Movies based on one idea. Clever. Inventive.

[dumpster]

As a spin-off to the Time Trap thread, how about recommendations for intriguing films that run off one good idea? I've always enjoyed Inside Number 9, Tales of the Unexpected, the Twilight Zone and the Outer Limits. These one-off dramas usually have one central premise that the entire story hangs on. Movies where the premise can be summed up in one line.  There are so many independent low budget movies out there that can't rely on big name stars and special effects to sell the movie. Instead they take a good idea and run with it, and some of them are great. Many of these I would never heard of if I haven't read about them on a forum, or just taking a gamble because they happened to be on Netflix. 

 

Time Trap is a great movie. A bunch of college students enter a cave in an attempt to rescue their college professor. The cave has an unusual secret  and the 80 minute run time is perfect for them to discover it it and for some really interesting events to happen. The title is a bit of a spoiler but it is a film to go into blind if you can.

 

Nothing to Hide is a great movie on Netflix. A group of dinner party guests decide to play a game where each of them places their cell phone into the middle of the table and any messages or notifications have to be read out loud. Any phone calls must take place on hands-free and the movie shows the unusual ways in which the game affects everyone.

 

Radius is a movie about a man who finds that anything that gets within a 50 metre radius of him dies. That is, until he meets a woman who doesn't die. It has some superb moments.

 

Coherence is another dinner party movie. During the meal a comet flies overhead and all the power goes off. The guests go outside to have a look around and see one house in the distance that still has power. Two of the guests go off to investigate and when they get there they realise that the house is.... Ooh, spoiler.....

 

The One I Love is a movie that received funding from Ted Danson and was filmed in his house. An unhappy couple is sent to a stately home by their marriage guidance counsellor, to reinvigorate their failing marriage, but when they get there are they find that there is another couple there already. A very familiar couple.

 

Time Lapse is a movie about a bunch of people sharing a house. Their neighbour dies unexpectedly, and the people discover that he had a camera pointing directly into their lounge, taking a photograph at 8 p.m. every night. As the group browse the photographs they realise something is very wrong.

 

Primer is the exceptionally low budget time travel movie that is really watchable, but after 5 viewings you may not be any the wiser as to what's going on. But what if you made a time machine and travelled back in time to yesterday? There would be two of you, until tomorrow, when the other you gets in the time machine and comes back to yesterday which is now so there would be three of you?

 

Finally, a nod to some of the more commercially well known examples, because there may be younger forumites that have never seen Speed (if the bus drops below 50mph it will blow up), or Phone Booth (a man answers the ringing phone and finds himself in the middle of chaos). The key linking theme in all these films is that one great idea fuels the whole movie.

 

Let's have more suggestions please, and if this thread inspired you to watch any of the suggestions  let us know if you enjoyed them. 

 

 

[Ork1927]

I can't think of anything else at the moment - but you've now added loads of stuff to my watch list.

[smac]

Cube is one off the top of my head.

[dumpster]

6 minutes ago, Ork1927 said:

I can't think of anything else at the moment - but you've now added loads of stuff to my watch list.

Do report back, let me know your thoughts .

[Alex W.]

"Await Further Instructions" is a pretty great bottle drama about a suburban British family who wake up to find they're trapped in their home and receiving instructions from an anonymous authority through their TV. I watched it a couple of years ago and it's probably a little on the nose now.

[Ry]

Any of you guys seen The Endless?

 

Don't want to say much. Better to go in blind. But I think it falls into that category. I would give the makers of the film (the two leads) free reign to do what they like what they like and give them a ton of cash if I was a producer. 

 

 

[FiveFootNinja]

As soon as I read the thread title I thought "Primer" and then saw you mentioned it  Great movie.

 

I'd put some early Darren Aronofsky on the list too...

 

Pi is an intense story centred around a genius mathematician in NYC and filmed in high-contrast black and white with a thumping score by Clint Mansell. It was a massively formative movie of mine as a teenager. I adored it, so much so I remember special ordering the limited edition release VHS box set (with the script and production diary in) to my local Virgin Megastore.

 

The Fountain is a bit more high-end budget wise but still relatively obscure to most people I speak to. It's quite abstract but basically is about a man and woman dealing with (or failing to deal with) issues around mortality and the fear of death and spans three storylines. It's a bit marmite to be honest, but I like marmite.

 

I'll have a think about others.

[Mawdlin]

Locke extracts a lot out of its central premise. I loved it but I know some have not taken to the tension created by a man using hands-free while driving his car for 2 hours.

[GwiDan]

Would Phone Booth fit this topic?

[LeighCb]

We watched Elevator on Prime last night. Eight people stuck in a lift, one has a bomb. This is not a recommendation however, do not watch Elevator. It is very bad.  

 

Frozen is good stupid fun. A bunch of assholes stuck on a ski lift after the slope has closed for the season. It's pretty bad but there's some enjoyment to be had watching them make awful decisions. 

 

The Belko Experiment is pretty good. Battle Royal/social experiment where everyone in an office block are told that they must kill two of their colleagues or bad stuff will happen.  

