But now how're we gonna have our apocalypse?

As was reported yesterday, AT&T is pulling the plug on its payphones, and while they say independent carriers will pick them up, it's clear they're on their way to extinction. But the world won't be the same -- especially the movie world.

Take this, the 1988 film Miracle Mile. With no pay phones, Anthony Edwards wouldn't be able to answer that call outside Johnnie's Diner and learn -- via a wrong number -- that the bombs were headed this way (or -- are they?). No save-the-girlfriend plot, no chaos, no bleak yet thrilling picture of LA at the brink of apocalypse. No shiveringly bad soundtrack by Tangerine Dream, either.