Best Movies Shot in a Single Continuous Take

Real single takes

Victoria (2015, dir. Sebastian Schipper, 138 minutes). A young Spanish woman (Laia Costa) leaves a Berlin club at dawn with four local men, and the night turns into a robbery. Shot in one take across 22 locations in the early hours of 27 April 2014, on the third of three attempts. The improvised dialogue and the real exhaustion of the cast show on screen.

Russian Ark (2002, dir. Aleksandr Sokurov, 96 minutes). An unseen narrator drifts through the Winter Palace in St Petersburg, meeting figures from three centuries of Russian history. Shot in a single Steadicam take on 23 December 2001, with around 2,000 actors, on the fourth attempt. More a moving painting than a story.

Boiling Point (2021, dir. Philip Barantini, about 90 minutes). Stephen Graham plays a head chef falling apart during a busy Friday service. Filmed in one take in a working London restaurant. The approach suits a kitchen, where nobody gets a break either. It later became a BBC series, conventionally edited.

Utøya: July 22 (2018, dir. Erik Poppe). After a short opening, the film follows a fictional teenager (Andrea Berntzen) through the 72 minutes of the 2011 attack on a youth camp, in one unbroken shot, roughly matching the real attack's length. Hard to watch, and made with survivors' input. Approach it knowing what it is.

One Cut of the Dead (2017, dir. Shinichiro Ueda). Opens with a scrappy 37-minute single-take zombie film full of odd pauses and strange choices. The rest of the movie explains every one of them. A tiny-budget hit in Japan, and the funniest film here.

Built to look like one shot

1917 (2019, dir. Sam Mendes). Two British soldiers must cross enemy territory to deliver a message. Shot in long takes joined invisibly, with one intentional cut when a character blacks out. Roger Deakins won the Oscar for cinematography.

Birdman (2014, dir. Alejandro G. Iñárritu). Michael Keaton plays a former superhero actor staging a Broadway comeback. Emmanuel Lubezki's camera prowls the theatre in what looks like one take, with cuts hidden in pans and shadows. It won Best Picture.

Rope (1948, dir. Alfred Hitchcock, 80 minutes). Two men murder a friend and host a dinner party around the hidden body. Film reels then held about ten minutes, so Hitchcock shot roughly ten long takes and masked most joins by passing the camera behind a character's back.

Famous single-take scenes

If you want the technique in smaller doses: the opening of Touch of Evil(1958) follows a car bomb for over three minutes; Goodfellas (1990) takes Henry and Karen through the back door of the Copacabana; and Children of Men (2006) has the car ambush and the final battle, both shot to look continuous. On TV, Netflix's Adolescence (2025) shot each of its four episodes in a single take.

Our verdict

For pure craft, watch Victoria; it's the one where you can feel the risk. For the most fun, One Cut of the Dead, ideally knowing as little as possible. And 1917 is the best-looking example of a film that only pretends.

Frequently asked questions

Was 1917 filmed in one take? No. It was shot in many long takes joined with hidden cuts, and it has one deliberate visible cut when the main character is knocked unconscious.

Was Birdman filmed in one take? No. Cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki shot long takes over about a month, and the cuts were disguised in camera moves and dark frames so the film looks continuous.

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