1
- 5 months ago
Sometimes, all you need is one room to tell a gripping story. Join us as we count down our picks for the best films that prove a single location is enough to create pure cinematic magic! To qualify, the majority of each film must be set in one place.
Category
🎥
Short filmTranscript
00:07Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the films that prove that
00:11sometimes, a single location is all you need to tell a great story. The majority of the
00:16film must be set in one location to make this list. And warning, spoilers ahead.
00:20Why did you do that?
00:24I felt like it.
00:26Number 20, Locke. Made on a budget of $2 million, 2013's Locke is quite the ride.
00:32I'm not coming home.
00:34What? What do you mean? It's the match, I'm wearing the shirt.
00:40Which phone are you on?
00:42What do you mean?
00:44I can hear the TV. Can you take this call upstairs, on the phone upstairs?
00:49Upstairs? Why?
00:50I have something to say.
00:53The entirety of the film takes place in a car, driven by the story's protagonist, Ivan Locke, played by Tom
00:59Hardy.
00:59Over the course of the movie, he deals with professional pressures and personal woes,
01:03as he attempts to drive from Birmingham to London to attend the birth of his child.
01:08But spoiler alert, it's not his wife who's in labor.
01:10Featuring voice cameos from Olivia Colman, Ruth Wilson, and Andrew Scott,
01:14Locke is full of twists and turns, literally and figuratively.
01:17Because it's me driving. Me. Not you.
01:22And unlike you, I will drive straight to the place where I should be.
01:25And I will be there to take care of my...
01:30Take care of my f***ing cup.
01:32Number 19, Exam.
01:33As if the job market wasn't tough enough, imagine having to duke it out with your competition in one single
01:38room.
01:39Through these trials, you've gained some idea of the power of this organization,
01:42so believe me when I tell you that there is no law in this room, but our law.
01:48And the only rules in here are our rules.
01:55There is one question before you, and one answer is required.
01:58The 2009 thriller, Exam, pits eight candidates vying for a corporate gig against one another
02:03in a battle royale of wits and intellect.
02:05All the participants have to do is solve one simple question while following three rules.
02:10You cannot ruin the paper, exit the space room, or talk to the foreboding invigilator or guard who are keeping
02:15watch.
02:16During the 97-minute flick, you're kept at the edge of your seat watching the action that ensues all the
02:20way until the credits.
02:22I work for you! I work here!
02:25Number 18, Phone Booth.
02:38Some phone calls are better left unanswered, and no one knows that better than Stuart Shepard.
02:43In 2002's Phone Booth, Shepard, a conceited publicist played by Colin Farrell,
02:47uses a booth in Times Square to place an untraceable call to his mistress, Pam.
02:51When another call comes through, he regretfully answers to a voice that tells him he must confess his cheating ways
02:56to both Pam and his wife Kelly, or face fatal consequences.
03:00From there, things escalate in a pulse-pounding fashion all the way until the climatic ending.
03:07Number 17, The Man From Earth.
03:09Well, now I am curious. Where are you going?
03:13You have enough tenure.
03:14A decade of professorship in line to chair the department, and you don't know where you're going?
03:21Call it cabin theater.
03:22The Man From Earth is a low-budget direct-to-video movie, and for all intents and purposes, it should
03:26not have been good.
03:27Instead, the film was pulled from obscurity and passed around,
03:30becoming a cult classic that is revered for its original plot and mesmerizing dialogue.
03:35The movie concerns a group of professors who throw a goodbye party for their colleague at his cabin,
03:39unaware that the colleague harbors an incredible secret.
03:42My memory sees what I saw then.
03:45My eye sees freeways, urban sprawl, Big Macs under the Eiffel Tower.
03:52Early on, the world got bigger and bigger, and then...
03:57Think what I've had to unlearn.
03:58And now you're moving on.
04:01It is shot entirely in the living room of the cabin,
04:03and the suspense relies solely in the unraveling of the revelation.
04:06Based on Jerome Bixby's screenplay, it is a masterpiece on the importance of writing.
