Sometimes the movies surprise us by showing us just how minimal their cast is. It is because of the brilliance of the directorial and the casting staff. Not to mention the ingenuity of the writers who come up with such amazing ideas that they can be executed with minimum staffing and sometimes with only one person on screen. We have collected a list of 8 awesome movies that feature only one single actor. Take a look:
Buried
Ryan Reynolds locked in a box for 90 minutes with only a cellphone to keep him company? Sounds like a pretty boring movie to me. But I was pleasantly surprised by how the filmmakers were able to keep the premise interesting in this movie of theirs. They were able to create some of the tensest moments we have ever seen on screen in this movie. Especially because unlike other movies where this trope is used to elevate the character, this trope IS the entire movie.
We see Ryan struggle with being buried alive after being part of a convoy in the Iraqi territory. There is very little interaction with the outside world besides some phone calls. The entire movie focuses on Ryan’s struggle to get out when he has no special powers to aid him, or Bruce Lee techniques to call upon. It is a must-watch for any cinephile with a flair for movies about isolation.
All is Lost
This is one of those seas survival stories with Robert Redford at the helm of things. He is introduced to us lost at sea and yet exuding some sort of calm. There is nothing to support the hero but his wits and that is the part where all of this comes in. The movie is filmed in a rather bleak and crazed scenario where Redford slowly loses his calm persona. As things get direr and direr the layers of his psyche are peeled away to reveal the ugly truth behind the character’s motivations. Unlike other movies of the same nature, the movie doesn’t have a flurry of flashbacks, which is new.
127 Hours
Another story of human triumph over adversity. 127 hours is the retelling of a true story of a mountain climber who got stuck in the Utah Canyon and could not find a way out. Danny Boyle directs this oscar-winning entry that had us on the edge of our seats for most of its runtime. The only way for the climber (James Franco) to escape was to get his hand out from under the rock it was stuck in. He tried for a long time and at last chose to cut his hand off with a blunt knife. It is a compelling story of human survival.
Locke
This is one of those movies that comes across as absurd on paper but becomes more interesting the more it is fleshed out on screen. Locke (Tom Hardy) is a story of a construction foreman who is assigned with one of the biggest projects of his time. But he has to leave his work and drive all the way across the country because a woman he had an affair with is now due to birth to his child. The movie is about the car ride the protagonist takes and the calls he has to make. To his wife, to his children, and to the hospital.
The Human Voice
Ever try to get a lover back with that desperate phone call? Well, The Human Voice is that phone call the movie. The plot follows actress Ingrid Bergman as she calls her lover and tries to win him back one day before he is due to marry another woman. Anyone who’s ever had one of these calls can pick up the cues where things get even tenser. We get to see the highs and lows of a relationship that is all but over. It is truly gut-wrenching to see this woman slowly realize that she has lost her lover forever.
Silent Running
Ever wondered what would happen if you took the crazy gardener trope to its logical extreme? Well, we think you would get this movie. Silent Running is about a man who is in charge of maintaining greenhouses aboard a space freighter. He does this with peak efficiency. But when he is asked by his superiors to destroy the greenhouses he instead chooses to kill all the humans aboard the freighter. This is a dark movie made from a very light perspective. Not very easy to pull off when you have the same character to showcase both sides.
Moon
Moon is a movie featuring Sam Rockwell alone on a moon base. This is a mining outpost whose sole purpose is to extract the precious moon gas for use by inhabitants of the earth. It is a movie about space madness, particularly madness that comes from loneliness in space. The main character has been given a robot Kevin Spacey to bounce off of but it is Rockwell who is the main attraction. As things go on, the movie gets darker and darker. I won’t tell you any of the plot points but this is must watch for sci-fi lovers.
Secret Honor
One of the greatest presidential scandals was the tapes during the tenure of Richard Nixon. Although, the scandal was in limelight for quite some time. It was this movie that truly brought out Nixon’s side of the story. Starting from the very beginning we get to see the Inner turmoil the president faced when making his decisions. It is a good movie and certainly carried home by the main actor Philip Baker Hall.
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