A lot can happen in one day. Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the films that take place over a single 24-hour period (or less).
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00:00I got invited to the Christmas party by mistake, who knew?
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the films that take place over a single 24-hour period, or less.
00:12I'm taking the day off, now get dressed and come on over.
00:16Number 10, Dazed and Confused.
00:18All right, all right, all right.
00:20Writer-director Richard Linklater is something of a specialist when it comes to capturing periods of time within film.
00:26Check it out, boys, huh? I've been waiting three long years for this one.
00:29Oh, yeah. Those junior high kids are dead meat, I promise.
00:32His before trilogy showcased this wonderfully with 1995's Before Sunrise.
00:36It's like our time together is just ours. It's our own creation.
00:41It must be like him in your dream and you in mine or something.
00:44But it's Dazed and Confused from 1993 that probably serves as Linklater's most enduring calling card.
00:51The film perfectly captures the complicated zeitgeist of extremes and contradictions that embodies the 1970s,
00:56as it documents the last day of school for students in Austin, Texas.
01:00The various plot threads make Dazed and Confused feel episodic, but in a good way,
01:04as Linklater and the outstanding ensemble cast bring together elements of 70s drug,
01:09student, and sociological cultures.
01:11That's what I love about these high school girls, man.
01:16I get older, they stay the same age.
01:20Number 9, Night of the Living Dead.
01:22Oh, no!
01:24George A. Romero may have greatly expanded his world of the living dead after the 1968 OG,
01:30but it's remarkable how much tension is present with a Night of the Living Dead.
01:34Romero's picture plays out more like a siege film,
01:37as survivors of a ghoulish undead attack hold out in a farmhouse and argue over how to proceed.
01:42Johnny, help me! Oh, help me!
01:46And he wouldn't let me go. He ripped me.
01:49And then Johnny came and he ran and he fought this man.
01:56Several news reports underline the severity of the situation,
01:59as it's revealed how the unburied dead aren't just attacking this singular group.
02:08Instead, it's clear that an epidemic is at hand.
02:11It has been established that persons who have recently died
02:14have been returning to life and committing acts of murder.
02:18And it's up to these disparate elements to coexist if they're going to survive the night.
02:27Number 8, Ferris Bueller's Day Off.
02:30Life moves pretty fast.
02:31Some critics, commentators, and movie fans over the years
02:34have called out the character of Ferris Bueller,
02:36he of the titular day off, as actually being kind of a jerk.
02:40You speak English?
02:43Oh, what country do you think this is?
02:46Okay.
02:48Knowing this, it's interesting to observe how writer-director John Hughes
02:52actually made the city of Chicago the focus of his screenplay.
03:02The day off that Bueller and his friends enjoy is a romp for sure,
03:05and makes the most of its Chicago setting while capturing a lot of zany antics along the way.
03:10How many miles did you say this thing had on it when we left?
03:14126 and halfway between 3 and 4 tenths.
03:19Why?
03:20Ferris Bueller's Day Off may not have been written with the intention of being scrutinized in this way
03:24so many years later,
03:25but the film's conceptual setup and execution help make this an iconic film for many.
03:30I can't wait to see the look on the bastard's face.
03:32We're moving right along, folks!
03:34We're gonna get this thing done in half an hour.
03:37This 1975 film features a career-defining performance from Al Pacino.
03:41I'm here with my partner and nine other people, see?
03:44We're dying, man.
03:45You know?
03:45You're gonna see our brains on the sidewalk.
03:47They're gonna spill our guts out.
03:49Now, you're gonna show that on me?
03:50I'm gonna show it to you.
03:52Come on, let's go.
03:52Come on.
03:53We're not going anywhere.
03:54No, we're not.
03:54We're not going anywhere!
03:55We're not going anywhere!
03:56We're not going anywhere!
03:58We're not going anywhere.
03:59We're not going anywhere!
04:00We're not going anywhere!
04:02show that on television? Have all your housewives look at that instead of as the world turns? I
04:06mean, what do you got for me?"
04:07One in a series of career-defining performances.
04:10Director Sidney Lumet and screenwriter Frank Pearson adapted an article from Life magazine
04:15that was actually based on a real-life situation from 1972.
04:18John Watavich and Salvatore Naturali attempted to rob a Chase Manhattan bank.
04:23Where's the money? I'm getting it. Got it.
04:31He's gonna come with us. Okay.
04:35No, please don't close that door. How can we breathe?
04:37With some sources claiming as motive a gender confirmation surgery for Watavich's lover.
04:42Dog Day Afternoon leans into this claim, but manages to do so without feeling exploitative.
04:47The standoff remains tense from first frame to last.
