The 10 coolest tracking shots in the history of film

Done right, a tracking shot can be a genuinely terrific thing. Done badly and, well, there's always CGI.

While some movies are set up as one, big tracking shot (1917 being the latest example) it's the smaller scenes that have more impact - the ones that seemingly come out of nowhere and linger both on the screen and in the mind.

More genius from QT, here. Setting a scene to the bouncy sound of The 5 6 7 8s’s (yep, that song which went on to feature on seemingly every advert ever), took audiences on an access-all-areas tour of the Tokyo restaurant where the Bride hunts down her rival O-Ren, swooping between the banana-attired heroine, restaurant staff, the band and the stunning interior itself in one flawless take. Why the choreography is almost as sharp as a Hanzo sword.

Orson Welles’ 1958 classic contained one of cinema’s now archetypal long takes. It starts with a ticking bomb placed into a car on the fringes of the US-Mexican border. From there the camera doesn't so much break the fourth wall as soar over it, with the director using a crane to transport our sole viewpoint up, over and down into the border town where we cross paths with Janet Leigh and Charlton Heston’s newlyweds before the doomed vehicle makes its way past the pair and numerous extras. We dread to think how many takes the infamously perfectionist director put the cast through.