming 13 years ago

Mobile/Cell phones were everywhere in 99.
I'm guessing people have very jaded memories.

The reason they did not feature that much in this film is cos the director/writer didn't want them to feature much in the film. Simple as that.

"And so, God came forth and proclaimed widescreen is the best"
Sony 16:9

[–] Jeramie 13 years ago

I was in college in 99... only one kid in our dorm had a cell phone, and he waved it around like a status symbol. The rest of us thought it was funny because none of us received calls important enough to make it worth the cost. You didn't have a cell phone in '99 unless you had paranoid obsessive parents or a hipster ego.

[–] Max06 13 years ago

Mobile phones were just not very common in 1999. They were basic and expensive and rare.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] 13 years ago

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[–] movielovee621 13 years ago

while mobile phones aren't used as much in this film as they would be today, there is one scene about 5 minutes into the movie where the characters Zach and Adam are at the grocery store talking to Ronna, and Zach is on a cell phone talking to someone. I'm pretty sure that's the only scene with a phone though.

[–] thebubbleincident 12 years ago

I was 15 years old when this movie came out and when my friends and i went to see it... none of us had a phone.

My parents got one cell phone for the both of them in 2000 and would have me take it when I went out on the weekend. I didnt have my own cell phone until I was 19years old in 2003.

[–] wigger_slayer 12 years ago

what I have learned from this thread: some people had cell phones in 1999 and some people did not.

(I didn't until 2004)

--
Only living to die

[–] Burning_Sosobra 12 years ago

You hit the nail on the head, wigger. Now that this thread itself is pretty much obsolete, what's the point of commenting? But, I will anyway since I just watched this on TV the other day for the first time in years and forgot how good the movie is. Yeah, it's obviously well established that there were mobile phones as far back as the late 80's, but primarily for businessman and the wealthy. In the mid 90's, my family got a mobile car phone. That huge, bulky thing in the black carrying case, and I was only 12 or so at the time, but I remember thinking how amazing and advanced it was. I was in high school in the late 90's, and I didn't really see too many kids with cellphones at that time. By 2000 and 2001, when I graduated, cellphones were much more common place. I myself didn't get a cellphone 'till I was 18 in '01, one of those bulky Nokia cellphones. But I thought it was amazing. Now, like others have previously stated, everyone and their grandmother has one. Elementary students, 6 or 7 years old, carry cellphones! Maybe it's just me, but I don't think a damn child needs a cellphone. But that's how the world is, and it keeps getting worse and worse. Now bookstores are closing, books/newspapers are becoming obsolete thanks to the Internet and things like the Kendall, and video stores are becoming obsolete as well, i.e. Hollywood Video, Blockbuster, etc. What's next? I don't even want to know.

"All you need in this life is ignorance and confidence, and then success is sure."

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] billwenham 12 years ago

I'm 30 and I didn't get a cell phone until 2008. I was holding out. I still sometimes resent that I caved.

[–] newmatt1 12 years ago

I was 20 in 1999 (and I know this has been stated several times by people living in the U.S.) but very few people in college had cell phones. I didn't get my first until 2002...a big clunky Nokia Tracphone. I remember having to buy cards at 7-11, which got old real fast. I went to the AT&T store to get on a contract a month after having my Tracphone.

[–] billwenham 12 years ago

Tracphones were the WORST!!!!

[–] smashsmack 12 years ago

Cellphones were not that common in 1999, they really didn't start becoming common until end of 2000/early 2001. I remember knowing a few people having them when I graduated in 2001 and I finally got one that same year when I went to college. So the movie depicts a time where the beeper was on it's way out and cellphones were getting ready to catch on.

Because sponges never have bad days.

[–] FawnLeibowitz 12 years ago

I was 28 in 1999 and had already had a cell phone for about 2 years. Most of my co-workers had them also. I certainly wasn't rich - they weren't expensive if you stuck with your allotted minutes.

[–] Kram99 10 years ago

They started to get fairly common around 2000/01, I reckon at least half the people I knew had one by then at age 19.

[–] joestl 10 years ago

You have to remember that almost everyone had landlines in their apartments. Nowadays everyone has a cell phone but mostly just middle aged people have landlines anymore.