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Poll: IMDb's Favorite Long Takes

A poll by BonaFideBOSS.
Which of these long take scenes from movies and shows picked by IMDb Editors do you like the most?

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[ Link: Editors' Picks: Our Favorite Long Takes ]

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  1. Vote!

    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, of course, invisible edits throughout the movie, this style resonated with critics and audiences, helping earn the film the 2020 Golden Globe award for Best Motion Picture - Drama. — Marcus
  2. Vote!

    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 audiences to follow the journey of a former Hollywood star trying to mount a Broadway comeback – all while haunted by his notorious role as the superhero Birdman. — Marcus
  3. Vote!

    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 also trying to wrangle 2,000 actors, three live orchestras, and filming in 30 rooms in St. Petersburg's State Hermitage Museum. Oh, and it really was shot in a single take. No edits. — James
  4. Vote!

    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 shot, the attack on E Corp was the product of seamlessly joining 30 tracking shots together to create an unrelenting 42 minutes of suspense. Now I have to go back and see if I can spot all of the edits. — Vanessa
  5. Vote!

    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" masked several edits from 1948's Rope by panning in and out of dark objects, making the film feel like it's unfolding in real time in a single take. A classic that introduced young me to the "one take." — James
  6. Vote!

    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 that epic opener. It hurts my head to imagine the logistics behind a production like this, which makes it that much more fun. —James
  7. Vote!

    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 experiencing grief due to the loss of a loved one. — Arno
  8. Vote!

    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 Castle Black in its chaotic full swing. The 44-second shot took seven takes, linked all of the key characters together, and was a very risky endeavor as Director Neil Marshall, commented that “The camera on the crane was spinning around with such speed that if it had hit somebody it could have killed them.” — Vanessa
  9. Vote!

    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 botched robbery. It was an unexpected set-piece in the middle of a methodical detective story that set the season's resting intensity level to a new high. — James
  10. Vote!

    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 happy accident (no puns, please) only boosts my love for Alfonso Cuarón's dystopian thriller that, after nearly 15 years, still doesn't feel dated. — Arno
  11. Vote!

    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 staggering body count, stylish shifts to slo-mo as the two protagonists shift position in battle, witty dialog, and if that wasn’t enough introduces a heart-wrenching crisis of character half way through. So much goodness in such a short amount of time. — Vanessa
  12. Vote!

    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 successful scorched-earth campaigns in Hollywood history. — Arno
  13. Vote!

    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 release. Star Jack Nicholson declared that Antonioni had the scene's hotel constructed to certain specs to pull off the shot. — Arno
  14. Vote!

    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 impossible to not fall in love with a gangster. — Arno
  15. Vote!

    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 violent, completely over the top, and I want to see it as an indie side-scrolling game. — James
  16. Vote!

    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 Crain family by not letting us look away. The entire episode is presented as one take, moving between locations and timelines in a dreamlike state. The pitch for the episode was even part of the initial proposal for the series, and the sets were designed from the beginning to accommodate the monumental technical challenge presented in filming the episode. — Marcus

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