Miracle Mile: A Cold War Fever Dream (or Reality?)

Okay, fellow GenXers, moviebuff_marc here. Just re-watched "Miracle Mile" for probably the hundredth time. Still messes with my head. I gotta throw out a theory I've been kicking around... What if it WASN'T just a wrong number? I mean, sure, that's the setup. Our boy Harry picks up a garbled message about nukes inbound. But... think about the atmosphere in '89. Reagan's 'Evil Empire' speech still fresh, Cold War anxiety was practically tap water. This movie hits different because it plays on that primal fear, but also...what if the phone call WAS real? Hear me out. The way everyone reacts, the almost immediate chaos and panic in a pre-internet world... it feels genuine. The denial, then the frantic scramble. The synth-heavy Tangerine Dream score just amplifies the feeling that something is irrevocably broken. Plus, the ending... that shot of them in the helicopter just as the nuke hits, the bright flash, then the screen goes white. It's ambiguous, sure, but it's also pretty damn conclusive. Do they somehow make it? Or are they just vaporized? The lack of a clear resolution adds to the paranoid feeling that maybe, just maybe, this could actually happen. The whole movie feels like what a nightmare would be like in LA. I know, I know, it's just a movie. But the thing is, it's a damn good one. It's not some big-budget Hollywood spectacle. It's gritty, feels real, and taps into a very specific moment in time. It reminds me of that old "Twilight Zone" episode "The Shelter," but with a much bigger budget and a lot more neon. I'm not saying I believe it's real, but the film does such a good job of capturing the zeitgeist of the late 80s and the very real fear of nuclear war that I never write it off. Anyone else overthink this flick as much as I do? P.S. Anyone know who directed this thing? (Googles) I'm still scratching my head that it didn't make the director, Steve De Jarnatt, a household name. This movie is SO solid.