Poll: IMDb's Favorite Long Takes

Results of 533 votes:

1. 1.
   

   George MacKay and Jamie Parker in 1917 (2019)

    

   In 1917, the inspiration for this list, director Sam Mendes and cinematographer Roger Deakins show us the personal reality of World War I by presenting the entire film as one shot. While there were, o…
2. 2.
   

   Michael Keaton in Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) (2014)

    

   Birdman was another awards darling styled as a single take. The efforts of director Alejandro G. Iñárritu and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, along with their dedicated cast and crew, allowed audien…
3. 3.
   

   Choi Min-sik in Oldboy (2003)

    

   The cinematic equivalent of playing "Double Dragon," the hallway fight scene from Park Chan-wook's Oldboy has got to be the best one-take hallway fight scene ever. It's horribly viole…
4. 4.
   

   Julianne Moore, Pam Ferris, and Clive Owen in Children of Men (2006)

    

   Even though I know exactly what happens in every second of "the car scene" in Children of Men, I tear up and experience high anxiety when I watch it. Knowing that the four-minute scene was a…
5. 5.
   

   James Stewart, John Dall, and Farley Granger in Rope (1948)

    

   The technology wasn't ready for Alfred Hitchcock to create a one-take feature film (film magazines at the time could only shoot about 10 minutes of footage), but the "Master of Suspense" mas…
6. 6.
   

   Ray Liotta and Lorraine Bracco in Goodfellas (1990)

    

   Want to feel tipsy at the Copacabana and seduced by an in-his-prime Ray Liotta? Slip into an evening dress and watch the three-minute restaurant scene from Goodfellas to realize why it's imposs…
7. 7.
   

   Rami Malek in Mr. Robot (2015)

    

   In addition to being one of the most exciting episodes of "Mr. Robot" Season 3, "eps3.4_runtime-err0r.r00" was also an impressive technical feat. Filmed to look like one continuous…
8. 8.
   

   Matthew McConaughey and Joseph Sikora in True Detective (2014)

    

   Season 1 of "True Detective" is such a creepy slow burn mystery that it's easy to forget about the crazy six-minute tracking shot in Episode 4, as Matthew McConaughey goes undercover in a bo…
9. 9.
   

   Timothy Hutton, Michiel Huisman, Elizabeth Reaser, Kate Siegel, and Oliver Jackson-Cohen in The Haunting of Hill House (2018)

    

   In director Mike Flanagan's "The Haunting of Hill House" emotional thrills are favored over jump scares. Episode 6, "Two Storms" puts the audience right in the action with the Crai…
10. 10.
    

    Chow Yun-Fat in Hard Boiled (1992)

     

    John Woo's 1992 Hard Boiled is high up on my list of top action films and one of the many reasons is the 2-minute, 49-second one-shot hospital shootout that incorporates incredible gunplay, a staggeri…
11. 11.
    

    Sergey Dreyden in Russian Ark (2002)

     

    While not the longest one-take movie in history, Aleksandr Sokurov's 2002 journey through 300 years of Russian History is probably the most ambitious. A 96-minute take is no small feat, but imagine al…
12. 12.
    

    Yuzuki Akiyama in One Cut of the Dead (2017)

     

    One Cut of the Dead begins with a 37-minute take where a film crew shooting a zombie movie is attacked by real zombies. What follows is a deep dive into the fictional story of what it took to pull off…
13. 13.
    

    Yuri Kolokolnikov and Kit Harington in Game of Thrones (2011)

     

    "Game of Thrones" Season 4’s penultimate episode, "The Watchers on the Wall" included a horde of attacking Wildlings and an impressive 360-degree tracking shot of the battle of Cas…
14. 14.
    

    Jack Nicholson and Michelangelo Antonioni in The Passenger (1975)

     

    The final scene is Michelangelo Antonioni's existential thriller is still studied by film students for its technical achievements — a series of feats that weren't disclosed until after the film's rele…
15. 15.
    

    Susan Sarandon and Jessica Lange in Feud (2017)

     

    Ryan Murphy's tracking shot in the fifth episode of "Feud" painstakingly details the length to which Joan Crawford went to burn Bette Davis at the 1963 Oscars. It is one of the most successf…
16. 16.
    

    Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives (2010)

     

    Director Apichatpong Weerasethakul's Palme d'Or winner blurs the lens between life and the afterlife. It is a series of protracted takes, a masterwork of slow cinema, and a comfort to anyone who is ex…