04:50I'll give you one hostage for each thing you give me. See,
04:53if you give me the helicopter, then I'll give you a hostage.
04:56Allowing Pacino to explode off the screen with intensity.
04:59Hey, I just realized I didn't eat all day. Is there gonna be any food on board?
05:03There'll be hamburgers on the plane. You ready?
05:08Sal? What?
05:10Ready to go?
05:11Number six, Magnolia.
05:13And on the first of May, we celebrate V-Day.
05:17There are a lot of characters and moving parts present within the
05:20narrative of Paul Thomas Anderson's 1999 film Magnolia.
05:24Having this many balls in the air allows Magnolia to feel expansive,
05:27while still taking place within the confines of a single day.
05:30Because I am what I believe. I do as I say. I live by these rules as religiously as I preach them.
05:41The stories and motivations of its sprawling ensemble cast are connected,
05:45but in a remarkably complex way.
05:47This allows for multiple viewings, and it's highly likely that audiences will
05:51come away from Magnolia feeling differently each and every time.
05:55My name is Donnie Smith, and I have lots of love to give.
05:58This seems to be by design, and Paul Thomas Anderson earned a lot of acclaim
06:02for just how deeply involved fans feel about Magnolia.
06:06Stanley? Willa Cather.
06:08Willa Cather for 25. Best known for the tragedy and blood genre, this playwright.
06:13Stanley? Thomas Kidd.
06:15Thomas Kidd.
06:16Number 5. The Breakfast Club.
06:18I can't believe you can't get me out of this.
06:22It's so absurd I have to be here on a Saturday.
06:25There's a good reason why the legacy of John Hughes as a screenwriter is so
06:29closely tied with films such as 1985's The Breakfast Club.
06:32Who has to go to the lavatory?
06:35For starters, the sincerity and intelligence of its writing stands apart from so many of
06:40its peers during this decade. Hughes treats his characters with respect,
06:43outlining various teen archetypes while never trapping these kids within these roles.
06:48How does one become a janitor?
06:50You want to be a janitor?
06:51No, I just want to know how one becomes a janitor because Andrew here is very
06:56interested in pursuing a career in the custodial arts.
06:59Oh, really?
07:00If anything, it's the gathering of these desperate kids for an
07:03afternoon's detention that allows them to see over the fences of their lives.
07:07What do you drink?
07:11Okay, forget I asked.
07:14Five, sir.
07:17Everyone in The Breakfast Club leaves their afternoon together changed,
07:20although it's unclear how long this will last.
07:23And it's this ambiguity that makes Hughes' film feel so beautiful.
07:27Each one of us is a brain.
07:29And an athlete.
07:31And a basket case.
07:33A princess.
07:34And a criminal.
07:36Does that answer your question?
07:40What would you do if your back was against the wall?
07:42Screenwriter Carl Foreman and director Fred Zinneman
07:45asked this question in one of the Western genre's all-time classic films, High Noon.
07:49They're making me run.
07:50I've never run from anybody before.
07:53I don't understand any of this.
07:55Well, I haven't got time to tell you.
07:57The narrative takes place in real time, as the newly married marshal Will Kane
08:01attempts to seek out help against an invading posse led by the outlaw Frank Miller.
08:05How many men you got lined up?
08:08None yet.
08:10Well, you better get going, man.
08:12I'll be back in 10 minutes.
08:13I'm loaded for bears.
08:14Kane finds closed doors and empty promises at every turn.
08:18And the tension is ramped up as Miller's gang grows ever closer.
08:21Only a child offers to help Kane square off against Miller.
08:24You're a kid.
08:25You're a baby.
08:26I'm 16.
08:27And I can handle a gun, too.
08:28You ought to see me.
08:29You're 14.
08:30And what do you want to lie for?
08:31I'm big for my age.
08:33Please, Marshal.
08:35Well, you're big for your age, all right.
08:36But you're not.
08:38Well, you're big for your age, all right.
08:39But no, go on.
08:40Get out of here.
08:41And the marshal is left alone at the titular high noon.
08:44Or is he?
08:53Number three.
08:54Do the right thing.
08:55Making trouble?
08:56Yeah, I'm a troublemaker.
08:57I'm making trouble.
08:58It only takes the heat of one summer's day to ignite local neighborhood tensions
09:02into an explosive powder keg of tragedy.
09:05What are you going to do?
09:06Stop!
09:07Get off of me, man!
09:09Get off of me!
09:10Get off me!
09:11This, in a nutshell, helps describe the intensity of Spike Lee's Do the Right Thing.
09:16The ensemble cast includes Lee himself and points fingers at racism from all angles.
09:21No!
09:24No!
09:26Including first-person ones directly at the camera.
09:29A pizzeria may not, on the surface at least, feel like a setting for violence.
