10 Movies With Mind-Bending Plots

Director Steve De Jarnatt helmed television episodes of The X-Files, ER and Alfred Hitchcock Presents, but it's his feature-length project which concerns us here. You'd do well to check out De Jarnatt's later cult scifi movie Cherry 2000 (1987) which is a fun slice of offbeat action, but the more-serious Miracle Mile ably lives up to its status as a beloved fan favourite.

Set in Los Angeles, the film follows musician Harry (played by Anthony Edwards, who later starred in Zodiac and Northern Exposure) who meets and promptly falls in love with waitress Julie (Mare Winningham). They spend the afternoon together, and arrange to meet again at the coffee shop where Julie works, after her shift ends at midnight.

An electrical outage leads Harry to oversleep. He rushes to the coffee shop only to find that Julie has already left. When a payphone randomly rings and Harry answers, a sequence of events begins with literally apocalyptic consequences. Without wishing to spoil the plot, Harry must find Julie and escape the city within a strict time limit.

What makes this film special, aside from the highly likeable protagonists, is the surreal nature of Harry's encounters as he desperately tries to beat the clock. Denise Michelle Crosby (aka Star Trek's Tasha Yar) also stars.