15 Movie Scenes That Were Done In One Take Because There Really Was No Plan B
Fiyin Olowokandi
7 min read
15 Movie Scenes That Were Done In One Take Because There Really Was No Plan B
From low budgets to strict timelines to trying not to die, there can be any number of reasons why a movie only gets ONE opportunity to get the perfect take.
And for someone like me – a perpetual victim of “Sod’s Law” – I can’t fathom what it’s like to only get one shot at something!
Here are 15 times a movie had to nail a scene in one take, or within a fixed time period, OR ELSE…
1. The incredible makeup application scene in I, Tonya had to be shot in one take because of time constraints.
Neon / 30WEST / LuckyChap EntertainmentIn the world of this scene, Margot Robbie as Tonya Harding quickly applies her makeup while trying to smile through the pain of her competitive ice-skating ambitions slipping through her fingers. However, in the real world, the only thing making people emotional was getting this scene filmed ASAP.
According to the director of the film, Craig Gillespie, “That was actually our most ambitious day of shooting, we were in a stadium that we were losing that night for hockey games… [and] we had about 10 scenes to shoot.”
Universal PicturesHere’s a new reason to wince at this hilarious scene — it was all extremely real! The screams from Steve’s character, Andy, in reaction to his hair being ripped off of his chest are Steve’s actual reactions. I’ll never look at those slightly bloody hair follicles the same way again!
This scene needed to be right the very first time because obv body hair doesn’t grow back immediately, and also so that Andy’s reaction would seem authentic, especially given how drastic the waxing is supposed to be in the scene.
Warner Bros. PicturesIt’s been debunked a few times that a mishap with the explosives on set led to this scene being improvised by the late, great Heath Ledger. What is true is that Heath had to get the scene perfect because they only had one chance to blow up the building for real!
This explosive sequence was rehearsed around 12 times before cameras started rolling in order to make sure that all the moving pieces would take off without a hitch. It was also crucial that Heath was able to walk out of the building on the brink of demolition without getting hurt!
Marvel Studios / DisneyThis moment may be small, but it’s very cute and very impressive! Tom Holland and Jacob Batalon were only given a few minutes to figure out how to end a scene together in a fun way, and what they came up with was a hilariously intricate secret handshake between their two characters.
According to director Jon Watts, the pair nailed the impromptu handshake in one take.
Amazon PrimeFor a scene in his infamous mockumentary-style film, Sacha Baron Cohen opted to crash an ~actual~ party conference at which the former US Vice President was speaking. The angry crowd and the disdain on Mike Pence’s face are authentic reactions, which you could only get from a huge prank like this.
When asked how he pulled it off, Sacha told the Los Angeles Times that he sat in a chair for six hours while a prosthetics team changed him into Donald Trump. He then sneaked into the Conservative Political Action Conference and hid in a toilet for several hours.
TCM / Columbia PicturesSimilarly to the hospital scene in The Dark Knight, you can ~usually~ only blow up large things once. This movie is no exception to the rule, and the $52,085, 27.4m high bridge that was custom-built for the film had to be destroyed in one single take, no excuses.
Due to the explosion of the irreplaceable bridge only being able to happen once, the event was captured on multiple cameras from different angles.
Paramount PicturesShutting down what is, probably, the most recognisable area of Manhattan is no mean feat, so it’s not a surprise that this shoot came at a significant cost. Producers Don Lee and Paula Wagner – and Tom Cruise himself – met with the then-mayor of New York, Rudy Giuliani, to inquire about shutting down the intersection. The mayor gave them a single Sunday morning to completely close off Times Square for filming, but with the condition that they weren’t allowed to do a lot of takes.
The scene was heavily rehearsed for weeks leading up to the shoot, and filming wrapped that morning with an hour to spare before Times Square was made open to the public again.
Paramount PicturesHere’s another logistics nightmare Tom Cruise found himself in! There’s a scene in this 2011 film in which Tom’s character is forced to climb the outside of the Burj Khalifa. Tom wasn’t about to shy away from doing it himself, but for various reasons, the scene had to be shot within 30 minutes TOPS.
They had to get the scene done quickly and in one go to ensure that Tom’s harness wouldn’t cut off his circulation, the IMAX cameras they were using didn’t run out of film, and so they didn’t exceed the 30-minute flight limit for the helicopters used for filming. Every second truly counted!
Universal Pictures / Entertainment One / Via youtube.comIt’s no easy task to make a movie appear to have been shot in one continuous take. Indeed, according to Dennis Gassner, the production designer on 1917, “time was our enemy in every way”. One of the most “technically challenging” scenes was the sequence in which George MacKay’s character is running through the French village, Écoust-Saint-Mein.
Bespoke flares built into a network of winches were made by the special effects team. When fired off, these would provide light for a precise amount of time at specific intervals while George MacKay was running through the set.
20th Century FoxYou read that correctly. One of the most revered car chases in the history of film was done illegally. This thrilling scene was shot on the streets of Brooklyn without closing down anything. Basically, the pedestrians and other drivers you see in the scene were regular folks in actual danger!
Despite the fact that the Pontiac seen in the film was going around 144 kmh, no one was hurt during the filming of this scene. Director, William Friedkin, has since expressed regret over the recklessness that went into filming this sequence.
United ArtistsMaybe this scene could’ve been shot again, but Martin was pretty insistent that cameras kept rolling even after he got super drunk on set. The actor used the scene to confront his own demons, believing that it would not only come off as authentic, but that recording himself in that state would somehow help him get to the root of his own drinking problems.
Things got a little out of control, and Martin severely injured his hand after punching a mirror. He also drunkenly attempted to attack various crew members, including director Francis Ford Coppola.
FilmDistrictWhen a film with multiple car chases is given a lower budget, it’s understandable that the number of cars (which are expensive) that can be destroyed is also reduced. For instance, in a scene where Ryan Gosling’s character is getting chased down a mountainous road and his pursuer crashes behind him, the production was only allotted one car to total – so it had be perfect the first time!
Even though the shot made it into the final movie, it actually ~wasn’t~ the perfect take it was supposed to be.
Fox Searchlight PicturesIn an instance similar to Vanilla Sky, director Danny Boyle wanted to create the impression that London was deserted in his 2002 zombie horror… Which is a pretty ambitious thing to do! Just four days were set aside to film Cillian Murphy walking around the streets of Central London. These shoots began at 3am/4am in the morning as soon as the sun came up, and before it got too busy to hold back traffic.
According to location manager Alex Gladstone, police had to be enlisted to keep drunk revellers on their way home out of shot, and angry drivers would beep at Cillian, which had to be edited out in post.
Wellspring MediaShot within uniquely limiting circumstances, this feature film took years of rehearsal, but was filmed in its entirety in under a day. During the continuously shot 1 hour and 36-minutes of the film, over 2,000 actors and multiple orchestras missed absolutely no cues whilst traversing the 1.6 km, 33 room location that was their set.
Telling the story of a ghost roaming the halls of the Winter Palace museum in St. Petersburg, Russia, the crew only had one day to complete the film, which was shot in the actual museum itself.
View this video on YouTube
Did any of these surprise you? Let us know in the comments!
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