Deadpool & Wolverine (2024) single shot
Director: Shawn Levy
Year : 2024
Director: Shawn Levy
Country: United States
Director of Photography: George Richmond (BSC) - same cinematographer as Children of Men (Bexhill), Kingsman 1 (church), Kingsman 2 (diner), Free Guy
VFX Supervisor (the Oner): Matthew (Framestore)
Storyboard artist (concept of the bloody bus): Jeremy Simser
Cameras: ARRI Alexa LF + Alexa Mini LF
Lenses: Panavision Ultra Vista (anamorphic) + VA Primes (spherical)
Sequence duration: ~2 minutes 30 (estimated)
Number of composite shots: 200
Total number of images: 5 800
Number of individual artist tasks: over 1,000
Compositing team: 4 full-time composers for 9 months + 20-30 freelance artists
Preparation: 9 months (storyboards → previsualization → filming)
Filming location: Pinewood Studios, backlot - New York-style urban block, two-story buildings extended vertically in post-production, streets extended to the horizon
Filming period: November-December (outdoors, changeable British weather)
Music: "Like a Prayer" - Madonna
Film budget: ~$200 million
The Void. A post-apocalyptic wasteland where the rejects of the multiverse end up. Deadpool (Ryan Reynolds), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman), and a handful of unlikely allies—X-23, Elektra, Gambit, Blade—have just joined forces to confront Cassandra Nova's army. But before that, there's the Deadpool Corps. Dozens of Deadpool variants—Lady Deadpool (Blake Lively), Cowboypool (Matthew McConaughey), Kidpool, Headpool, and a horde of masked clones—emerge in the streets of a recreated New York City block. Madonna's "Like a Prayer" starts playing. And the camera begins to glide. From left to right. Always from left to right. A single, uninterrupted lateral tracking shot traverses the massacre like a panoramic fresco: Deadpool slashes, Wolverine disembowels, the variants regenerate and return, bodies fly, blood spurts, and the camera moves forward, forward, forward, until it reaches a bus whose windows are gradually covered in blood spatter, and Deadpool and Wolverine land in front of the camera in a botched, clumsy, deliberately anti-heroic takedown. The shot ends. The massacre is over. Madonna is still singing.
Why this scene is iconic
Levy made no secret of his intentions: "This shot aspired to be an ecstatic symphony of violence." The key word is "ecstatic," not realistic, not visceral, not moral. Ecstatic. Exhilarating. The Oner of Deadpool & Wolverine is the long take as pure celebration, a feast of cartoonish violence filmed in a lateral tracking shot, always from left to right, like a comic strip or a video game side-scroller. Levy confirmed the direct influence: 300, Watchmen, and Old Boy (whose hallway fight inspired the first two).
But the detail that anchors the scene in emotion, and elevates it above a mere stylistic exercise, is that it marks the first time Deadpool and Wolverine truly fight together. Not against each other (the Honda Odyssey scene), not side-by-side by accident (the Void). Together, by choice, as a team. The lateral tracking shot is the tool of this union: by keeping them both in the same shot, in the same movement, without ever separating them with a cut, Levy etches their alliance into the continuity of the image.
And then there's the ending, invented by storyboard artist Jeremy Simser: the bus whose windows gradually become covered in blood. Reynolds insisted that Deadpool and Wolverine land in front of the camera with a botched takedown: "You always want to zigzag when the genre expects you to go straight." After a perfectly choreographed symphony of violence, the two heroes take a tumble. It's pure Deadpool, destroying the heroic pose at the exact moment the viewer expects it.
How they filmed it
Levy described the shot as "the most complicated shot I've ever done in any film, and frankly, it's more complicated than most of the shots any of us will ever see in any film." Nine months of preparation, from the initial concept to filming. The process: storyboards (Jeremy Simser), then animated previsualization, then filming.
Filming took place on the backlot of Pinewood Studios, a New York-style city block with two-story buildings. The buildings were digitally stretched vertically in post-production, and the streets extended to the horizon. Filming occurred outdoors in November and December, under the unpredictable British weather. Framestore noted that "almost every shot was different in terms of lighting" due to the constantly changing skies.
The final shot is an assembly of 200 separate shots, totaling 5,800 frames. Framestore described the Oner as "a logistical monster": more than 1,000 individual artist tasks were required. Four full-time composers worked on the shot for nine months, assisted by 20 to 30 freelance artists. The Deadpool Corps, with its dozens of variations, was primarily filmed on set with actors and stunt performers in costume, then supplemented with crowd characters digitally injected via Nuke's particle system, driven by the 3D geometry of the set.
