Can You Hear Me Now?: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"The widespread adoption of mobile phones must be one of the worst things to ever happen to horror movies, since now ''every'' movie now has to include a bullshit explanation for why they can't use their phone, like losing their battery or their signal. It's become a laughable cliche."''|'''Mathew''', ''[[Bad Movie Beatdown]]'' on [http://blip.tv/film-brain/bad-movie-beatdown-christmas-special-while-she-was-out-4489242 "While She was Out"]}}
With the advent of the computer age, writers still don't quite know how to work [[Cell Phone
Note that, during widespread disasters such as the London bombings or 9/11, cell networks often fail, for several reasons: Overload due to everyone trying to reach each other, cell towers being damaged, and civilian phones being locked out to let emergency personnel have all the capacity. However, in many situations where this trope takes place, the problem is far more localized; being lost in the werewolf-infested woods isn't a national emergency.
Some writers go to the other extreme, using cell phones in place of crazy [[James Bond]]-esque communication devices. Except when the plot demands, they work in places that no cellphone
The trope name comes from the advertisements for Verizon Wireless, where some employee is [[Walking the Earth]] constantly saying the trope name into his cell phone in order to confirm he could be heard over it. (Such people exist in [[Real Life]], but the test phrases they use are far more improbable.)
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* [[Ciaphas Cain]], '''HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!''', deals with this problem on a regular basis. However, it's justified: due to his origin <ref>A hive world, aka an extremely overcrowded planet</ref> he is very competent at orientation in closed spaces and thus constantly gets assigned to missions that deal with such spaces. Such as tunnels or caves. Which are, you know, underground, so it's hard to keep contact. In ''For the Emperor'', for example, it was a major plot point, since he managed to find out the true reason behind the conflict and must find his way to the surface as soon as possible to prevent a large-scale war, since he can't just tell that over the radio.
* In ''[[Good Omens]]'', Crowley and two Dukes of Hell describe what they have done to aid the spread of evil that day. One Duke corrupted a politician. The other tempted a priest. Crowley disabled every cell tower in Central London for 45 minutes... during lunch hour.
** The other demons don't understand. Crowley figures that spreading low-level frustration to thousands of people on a regular basis is much more efficient in the corruption of souls than the one-on-one
* Justified example in ''[[The Dresden Files]]'': magic [[Walking Techbane|screws up advanced technology like computers and cell phones]], thus ruining cell phone reception whenever a wizard is around. The effect worsens exponentially when when a wizard (or other magic user) is actively casting magic, and that's not even taking into account "hexing", which is a direct magical attack with the intent of destroying technology. Dresden himself compares cell phones to a canary in a coal mine or "[[Red Shirt|those guys in the red shirts on Star Trek]]" because they die the instant trouble hits.
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=== Western Animation ===
* Played with in a ''[[Danny Phantom]]'' episode where Danny and his mother gets stranded in the middle of a forest. Off ALL the techno gizmo she has with her, the only thing she doesn't have: a
** Danny obviously forgot his phone. [[Running Gag|Like he forgot his wallet in ''Masters of All Time'', and that ring from ''Flirting With Disaster''.]]
* In ''[[Code Lyoko]]'', the main characters all have cell phones, and never have any problem with reception or anything. Usually their phones would be broken while fighting on Earth. (Strangely, they always have a new cell phone by the next episode, even if no one pressed the reset button. They never seem to complain about having to buy new cell phones so frequently, though...)
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* Some [[Super Sentai]] (and, by extension, ''[[Power Rangers]]'') series have had cell phones as the [[Transformation Trinket]], and it seems handheld devices with keypads are being used instead of the more wristwatch-like devices of the past more and more. (If you wanna get technical, we've explicitly had phones in ''[[Hyakujuu Sentai Gaoranger|Gaoranger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Wild Force|Wild Force]]'' and ''[[Mahou Sentai Magiranger|Magiranger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Mystic Force|Mystic Force]]'' and phone-like devices in ''[[Tokusou Sentai Dekaranger|Dekaranger]]''/''[[Power Rangers SPD|SPD]]'', ''[[Go Go Sentai Boukenger|Boukenger]]''/''[[Power Rangers Operation Overdrive|Operation Overdrive]]'' and ''[[Engine Sentai Go-onger|Go-onger]]''/''[[Power Rangers RPM|RPM]]'')
** Note that on ''Go-onger''/''RPM'', "an Engine Cell" is [[I Am Not Shazam|not the morpher]], it's the small card-thingy that goes ''in'' the morpher and half of the ''other'' gadgets the team uses.
* ''[[Kamen Rider Faiz]]'' also has cell phones as [[Transformation Trinket
* Naturally, the communicators in ''[[Star Trek: The Original Series]]'' came before cell phones, but they look much like them (having arguably inspired their modern look), and were often subject to both ends of this trope.
* The writers of ''[[Buffy the Vampire Slayer]]'' purposefully avoided using cell phones, as it would ruin too many of the plots. For the first episode of season 7, they broke down and let Buffy get herself and Dawn cell phones, which work ''in the school basement'' (Dawn at least makes an enthusiastic comment). It seems Sunnydale [[Word of God|finally got a tower]] ([[Retcon|which nobody complained about before]]). The phones are rarely seen again.
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=== Video Games ===
* ''[[Final Fantasy VII]]'' had a PHS (Party Hensei System, a pun on Personal Handiphone System) which allowed you to summon your comrades from
** This was also used occasionally as part of the plot: When a character who had lines was not in your party during a scene, you'd hear a ringtone, and then they'd literally phone it in to Cloud.
** In ''Crisis Core,'' Zack has access to a far better phone as a member of SOLDIER which allows him to recieve e-mail and shop online and - apparently - ''fuse materia.'' And it even continues to work as if the game's four year [[Time Skip]] never happened even though Zack himself was out of commission.
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