04:11Number 16, 1408.
04:13Based on a Stephen King story, this film about a haunted hotel room was a critical and financial success.
04:18Number 1408 of the Dolphin Hotel caused the mysterious deaths of many occupants,
04:22which leads a horror writer named Mike Enslin, played by John Cusack, to investigate it.
04:27No one's ever lasted more than an hour.
04:30Jesus, man.
04:31You ought to shave your eyebrows and paint your hair gold if you're going to try to sell that spook
04:35house bullshit.
04:36Otherwise, you'll scare the children.
04:37He decides to spend the night in the room, ignoring the pleas and warnings from the hotel's manager.
04:42What follows is a disturbing journey through Mike's own personal hell, as the room warps his sense of reality.
04:48It's not that what I'm seeing is not real.
04:50It just ain't as real as it seems.
04:52Also, the entire movie takes place in room 1408, even the scenes that don't.
04:57If you've seen the movie, you know what we're talking about.
04:59Number 15, Clue.
05:01Okay, so maybe we're stretching things a little here, but we simply cannot leave out this beloved comedic mystery.
05:06Clue does take place in more than one room, albeit all in one single house.
05:10Situated in a giant mansion somewhere in New England, the 1985 movie gathers a group of interesting individuals together
05:16for an invitation-only dinner that results in murder and mayhem.
05:20Just checking.
05:21Everything all right?
05:22Yep, two corpses, everything's fine.
05:23Based on the classic board game of the same name, the film adaptation is a laugh-a-minute, fun, and
05:28entertaining puzzle
05:29led by the iconic Tim Curry.
05:31Featuring multiple endings, Clue will really have you guessing till the very end.
05:34Now, I suggest that we stack the bodies in the cellar, lock it, leave quietly one at a time,
05:41and pretend that none of this has ever happened.
05:44Number 14, Tape.
05:45Why do you say that?
05:47Because I know you.
05:48Well, you think I'm a dick.
05:50Uh, no, uh, but I do know that occasionally you have a tendency to act in a phallic fashion.
05:56Set in a motel room in real time, Tape stars Ethan Hawke, Robert Sean Leonard, and Uma Thurman,
06:01and is directed by the always trippy Richard Linklater.
06:04The film was shot on camcorder and revolves around three former friends who talk in detail about their high school
06:09years.
06:09The Michigan motel room makes for an intimate setting, and the dialogue is just as intimate
06:13as the 20-somethings reminisce about their interconnected lives.
06:16Then, a bomb drops, and things get dark very quickly.
06:19Linklater, a dialogue wizard, creates such a natural exchange that it's hard to believe we're watching a movie,
06:25and the brilliant acting and tight setting are equally responsible.
06:36Number 13, The Hateful Eight.
06:38After a raging blizzard traps a ragtag group of strangers in a haberdashery in the middle of Wyoming,
06:43tensions brew in a brutal fashion.
06:45Written and directed by Quentin Tarantino,
06:47The Hateful Eight is a western with a penchant for violence and bloodshed.
06:52Music time's over!
06:53Whoa!
06:55Whoa!
06:55Whoa!
06:56Whoa!
06:58Turn around!
06:59Taking place within the confines of a lodge allows the dynamics between the motley crew of bounty hunters,
07:04fugitives, and war veterans to unfold in exciting ways.
07:07The man who pulls the lever that breaks your neck will be a dispassionate man.
07:14And that dispassion is the very essence of justice.
07:19For justice, delivered without dispassion, is always in danger of not being justice.
07:28Featuring an all-star cast including Samuel L. Jackson, Kurt Russell, and Jennifer Jason Leigh,
07:32The Hateful Eight is a chilling thrill ride that keeps you on your toes.
07:36Number 12, Mass.
07:38Yeah, we're fine.
07:40Thanks.
07:41Mass is a studently grounded and heart-wrenching drama.
07:44In the film, two families come together in a private room of a church to discuss the aftermath of a
07:49school shooting.
07:49One half are the parents of a victim, while the others are the parents of the perpetrator.
