16 Movies That Were Actually Shot In Chronological Order!

Yes, most movies aren’t shot like this. Depending on available locations, actors and equipment, they have to group things together and be as efficient and cost effective as possible. 10 scenes in someone’s house will be shot all at the same time, then spread out throughout the movie.

But these movies were shot exactly in the order you see while you watch them, and that’s what makes them special.

The Shining

There’s no director in existence, past or present, who was so dedicated to perfection and detail, as Stanley Kubrick. There’s no shortage of horror stories from this film, and the results speak for themselves.

He chose to shoot the film in chronological order, so he could change things along the way, and was so compulsive about everything that he drove Shelley Duvall insane. She’s so fragile and broken in the end of the film, because she actually was.

That’s not acting, that’s literally a broken woman after a harrowing 250 day shoot.

The Revenant

There’s a lot to be said about how difficult it was to shoot this film. A lot of it was on location, so they had extreme weather and the environmental conditions to contend with. Adding to that, was the fact that it was all shot in order.

According to director Alejandro G. Iñárritu, he did it this way to allow the story to grow and evolve. For him, he wanted to invest in the emotional effects of the film, and felt that the actors and the story worked better if everything was chronological.

American Graffiti

This coming-of-age drama by George Lucas is what put him on the map, and takes place over a single night. He opted to shoot this in order so that his actors, tired from the gruelling production schedule, would look more tired as the night wore on.

The Breakfast Club

From a logistical standpoint, doing this film in order made sense given the subject matter.

Director John Hughes treated the shoot like a stage play, having his actors rehearse the duration of the script several times, before they got on set and did their thing.

9 1/2 Weeks

This film is about a sadomasochistic, obsessive and degrading sexual relationship between Kim Basinger and Mickey Rourke. In order to truly capture that, director Adrian Lyne felt he needed to shoot the film chronologically, to break Basinger down emotionally, much like her character.

He’d tell her rumours about Rourke, keep her separated from her co-stars, and repeatedly insulted her. It got so bad that it sparked problems with her then-husband, and caused her to have a breakdown off screen.

Saving Private Ryan

In this case, it’s not the entire film we’re talking about; just the breath-taking opening sequence.

That 30 minutes took over 4-weeks to shoot and to date, no one has matched th sheer scope and horror of that scene.

A Beautiful Mind

After starring in George Lucas’ American Graffiti, Ron Howard took a page from that directors book and filmed this one in order as well.

This was to allow Russell Crowe a chance to depict the progression of John Nash’s erratic behaviour and schizophrenia.

The movie took home 4 Oscars, so I guess there’s something to be said about this method.

E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial

What makes this film such a timeless classic is the emotion that runs throughout, and that final heartbreaking scene when E.T. leaves.

Spielberg, the master of shaping our childhoods, figured he’d get the greatest payoff from the young actors in the finale, if he shot the last goodbye scene on the last day of filming. The kids were legitimately emotional because they knew that they’d be saying goodbye to everyone on set later.

That sounds like an evil genius at work.

Rope

Given that this technical masterpiece was meant to look like one take and play out in real time, that it would be shot that way. Given the technical limitations of the time, this was an ambitious project for Hitch.

And what a fucking masterpiece.

21 Grams

For the first english language film for Mexican director Iñárritu, it’s really ambitious. He shot the story of 3 different people who are brought together by a car accident, in chronological order, with hand-held cameras.

Then, he assembled it in a non-linear narrative. It ends up being a disorienting and heart-wrenching film.

Platoon

This film was based on Oliver Stone’s personal experiences as an Army combat infantryman in Vietnam. To capture the sheer shitshow that was the Vietnam war, he opted to shoot in chronological order to get as much emotion out of each actor as he could. When a character died in battle, they were sent home for good.

The gruelling filming process meant that when Charlie Sheen filmed his euphoric helicopter scene at the end, it was all raw and real because he knew it meant he’d get to finally leave the Philippines and go home.

The Strangers

This film was based off of an incident that the director, Bryan Bertino, had as a kid. Strangers were going up and down the streets in his neighbourhood and asking for people that didn’t live there. Then, they’d break in.

Years later, the film was shot chronologically, to ramp up the terror that the couple was feeling and chart the progression of their despair and fear.

W

Another Oliver Stone film, this one was a bit more challenging to do. In order to portray the former President, Josh Brolin needed to lose weight to portray Bush as a college man, then quickly regain weight to play a middle-aged Bush. All during a shoot that was only 46 days long.

Buried

Not only was this film done chronologically, but it was also shot in 17 days. The film elapses in real-time to ramp up your anxiety, and Ryan Reynolds has admitted that as the filming progressed, they’d add more and more sand into his box. By the end of the shoot, he was legitimately claustrophobic.

The Texas Chainsaw Massacre

What makes this films so brilliant and terrifying is it’s low-budget nature. The fact that they had so little money to shoot with, gave it a gritty feel. Add in 16 hour days, 7 days a week because equipment was expensive plus 100 degree weather, and you’d see how absolutely drained everyone was.

Finally, they had no cleaning budget, so when the clothes got stained and soiled, they stayed that way. Hence, everything was shot in order to preserve continuity.

The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Given that this was a highly effects-driven epic, you’d think it’d be done in the true Hollywood manner; out-of-sequence. But director Andrew Adams wanted to keep the child cast’s awe and wonderment genuine, so everything was done in order and they weren’t allowed to see the sets of Narnia before entering them.

As well, shooting this way allowed the characters to naturally mature as their human actors did, over the 8-month shoot.