The Great Set Pieces of Modern Cinema

In light of my recent indulgences in movies that feature set pieces that (literally) boggle the mind, I felt that I would, in a change of pace, list my top five extended set pieces that not only deliver in the required action stakes, but leave the viewer thoroughly rewarded and dazed (in a good way). In reverse order, my top five are:


5: Bomb on Bus (Speed, 1994)

Bit of a cop out this one as the bomb on bus scenario takes up the majority of Speed's run time (bookended by bomb in lift and unstoppable subway train respectively) but the magic of this set up is it's sheer simplicity: go below 50mph, the bus blows up. Simple enough, but what if you were to maintain that speed in the boroughs of L.A.? During rush hour? Or what if there's a gap in the road? The film, in terms of each new challenge it throws at the predicament, does become somewhat episodic but it also ensures that danger is never far away with certain moments oozing so much tension that you feel you could literally chew on it: Keanu's attempted bomb dismantle or his attempts to board the bus in the first place, all whilst the freaking' thing is in motion. Action movies of late have all but forgotten that the best of their ilk are often grounded in the most simplistic of set ups (Predator, the Die Hard's, etc). Apart from probably Crank, which is effectively Speed with a person in place of a bus, this breed of action movie has all but died out. Shame, the bomb on bus scenario is, well, explosive.



4: Save Morpheus/Escape the matrix (The Matrix, 1999)

Much like last month's Inception, The Matrix spent the majority of it's first half setting up the rules of the cyber world that is the epominous matrix. Once Neo and his new buddies are ambushed, resulting in the capture of their leader Morpheus, the brothers Wachowski let loose with some seriously awesome action beats and all of it, from the lobby shootout to the slo-mo minigun to Neo's chase through Megacity, takes place within the physics bending world of the matrix. The subsequent action ceases to relent, making multiple mini skirmishes pan out to one epic battle for rescue and escape within the virtual reality world. In the intervening years, Bullet time has been done to death (it probably died completely with the bullet time Facehuggers of AvP) but back in 1999 it was a thing of wonder. Gun fights never looked so good but it's the bombastic nature and energy of these moments that make the last half hour so unrelentingly thrilling. Lobby shootout to dodging bullets to gunning down a room of agents with a minigun to physics defying helicopter crash to bullet time fist fight in subway to…you get the idea. Eleven years on it isn't any less impressive.



3: The Titanic sinks (Titanic 1997)

You can say what you want about the film but there’s no denying that James Cameron managed to convey the panic and helplessness of the Titanic disaster with pitch perfect precision. Taking his sweet time, the first life boats are released and lowered with very little fanfare. That is, until, it becomes apparent that the so-called “unsinkable” ship will flounder, at which point it literally becomes every man (woman and child) for himself. Forget the mushy love story that weaves amongst the carnage, what is striking is that Cameron never forgets even the most minor of characters as everything goes to shit. Even Winslet’s maid, Trudy, is seen tumbling down the ship just before the thing splits in two. The most remarkable thing here though is the level of technical achievements that have rarely been bettered in terms of practical effects. Utilising every tool at his disposal (sets, CGI, model work, etc…) Cameron has crafted a sequence that captures the panic and desperation of those left to die on the ship and, at times, makes for an emotional viewing experience. Miles better than anything he did in Avatar.



2: That bank robbery (Heat, 1995)

By the time it happens, there’s been nearly two hours leading up to the bank robbery that Heat has become somewhat famous for. De Niro and crew (Tom Sizemore and Val Kilmer also) enter the bank and quickly get to business, beating up guards and threatening customers with their rather frightening fully automatic assault rifles. The heist itself is over fairly quickly but once our cons exit to find Al Pacino and co waiting for them, bullets begin to fly at quite an alarming rate. Kilmer immediately opens fire and what follows is one of the most authentic and devastating botched getaways in film history. With no musical accompaniment, the fifteen-minute sequence ricochets with deafeningly loud gunfire and lots and lots of shouting. You could say the experience is more of an ordeal but the aim of the scene is to convey the sheer immediacy and confusion of the moment and the brutality and ruthlessness in which these thieves work. Director Michael Mann attempted something similar in his recent Public Enemies, which, whilst conveying a similarly harrowing experience, failed to deliver the same level of excitement and terror of being placed directly in the middle of a police shootout. Outstanding.



1: The inception heist (Inception, 2010)

The heist that takes up the entire last half of Inception is the single greatest sequence in cinema over the last decade, possibly ever. Taking place entirely within the confines of someone’s mind, over four deepening layers of the character’s subconscious, the fact that an idea so audacious could be pulled off perfectly boggles the mind, especially as it addresses that nature of dreams and the effects one dream has upon a subsequent dream. The juggling of each layer of the dream world is nothing short of breathtaking, with moments in one plain of reality directly affecting those in the next and with the time in each layer slowing down exponentially, mere moments in the first dream will equate to hours in the third or fourth. The amazing thing about this, apart from the technical and logistical brilliance of it all, is that the whole thing is played out like a good old-fashioned heist caper, with shootouts in the streets and a strict timeline in which to do everything otherwise life-threatening danger awaits. The stakes remain high, even though it’s technically all a dream (strong sedatives mean being killed wont wake you up but leave you to go insane in limbo for decades), and it still manages to deliver some blistering moments of action that take place simultaneously: a gun battle in the mountains takes place in conjunction with a zero-g fight in a hallway which takes place in conjunction with a van driving ass first off a bridge. The work here is staggering and literally builds the heist in layers. The pay off is immediately gratifying but the journey, the watching of this team working together, the instigation of the rules of the dream world is every bit as satisfying and, once the film has finished you feel terrific at having just witnessed one of the greatest and most ingenious crime capers ever committed to film. There will not be another set piece quite this good for many, many years.