A few hours ago I found an old printout of the “Things You Would Never Know Without the Movies” forward and it’s a true as it ever was, especially when it notes that in the movies, “All telephone numbers in America begin with the digits 555.”

That little barrier to the suspension of disbelief used to bother me, but I changed my view after seeing the film Unbreakable. In one scene, a scrolling toll-free number that’s purportedly an Amtrak emergency line scrolls on a TV. I was so surprised it was an actual number that the moment I stepped out of the theater I dialed it… and was treated to a recording from the movie studio telling me it was a non-working number used for creative purposes. I felt rewarded, but also annoyed that the number lurked in my head for the remainder of the flick.

The same thing happened minutes ago with a Six Feet Under DVD. When a character calls for an escort, it’s a valid toll-free number. I was distracted for the final 20 minutes, wanting to run off and dial.

So perhaps it’s for the best that movie phone numbers are unbelievable. The momentary twinge I get from a fake number is probably better than the lingering curiousity from a real one.

(And then there’s the fact that both the aforementioned numbers are now phone sex lines.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, March 8th, 2003 at 12:55 am and is filed under Miscellany.. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.