07:53Over the course of the story, feelings of guilt, anger, and blame are aired, with understandable tensions surfacing.
07:59The cast of four features Reed Burney, Ann Dowd, Jason Isaacs, and Martha Plimpton,
08:04in equally emotionally engaging and thought-provoking roles.
08:07He's come back to finish.
08:10And Evan is there.
08:12The last gun shot, 136.
08:15Goes into my son's...
08:19Neck.
08:20Into his artery.
08:22Jake.
08:22No.
08:23Six minutes.
08:25He was alive.
08:26He was trying to get out.
08:28The blood trail show where he was trying to know, he came back, he was methodical, he was looking, and
08:38Evan was still alive.
08:42An intimate and deeply personal portrayal of a tragic situation, Mass is one of the most important watches in recent
08:47years.
08:48Number 11, Buried.
08:51Aaaaaaahhh!
08:56Aaaaaaahhh!
08:57Words of the wise, do not watch Buried if you are the slightest bit claustrophobic.
09:01In this thriller, Ryan Reynolds, and only Ryan Reynolds, appears, playing Paul Conroy, an American truck driver working in a
09:08rock.
09:08When the film starts, Conroy wakes up in a wooden coffin, with only a lighter and a phone.
09:13As he pieces together how he got there, the film employs interesting tactics, such as phone calls to keep the
09:18audience engaged.
09:19The suffocating nature of the story makes Buried one of the most chilling single-location movies to date.
09:24Happy, I just listened to you, I'm sorry.
09:25Oh, sweetie, I don't care, I just want you home.
09:28Number 10, 10 Cloverfield Lane.
09:31Taking place inside a bunker, 10 Cloverfield Lane is a sci-fi tale with elements of horror.
09:35In it, Mary Elizabeth Winstead plays Michelle, a woman who wakes up in a mysterious underground shelter with a man,
09:41Howard, played by John Goodman.
09:43What are you going to do to me?
09:47I'm going to keep you alive.
09:49He claims a catastrophic event has left the outside world in an unlivable state, and is protecting her and another
09:54man, Emmett, played by John Gallagher Jr., by keeping them trapped.
10:03Come on.
10:04Taking place in the Cloverfield universe, the film is shrouded in mysteries, with unexpected turns around every corner.
10:10An attack, a big one.
10:13I'm not sure yet if it's chemical or nuclear, but down here, we're safe.
10:18Number 9, Assault on Precinct 13.
10:21What does that mean?
10:27I think we've just been mocked for something.
10:31Let me guess what it is.
10:33Directed by John Carpenter, Assault on Precinct 13 is an action-packed legal rollercoaster ride.
10:38When a Los Angeles gang, Street Thunder, swear revenge against the LAPD after members of their crew are slain, things
10:44escalate into an all-out war.
10:45As they ruthlessly descend upon the almost desolate Anderson Police Precinct, Lieutenant Ethan Bishop leads a small group of prisoners
10:52and secretaries to fight back and survive Thunder's wrath.
10:55Made on a budget of only $100,000, the film has stood the test of time as one of the
10:5970s' most thrilling flicks.
11:01It means they don't care.
11:06They're not afraid to die.
11:08Any of them.
11:09They want to rip us apart, no matter what it costs.
11:14It means to the death.
11:18Number 8, My Dinner with Andre.
11:20My Dinner with Andre is a conversation between two people at a restaurant.
11:23That's it.
11:24The film stars Wallace Shawn and Andre Gregory, who also wrote the screenplay, in a performance that walks the line
11:29between acting and reality.
11:31Life becomes habitual, and it is today.
11:35The exchange is scripted, however, and the scenes are properly directed.
11:38While the subject of performance art is one that is broached in the nearly two-hour conversation, many others are
11:43discussed, ranging from electric blankets to the meaning of life.
11:46You know, in Sanskrit, the root of the verb to be is the same as to grow or to make
11:51grow.
11:52The dining table is the only true setting, which allows the dialogue primary focus.
11:57The stripping of film's habitual conventions makes this one-room film a unique viewing experience.
