Danny Boyle’s Steve Jobs is up for four nominations at tonight’s Golden Globes (which we’ll be live tweeting). This weekend also marks the anniversary of the real-life Jobs’ 2007 debut of the beloved iPhone — one piece of technology that many people can’t imagine being without.
We’ve come a long way since the days of early cellular technology, which has been (unfortunately) documented in films throughout the decades.
Take a look back at some of the most ridiculous instances of mobile phones in movies — from the “Brick,” which probably classifies as a lethal weapon, to the flip phone.
Danny Glover probably wants to forget about this massive mobile phone he used in 1987’s Lethal Weapon. Bonus: watch Lethal Weapon 4 to hear Joe Pesci’s character Leo Getz rant about per-minute phone calls: “They f*ck you with cell phones. That’s what it is. They’re f*ckin’ you with the cell phone. They love it when you get cut off. Y’know why, huh? You know why? ‘Cause when you call back — which they know you’re gonna do — they charge you for that f*ckin’ first minute again at that high rate.”
In the 1980s, the Motorola DynaTac 8000X was a nearly $4,000 status symbol (nicknamed “the Brick”) that weighed two pounds and clocked in at 13 inches long. Wall Street’s Gordon Gekko used one in the 1987 film. It makes a cameo in the 2010 sequel, Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps.
Before the masses went mobile, they went cordless. Drew Barrymore’s Casey Becker talks to a faceless killer on a chunky cordless phone in 1996’s Scream — as memorable of a prop as the mask Ghostface wears in the movie.
Only the wealthiest students at Bronson Alcott High School in Beverly Hills could afford this extremely dated Motorola StarTAC flip phone, as featured in Amy Heckerling’s Clueless.
Richard Gere does business on a mini Brick in Pretty Woman.
In 1997’s Tomorrow Never Dies, this Ericsson cell phone seemed incredibly futuristic — and it drove James Bond’s car.
The Bourne film series is like a graveyard of outdated tech product placement. Sony Ericsson, Motorola (shout out to the RAZR 2 and SLVR), Siemens, and Nokia are just a few of the companies who have paid for screen time.
Imagine if your whole life depended on some crappy flip phone the way Cary Elwes’ did in Saw. Bummer.
Tom Cruise making deals on a cell phone with an antenna in Jerry Maguire seems downright quaint these days.
Possibly the best “cell” phone used in a movie ever.