Stephen King’s Best Apocalypse Story Became a Gritty Samuel L. Jackson Movie — and It Bombed at the Box Office
Years before our lives went fully mobile, Stephen King’s Cell imagined the day phones turned on us: a mysterious pulse hijacks the network, unleashing feral mobs, and a New England artist cuts a path through the carnage to save his son.
Stephen King dreamed up one of his meanest end-of-the-world ideas with 2006's 'Cell': a New England artist trying to get back to his kid while the entire planet melts down because a mysterious cell phone signal turns people into feral mobs. Great premise. The movie version? Rough ride.
How 'Cell' sparked in King’s brain
King was in New York, stepped out of a hotel, saw a woman on her phone, and his imagination did what his imagination does: what if an irresistible message hit her phone that flipped a switch and sent her on a killing spree until someone stopped her? Then he scaled it up. If that message hit globally, what happens to civilization?
"Normal people would see this, and the first thing they would do would be to call their friends and families on their cell phones. So the epidemic would spread like poison ivy."
A little later, he clocked a guy in a suit yelling to himself on the street. King went to cross the road to avoid the 'crazy person' and then realized the guy had a wireless earpiece. Not a rant—just a call. That sealed it.
"Then I see he’s got one of these plugs in his ear and he’s talking into his cell phone. And I thought to myself, I really want to write this story."
He was genuinely worried about what mobile tech might do to the way we live, and people even asked him if the book would feel out of date in ten years. Irony alert: the movie showed up exactly a decade later.
The 2016 adaptation that face-planted
On paper, the film should have worked: Tod Williams (Paranormal Activity 2) directing, and Samuel L. Jackson in the mix. In reality, it bombed hard—$1.3 million at the box office—and critics torched it. Rotten Tomatoes has it parked at 11%, with most of the blame going to an adaptation that never figured out how to translate a strong hook into a coherent movie.
'Cell' (2016) in one quick pass
- Director: Tod Williams
- Writers: Stephen King (novel and co-screenplay), Adam Alleca (screenplay)
- Cast: John Cusack (Clay Riddell), Samuel L. Jackson (Tom McCourt), Isabelle Fuhrman (Alice Maxwell, 'Orphan'), Stacy Keach (Charles Ardai, 'American History X')
- Runtime: 1h 38m (98 minutes)
- Release: June 10, 2016 (VOD); July 8, 2016 (limited theatrical)
- Genre: Science fiction horror, thriller
- Premise: A pulse sent through the global cell network turns users into rabid 'phoners.' Artist Clay Riddell fights through the aftermath to find his son.
- Scores: IMDb 4.5/10; Rotten Tomatoes 11%
- Production tidbit: Eli Roth ('Hostel') was originally attached to direct before Williams took over
Why it did not land
The movie moves like it was cut with a chainsaw: pacing issues, plot turns that don’t track, and character arcs that never get room to breathe. It takes a killer premise and buries it under a heap of genre cliches. The cast is stacked—Jackson, John Cusack, Isabelle Fuhrman, Stacy Keach—but the film barely uses Jackson’s natural ability to take over a scene. Then the ending steps on the emotional payoff, which kind of kills the whole point of the journey.
About that 'hot streak' idea
You might see people lump 'The Long Walk' and 'The Running Man' into a post-'Cell' King hot streak. Worth noting: those projects have been circling development for years and aren’t exactly post-apocalyptic in the 'Cell' sense. Call it optimism, not a scoreboard.
Where to watch
'Cell' is streaming on Prime Video in the U.S. (as always, availability can change).