12:01In other words, I'm adequate to do any sort of a task, but I'm not adequate just to be a
12:10human being.
12:10Number 7, Saw.
12:12He doesn't want us to cut through our chains.
12:17He wants us to cut through our feet.
12:18The highly saturated Saw franchise had a very humble beginning.
12:22Made on a shoestring budget and primarily set in a single bathroom, the original film gave horror a new identity.
12:27Saw features two men, Cary Elwes and Leigh Whannell, who find themselves chained between a corpse in an unknown location.
12:33Neither knows how or why they are there, and only once Jigsaw's voice is heard do they know they're being
12:38played, and the game is not fun.
12:40Hello, Amanda.
12:43You don't know me, but I know you.
12:46I want to play a game.
12:48The plot takes several unbelievable turns, as the men are pitted against death and each other in Jigsaw's deranged social
12:54experiment.
12:55But the action remains relatively confined to a single spot.
12:59Game over.
13:03Number 6, The Breakfast Club.
13:06I can't believe you can't get me out of this.
13:08Few movies capture the troubles of teenage life better than The Breakfast Club, and how could it not?
13:13Every high school clique is represented in this John Hughes classic, as five vastly different students serve the same detention
13:18period.
13:19Most of the film takes place in the school library, where the reticent kids start warming up to each other,
13:23and slowly divulge the intricacies of their lives.
13:26I got a carton of cigarettes.
13:28The old man grabbed me and said, hey, smoke up, Johnny!
13:32Okay, so go home and cry to your daddy. Don't cry here.
13:34Through this development, they realize they're all quite similar, and it's merely the social hierarchy that keeps them from being
13:39friends.
13:40There's someone for every person to relate to, which is why The Breakfast Club is so beloved.
13:47Number 5, Clerks.
13:49Set in New Jersey, Clerks is a workplace comedy about two, well, you guessed it, clerks.
13:54Taking place inside Quick Shop Groceries, the film follows employee Dante Hicks and his best friend Randall Graves, who work
14:00at a video store.
14:01Yo, lace.
14:02What the hell are you doing here? I thought you were playing hockey one.
14:05The boss called, Arthur Fell-El.
14:07Why are shutters closed?
14:08Someone jammed gum in the locks.
14:09Inspired by his own life, Kevin Smith made his feature film debut as a writer and director with the film.
14:14He also makes an appearance in the film as one half of his famous Jay and Silent Bob characters.
14:19I feel good today, Silent Bob. We're gonna make some money.
14:22You know what we're gonna do? We're gonna go to a party.
14:24A fascinating look at retail life, Clerks is full of deadpan humor and has amassed a cult following as an
14:29indie classic.
14:30You know, there's a million fine-looking women in the world, dude, but they don't all bring you lasagna at
14:34work.
14:34Most of them just cheat on you.
14:36Number 4, Rear Window.
14:37Alfred Hitchcock was known for making a lot out of a little, using high-concept ideas in low-concept settings,
14:43and Rear Window is the very definition of that.
14:46Why?
14:48Why would a man leave his apartment three times on a rainy night with a suitcase and come back three
14:55times?
14:56Often considered the peak of Hitchcock's filmmaking career, Rear Window tells the story of a peeping Tom
15:01and a mobile man played by James Stewart, who spends considerable time watching people from his apartment.
15:05But it's not perversion that motivates the man, it's murder.
15:08He speculates that his neighbor committed a crime, and the rabbit hole gets deeper as he continues to watch and
15:13unfold the narrative from his wheelchair.
15:15The Rear Window room is the film's primary setting, and the peeping Tom concept has inspired countless adaptations, including 2007's
15:22Disturbia.
15:23Say something.
15:26Say something.
15:27Tell me what you want.
15:28Number 3, Reservoir Dogs.
15:30Said to be the godfather of independent cinema, 1992's Reservoir Dogs displayed the talent of a new filmmaker named Quentin
15:37Tarantino.
15:37You don't ever tip, huh?
