The 10 Best Movies With Only One Main Actor, Ranked

There is a long history in theater of the “one man show,” in which a single performer must hold the attention of the audience for the entire runtime. Sometimes they play more than one character, sometimes they play just one character, but they are always the focus. Over the years, cinema has created its own version of the one man show, where only one actor appears onscreen for the majority of the runtime. Occasionally we might hear someone offscreen or in voiceover or get a quick flashback with other actors, but for the vast majority of the movie, we’re stuck looking at just one face. That takes some serious skill to pull off, no matter how good-looking the face might be. 

Here I’ve collected and ranked 10 of the best films featuring only one actor, ranging across the years and several different genres. I did not include comedy specials like Bo Burnham’s spectacular “Inside” or true one-person-shows that were filmed, since the focus here is how the actor performed onscreen and comedy specials aren’t (usually) technically acting, and filmed theater pieces have a very different vibe. 

Though they had the help of their directors and crews, each of these actors had to carry the entire film on their shoulders, and each showed that they were up to the challenge. 

The 2007 post-apocalyptic thriller “I Am Legend” is actually the third film (loosely) based on Richard Matheson’s 1954 novel of the same name, following “The Last Man on Earth” in 1964 and “The Omega Man” in 1971, starring Vincent Price and Charlton Heston, respectively. It’s Will Smith’s performance as U.S. Army virologist Robert Neville, who has survived a virus that has seemingly turned all of humanity into mutants, that makes “I Am Legend” emotionally powerful enough to make the list. Directed by “The Hunger Games” helmer Francis Lawrence, “I Am Legend” follows Neville as he tries to figure out a cure to the virus, as he is seemingly immune but doesn’t know why. He must travel around a destroyed Manhattan that has partially returned to nature with his only friend in the word, his German Shepherd dog Samantha (Sam). Most of “I Am Legend” is just Neville and Sam, and Smith conveys his character’s love for the dog and his intense loneliness incredibly well.

The real problems with “I Am Legend” lie with its script, most specifically in the film’s ending, but the first three-quarters of the movie are still a pretty fantastic watch and Smith’s performance is easily among his best. 

Director Robert Altman created movies like no other, using an interesting theory on how audiences engaged to build his movies “like sandcastles,” because sandcastles remain in our memories, not reality. His 1984 film “Secret Honor” uses his skills to highlight the brilliance of actor Philip Baker Hall portraying a fictionalized version of former president Richard Nixon. Though based on the play of the same name, “Secret Honor” is a fully-fledged film and not a recording of a theatrical performance, and it’s a fascinating attempt to understand the mind of ol’ Tricky Dick following the fallout of the Waterhouse scandal. 

In his review of “Secret Honor,” critic Roger Ebert said that Hall plays Nixon “with such savage intensity, such passion, such venom, such scandal, that we cannot turn away.” He also notes that Hall’s Nixon “is not an impersonation, it’s a performance.” Hall focuses less on trying to replicate Nixon and more on trying to get into the spirit of the man and the challenges he faced. “Secret Honor” does require at least a basic understanding of Nixon and American politics, but it also features one seriously incredible performance from Hall that deserves to be seen.

Sometimes a true-life story requires an actor to be in fake isolation, as is the case with Danny Boyle’s 2010 film “127 Hours,” based on the memoir “Between a Rock and a Hard Place” by Aron Ralston. In April 2003, Ralston became trapped in a slot canyon in Bluejohn Canyon, Utah, with no real hope of being rescued if he stayed put. Unfortunately, his hand was pinned between two rocks, and he eventually had to resort to some “Saw” trap-like methods to survive, cutting off his own hand with a dull pocket knife. He also documented the entire experience on his camcorder, and “127 Hours” recreates that camcorder footage with actor James Franco as Ralston. 

