This Stephen King adaptation tries to reach out and touch someone.
There is nothing quite like a good apocalypse, and when the cause of that apocalypse is unclear as it starts to unfold? Well, that can be even better. Placing the audience into the shoes of a protagonist who has no idea why the world around him (or her) is crumbling is a very powerful tool and one that the John Cusack-Samuel L. Jackson starrer Cell initially uses to great effect.
Directed by Tod Williams and based on the novel by Stephen King (who worked on the screenplay with Adam Alleca), Cell opens with Cusack's Clay Riddell landing at the airport in Boston. Before he can even make his way out of the terminal, people around him begin losing their minds and viciously attacking anyone and everyone (including hurting themselves).
From right after those early moments straight through to the end of the film, Clay is on a slow-paced journey to find his estranged family. Along the way, he joins up with various companions, including Tom McCourt (Jackson), Alice (Isabelle Fuhrman), and Jordan (Owen Teague). While no one knows what's going on, the idea of traveling together as protection against the zombie hordes is an idea they all like. Will they find safe harbor or will they succumb to the zombie threat?
The greatest strength of Cell is the opening sequence and the confusion of it all – it is clear at the outset to nearly everyone in the movie, and anyone watching it, that the use of cell phones is somehow to blame for the outbreak of zombie-like killers. Williams does a great job of making this terrifying, setting the stage at the airport as a place where just about everyone is on their phone, be they passengers or airport personnel and consequently that initial threat is quite high. The chaos and confusion that surround that first attack is well put together, particularly as Clay himself is on the phone immediately prior to the outbreak and only gets off the phone because his battery dies.
Another great strength of the movie is its willingness to kill any character. Cell establishes early on that each and every person we meet is zombie fodder, and the lesson is repeated over and over again throughout the film.
What works less well is the unfolding of the larger story surrounding the origins of this evil phone signal, how the zombies are mentally connected to one another, and just what the endgame might be. There are certainly nods to some of these things throughout the movie, and Cell's use of a dial-up modem connection-like sounds emanating from the mouths of zombies is great, but the lack of answers makes it all too nebulous to be truly enjoyable. The sense one gets watching is not that all the pieces are there for the audience to work out, but rather that even for those who made the film, there is not a fixed set of answers.
Of course, that doesn't stop Tom and Clay from going on their trip or searching out answers along the way. It also doesn't stop them from making horrifically bad decisions. Most notable amongst these is their opting to send a text message. At the time they do this all they know is that the very act of answering a call on a cell phone will turn them into a mindless killer. They don't know what will happen if they try to send a text but do it anyway, well aware that they could become zombies by doing it. It is the sort of laughable act of which only horror movie characters are capable.
Cell also offers up the requisite twist ending. Rather than being a shock or an incredible pivot or anything else, the twist offers the sense that it exists because a twist is required. In fact, not much after the opening scene at the airport offers much in the way of surprise or horror. It all just keeps going – Cell never finds a great way to up the ante. What begins with a great bang ends with a sad whimper.
The Verdict
Cell does a wonderful job with its opening – it instills more than just a sense of unease and questioning, rather offering one of utter confusion and terror. As Clay and Tom struggle to work out what is happening, we in the audience do as well. The answers that do come though are not satisfying. In short, the movie that follows the beginning moments never returns to those heights making it that much more disappointing.
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