Popularized by films like Alfred Hitchcock's 1948 thriller Rope, and made famous by recent
hits like 2014's Oscar winner Birdman, long takes where the director follows the narrative
with a single shot for the length of an entire scene or longer can now be found everywhere.
Some are nearly invisible unless you know what you're looking for, while others are
masterful tour de forces meant to grab the audience's attention.
Here are some of our favorite long takes from film and television, along with our take on
what makes them so special.
Raiders of the Lost Ark
It's only 96 seconds, but the scene introducing the character of Marion Ravenwood in Stephen
Spielberg's 1981 adventure film Raiders of the Lost Ark is a classic example of what's
come to be known as a "Spielberg Oner."
With a few notable exceptions, Spielberg Oners tend to be unobtrusive — you don't realize
you're even looking at a long take in many cases.
The one from Raiders is particularly noteworthy because it does such a great job of introducing
the audience to Marion, while also adding some tension to the drinking contest and heightening
the hilarity of her opponent's eventual collapse.
True Detective
While well-executed long take tracking shots have long been featured in movies, in recent
years, they've started to pop up in television productions more frequently.
In 2014, HBO set the bar during season one, episode four of their crime anthology drama
True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson.
Directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga, the six-minute long take at the end of the episode follows
McConaughey through a complex scene involving a gang robbery gone wrong, several shootouts,
a hostage-taking and chase through multiple houses, and an escape over a fence into a
waiting vehicle.
It's an amazing take in a great episode, one that propelled True Detective into the mainstream,
earning Fukunaga and the rest of the crew multiple Primetime Emmy Awards wins and nominations.
Game of Thrones
In "Battle of the Bastards," the ninth episode of season six on the hit HBO series Game of
Thrones, director Miguel Sapochnik pulled off a long take tracking shot following protagonist
Jon Snow as he navigates through a pitched battle between his army and Ramsay Bolton's
forces.
Clocking in at 60 seconds, it gives audiences a visceral and bloody look inside a frenetic
battle, making it perhaps one of the most realistic depictions of a medieval clash between
armies.
Audiences and critics alike loved the episode; it remains one of the highest-rated by viewers
on IMDb, and it won a record-setting seven Primetime Emmy Awards.
Oldboy
Not only is the "hallway fight" scene from Park Chan-wook's 2003 noir thriller Oldboy
one of the best action sequences to be found anywhere, it's also an impressive three-minute
long take.
The cinematography isn't anything complex; the motion of the camera simply slides sideways,
following star Choi Min-sik as he advances down a hallway while beating up a group of
thugs.
However, the simplicity works, especially when paired with the gritty surroundings and
simple fighting techniques.
The scene's reminiscent of old beat-'em-up arcade games like Double Dragon — if Double
Dragon allowed you to take on dozens of bad guys at once and bash their heads in with
a claw hammer.
Gravity
Already known for his groundbreaking long take car scene from 2006's Children of Men,
Alfonso Cuarón one-upped himself with the release of the 2013 science fiction thriller
Gravity.
The film opens with an amazing 17-minute long take, beginning with a stunning view of Earth
from orbit and ending with Sandra Bullock's astronaut flung away into the blackness of
outer space.
While Cuarón won't give away all the secrets behind the making of this shot, we do know
the crew created a special cage-like lighting rig, which was able to rotate lights around
the actors at high speed to give the illusion they were spinning or flipping in zero gravity.
No matter how it was achieved, there's no question that this long take will remain Cuarón's
calling card for a long while — until he raises the bar yet again.
The Secret in their Eyes
Directed, co-written, produced, and edited by Argentinian filmmaker Juan José Campanella,
the 2009 crime drama The Secret in their Eyes won an Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film.
And for good reason.
The film features several long takes, including a visually stunning five-minute shot that
begins with an aerial view of a packed soccer stadium before closing in on the main characters
in the crowd and following them Steadicam-style as they pursue a suspect through its underbelly
and finally out on the field itself.
Awesome.
Weekend
In his 1967 black comedy Weekend, French director Jean-Luc Godard presented the audience with
a thoroughly unlikeable couple — so uncaring that they each plan to murder the other in
order to escape the relationship.
Before they can do that, however, they need to take a cross-country trip to secure a pending
inheritance.
As the embittered pair embark on their journey, however , they — and the film itself — are
interrupted by a massive traffic jam along a country road.
Orchestrated masterfully by Godard, the crowd of cars seems to stretch for almost a mile
and takes the bickering couple nearly eight minutes of screen time to navigate, as they
illegally pass and essentially road-rage their way through.
When we finally reach the cause of the holdup — a horrifyingly bloody car accident — the
ruthlessness of the couple becomes evident as they and the camera speed past without
a pause, relieved to finally get on with the rest of the movie at any cost.
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