Here’s Why Everyone Is Freaking Out About Phone Booths
“Can you name a movie you like that features a scene with a payphone that is not 'The Matrix'?”
There’s a new viral meme going around on Twitter that leaves us equal parts confused and delighted. One single question spawned a thread of nostalgia and a very striking reminder of how everchanging technology is. So, if you’re not sure why everyone is freaking out about phone booths, here’s what you need to know.
Twitter is great for random conversations, and @TheCinemaTicket sparked a good one that had everyone weighing in. TheCinemaTicket, whose bio reads, “movie fan in love with the technological medium that has harnessed the stuff of which dreams are made,” asked a question on August 29, 2021, encouraging fellow movie fans to put on their thinking caps.
“Can you name a movie you like that features a scene with a payphone that is not The Matrix?” the question read. And the answers that followed became an overnight viral trend giving due respect to a very outdated piece of technology – the phone booth.
Ryan Reynolds tweeted a clip of himself playing Deadpool, who runs into a phonebooth to change his clothes in the same ridiculous way Clark Kent would morph into Superman.
Another Twitter user pointed out that there’s literally a movie named Phone Booth from 2002 starring Colin Farrell and Kiefer Sutherland. The whole film was centered on a person who takes a call in a random street phone booth and all the drama that unfolds.
Another iconic scene stars Robert Di Nero, who repeatedly slams down the phone in Goodfellas. No one has ever been able to hang up a phone with the same amount of passion since.
Other movies included in the viral tweet thread are Fight Club, Adventures in Babysitting, The Terminator, Ace Ventura, Say Anything, and, of course, Anchorman.
But arguably the most obvious answer, other than Phone Booth, is every single Bill and Ted movie, which Alex Winter caught on to pretty quickly.
Other than the hilariousness of a random question piquing the interest of so many people, this thread also makes us wonder: what technology from our kids’ generation will become obsolete and only remembered through movies?
