One Shot, as it’s title cheekily indicates, is an action film that is designed to look like it was filmed in one uninterrupted take. The basic setup involves a CIA analyst, Zoe (Ashley Greene), under the guard of a squad of Navy SEALs led by Jake (Scott Adkins), entering an Guantanamo-esque island prison site in order to take a detainee, Mansur (Waleed Elgadi), in for questioning in hopes of preventing a potential bomb from hitting Washington DC. However, the base is suddenly attacked by a group of French-Algerian mercenaries led by Hakim (Jess Liaudin), who are out to stop Mansur from revealing any information.
It’s a simple setup, but it’s the right kind if we’re going for a gimmick like the single take illusion. It’s already enough of a challenge to make a movie in and of itself, but to add the extended takes, filming with COVID-19 restrictions, and having it be an action film on top of that is wild. Director, James Nunn, is clearly a mad man, but lucky for him, he’s working alongside talent like Scott Adkins, and fight choreographer, Tim Man, both of whom have collaborated many times before. With a team like this, it’s no surprise that the film actually ends up being as engaging as it is.
The problem that usually comes with single take style films is the eventual monotony, not only from the story beats, but also to the filmmaking itself. It seems like whenever a filmmaker tries to show off, all we get are these blandly staged medium shots that follow a character through a situation with little to no flair to go along with it. Thankfully, One Shot varies itself really well from the way the shots are composed, thanks to Jonathan Iles’ dynamic cinematography with camera operator, Tom Walden, to the way the action is built, through well staged gunfights to claustrophobic and visceral hand-to-hand combat sequences.
The film’s script by Jamie Russell does touch on a few nuanced themes, such as America’s foreign policy, particularly in its reckless use of drones, and how they hurt innocents overseas, and the way violence continues through a cycle, which is emphasized by how people on both sides are motivated by losses that they’ve experienced. I was also rather floored by one scene in which Hakim “volunteers” one of his men to become a suicide bomber, and it’s a rather wild journey of complicated emotions, from his obvious manipulation to the the man trying to reconcile his commitment with the confusion and possible regret with the situation at hand.
However, at the end of the day, the goal of One Shot is not so much about exploring these ideas as much as it is to provide a thrilling experience, and it definitely delivers on that front. The nuances are simply the cherry on top. The action is really engaging and I was surprised by how often people would die that I expected to live, it keeps you guessing, and things don’t play out the way you think it would. After a while, you almost forget that it’s all being done in this one take style, and you do get invested in the mission that Jake is trying to complete with his men, and you want to see them succeed. It’s cool seeing how the film puts pressure on our heroes, and shifting perspectives from them to the villains and back again with incredible grace. Considering the circumstances that must have been involved filming this, the actors are all great, Adkins is terrific as you’d expect, Ryan Phillippe and Terence Maynard make strong impressions as staff members of the prison site, and Jess Liaudin is an intimidating presence. While I don’t think the film does much beyond providing a fairly entertaining ride, it does showcase talent at the top of their game, and it’s a ride that I would say is definitely worth taking.
One Shot is now out in select theaters and VOD platforms.