It’s one of the best sci-fi movies of the 2000s, and 18 years later, this scene still amazes us.

In 2006, The Sons of Man, an adaptation of the novel of the same name by virtuoso Alfonso Cuaron, was released on our screens. A true failure at the box office, the dramatic film was eventually rehabilitated by audiences over the years, stunned by both content and form. Ranked as one of the best sci-fi films of the 2000s by viewers on AlloCiné, it has a perfect average of 4 out of 5, so far.

Directed by Clive Owen, this sci-fi film takes us into an unnamed world of darkness: a futuristic society where humans can no longer reproduce. The announcement of the death of the younger 18-year-old caused an uproar among the residents.

At the same time, the woman becomes pregnant – something that has not happened in twenty years – and at the same time becomes the most envied and most wanted man on earth.

Taken by the king of sequences

When Alfonso Cuarón started working on this film, he warned his team and the studios: he wanted to shoot as many consecutive shots as possible, his favorite technique to put the audience in the center of the action and reveal this world. A little more real.

The director includes long, immersive scenes in his feature film, but there’s one that stands out: the one that takes place in a car and sees characters played by Clive Owen, Chiwetel Ejiofor and Julianne Moore attacked from all sides.

This 3-minute sequence shot was a real headache for Alfonso Cuaron’s teams, as the interior of the car couldn’t accommodate any large cameras other than the 5 actors sitting in the car.

After abandoning the idea of ​​shooting on green screen – always to keep this idea of ​​reality – the teams finally placed on the frame of the car without a roof and without wheels on a motorized vehicle driven by a stuntman, and we reduce to a small mobile camera that moved more freely. At the same time, the actors had to learn a “Choreography” With this little camera so you can shoot in one shot and make everything as smooth as possible.

A technical breakthrough that came to fruition 18 years after the release of Sons of Man, this footage is still in our heads… and if you want to see it in full, it’s waiting for you on Max!