09:33Yet Do the Right Thing explores topics of police brutality,
09:37community tensions, riot culture, and more within its two-hour running time.
09:41City of New York will not let property be destroyed by anyone, end quote.
09:45His honor plans to visit our block today.
09:47Maybe he should hook up with our own da mayor, Bahama Bee.
09:51Your love daddy says, register to vote.
09:54And in doing so, Lee gave generations of moviegoers food for thought.
09:59Number two.
10:0012 Angry Men.
10:01What did you think of the case?
10:04I mean, it had a lot of interest for me.
10:06No real dead spots, you know what I mean?
10:10I tell you, we were lucky to get a murder case.
10:12It takes a special kind of film to take the everyday judicial system
10:16and dramatize it with this level of smoldering intensity.
10:19Come on now, there's nothing personal about this.
10:20Oh no, there was something personal.
10:21Come on, fella, he didn't mean you.
10:23Let's not be so sensitive.
10:25Juries of our peers deliberate cases on a daily basis,
10:28yet 12 Angry Men takes the viewer into those deliberation rooms
10:31and places them in those seats.
10:33Witnesses can make mistakes.
10:35Sure, when you want them to, they do.
10:36Or when he wants them to, they do.
10:37You know what I mean?
10:38Let's keep the yelling down.
10:39Oh, you keep saying that.
10:40Maybe what we need is a little yelling in here.
10:42These guys keep going off every which way.
10:44Did hear the scream, didn't hear the scream.
10:46What difference does it make?
10:47What happens when there's a single dissenting voice for a trial
10:50that will decide a young man's life or death?
10:5312 Angry Men methodically explores the situation,
10:56as the heat outside boils over into the jury room.
10:59What kind of a man are you?
11:02You have sat here and voted guilty with everyone else
11:05because there are some baseball tickets burning a hole in your pocket.
11:09Increasing personal tensions.
11:11There's a lot to unpack with each juror's biases and personal stories,
11:14yet doing so ensures that 12 Angry Men remains essential viewing
11:18for staunch cinephiles.
11:20Frankly, I don't see how you can vote for acquittal.
11:24It's not so easy to arrange all the evidence in order.
11:27You can throw out all the other evidence.
11:28The woman saw him do it.
11:30What else do you want?
11:31Before we unveil our top pick,
11:33here are some honorable mentions.
11:35Glengarry Glen Ross
11:36Who will make the cut and drink the coffee?
11:39I can go out there tonight.
11:40The materials you got make myself $15,000.
11:44Tonight, in two hours, can you?
11:49Can you?
11:52Run Lola Run
11:53Inventive editing and flashbacks expand a brief span of time.
12:01A lot of money.
12:05Call her.
12:06Rope
12:07Alfred Hitchcock's infamous single take and single day film.
12:10Sorry to bother you, Brandon.
12:11It's no bother at all.
12:13Come in.
12:13I knew you were leaving tonight and I didn't want to be left without my case.
12:18Hello, Philip.
12:18Hello.
12:19I didn't mean to alarm you before.
12:21You didn't alarm him.
12:22I'm afraid Philip's a little antisocial tonight.
12:25Clerks
12:26Dante wasn't even supposed to be there today.
12:28If you're that unhappy, you should leave.
12:30Not even supposed to be here today.
12:32American Graffiti
12:33A single night of cruising with 60s youths.
12:36Hey, I like the color of your car there, man.
12:38What's that supposed to be?
12:39Sort of a cross between piss yellow and puke green, ain't it?
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12:57Number 1.
12:59Die Hard
12:59Do you really think you have a chance against us, Mr. Cowboy?
13:06Yippee-ki-yay.
13:07There's so much going on in Die Hard that it makes it easy to forget that the film actually
13:11takes place in a single day.
13:13Welcome to the party, pal!
13:16Perhaps it's because there's so many bits of quotable dialogue or set pieces that feel
13:20so extensive and exciting that we can only assume that they go on for an extended siege.
13:26I said forget the roof, I got people all over.
13:30Come on, you wanna stay alive, you stay with me.
13:34But no.
13:35John McClane's infiltration of Nakatomi Plaza is a day and night long affair that gives
13:40us shootouts, monologues and subterfuge galore.
13:48Credit the great acting, because it is.
13:50Or maybe the solid script and direction, both true.
13:53But Die Hard is a classic for a reason.
14:02What's your favorite 24-hour rollercoaster ride?
14:04Let us know in the comments.
14:06I'm gonna lose.
14:08You got a bad attitude, Wells.
14:10I always lose.
14:12I've had bad luck all my life.
14:14Now how do you think I ended up in here?
14:15Maybe it'll change.
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