15:39I don't tip because society says I have to.
15:42Alright, I mean, I'll tip if somebody really deserves a tip.
15:44If they really put forth the effort, I'll give them something extra.
15:46But I mean, it's tipping automatically.
15:48It's for the birds.
15:49With the possible exception of Pulp Fiction, Reservoir Dogs is considered Tarantino's best work, due to an intricate plot that
15:55blends comedy, drama, and horror seamlessly.
15:57What? Horror, you say?
15:59Well, considering that torture scene, yes.
16:02Centered on a heist, Reservoir Dogs is also notable for not showing the heist itself.
16:06It only deals with the fallout of the botched excursion, as the criminals meet back at the warehouse.
16:11Who cares what your name is?
16:12Yeah, that's easy for you to say. You're Mr. White. You have a cool-sounding name.
16:15This empty warehouse is the setting for most of the film, and spurred Tarantino's single-setting fascination, which was perfected
16:21in our earliest entry, The Hateful Eight.
16:23Joe, you're making a terrible mistake I'm not going to let you make.
16:27Come on, guys. Nobody wants this.
16:29Number two, Rope.
16:31Hitchcock does it again in Rope, which is a more faithful adherence to the single-room concept.
16:35Along with its minimalist setting, the film was innovative for its real-time pacing and one-take editing, nearly 70
16:41years before Birdman applied the same techniques.
16:43In another moment, you might have been strangling each other instead of a chicken.
16:47Mr. Goodell, really?
16:48No, but a man's honor was at stake.
16:51And personally, I think a chicken is as good a reason for murder as a blonde, a mattress full of
16:57dollar bills, or any of the customary, unimaginative reasons.
17:02Rope is about two university students who kill their classmate and host a dinner party to test the strength of
17:07the crime.
17:07The rise in suspense is masterful, as Hitchcock unveils the perfect crime with the perfect narrative, and cements Rope as
17:13one of the genre's best.
17:14Hey, Carol, you won't. I'd just as soon kill you as kill him. Sooner.
17:21That's what you wanted, isn't it? Somebody else to know.
17:24Somebody else to see how brilliant you are, just like at school.
17:28I told you we'd find out, but oh, no. No, you have to have him here.
17:31Now we're done for, and now it'll shut up.
17:33You made me do it, and I hate you. I hate both of us.
17:46Before we continue, check out this single from Sound Mojo's Aria, Songs from Iran, reimagining Persian melodies as modern rock,
17:54metal, and pop songs.
17:55Check out the full track and album below.
17:58My heart belongs to you.
18:11Number 1. 12 Angry Men
18:13I mean, you sat in court with the rest of us. You heard what we did. The kid's a dangerous
18:18killer. You can see it.
18:19He's 18 years old.
18:20Maybe the greatest dialogue-driven movie of all time, 12 Angry Men is a masterful example of storytelling.
18:26This boy's been hit so many times in his life that violence is practically a normal state of affairs with
18:32him.
18:32I just, I can't see two slaps in the face provoking him into committing murder.
18:37Based on a teleplay by Reginald Rose, it introduces 12 jurors who are tasked with determining the fate of a
18:42man on trial for murder.
18:43The jurors have to prove beyond reasonable doubt that the man is guilty or innocent based on the evidence presented
18:49in court.
18:49Set almost entirely in the deliberation room, the movie rise with suspense, intrigue, and climax through nothing but conversation.
18:56Who tells you that you have the right to play like this with a man's life?
19:01Don't you care?
19:02Now wait a minute.
19:04You can't talk like that to me.
19:05I can talk like that to you.
19:08Heralded for its accurate portrayal of deliberation and human nature, 12 Angry Men is a law school staple and is
19:13among the National Film Registry's selections for culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant films.
19:18You're not going to tell me you believe that phony story about losing the knife and that business about being
19:23at the movies?
19:24Look, you know how these people lie?
19:26It's born in the...
19:27Which single location would you like to see a movie set in?
19:30Be sure to let us know in the comments.
19:31Be sure to let us know in the comments.