Doing something all in one shot, whether it be a TV episode or feature-length film, is still a revolutionary idea and very daring to attempt. However, Netflix’s gripping, chart-topping series Adolescence has reignited the focus on this impressive technique,as all four of its episodes were filmed as one continuous shot, requiring some innovative camerawork, top-notch acting skills, and an incredible crew.
It might seem like an impossible feat, but there are a fewmoviesout there that are entirely filmed as one long take or consist of really well-edited scenes to give off the illusion that the movie was done as a continuous one-shot take. And yes, some of the films explored below will be very experimental and strange.
Where To Stream
Chris Kentis and Laura Lau
Elizabeth Olsen, Adam Trese, Eric Sheffer Stevens, Julia Chan, Adam Barnett, and Haley Murphy
2011
42%
5.2
Peacock, Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV, The Roku Channel, The CW, Xumo Play
Silent House is an American remake of the 2010 Uruguayan horror movie La Casa Muda by Gustavo Hernández, done entirely as one 88-minute-long take. However, the American version cheated a little bit by editing several long takes in a way that achieved the same one-shot effect.
Despite the negative reviews, Silent House has one of Elizabeth Olsen’s best performances and excels at being a disturbing and atmospheric psychological horror movie that goes in unpredictable directions and offers a worthwhile twist.Set in the singular location of a homethat Olsen’s character is fixing up with her dad and uncle to sell, dark family secrets get uncovered, and not everything is as it seems.
Mike Figgis
Stellan Skarsgård, Salma Hayek, Jeanne Tripplehorn, Xander Berkeley, Golden Brooks, Saffron Burrows, Holly Hunter, Danny Huston, Kyle MacLachlan, Mía Maestro, Leslie Mann, Glenne Headly, Viveka Davis, Richard Edson, Aimee Graham, Suzy Nakamura, and Alessandro Nivola
2000
68%
6
VOD
Timecode is a very experimental one-shot movie and probably something you wouldn’t even think could be made. Taking the split-screen technique in movies and TV shows for when multiple characters speak to each other, Timecode displays four panels to showfour different characters' storylinessimultaneously playing out in real time.
You follow Salma Hayek’s Rose, an actress in a lesbian relationship, risking it all to cheat with Stellan Skarsgård’s Alex Green to be cast in his new film. It’s directed by Oscar-nominated filmmaker Mike Figgis, who also made Leaving Las Vegas withNicolas Cage, so you know the performances in Timecode will be enough to sell you on this wildly unique adventure around a fictional Hollywood production.
Tuva Novotny
Pia Tjelta, Anders Baasmo, Per Frisch, Oddgeir Thune, Teodor Barsnes-Simonsen, Ellen Heyerdah Janzon, Nora Mathea Øien, Marianne Krogh, and Carl Munck
2018
7
Amazon Prime Video with viaplay subscription
It’s always great to see when a piece of mediatackles mental healththe right way, like the 2018 Norwegian film, Blindsone, or Blind Spot. Despite its vague plot, it really helps draw attention to the issue of suicide and parents not being aware of what’s going on in their children’s lives, resulting in an unspeakable tragedy.
Blindsone follows Marie, whose daughter, Thea, attempts suicide by jumping from her bedroom window on what seemed like an ordinary night. This leaves Thea fighting for her life in the hospital, and Marie to pick up the pieces of what drove her to it. By framing everything as one continuous take, you feel as though you’re personally going through this painful ordeal.
Alfred Hitchcock
James Stewart, John Dall, Farley Granger, Dick Hogan, Edith Evanson, Douglas Dick, Joan Chandler, Cedric Hardwicke, Constance Collier, and Alfred Hitchcock
1948
93%
7.9
The unparalleled master of suspense, Alfred Hitchcock, got the idea for a one-shot all the way back in 1948 for his film Rope. While not entirely shot in one take, Hitchcock got away with the feeling that it was by filming Rope in 10 long takes and stitching them together through some masterful editing by Oscar-nominated editor William H. Ziegler.
Rope is based on the 1929 play written by Patrick Hamilton, and tells a disturbing story of two men who believe they’ll get away with the ‘perfect’ murder of their former classmate, whom they strangled with a rope, but their former teacher soon starts to suspect them. If you’ve enjoyed Hitchcock’s other masterful thrillers, then you should certainly watch Rope.
Alexander Sokurov
Alexander Sokurov (narrator), Sergey Dreyden, Mariya Kuznetsova, Leonid Mozgovoy, Maksim Sergeyev, Anna Aleksakhina, Vladimir Baranov, Svetlana Svirko, Aleksandr Chaban, David Giorgobiani, and Natalya Nikulenko
2002
89%
7.2
Amazon Prime Video with Kino Film subscription
Russian Ark comes from director Alexander Sokurov, who is giving you an original and wild spin on Russian history. It sees a narrator traveling through the royal Winter Palace in St. Petersburg, which became the Hermitage Museum, and is joined by Sergey Dreyden’s ‘The European’ character (made to resemble Marquis de Custine).
The palace now becomes somewhat like the Overlook Hotel inStanley Kubrick’sThe Shining, revealing all the ghosts that inhabit the grounds, including important historical figures like Catherine the Great, Peter the Great, and the final Tsar of Russia, Nicholas II. It’s quite an odyssey into Russian culture and history, with every room of the palace presenting new periods, and all 87 minutes achieved as a single take.