The streetlights were rendered in 3D and animated using procedural programming to function like real traffic lights. The set extensions (building height, street depth) required Digital Matte Paintings perfectly aligned with the physical set, a challenge made all the more complex by the fact that the camera moved in a constant lateral tracking shot, revealing new angles at every moment.
George Richmond, the cinematographer, shot on ARRI Alexa LF and Mini LF cameras with Panavision Ultra Vista (anamorphic) and VA Prime (spherical) lenses, an unusual mix of focal lengths that allowed him to vary image textures within the same film. For The Oner specifically, the lateral tracking shot required perfect stabilization and a constant frame rate; the movement had to be metronomic so that the 200 shots could be assembled in post-production.
The Blu-ray featurette dedicated to this scene is called "Finding Madonna: Making the Oner," a reference to the fact that Madonna's "Like a Prayer" was part of the concept from day one. Levy confirmed: "Always a lateral tracking shot, always from left to right, always with 'Like a Prayer' in mind."
What to observe when reviewing it
The blood on the bus windows (end of shot) was invented by storyboard artist Jeremy Simser. The windows of a bus gradually become covered in blood spatter as the massacre unfolds. It's simultaneously a visual gag (the bus as a symbol of violence), a comic book framing device (the windows as panels), and a transition to the end of the shot.
The left-to-right tracking shot (the entire shot): The camera never changes direction. It's a pure lateral movement, like a panoramic mural, like a side-scroller, like a comic book page read from left to right. Notice how long it takes you to realize the camera hasn't changed its axis even once.
The Crash Landing (~end) After a perfectly orchestrated sequence of violence, Deadpool and Wolverine land in front of the camera and fall flat on their faces. Reynolds insisted. It's the Deadpool signature: breaking the fourth wall of directing, not just dialogue.
Did you know that?
George Richmond, the cinematographer, is the same man who handheld the camera during the Battle of Bexhill in Children of Men (2006), shot the church scene in Kingsman (2014), the dinner scene in Kingsman: The Golden Circle (2017), and now the long take in Deadpool & Wolverine (2024). Four of the most celebrated fight sequences of the last 20 years, and the same cinematographer behind each one. The George Richmond arc is now the longest-running thread in this entire collection: from Cuarón's documentary handheld to Levy's pop-infused lateral tracking shots, to Vaughn's speed ramps, Richmond has been present at every evolution of the 21st-century action sequence.
The long take in Deadpool & Wolverine pushes the logic of the composite single-take to its industrial extreme: 200 shots stitched together, whereas Kingsman used a few dozen and Children of Men just a handful. It's the culmination of 20 years of technical evolution, from the mechanical tinkering of the car in Children of Men (2006) to the 5,800-frame "logistical monster" of Framestore (2024). And yet, the effect on the viewer remains the same: the camera doesn't cut, time doesn't stop, and you're trapped in the carnage with them. The fact that this carnage is filmed in the rain at Pinewood Studios with Madonna as the soundtrack doesn't diminish its power; it just makes it more exhilarating.
Sources
Shawn Levy - Entertainment Weekly/CBR, "'It's One of Our Great Prides': Shawn Levy Breaks Down the Most Complicated Shot in Deadpool & Wolverine" (August 2024)
Framestore / Foundry - "Deadpool & Wolverine VFX: Behind the scenes with Framestore" (2024)
George Richmond - Frame.io Insider, "The Cinematographer's Guide to Deadpool & Wolverine" (September 2024)
Collider - "Shawn Levy & Ryan Reynolds Marvel Over Deadpool & Wolverine in Commentary Sneak Peek" (September 2024)
Screen Rant - exclusive clip, filmmaker commentary featurette (October 2024)
Movieweb - "Deadpool & Wolverine's Best Fight Scene Explained by Ryan Reynolds & Shawn Levy" (August 2024)
CBR - Levy interview about the Deadpool Corps and cameos (August 2024)
Wikipedia - Deadpool & Wolverine
Read also
Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 https://www.plan-sequences.com/categories-de-plans-sequences/les-gardiens-de-la-galaxie-3 - The other great Marvel ensemble battle in a faux continuous shot, previous entry in the collection
Extraction (2020) https://www.plan-sequences.com/categories-de-plans-sequences/extraction - Sam Hargrave and the "Netflix" version of the continuous-take action fight, next entry in the collection