“127 Hours” is a harrowing experience that honestly has to be seen to be believed, and knowing how closely it hewed to real events makes it all the more uncomfortable. Boyle’s creative filmmaking is also a star, but Franco’s performance is noteworthy because he manages to sell Ralston’s early exuberance and later exhaustion. He’s also perfectly charming, though watching the film in the wake of his sexual misconduct allegations can be a little tough. Franco was nominated for an Academy Award for his efforts, though he ended up losing out to Colin Firth for “The King’s Speech.”

If there’s one actor who always manages to make the most out of every role he’s in, it’s Willem Dafoe. The professionally trained performer of both stage and screen is always entertaining, whether he’s playing a Protean lighthouse keeper or a comic book supervillain. In “Inside,” the directorial debut of Vasilis Katsoupis, Dafoe plays Nemo, an art thief who breaks into a high-rise penthouse to try and steal some of the nearly priceless art within, but ends up trapped inside instead when it goes into a security lockdown. While the penthouse is quite cushy, it’s also not particularly well-stocked on the essentials. There’s no running water (save for sprinklers that water the plants on a timer) and very little food, and things start getting difficult for Nemo pretty quickly.

“Inside” is a tight little thriller about survival and self-interrogation featuring a phenomenal performance (as always) from Dafoe, who imbues Nemo with enough humanity to make the audience care about him while also subtly reminding us that he is slightly other, caring more about objects than people. It’s not a masterpiece, but it’s extremely watchable and worth checking out. 

If there’s one ridiculously good-looking face one might want to stare at for two hours, quite a few people would probably pick that of Ryan Reynolds; after all, he was named People’s Sexiest Man Alive in 2010. Right around that time, Reynolds starred in “Buried,” an intense survival thriller from director Rodrigo Cortés. Reynolds plays an American civilian working in Iraq during the Second Gulf War. He wakes up one day in 2006 to discover that he has been buried alive in a wooden coffin with only a Zippo lighter, a pen, and an early smartphone. He discovers that he has been taken by terrorists and is being held for ransom, but the U.S. government won’t negotiate with terrorists. They’re going to try to rescue him, but it’s doubtful that he will ever see the light of day again. Soon, his kidnappers call, and things get even more complicated…

“Buried” premiered at Sundance to mostly rave reviews (including ours), which praised Reynolds’ performance in particular for being “powerful but believable.” This isn’t the cocky persona Reynolds usually puts on, or one of his goofier characters, but an opportunity to prove that he can really act. And boy, did he prove it. 

There’s quite a bit of tension in watching a man who is buried alive and trying to stop terrorists, but what about 85 minutes of Tom Hardy alone in a car? In “Locke,” written and directed by Steven Knight, construction foreman Ivan Locke (Hardy) discovers that a former colleague he had an affair with is going into premature labor. He abandons everything to drive across England to be with her as she gives birth, due to an old grudge against his own father for abandoning him as a child. It’s the night before the biggest day of his career and his wife and son are expecting him home for a night in, but he decides to blow up his whole life and drive to the birth of his child anyway. After the first minute and a half or so, we’re in the car or just beside the car with Locke for the entire runtime. He fields a number of phone calls from his coworkers, admits his infidelity to his wife, and much more, all while driving on nighttime roads. 

“Locke” isn’t overly showy and doesn’t rely on too many visuals tricks to make the movie more interesting, instead honing in on the drama of Locke’s life-changing conversations. It’s truly a one-man show outside of the voices who call in, and Hardy makes Locke a fascinating, compelling protagonist who feels believable even though what he’s doing feels so shocking. 

There are a lot of things to be blown away by in Alfonso Cuarón’s 2013 sci-fi thriller “Gravity.” There’s the absolutely bonkers one-shot opening sequence that shows astronauts Ryan Stone (Sandra Bullock) and Matt Kowalski (George Clooney) as they are hit with disaster when a Russian rocket sends serious space debris their way during what was supposed to be a routine space walk mission. Then there’s the seemingly impossible special effects that make space feel real — and terrifying. But it’s really Bullock’s performance that holds everything together.

