‘One Last Shot’ closes an ambitious DTV action trilogy with style

The article discusses the evolution and impact of the "oner" or single-shot technique in cinema, tracing its roots from classics like Hitchcock's "Rope" to modern masterpieces.

It highlights the remarkable achievements of director James Nunn and actor Scott Adkins in their Direct-To-Video trilogy, culminating in "One Last Shot," which showcases technical brilliance within a limited budget.

Despite the constraints in "One Last Shot," it remains a remarkable technical feat, showcasing the pair's relentless commitment to redefining action cinema outside mainstream Hollywood.

OCTOBER 10 — The “oner” or the single, unbroken continuous shot, is hardly a new phenomenon in cinema.

Film historians and cinephiles have been obsessing over the technique for decades, tracing its lineage back to masterworks like Alfred Hitchcock’s grand illusion in Rope or the legendary, pulse-pounding opening sequence of Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil .

In the modern era, the single-shot sequence has become the ultimate calling card for directors eager to flex their technical bravado.

We’ve seen it elevated to breathtaking art in Alfonso Cuarón’s Children of Men , deployed with inventive kinetic energy in the iconic tracking shot from Episode 4 of Season One of True Detective , and used to quite astonishing effect in Sam Mendes’ 1917 .

But if I’m being completely honest, my absolute personal favourite remains that mind boggling, multi-storey stairway brawl in Tony Jaa’s Tom Yum Goong , a sequence of raw, unadulterated physical endurance that remains a high water mark for action filmmaking.

Attempting an entire feature length movie structured around the single-shot gimmick, however, is a much rarer and far more dangerous beast.

Alexander Sokurov famously pulled it off without a single hidden edit in Russian Ark , Alejandro González Iñárritu rode the technique all the way to Oscar glory with Birdman (admittedly with clever hidden cuts) and genre cinema has dabbled in it via claustrophobic horror exercises like Silent House and its original Uruguayan predecessor, La Casa Muda .

But using it for a relentless, heavy duty action franchise? That is a whole different level of madness.

Which brings us to One Last Shot , directed by James Nunn and starring the perpetually underrated action powerhouse Scott Adkins.

This film marks the concluding chapter in what has turned out to be an astonishingly ambitious experiment in the world of Direct-To-Video (DTV) action cinema, a full trilogy of continuous, real-time “one-shot” action thrillers.

Starting with 2021’s One Shot and followed by 2024’s One More Shot , Nunn and Adkins have quietly been revolutionising low budget action filmmaking under the radar, proving that you don’t need a two hundred million dollar Hollywood budget to execute jaw dropping physical choreography and shootouts that make perfect geographical sense.

In One Last Shot , Adkins returns as Navy SEAL Jake Harris, who finds himself plunged into yet another high stakes, real time nightmare.

The movies in this trilogy continue right after the other, so a quick watch of the previous one (or just its ending) would help put things in context easier for the audience, but even without any prior knowledge, you will still be fine.

The premise is as lean and functional as any good action movie should be.

Harris must navigate a lockdown facility crawling with heavily armed mercenaries to extract a high value target before time runs out.

There is no time wasted on lengthy exposition or complex subplots, the narrative engine turns on, the camera locks onto Harris, and the film simply never lets go of your throat.

If I had to rank the trilogy, I would say that the second entry, One More Shot , remains the high point of the franchise.

That film hit an almost magical sweet spot where the geography of its airport setting, the pacing of the shootouts, and the seamless nature of its digital hidden cuts aligned perfectly to create a non-stop adrenaline rush.

One Last Shot doesn’t quite surpass the sheer kinetic perfection of its predecessor, occasionally feeling slightly more constrained by its location, which is basically some sort of a giant mansion, which of course cannot even compare with the vastness of an airport.

However, that is a minor nitpick in what is still a deeply impressive technical achievement.

What Nunn and Adkins accomplish here on a fraction of a studio budget is nothing short of a miracle.

Without the safety net of traditional editing to cut away to a stunt double or hide a missed punch, every throw, reload, and tactical sweep has to be executed with razor sharp precision, and that is where the cleverness of the directing and camera placement choices truly shine.

Adkins, as one would expect from a DTV action star of his stature, delivers a bone crunching, intensely physical performance that leaves you exhausted just by watching him clear a hallway.

Meanwhile, Nunn’s camera glides, ducks, and weaves through the crossfire like an invisible active participant in the firefight. An elegant ballet of violence, if one can call it that.

In an era where mainstream theatrical blockbusters routinely rely on choppy, seizure inducing fast cuts and lazy CGI to fake action intensity, One Last Shot stands as a triumphant testament to geometric awareness, awesome physical choreography, and sheer directorial willpower.

It brings a groundbreaking DTV trilogy to a satisfying close, proving once again that the most exciting action cinema is often happening far away from the traditional Hollywood studio system.

