Writing around the Cellphone Problem

November 1, 2006 1:32 PM

Writing around the "Cellphone Problem".

I think it's kind of a well known problem with people writing fiction and movies that the availability of cell phones makes building tension a lot harder. That's only getting worse with Blackberries and Internet-enabled phones. Besides the obvious technique of somehow causing them to not work, what are some clever ways you've seen that writers have used these technologies (or futuristic sci-fi versions of them) to actually create complications in stories or movies?

Just to make it more difficult, ignore the movies like Phonebooth, Scream, etc, where the killer/master criminal calls the protagonist and threatens them over the phone.

posted by empath to writing & language (31 comments total)

The most obvious (it was in some Denzel Washington movie I think) is where the police have got the suspects number and call the phone. At the same time a colleague's cellphone goes off in the office. Dialog goes something like:

Police Chief: They're not answering...Hey, bob, arent you going to pick up your phone?
posted by vacapinta at 1:43 PM on November 1, 2006

I don't follow:

Guy and Girl go out on a date. Guy promises to call Girl. Girl waits for the call. [shot of cell phone not ringing on subway] [shot of cell phone ringing while she is crossing the street, but caller ID says it is someone else] [shot of text message being delivered... but not from Him] [repeat until sufficient tension is built] Finally, Guy calls girl, releiving tension.

A good writer should be able to use the cell phone to build tension. Now that everyone is expected to carry a cell phone, you can build tension over an hour of story-time as one character waits to hear back from another character on an important issue.

As an exercise, take the Sartre play No Exit, and rewrite it for three people with cell phones. Instead of setting it in one room of an infinite hotel, place each character in an ordinary, but boring and repetitive setting. Create a plot device that either puts the three in contact with each other, or explains that they have known each other since some past event. Now run the dialog over the cell phones. Bonus points if you involve IM or chatrooms.
posted by b1tr0t at 1:49 PM on November 1, 2006

Could you clarify how the ubiquity of cellphones makes it difficult to build tension in a story?
posted by odinsdream at 1:51 PM on November 1, 2006

Also, Infernal Affairs and its US-market remix The Departed make excellent use of the cell phone as a dramatic device. Be sure to check out IA II and III as well.
posted by b1tr0t at 1:52 PM on November 1, 2006

The characters in "The Departed" (Scorcese's latest film) used cell phones a lot, and used them well. Additionally, it's a great flick. Go see it if you haven't already, and it may give you some ideas.
posted by chrisamiller at 1:54 PM on November 1, 2006

I guess I'm really thinking of the protagonist being in trouble and just being able to open their phone and dial 9/11. It's harder to isolate characters now.
posted by empath at 2:07 PM on November 1, 2006

b1tr0t the No Exit idea is very cool.
posted by sien at 2:09 PM on November 1, 2006

Well, just give your characters shitty cellphone service, or set the story in West Virginia.
posted by odinsdream at 2:10 PM on November 1, 2006

What about the cellphone giving away the location of a victim?

Ie, they're hiding/escaping from someone, they get a call/text message?
posted by chrispy108 at 2:10 PM on November 1, 2006

Could you clarify how the ubiquity of cellphones makes it difficult to build tension in a story?

The cell phone gives you a link to the outside world, a way to call for reinforcements, when in earlier days you'd have to get by on your own. For example: locked in the trunk of a car, being followed down a dark street by shady characters, trapped in a house that's being menaced by someone who has cut the telephone lines, etc.
posted by Joleta at 2:12 PM on November 1, 2006

I guess I'm really thinking of the protagonist being in trouble and just being able to open their phone and dial 9/11. It's harder to isolate characters now.

The police are corrupt and in on the kidnapping/heist/whatever. The villians have a cell phone jammer. The protagonist's cell phone has been stolen by the bad guys. The bad guys have hacked into the local carrier hotel, compormised the E911 router, and filter out all calls from the protagonist. The protagonist's identity has been compromised, and their cell service has been shut down.

If anything, people have a false sense of connectedness. Take the cell phone way to show how helpless the character is. Or take it away to show how resourceful the character is, depending on your goal.
posted by b1tr0t at 2:17 PM on November 1, 2006

You could always make your story a period piece set in 1995. Just make a passing mention of Clinton being president and Smashing Pumpkins being popular and BAM! No cell phone expectations.
posted by COBRA! at 2:17 PM on November 1, 2006 [1 favorite]

I've mentioned Charlie Stross once this evening already, but the early sections of Accelerando throw themselves into a near-future wired world with joyous abandon. No lack of tension there. Available online, too.

More generally, can we say that tension is generated when information is unknown? (The winner of the 4:20, the axe murderer is under the bed, that Vader's really your father).

