The long take. The one-shot. The oner. The infamous one-shot take may go by many different names, but like art, you know it when you see it. For anyone who has never been on a film set, a one-shot take is impressive – a ballet of actors, cameras and set pieces dancing around one another with uninterrupted cinematic flair. For those who have been on a film set, a successful oner is nothing short of a miracle – a budget annihilating, sanity destroying act of Providence that can make or break a movie. Impossibly beautiful and impossible to pull off, these are the 1o best one shot takes in movie history – all in one one-take of a list.
Goodfellas
The other Greatest Mob Movie Ever™ besides The Godfather, Martin Scorsese’s Goodfellas gives Francis Ford Coppola’s criminal masterpiece a run for its illicitly earned money. While Coppola’s trilogy features some gorgeous takes, nothing comes close to Goodfella‘s one-shot at the Copacabana. The glitz and glamour of the mafia life is put on full display as mobster Henry Hill ushers his date through the bowels of the restaurant – from coat check to kitchen to dance floor. The sequence is seduction itself, who wouldn’t aspire to be a gangster like young Henry Hill when it means you get to live the New York City high life like this? Sure, you’ve also gotta deal with your colleagues trying to whack you and the federal government coming for your blood – but hey, sequences like this make it all worth it.
Climax
A hallmark of the New French Extremity movement, Gaspar Noé’s Climax features not one, but TWO of the most jaw dropping one-takes ever recorded. The film is about a dance troupe rehearsing new choreography in a desolate warehouse in the middle of winter, and then the debauched party that ensures afterward. The opening sequence showing the group’s rehearsal feels like an opening night performance, it’s a slick and stylish dance number that’s all energy and not cuts. After one of the dancers spikes the sangria with LSD at the afterparty, the second one-take rears its ugly head. Isolated, paranoid, and tripping balls, the dancers succumb to their most psychotic impulses in a 40+ minute nightmare sequence that feels like a tour of Hell’s ninth circle. Climax is a beautiful mess of a film, a flawed masterpiece held together by sheer cinematic audacity.
Victoria
Screw cutting a oner into a regular film, the creators of Victoria decided shoot this crime caper movie all in one take – and the result is astounding. The film follows music school dropout Victoria across a night out in Berlin, where she meets four charming German boys who convince her to take part in a casual bank robbery. The film features shots that seem downright impossible to string together, ranging from nightclub dance sequences to police shootouts to Victoria herself playing a pitch perfect waltz on a cafe piano. The cast and crew rehearsed the film for weeks, and then shot the entire movie in three attempts. The first failed, and so did the second. The third? That time was the charm. The best part? The film doesn’t feel like a gimmick – it’s a truly incredible movie that also just so happens to be shot in one take – an already great film made legendary via cinematography miracles.
Children of Men
Adapted from a book of the same name, Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men blows the source material out of the water with a cinematic atom bomb of a one-take. Set in a world where an infertility crisis has caused widespread social collapse, a burned out activist turned bureaucrat named Theo is tasked with escorting one of the only known pregnant women in England to safety. As Theo ushers the woman to a safe house alongside a small team of revolutionaries, the group is ambushed by an armed gang scrounging for resources. The attack is harrowing, taking place within a moving car hurdling through a desolate stretch of wilderness. It”s one of the most white knuckle oners in existence, a post apocalyptic ambush that would feel right at home in The Last of Us. It starts off slow, but once the dudes on motorcycles start shooting while the angry mob runs out of the tree line, things escalate quick.
Oldboy
If the man holding the hammer didn’t clue you in, Park Chan-wook’s Oldboy is not for the faint of heart. It’s the story of Korean businessman Oh Dae-su, who is kidnapped while on one of his many drunken nights out. Held in a locked hotel room for over a decade, the isolated Oh Dae-su is inexplicably released – now with a vendetta against his mysterious captors. His quest to find his tormentors leads him into an underground hallway full of henchman, where he vents 15+ years of rage on them with his trusty hammer. It’s the opposite of a slick action movie fight scene – Oh Dae-su isn’t a trained martial artist, but an angry and desperate man who uses the corridor’s limited space to his advantage. It’s a nasty and brutal sequence that’s become one of the most infamous bits of on-screen violence in movie history – broken bones abound.
The Protector
Featuring the most underrated action movie one-take of all time, Prachya Pinkaew’s The Protector stars Thai martial artist Tony Jaa as an elephant keeper on a revenge quest. The last of a royal line of elephant guards, Kham’s beloved pachyderms are stolen by an elite gang of poachers. Khan tracks the poachers down to a hotel owned by Chinese gang leader Madame Rose, who intends to fashion the elephants into luxury garments. In order to get to Madame Rose, Khan fights his way up a massive circular staircase clogged with guards – it’s a near ten-minute testament to Tony Jaa’s bonkers martial arts abilities. Seriously, this man may be the greatest (and most underrated) movie martial artist in the world – just ask the guy he kicked over the balcony.
Russian Ark
Like the creators of Victoria, Russian Ark‘s director Alexander Sokurov decided to make an entire movie a one take, resulting one of the most jaw-dropping cinematic sequences ever filmed. This experimental masterpiece follows an unnamed narrator through the halls of the Winter Palace – spanning 300 years of Russian history. Peter the Great smacking his generals around, operas performed for Catherine II, the doomed Tsar Nicholas II spending quality time with his equally doomed family, paranoia under the rule of Jospeh Stalin – this film feels like a Russian History course brought to life. Don’t sweat the plot, this film is a surrealist dream sequence, all about the luxurious and tragic lives of Russia’s movers and shakers.
Atonement
Featuring a masterful World War Oner, Atonement walked so 1917 could fly. The film follows the disgraced Robbie Turner, a housekeeper’s son shipped off to war as punishment for a crime he didn’t commit. The legendary one take happens at Dunkirk, tracking Robbie through seaside aftermath of a devastating German attack. The scene is a triumph of coordination for both human and animal actors, as thousands of British soldiers are forced to pick up the pieces after the German onslaught – and their poor war horses suffer the brunt of the damage. It’s a devastating sequence that captures the monumental horrors of war – human souls thrown into an unfeeling meat grinder, and forced to soldier on.
Hard Boiled
A legendary Hong Kong action film, John Woo’s Hard Boiled is the story of Inspector “Tequila” Yuen Ho-yan, a classic loose canon cop who doesn’t play by the rules. After one of his comrades is murdered by gangsters, Tequila decides to take the law into his own hands and seek revenge. His quest for vengeance leads him into a hospital shootout with a Triad gang, culminating in one of the greatest gunfights in movie history. Blood spatters, explosions, ricocheting bullets – Woo pulls out all the stops, and then films it all in glorious slow motion. It’s one of the coolest uses of “bullet time” in movie history, a slo-mo shootout that feels like something out of a video game. Eat your heart out, Max Payne 3.
Creed
Ryan Coogler’s Creed is a continuation of Rocky, where the aging contender trains the descendent of one of his greatest rivals: Apollo Creed. Adonis “Donnie” Johnson has the stuff of greatness inside of him, and Rocky Balboa takes it upon himself to take the underdog to the top. In order to get there, Adonis has to fight through Leo “The Lion” Sporino – a formidable brawler in his own right. Their bout breaks the boxing movie mould, most boxing flicks feature heavy cuts as the blows land, but not this one. Adonis and The Lion fight in an uninterrupted sequence that’s nearly three minutes long. The lack of cuts lets you feel both the aggression and the exhaustion of the fighters, an explosive slugfest unlike any other in movie history.
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