Synchronize watches and strap in for the Letterboxd showdown poll: “24 Hours: Best Movies Set on a Single Day.” All movies included happen over a 24-hour period (except flashbacks), making time an ever-present and unavoidable additional character.
Whether set on a single day in highschool – where 24 hours can feel like a lifetime and each event carries a dramatic weight that looks like it could change the entire course of a life – or a heist, where time is as precious as the products being stolen; the movies where time is the aggressor carry heightened drama, urgency and each motion can create an impact that highlights what a difference a day makes.
10 ‘Dazed and Confused’ (1993)
What may very well be a more dramatic, hormonal and emotionally-charged 24 hours than the last day of faculty? Dazed and Confused gives viewers a brutal peek on the heightened happenings at a U.S. highschool. Hazings and hi-jinks abound, and the ensemble solid shows different versions of how the final day of faculty can play out within the movie.
The scholars of Lee High School, Austin Texas, class of 1976, could easily be voted ‘Most Likely To Succeed’, as lots of the solid found great success in the next years. Ben Affleck, Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey and Milla Jovovich all make an appearance, and though viewers only have 24 hours to get to know them, the impression they leave is lasting.
9 ‘Before Sunset’ (2004)
Nine years after their magical meeting in 1995’s Before Sunrise, Jesse and Celine cross paths in Paris. Before Sunset allows the audience to satisfy the characters again, in an off-the-cuff but intimate way. Responding to the primary film, this sequel looks like being let in on a behind-the-scenes moment, or the reunion episode of a reality show.
The prolonged shots that follow the couple make the audience feel very much a part of the conversation, because the couple unpack the previous film under the guise of discussing Jesse’s novel on the topic. Though the characters have modified with time, the audience still recognizes them. The fantastic thing about the single-day device is at its best here, and viewers will wish for his or her time together to be longer.
8 ‘Dog Day Afternoon’ (1975)
Dog Day Afternoon tells the true story of a bank robbery gone horribly fallacious. From losing a 3rd of their heist party in the primary moments, to only collecting a meager $1,100 from the robbery, Sonny and Sal cannot catch a break. But with mounting police pressure, a room stuffed with hostages and a street of onlookers, time is of the essence.
Best Original Screenplay winner on the Academy Awards and winner of Best Editing on the British Academy Film Awards, each these elements work together to create an anxious atmosphere, with palpable tension and a necessity for immediacy of motion.
7 ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (1992)
Is time ever more sensitive than when someone is bleeding out on the ground and the cops could very possibly be about to burst through the door? Reservoir Dogs takes place on the day of a diamond heist – albeit the chapters of the day are cleverly revealed in a non-linear fashion.
Several of the characters are given context in flashbacks to determine their relationship to the heist. Despite these few diversions, the body of the story takes place within the warehouse after the heist, and the anxiety of not knowing if there’s a rat within the troupe, who it may very well be, or if anyone will get out alive is the time-sensitive driving force of the film.
6 ‘Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb’ (1964)
The Cold War kept Americans in a state of unease for many years, and the ever-present possibility of nuclear annihilation bred longstanding anxiety. Such strong fear is the proper fuel for satire – which is precisely the situation for Dr. Strangelove. A U.S. general launches an airborne attack on the USSR, and a gaggle of useless politicians, military officials and scientists bumble and fumble to stymie the attack, and inevitable global destruction.
Laying bare the silly minds of the lads on the helm, and the absolutely ridiculous reality that the world may very well be mere moments from disaster within the film makes for a deliciously dark comedy. Doubly terrifying and laughable, the fate of the world is within the hands of twisted and ill-equipped caricatures of men, and the time the world has to resolve its problems is ticking away at an alarming rate.
5 ‘Before Sunrise’ (1995)
Two strangers meet on a train in Vienna and judge to spend the day together, until they have to inevitably part ways. Celine must proceed to Paris on the morning train, and Jesse is scheduled to fly back to the US – their time together is finite from the moment they meet.
The notice that they only have sooner or later together lingers within the air, making the day feel other-worldly. The couple and the audience notice oddities, and each little thing carries a magical weight – it’s romantic, but in a weird way. Every moment feels necessary, and the eventual parting is heartbreaking, begging the query of whether the lovers will reunite. With 100% on the Tomatometer, Before Sunrise is well price spending time with.
4 ‘The Breakfast Club’ (1985)
Time moves so slowly in highschool – especially in detention. Watching the clock is an elective subject all students begrudgingly enroll in sooner or later. But when the enforced captivity of a day in detention became a chance to share, be vulnerable, and find out about people as a substitute of algebraic equations, that may very well be a potent and more enduring lesson.
Such is the story of The Breakfast Club. Five teenagers from different subcultures of the campus ecosystem spend a Saturday in detention. What seems at first like wasted time becomes a playground for sharing, connecting, and learning not to evaluate a book by its cover.
3 ‘Ferris Bueller’s Day Off’ (1986)
Life moves pretty fast, so Ferris Bueller is set to profit from day-after-day. Casting off the oppressive shackles of one other boring day in highschool, Ferris takes his best friend and girlfriend on an adventure. An art museum, a flowery lunch, driving an immaculate Ferrari, and crashing a street parade are only just a few items on the fantastical itinerary.
He can have to make it home before his parents discover the ruse, so the best day anyone never spent in highschool is on a deadline. The quantity of awesome that Ferris can pack into sooner or later of playing hooky is a teenage dream, and makes Ferris Bueller’s Day Off a 24-hour favorite for the ages.
2 ’12 Indignant Men’ (1957)
Time is of the essence and a life is on the road in 12 Indignant Men. The jurors in a murder case must come to a unanimous decision, beyond reasonable doubt and despite each man’s preconceptions, before leaving the deliberation room. It’s up to at least one juror with reasonable doubts to persuade the remaining of the indignant men in favor of his verdict.
The film is an emotional roller-coaster on a good schedule, and speaks to the worth of standing up for one’s beliefs – especially within the face of prejudice. The way in which the film is written and shot progressively shrinks the space between the lads, within the time it takes to vary 11 stubborn minds.
1 ‘Die Hard’ (1988)
So much can occur in a few hours – security codes could be broken, terrorist’s plans could be foiled, a wedding could be saved and a clean, white singlet can turn into a totally different color. Such is the case in fan-favorite unconventional Christmas movie, Die Hard.
On Christmas Eve, as a gaggle of thieves takes over the Nakatomi constructing to rob it of riches, viewers are treated to a solid reason never to attend a piece Christmas party again unless Bruce Willis is invited. Set to creepy, minor-scale versions of Christmas classics and boasting a hefty body count, Die Hard presents a version of just how fallacious a robbery, or a piece ‘do, can go.
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