The idea of a movie filmed entirely in one take has captivated filmmakers for decades. Alfred Hitchcock toyed with the idea inRope(1948), which he made to appear as if it consisted of only four shots in its 80-minute runtime. Russian director Alexander Sokurov actually achieved this filmmaker’s dreaminRussian Ark(2002), a 96-minute film about a narrator who wanders through the Winter Palace and interacts with famous historical figures of days past. The Russian State Hermitage Museum granted Sokurov only one day to film in the palace, and after months of rehearsal, the cast and crew filmed the entire movie in a single day — July 06, 2025 — in one take, though it took four attempts.
In recent years, as Hollywood increasingly relies on narrative gimmicks in order to lure audiences to the theater, a growing number of movies are made to appear as if the entire movie was filmed in one shot, though almost all of them are several shots stitched together with hidden cuts. The trend was perhaps kicked off by the critical acclaim of Alejandro González Iñárritu’s 2014 filmBirdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)and most famously perfected by Sam Mendes' 2019 war film1917. The most recent film to attempt it, however, is the Korean action movieCarterreleased by Netflix.
InCarter, a Korean man (played by Joo Won) wakes up in a strange apartment, covered in blood, with several Americans pointing guns at him. He has no idea how he got there, why he’s being held at gunpoint, or even who he is. Over the next 132 minutes, he’s thrown headfirst into several international conspiracies, with at least three major countries trying to kill him. The film is made to look like a single shot and follows him in real time as he flees Seoul and escapes to another country, fighting foreign agents, assassins, and thugs the entire way.
Carteris a brilliantly written movie and the culmination of what its director Jung Byung-gil tried to achieve in his previous film,The Villainess.
Impossible Long Takes in The Villainess and Carter
Jung Byung-gil’s previous film,The Villainess, was a remarkable achievement when it was released in 2017. It received international acclaim for its stunning action choreography and use of long takes. It even served as an inspiration forJohn Wick: Chapter 2, which imitated the film’s motorcycle fight scene in a major sequence.
The Villainessopens with a bang. Sook-hee, a female assassin played by Kim Ok-vin (best known for Park Chan-wook’s 2009vampire horror filmThirst), storms into a building and, in a roughly eight-minute action sequence, kills around fifty gangsters in brutal hand-to-hand combat. The scene is a tour de force of action choreography, made to look like one single shot — and most of it is, though there are a few hidden cuts. One masterful touch in this scene is the change of perspective halfway through. The first five minutes or so are filmed in first person with a body-mounted camera; we watch through Sook-hee’s eyes as she shoots and slices her way through the horde of thugs, with only her hands visible. Around five minutes in, we see Sook-hee’s face for the first time when the camera shifts from her perspective to third person — a beautifully executed transition done with a hidden cut when Sook-hee’s head is smashed into a mirror.
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Equally stunning is the final scene of the movie, a car chase sequence that culminates with Sook-hee jumping from her car onto the side of a bus, smashing through the window, and fighting half a dozen gangsters with an ax — again, all made to look like it’s filmed in one shot. These two one-shot action scenes that open and close the movie are by far the most extraordinary parts ofThe Villainessand come in contrast with the middle portion, which is far too convoluted and long-winded. Director Jung Byung-gil appears to have taken this lesson to heart, and withCarter,he attempts to make a movie built entirely ofThe Villainess’s long take sequences and with the middle portions cut out.
Like the recent1917, Carter is made to look as if it werefilmed entirely in a single shot. From beginning to end, the movie takes place in real-time, and its entire plot and structure are built around this idea. Like1917, it depicts Carter’s long journey from South Korea to North Korea over hundreds of miles, with spies and assassins attacking him the entire way. Likewise, the plot also follows Carter’s internal journey, recovering his memories, finding out who he is, and trying to unravel the vast international conspiracy at play. The sheer technical scale of filming such an adventure in what appears to be real-time (though, again, there are many hidden cuts) emphasizes the enormity of Carter’s journey and leaves the viewer stunned by the end of the movie.
Jaw-Dropping Action Choreography and Set Pieces
Next World Entertainment
Jung Byung-gilexcels at action scenes, which is when his movies often shine brightest. The most memorable moments ofThe Villainessare the opening melee where Sook-hee kills around fifty gangsters single-handedly, the motorcycle sword fight, and the final chase sequence.Carterbrings these fight scenes even further to the forefront, and it features some extraordinary set pieces like the bathhouse fight, the plane sequence, and the helicopter stunts.
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In both films, Jung’s action scenes always involve movement: characters run from room to room, ride on top of moving cars, and dangle out of helicopters. With his camera, too, Jung favors hectic movements, relying on tracking shots, whip pans, and quick zooms. The hyperactive camera, first of all, serves to conceal the hidden cuts in his long takes but just as importantly reinforces the sense of motion and excitement of the choreography. The hectic choreography, fast-moving camera, and sensational long takes all work together to overwhelm the viewer and leave them asking, “Can you believe that just happened?” “Can you believe they pulled this shot off?”
These aspects are amplified even further by the immensescale ofCarter’s story. There’s something jaw-dropping about seeing not just extremely complicated choreography executed in long takes, but also the real-time journey across the entirety of the Korean peninsula. In this way,Cartertakes what Jung did inThe Villainessand turns it all the way up, creating one of the most intense movies you’ve likely seen in years.