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本文探讨了电影中“一镜到底”或单镜头拍摄技术的演变和影响，追溯了其起源，从希区柯克的《绳索》等经典作品到现代杰作。

它重点介绍了导演詹姆斯·纳恩和演员斯科特·阿金斯在他们的录像带三部曲中取得的卓越成就，最终以《最后一击》达到高潮，该片在有限的预算内展现了精湛的技术。

尽管《最后一击》存在诸多限制，但它仍然是一项了不起的技术壮举，展现了两人致力于在好莱坞主流之外重新定义动作电影的不懈努力。

10 月 10 日——“一镜到底”或单次连续镜头，在电影中并非什么新鲜事物。

几十年来，电影史学家和影迷一直对这种技术着迷，追溯其渊源，发现它源自阿尔弗雷德·希区柯克在《绳索》中展现的宏大幻觉，或是奥逊·威尔斯的《邪恶的接触》中令人心跳加速的传奇开场片段等杰作。

在现代，一镜到底的拍摄手法已经成为导演们炫耀技术实力的终极手段。

我们在阿方索·卡隆的《人类之子》中看到了它被提升到令人叹为观止的艺术高度，在《真探》第一季第四集标志性的追踪镜头中看到了它被富有创造性的动能运用，并在萨姆·门德斯的《1917》中得到了相当惊人的效果。

但说实话，我个人最喜欢的还是托尼·贾主演的《冬荫功》中那场令人瞠目结舌的多层楼梯大战，这是一段纯粹的、未经修饰的身体耐力表演，至今仍是动作电影制作的巅峰之作。

然而，尝试以一镜到底的噱头来构建整部故事长片，则是一种更为罕见且危险得多的做法。

亚历山大·索科洛夫在《俄罗斯方舟》中成功地做到了不进行任何隐藏剪辑，亚历杭德罗·冈萨雷斯·伊纳里图凭借《鸟人》一路走来，最终获得了奥斯卡奖（当然，其中也运用了巧妙的隐藏剪辑），类型电影也通过《寂静的房子》及其乌拉圭前作《寂静的房子》等幽闭恐惧恐怖片尝试了这种技巧。

但用它来打造一部节奏紧凑、动作场面激烈的系列电影？那简直是疯狂到了极点。

这就引出了《最后一击》，该片由詹姆斯·纳恩执导，由一直被低估的动作巨星斯科特·阿金斯主演。

这部电影标志着一项惊人的雄心勃勃的直接发行录像带（DTV）动作电影实验的最终章，这是一部完整的三部曲，由连续的、实时的“一镜到底”动作惊悚片组成。

从 2021 年的《一击必杀》开始，到 2024 年的《再来一击》，努恩和阿德金斯一直在悄悄地革新低成本动作电影的制作方式，证明你不需要两亿美元的好莱坞预算就能完成令人瞠目结舌的动作编排和在地理上完全合理的枪战。

在《最后一搏》中，阿德金斯再次饰演海豹突击队员杰克·哈里斯，他发现自己又一次陷入了高风险、实时的噩梦之中。

这部三部曲电影的剧情是连续的，所以快速观看前一部（或者只看结尾）有助于观众更容易理解剧情，但即使没有任何先前的知识，你也不会有任何问题。

这部电影的剧情设定简洁明了，符合一部优秀动作片应有的水准。

哈里斯必须在时间耗尽之前，穿过戒备森严、遍布全副武装的雇佣兵的设施，救出一名高价值目标。

影片没有浪费时间进行冗长的铺垫或复杂的支线剧情，叙事引擎启动，镜头锁定在哈里斯身上，影片就此紧紧抓住你的注意力。

如果要给这三部曲排名，我会说第二部《再来一枪》仍然是该系列的巅峰之作。

那部电影达到了近乎神奇的平衡点，机场场景的地理位置、枪战的节奏以及数字隐藏剪辑的无缝衔接完美契合，营造出持续不断的肾上腺素飙升的快感。

《最后一击》并没有完全超越其前作的纯粹动感完美，有时感觉受到其场景的限制，场景基本上是一座巨大的豪宅，当然，这根本无法与机场的广阔相提并论。

然而，这只是一个小小的瑕疵，它仍然是一项令人印象深刻的技术成就。

Nunn 和 Adkins 仅用极少的电影公司预算就取得了如此成就，简直堪称奇迹。

由于没有传统剪辑的安全网来切换到替身或掩盖失手的一拳，每一次投掷、装弹和战术扫射都必须以极其精准的方式执行，而这正是导演和镜头位置选择的巧妙之处真正闪耀之处。

阿德金斯作为一位DTV动作明星，其表现正如人们所预期的那样，带来了一场惊心动魄、极具爆发力的表演，光是看着他清空一条走廊就让人筋疲力尽。

与此同时，努恩的镜头如同隐形的参与者，在枪林弹雨中滑行、闪躲、穿梭。如果可以称之为暴力芭蕾的话，那便是如此。

在如今主流院线大片经常依靠生硬、令人眼花缭乱的快速剪辑和粗糙的 CGI 来伪造动作场面的时代，《最后一击》堪称几何意识、精彩的肢体编排和导演强大意志力的胜利证明。

它为这部开创性的DTV三部曲画上了圆满的句号，再次证明最激动人心的动作电影往往发生在远离传统好莱坞制片厂体系的地方。

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