9 Incredible Action Sequences From Non-Action Movies

The Football Match – The Secret in Their Eyes

The all-time great action sequences do not just thrill and excite, but they make the viewer ponder in amazement at how on earth the filmmakers managed to pull it off. Just think of the opening sequence from Gravity, a bravura piece of uninterrupted technical prowess. As dazzling and disorienting as that long take is, it still doesn’t have the same grittiness and elegance as the prolonged shot around a football stadium in the Oscar-winning Argentinian film The Secret in Their Eyes.

At several times during this five-minute swerve, you anticipate the scene will cut to a new angle. Director Juan José Campanella plunges us down from the Buenos Aires sky into a floodlit, rowdy football stadium. There, detectives are searching for a bad man, one who referred to players on a local football club in his writings. They have decided to attend a match, in the hopes of finding this passionate fan. A long shot, right? Well, it is as much a long shot as having a long shot like this one succeed.

Taking the point of view of detectives, the camera moves through the seats as they realize they have found their man. The camera tosses around, as the crowd reacts to the pandemonium on the field, just as the bad guy runs away in pursuit. We descend down through the marble stadium as they search. The rattle of the handheld camera stands in juxtaposition to the swift swooping of the camera as it entered the stadium. The execution of the scene is awe-inspiring, as the antagonist runs through an elaborate maze, only to end up on the field.

Even if there were edits, this would be a terrific action sequence, serving as a vigorous midpoint for the romantic mystery. However, the lack of noticeable cuts is astonishing, one that should have made audiences erupt with the same joy as the predominantly male crowd watching the match. The scale of the scene, from a helicopter shot to hand-held movement, is seamless and stunning. As the antagonist drops down several feet to the field, the camera remains on him and keeps running alongside the character as he bolts onto the field. This is a sequence that hardly needed to be told in an elaborate long take, which makes its execution even more dumbfounding.