 

[PK]

I thoroughly enjoyed Freeze Frame, in which Lee Evans plays a man who keeps surveillance footage of every second of his life, in order to have an alibi in case he is falsely accused of a crime.

[DukeOfEarlsfield]

 

[Plissken]

Would Breakdown (1996) count in this? Or Duel?

[Nick R]

Run Lola Run

 

Source Code

[FiveFootNinja]

Source Code is another one I was about to add, you beat me too it  

 

A couple more... 

 

Splice... it's by the director of Cube (mentioned above). Gene scientists do gene science, things happen.

 

Moon... most have probably seen this but worth a mention. Plus it links my previous two via Clint Mansell and a Sam Rockwell film is always worth watching.

 

Monsters... A Gareth Edwards film about monsters.

[Gigawatt]

The obvious one for me would be Inception but I guess everyone has seen that. 

[Timmo]

Everyone's seen it but Groundhog Day is one of my favourite films and entirely based around one small idea.

[Mawdlin]

Speed of course. Enjoyable retro tosh.

[Commander Jameson]

Nothing (2003) is a fun sci fi comedy about a pair of housemates that end up in a strange environment.

 

Predestination and Timecrimes are two good time travel films.

 

The Quiet Earth is an interesting low budget NZ sci fi film.

 

ARQ is another fun time loop film.

 

Triangle is a great sci fi horror film.

[smac]

9 hours ago, Plissken said:

Would Breakdown (1996) count in this? Or Duel?

 

Duel, for sure.

 

And good call on Source Code from Nick R. Ending was a bit too feel good for me, but a good premise.

[El Geet]

Saw Final Destination again recently. It’s totally silly but pretty well done ‘horror’ about teenagers who cheat death so it has to find a way to kill them in the most roundabout way possible. It’s firmly tongue in cheek. Spawned a host of crap sequels. Think it fits this category. 
 

The Invitation. A group of old friends get invited to and dinner party and something is definitely up. Great little thriller with some gloriously hateful characters. 

[El Geet]

12 hours ago, Ry said:

Any of you guys seen The Endless?

 

Don't want to say much. Better to go in blind. But I think it falls into that category. I would give the makers of the film (the two leads) free reign to do what they like what they like and give them a ton of cash if I was a producer. 

 

 

Really enjoyed it. Keeps you guessing to the end and has a great trippy quality to it. 

[stefcha]

14 hours ago, dumpster said:

Nothing to Hide is a great movie on Netflix. 

 

This weirded me out. Searched for a trailer on Youtube, found it was French and tried looking for one with subs and there was a near identical trailer for Perfect Strangers. So near it took me a while to realise it was different actors, I thought it was just a different cut trailer at first. Looked that up and it's actually the original, with Nothing to Hide being a remake. One of many remakes as it turns out, with no less than 18 versions having been produced by mid-2019. Given the original only came out in 2016 I felt like I was in one of the sort of weird, localised situations half of these films are about. 18 remakes in a little over 3 years. What.

[Mawdlin]

The Game (Man with everything, Michael Douglas, receives a very unusual birthday present).

 

Panic Room (a David Fincher movie which almost entirely takes place in a single location).

[cassidy]

Triangle is another cracking movie. 

 

One cut of the dead qualifies too as its one idea is a marvel to behold. 

[Waggo]

19 hours ago, Timmo said:

Everyone's seen it but Groundhog Day is one of my favourite films and entirely based around one small idea.

 

There are takes on the Groundhog Day concept which people might not have seen though that are worth a look.  Happy Death Day is a decent teen horror where the lead dies over and over on her birthday, each time unraveling a few more clues as to who kills her.  Or if you fancy a Sci Fi take then Edge of Tomorrow (Also called Live, Die, Repeat) sees Tom Cruise repeatedly attempt to thwart an Alien invasion.

 

Talking of strong ideas by the way this is a cracking thread dumpster.  Definitely going to check out some of those suggestions in the original post.

[smac]

For a 60s oddity, try Journey to the Far Side of the Sun. By Gerry Anderson, no less.

[PK]

It Follows has a really great, simple and creepy central idea, which they very nearly turn into a brilliant horror film but unfortunately just miss their target. I'd love to see the premise in the hands of filmmakers with slightly more idea of what to do with it.

[Art Vandelay]

The central conceit in Vantage Point of watching the same scenario again and again would I suppose qualify. It's full of dreadful secret service and assassination cliche and is a complete turkey though so difficult to recommend. It sounds like it was a rip off of a Kurosawa movie which I haven't seen but can only imagine is infinitely better.

[Timmo]

15 minutes ago, PK said:

It Follows has a really great, simple and creepy central idea, which they very nearly turn into a brilliant horror film but unfortunately just miss their target. I'd love to see the premise in the hands of filmmakers with slightly more idea of what to do with it.

 

100%. How amazing were those scenes in the first half of the film where you'd be constantly watching the background for "it" to appear, just slowly lumbering towards the target? The film turned to shit in the second half, unfortunately, but I'd still recommend it due to its brilliant soundtrack and killer first half.