Then in your example I'd look to character motivations - give them a reason not to call for help. Also you could have an antagonist take their phone from them (much more reasonable than the battery dying), or make it the kind of trouble you can't get out of by calling for help (terrorists have taken over the plane mid-flight? Cellphone won't help there).
posted by Leon at 2:18 PM on November 1, 2006

I think the usual device is contrive some reason the cell phone does not get reception - like in Panic Room.
posted by muddgirl at 2:18 PM on November 1, 2006

You could always make your story a period piece set in 1995

I was recently struck by how many of the storylines of Seinfeld would not have worked during the age of cell phones. (E.g., George driving too fast and losing Jerry behind him, the group being unable to meet up at a movie theater, George having to wait by the pay phone at the Chinese restaurant, etc., etc.) Sure, you can always say that someone's phone is dead or has no service, but it makes things just that much more far-fetched.
posted by Turd Ferguson at 2:26 PM on November 1, 2006

I deal with this problem a lot, and the best solution that I and my fellow writers keep coming back to is just ignore cell phones, unless they play a key role in the story as in the mention of Infernal Affairs and The Departed, for example. It's much easier than getting into plot contrivances and trying to explain away something. Like... you're locked in the trunk of a car. Do you have your character say "Gosh, I sure wish I had my cellphone." Or do you just not mention it? I'd go for not mention it. There'll be some people who'll wonder why he isn't carrying his cell phone, but if they're wondering, then they probably aren't totally invested in the story anyway and you've already lost them. If they're engaged in what's going on, I believe the majority of them won't care.
posted by incessant at 2:31 PM on November 1, 2006

Veronica Mars is a mystery show that's dealt with lots of these situations, and prominently featured cell phones as part of the story, instead of contriving ways to make them disappear, especially in the first season. Dirty text messages are used as evidence that a teacher is having an affair with a student, a character figures out that his girlfriend is cheating on him when he sees a number in her phone's dialed calls (this is done really dramatically, with the cheater answering his phone in the school quad at lunch hour, and the cuckolded boyfriend looking around to see whose phone is ringing), Veronica sends out prepaid cell phones to addresses she thinks her missing mother might be, etc. etc.
posted by SoftRain at 2:31 PM on November 1, 2006

I will Nth the reccos for both The Departed and Accelerando (both are really good). For that matter, didn't cellphones play an interesting part in The Matrix?
posted by adamrice at 2:54 PM on November 1, 2006

Season 3 of The Wire: drug dealers are using pre-paid cell phones and ditching them once the minutes run out, making it almost impossible for the cops to set up an ongoing wiretap.
posted by Dean King at 3:06 PM on November 1, 2006

Do you have your character say "Gosh, I sure wish I had my cellphone." Or do you just not mention it? I'd go for not mention it. There'll be some people who'll wonder why he isn't carrying his cell phone, but if they're wondering, then they probably aren't totally invested in the story anyway and you've already lost them. If they're engaged in what's going on, I believe the majority of them won't care.

Oh, I very much disagree with that. The number one way to "fix" a plot hole is to have another character ask the same question that the audience has, "Where did those white trucks come from?" and they'll forgive you. If you don't address something small that irks them, you break the whole suspension of disbelief, causing them not to be engaged. People will buy the big leaps of faith, but not if you betray them on the small ones.

I second Veronica Mars. Everyone's cellphone addicted, but there are always times when it's in a coat, in the trunk, out of range, she can't call because the cops know her phone number, etc., etc. Sure, there are times when it's integral to the plot (tracking down someone in close proximity by picking up their phone's bluetooth on her laptop), but most of the time it comes off as genuine. (Well, except for the fact that she and Wallace have the exact same phone. Product placement anyone?) It's an amazing suspense inducer within the show.
posted by Gucky at 3:18 PM on November 1, 2006

Write your story about me. I don't own one.
posted by timeistight at 3:59 PM on November 1, 2006

The movie Primer used cell phones to reinforce the gimmick of the plot. In the movie, the protagonists build a machine that allows them to travel several hours back in time. But because ofthe risk of meeting themselves or someone they knew, they agreed to travel back with nothing and hole up in a motel room.

At one point, one of the characters brings his cell and leaves it on. When he's 6 hours in the past, the phone rings and the characters debate answering it. The debate centers around whther the phone is a radio (i.e the tower broadcasts the call and both the back in time phone and the original time line phone ring) or whther the cell is a network, and the tower rings the first phone it can find (meaning that becasue the back in time phone is ringing, the original time line phone is not, and now there is a continuity problem in their lives).

Stephen King's novel Cell involves a pulse sent through cell phones that turns everyone in to an enraged zombie. It's was a clever twist on the zombie origination story.

Also, most crooks will know to pat people down for phones these days.
posted by Pastabagel at 6:55 PM on November 1, 2006

What about the cellphone giving away the location of a victim?

"Cellular," while not always considered a good movie, did this--good guy and bad guy are lurking around in the dark trying to shoot each other. An awkward silence ensues, tension rises, and then the good guy calls the bad guy's cell phone, revealing his location. (But, "And then Bob's cell phone rang, revealing his location" doesn't sound like it has much drama potential.)