Stone is sent hurtling into space, though Kowalski saves her and the two set out to try and find a way back to Earth despite damage to their ship. Kowalski ends up sacrificing himself to save Stone pretty shortly after, and the rest of the movie relies on just Bullock’s Stone to carry us through. It was a pretty difficult filming experience for the actor, who was often isolated for up to eleven hours a day inside of a giant light box of sorts used to help create the film’s special effects. But the pain paid off when Bullock was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance and the film went on to win seven Oscars, including Best Director for Cuarón. “Gravity” provides a different kind of claustrophobia and isolation horror than something like “Buried,” but it delivers on sheer terror all the same. 

“No One Will Save You” is a particularly unique one-actor movie in that it’s also pretty much dialogue-free, meaning most of what we learn about Kaitlyn Dever’s Brynn is through facial expressions and body language. Brynn lives in a small town and generally avoids other people, so there are a few brief interludes where she sees other actors, but there’s hardly any interaction and Brynn is on her own as far as humans go for the vast majority of the movie. You see, most of “No One Will Save You” features Brynn fighting an alien invasion in and around her remote, vintage home. 

There really aren’t many movies like “No One Will Save You.” It takes its self-imposed constraints and uses them to make a truly tight science fiction thriller that absolutely speeds by despite a near-total lack of dialogue. (Seriously, read our review: this movie rules.) Much like the other films on this list, “No One Will Save You” requires a great deal from Dever, who must help audiences connect with Brynn while also maintaining some mystery and relating the fact that Brynn is a bit odd. “No One Will Save You” is fantastic alien invasion horror from a fresh new perspective, and it’s a showcase for just how nuanced but powerful Dever’s performances can be. 

Director Robert Zemeckis is well-known for making deeply sentimental films about the human condition, with a sometimes uncomfortably earnest bent that can feel corny at times, but “Cast Away” is a great example of his skills as a storyteller. The film stars Tom Hanks as FedEx systems analyst Chuck Noland, who ends up marooned on a deserted island after his plane crashes in the ocean nearby. With only the packages to keep him company, he’s forced to survive for four long, brutal years. In fact, his only friend is a volleyball with a bloody face painted on it that he calls “Wilson.” That last part is a detail that has been spoofed to high heaven, but thankfully Hanks knows how to sell the movie’s particular brand of sincerity. 

In order to accurately portray the effects that surviving on a deserted island would have on Chuck, Zemeckis had the crew take a break from filming so that Hanks could grow out his hair and beard and lose a great deal of weight, which was a major burden for the actor. Hanks was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Actor and won a Golden Globe for Best Actor for his performance in the film. Hanks has always been great in comedic roles, but seeing him struggle to survive the island and undergo a great deal of emotional trauma as well really showed just how much range he has as a performer. 

Each of the actors on this list do a phenomenal job playing the protagonist of their films, carrying the movie on their shoulders through their performances. But in the Duncan Jones science fiction film “Moon,” Sam Rockwell not only has to play the protagonist, but also his clone. In “Moon,” Rockwell stars as Sam Bell, the only human working on a helium-3 mining station on Earth’s moon. He’s nearing the end of his three-year contract and is excited to head home, but then communications problems start leading him to believe he won’t be going home at all. Unfortunately, it turns out that communications with his “wife” were fake and he’s actually one in a long line of clones that are easily replaced whenever one gets killed doing the dangerous work of fixing the mining equipment. 

To make the discovery of that total mind-blower even wilder, Bell is injured and the station’s AI starts up the next clone, leading them to meet one another. Think “Multiplicity” meets “Blade Runner” and you’re getting somewhere, as Rockwell mostly acts on his own or with himself, playing two characters interacting onscreen together through movie magic. “Moon” is a beautiful, heartfelt sci-fi flick with Rockwell as its beating human heart. He’s one of our best working actors, and seeing him go through such a full range of emotions as two different versions of the same character is truly something to behold.