Paging Systems for the Movies
There are many accounts of paging systems used to great effect during disaster or emergency scenarios by a wide range of organisations. Where would doctors be without a trusty pager to alert them to sudden medical developments? Could the police and fire services be so quickly alerted to any impending catastrophe without the bleep of a pager? With such examples nearly everywhere we look, you’d be forgiven for imagining that Hollywood films would at least make a cursory mention of the power of the pager in their wonderful plots. Here are our favourite movies that could only be improved with a little bleeping noise going off at some point during the film.
Cloverfield
A ‘Monster Movie’ in the vein of Godzilla or King Kong (though updated for the 21st century to appear as if filmed on a hand-held video camera), Cloverfield follows the story of several bystanders as New York City comes under attack from an enormous, rampaging creature. While the recording ‘video camera’ is almost made to feel like a character in the movie, as events are seen through its eyes, there is no mention of the paging systems that would have summoned many of the film’s law enforcement characters to deal with the berserk monster. It certainly could only have improved the film to learn what ‘Help – I’m about to be crushed by a giant amphibious behemoth’ translates to in pager code.
Alien
Where Cloverfield was a sprawling, city-wide disaster film, a different kind of thriller in which paging systems could have made all the difference is Alien. A claustrophobic tale of horror set within a cramped spaceship, Alien provides nail-biting suspense as members of the cast are picked off one by one by the mysterious and unsettling alien of the title. While the movie depicts the space faring crew improvising many tools to help arm them against the otherworldly threat, including motion detectors and flamethrowers, one key gap in their arsenal becomes apparent – pagers. Paging systems would be quite helpful in reporting on the alien’s movements. Perhaps if they’d all been able to rapidly update each other on the alien’s location, more cast members than Sigourney Weaver would have had their characters live to see the end credits.
Die Hard
A solid action film, Die Hard followed the story of down-on-his-luck New York cop John McClane (played by Bruce Willis), who found himself isolated from the outside world when a band of thieves posing as terrorists take over the fictitious Nakatomi Plaza building. As a law enforcement officer onscreen, you’d think the writers would have incorporated John McClane’s familiarity with communications and paging systems into the script, but alas, no. In order to preserve dramatic tension in the film, any pager held by John McClane would have made it too easy for him to request assistance, and look less than heroic in the process. When he does manage to communicate to the NYPD, it’s over a two-way radio stolen from one of his adversaries. Presumably, as an off-duty detective, he’s left his trusty pager at home.
Jenny Kettlewell is the Marketing Manager for Multitone Systems, a tele communications strategies company that has provided paging systems and pagers for organisations in the public and private sector for many years.
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