Why Go Doesn't Use Cellphones

Screenwriter John August, talks about Go's lack of cellphones:

The answer, of course: the film came out in early 1999, and cellphones weren't yet ubiquitous in Los Angeles. They existed, to be sure, but they were relatively expensive and rare. We hadn't even settled on the lingo yet. Here's how I describe one early in the script:


Adam's friend ZACK is behind him in line, YABBERING into a cellular phone.




Even my mother wouldn't call it a "cellular phone" today. Later, Simon uses the current term to refer to the Ferrari's built-in phone:



SIMON

It's a cell phone. They can trace where we are even if we don't answer.



(There's still little consistency between cell phone, cell-phone and cellphone.)