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28. Children of Men - Old Tricks

“You were the activist. I just wanted to get laid.”

It takes balls to merge an action sequence with a tracking shot, and Alfonso Cuarón does it almost incessantly in his 2006 sci-fi thriller. To combine this with a shocking moment of violence that throws a pretty significant plot twist into the works is even bolder.

Part of the reason Cuarón says he chose to shoot so much of the film in long takes is to take advantage of the illusion of real time. In this sequence, it throws you right into the scene.

Certain continuity touches, like the gradual shattering of the windsheild, amplify this notion, as does the use of sound, such as the ringing after a gunshot combined with the lack of music.

Incidentally, the windshield is actually CG, as are the blood, the roof and, at one point, the motorcycle. The reason the roof is CG was because a revolutionary rig (pictured) was placed on top of (and around) the car in order to get the shot.

Designed by Cuarón and cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, the rig slides back and forth along the inside top of the car, allowing the camera to move left and right and rotate all at once as the cast move out of its way while they’re off-camera. It’s a complicated dance, but the proximity it enables creates intimacy, which is not a word you usually see associated with action scenes.

By the way, this sequence appears to have one of the Oranges of Doom from The Godfather, since, in this film as in that one, they portend death.

See also: The rest of Children of Men, the tracking shot battle in Oldboy, the tracking shot battle during the hospital shootout in Hard Boiled.

Next: Bampf!