Hard Boiled - The Hospital Scene. HIGH DEFINITION

One take in this sequence is a 2 minutes and 40 second tracking shot following 2 men shooting up a hospital while delivering great performances in-between the action.

Remember, this was done without post processing effects. John Woo manually slowed down and sped up the camera while they were rolling. There are no computer animated ballistics. Furthermore, the take was tried 6 times and failed 6 times. It was also supposed to be twice as long. That means all the ballistics had to be reset each time. Tony Leung, the actor in the cop suit, eventually took some ballistics to his eye and filming was stopped. In the last scene of the movie, you can see his real eye injury, no make up.

On the commentary, John Woo said the one-take idea was done because of low morale amongst the cast and crew. When he told everyone what he wanted to do, it gave everyone something to look forward to and be excited about. From then on, it was gravy until Tony's injury. (less info)