The Thriller Cell Phone Problem (SPOILERS)

Must suck writing thrillers today.

Most good ones have been done, but that’s not all … you’ve got to deal with that buffalo-sized thorn, the ever-present goddamned cell phone. One text, VM or (God forbid) someone actually answers, and your whole movie goes away. It’s enough to make a screenwriter want to get a real job.

Thankfully, cell service isn’t know for its reliability, even in digital today. So you can always convincingly claim NO SERVICE, especially in remote natural destinations like wilderness or unnatural ones like the top of a half-mile-high tower. Then there’s those dratted batteries — always going out, it seems, when needed most. Blinkety blink, no juice. And thank God most haven’t heard of those emergency beacons you can buy on Amazon for about $100. If those ever catch on they might just destroy the entire thriller industry.

Here we get not only two phones without service but also a drone with no battery left (and really, how exactly did THAT happen?) Plus one of those cells, after dashing our hopes early on with experienced climbers not having the good sense to get Verizon, ends up saving the day.

You just can’t run away from this problem in the 21st century, and this flick does its level best to deal with it. But what does the future hold when all of us are tattooed at birth in transmitting ink so our whereabouts are never a mystery?