Alejandro G. Iñárritu
Michael Keaton, Zach Galifianakis, Emma Stone, Edward Norton, Andrea Riseborough, Noami Watts, Amy Ryan, Lindsay Duncan, Merritt Weaver, Jeremy Shamos, Bill Camp, Damian Young, Michael Siberry, Clark Midleton, and Frank Ridley
2014
91%
7.7
Hulu, Disney+
Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman was alsothe unexpected winner of Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Cinematography at the Academy Awards. Despite the title making it sound like Michael Keaton’s new superhero movie, it’s really a study of his character, Riggan Thomson, a washed-up actor known for playing the superhero Birdman and now trying to redeem his image.
The film’s surreal and psychological story perhaps speaks to real-life personal crises that superhero actors may face. The entire movie is carefully stitched togehter to create the feel of a one-shot of Riggan going through the motions of perfecting his character in the new Broadway play he’s also directing, hoping to overcome Birdman, who manifests and taunts him throughout the movie.
Sebastian Schipper
Laia Costa, Frederick Lau, Franz Rogowski, Burak Yigit, Max Mauff, André Hennicke, Anna Lena Klenke, Eike Frederick Schulz, and Hans-Ulrich Laux
2015
82%
7.6
Believe it or not, the nearly two-and-a-half-hour-long German-made film Victoria was all done in one continuous shot. Typically, films done in a single take don’t run that long, as you can understand the challenges, but that’s also a strong testament to the hard work of the actors to keep up with the demands of the film’s vision.
Victoria follows the story of a Spanish woman living in Berlin who meets a band of three German criminals at a nightclub, and they soon rope her into participating in their criminal activities. If you’re looking for an immersive crime thriller to the tune of Good Time andthe non-linear and experimental Run Lola Run, Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria is precisely it.
Director Sebastian Schipper actually starred in the role of Mike in Tom Tykwer’s Run Lola Run.
Erik Poppe
Andrea Berntzen, Brede Fristad, Aleksander Holmen, Elli Rhiannon Müller Osborne, Jenny Svennevig, Ingeborg Enes, Sorosh Sadat, Ada Eide, Mariann Gjerdsbakk, Tamanna Agnihotri, Magnus Moen, and Solveig Koløen Birkeland
81%
Utøya: July 22 tells the harrowing true survival story of a politically motivated mass shooting carried out in Norway’s Utøya island summer camp on June 21, 2025, one of two major domestic terrorist attacks to occur on that day. The entire film being done in one continuous take puts you in the bone-chilling chaos, dread, and uncertainty that the victims faced and shows the horrors of mass shootings.
It follows a fictional camper named Kaja, who’s trying to reunite with her sister as the brutal massacre ensues. Making a film around such a heavy, sensitive real-life tragedy in which 77 people were killed is no easy task, but, likeDenis Villeneuve’sPolytechnique, the director handles it with care.
Sam Mendes
George MacKay, Dean Charles-Chapman, Richard Madden, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Andrew Scott, Mark Strong, Claire Duburcq, Daniel Mays, Billy Postlethwaite, Andy Apollo, Adrian Scarborough, Jamie Parker, Nabhaan Rizwan, Pip Carter, Paul Tinto, Robert Maaser, Gerran Howell, and Adam Hugill
2019
88%
8.2
Netflix
Oscar-winning director Sam Mendes returned to the war movie genre with 1917. 1917 was a remarkable cinematic feat filmed in two continuous takes, carefully edited to hide it as one immersive shot, with Mendes' vision once again aided by the legendary cinematographer Roger Deakins, who won his second Oscar for the film.
1917 focuses on the story of two brothers on the battlefieldduring WW1, one of whom, Corporal Thomas Blake, is sent with his partner, William Schofield, on a time-sensitive mission to deliver a letter to stop a planned assault that would put Thomas' brother in jeopardy, along with 1,600 soldiers. The two men are met with obstacle after obstacle, and it’s a harrowing and nail-biting journey.
In 1917, you also have a Game of Thrones reunion in the cast with Dean Charles-Chapman (Tommen Baratheon) and Richard Madden (Robb Stark).
Philip Barantini
Stephen Graham, Vinette Robinson, Alice Feetham, Ray Panthaki, Hannah Walters, Malachi Kirby, Izuka Hoyle, Taz Skylar, Lauryn Ajufo, Jason Flemyng, Lourdes Faberes, Daniel Larkai, Robbie O’Neill, Áine Rose Daly, Rosa Escoda, and Stephen McMillan
2021
99%
7.5
Peacock, Tubi, Plex, Pluto TV
This conversation started with Adolescence, and it ends with the same people behind Adolescence. Before their work on the hit Netflix series, co-creator and star Stephen Graham and series director Philip Barantini previously worked together on Boiling Point, an hour-and-a-half-long movie all shot in one take (and boasting the same RT score of 99 percent).
If you like Hulu’s The Bear, just imagine the premise and stressful environment of a restaurant kitchen made even more relentless here. It has non-stop, effective dialogue and tension during a busy and pressure-filled night at a restaurant, and Stephen Graham’s performance here once again shows how he’s one of the most underrated actors.