If you want to avoid cell phones, I second the idea of simply setting your story in the 90s or earlier, prior to cell phones. (Just be careful to be consistent with technologies--the Internet was just coming into vogue, for example.)
posted by fogster at 7:21 PM on November 1, 2006

Cell phone batteries run out. Cell phones move into and out of their coverage areas. Cell phones can take pictures. Send text messages. Play music and sounds. Play games. Cell phones can be traced -- but to the phone, not the owner.

There's a zillion fiction possibilities here.

* Cell phone batteries run out -- your character can connect to the outside world, but only for X seconds.

* Cell phones move into and out of their coverage areas -- your characters can connect to the outside world, but only if they stand in one place and don't move.

* Cell phones can take and send pictures -- your character has a ubiquitous means of transporting images instantly. Come save, I'm right here. But look out for the bad guy, who looks like this.

* Send text messages -- Help, I'm being held hostage.

* Play music and sounds -- The bad guy leaves a cell phone in a specific location, playing the sound of loved one crying out, in order to lure the good guy into a trap.

Play games -- You'd like to call for help, but your brother is about to reach level 10 and won't stop to answer the call, despite it ringing RIGHT IN FRONT OF HIS FACE.

Cell phones can be traced -- but to the phone, not the owner. The bad guy ties the cell phone to a dog collar and sends the dog running through the forest.
posted by frogan at 7:26 PM on November 1, 2006

What I meant was:

* Cell phones can take and send pictures -- your character has a ubiquitous means of transporting images instantly. Come save me, SNAP, I'm right here. But look out for the bad guy, who SNAP looks like this.
posted by frogan at 7:27 PM on November 1, 2006

I like the false sense of security approach. Sure you can call 911 and talk all you want, but they can't trace the physical location of the cell phone. Maybe if they're lucky they can work with the phone company and find out what cell tower you're talking to, but that's about it.

So, car breaks down while driving through unfamiliar territory. Menace starts, potential victim grabs their handy cellphone and calls 911, secure in the knowledge that backup will be there in seconds. Slowly realizes that "there in seconds" is really "somewhere in a 10 mile area in about 20 minutes".

Also, you'd probably be doing a public service, as way too many people seem to believe that their cellphones have GPS devices in them that allow the sort of location accuracy they see on TV.
posted by tkolar at 8:38 PM on November 1, 2006

Actually, E911 requires cell providers to support locating of cell phones to within something like 100 meters (and to provide that info to the 911 operator when a call is made). I have no idea how well this works in practice.
posted by hattifattener at 12:24 AM on November 2, 2006

Actually, E911 requires cell providers to support locating of cell phones to within something like 100 meters (and to provide that info to the 911 operator when a call is made). I have no idea how well this works in practice.

Not very well outside of cities The accepted practice is to triangulate on the signal from multiple towers -- but in the country you are unlikely to be within range of more than two towers at once.

Also, I can tell you from first hand experience that triangulating on a radio signal is a very error-prone activity.
posted by tkolar at 1:34 AM on November 2, 2006

A friend of mine is a published mystery writer. His work has been all pre-cellphone (he's an older guy). When I first started reading his books, I was irritated by situations that would be well solved with a simple cellphone. He explained he was 'ambiguous' about time, but it wasn't clear in the writing.

Most of the time (at least here in South Africa) messages left on the celluar system tend to be garbeled and useless.

A better way to have a phone betray someone is having it announce it is low on battery.
posted by Goofyy at 4:56 AM on November 2, 2006

For example: locked in the trunk of a car,

the bad guys make sure to search the victim for cellphones

being followed down a dark street by shady characters,

you need smarter shady characters i.e., they don't follow, they just grab. Or better yet, they're smoother: make the shady character a smilling, charming, goodlooking member of the opposite sex. That allows them to follow and get close.


trapped in a house that's being menaced by someone who has cut the telephone lines

No decent criminal would cut the phone wires because they know about cellphones.

You're only coming up with horrible cliches and not adapting them to a modern era.

Your main point about it being harder to isolate characters and build tension doesn't hold. IT MAKES IT EASIER. Becaue now, the bad guy has to get smarter, smoother and closer to the victim.

also keep in mind that link to the outside world is just that: a link. The outside world still has to find you. If you're in the trunk of the car, you have no idea where you are! That's a lot of tension right there.
posted by Brandon Blatcher at 7:48 AM on November 2, 2006

The movie Red Eye used both the no-service and low-battery reasons to have the heroine's cell phone not work. Much of the film takes place on a coast-to-coast airplane flight, and the AirPhone's sporadic service delays an important phone call; when they land she makes off with the bad guy's phone but has power for only one call and has to choose whether to prevent an assassination or warn her father that a killer is headed for his house. It's a pretty effective thriller.
posted by nicwolff at 8:14 PM on November 2, 2006