What Major Motion Picture Had the Smallest Cast?

[HeyHomie]

What major motion picture, released since, say, 1960, has the smallest cast?

By "cast" I mean "people who appear on the screen, whether or not they say anything (and that includes extras)." I don't mean "people whose photographs appear on the screen." Crowd scenes are included, so if, for example, the movie shows only one guy for the first 119 minutes, then in minute 120 he's in a full baseball stadium, then the cast is >1.

I nominate The Others (2001). IMDB only lists 14 people, and most of those are on-screen for a minute or less (some of them for only a few seconds, and don't say any words). Of the fourteen, only six of them are in the movie for more than a few minutes. But they're on the screen all the same, so they count.

Anyhoo, can anyone top this?

[Robot Arm]

Sleuth

The IMDb lists six cast members, and I think even that is an exaggeration.

There's a credit for someone playing Inspector Doppler, but that's to not give away that it's really Milo Tindle (Michael Caine) in disguise.

I've seen this movie once, on broadcast TV. Maybe they cut some bits out, but I only remember Olivier and Caine in the entire movie.

[Ol'Gaffer]

My Dinner With Andre (1981)...four actors, two of whom are the waiter and bartender.

Cast
Wallace Shawn
Andre Gregory
Jean Lenauer
Roy Butler

[runner pat]

My Dinner with Andre (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082783/fullcredits)
4 members.

[Baker]

The World, the Flesh, and the Devil, 1959

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0053454/

Three cast members. I saw it on television after it came out, and it was the first "post-apocalyptic" scenario I'd ever seen. Kind of freaked me out as a kid.

[Robot Arm]

Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)

James Whitmore as Harry S Truman

and that's all.

[want2know]

Since you didn't specify fiction or whatever, how about Swimming to Cambodia ? IIRC, there is only one person in it--Spalding Gray.I win! :D

[5 time champ]

Give 'em hell, Harry , a one man show about Harry Truman should be considered a major motion picture. James Whitmore was nominated for an Academy Award.

[El Zagna]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/fullcredits) had four cast members: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Sega and Sandy Dennis. The IMDB page says there was a fifth, a Frank Flanagan who played the "Host of Inn (uncredited)". I don't remember him, nor do I remember anything about an inn.

[MovieMogul]

Robert Altman's Secret Honor had a cast of one: Philip Baker Hall as Richard Nixon.

[kaylasdad99]

Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)

James Whitmore as Harry S Truman

and that's all.Also Bill Cosby: Himself (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083652/fullcredits).

And he wrote and directed, unlike Whitmore and Gray.

[MovieMogul]

My Dinner with Andre (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0082783/fullcredits)
4 members.IIRC, there are a number of people in the background during their conversation, and Wallace Shawn looks out the window from his cab on the way home, so that's even more people (according to the rules of the OP).

[MovieMogul]

Also Bill Cosby: Himself (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083652/fullcredits).

And he wrote and directed, unlike Whitmore and Gray.Yeah, but this is essentially a one-man stand-up concert performance. It's not a fiction film, which I think should be a condition, plus...are you absolutely sure there are no shots of the audience at all?

[monospectacular]

Is it really fair to include one-person shows? Several comedians have concert movies and there are broadway one-person acts that are filmed, so it seems that the criteria should include a film or play with dialogue and a person in one character for the duration of a single story.

What do you think?

I was going to mention Oleana (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110722/), but there were extras milling about the campus in a couple of scenes.

[monospectacular]

Duh. Stupid me.

Scratch 'play' from my last post, unless it's one that's been filmed, in which case it would simply be a film.

[Stephe96]

Alien (1979) only had 7 characters in it....plus the alien.

[ivylass]

How many did Castaway have with Tom Hanks? They compared it to the Jimmy Stewart movie about Charles Lindbergh, in that a fine actor had to carry the bulk of the movie alone.

[yBeayf]

According to the criteria mentioned in the OP, most animated feature films should fit the bill.

[MovieMogul]

Alien (1979) only had 7 characters in it....plus the alien.You forgot Jonesy!

[MovieMogul]

How many did Castaway have with Tom Hanks? They compared it to the Jimmy Stewart movie about Charles Lindbergh, in that a fine actor had to carry the bulk of the movie alone.A huge section in the middle with just Hanks and a volleyball, but bookended by segments teeming with people.

[Blake]

How many did Castaway have with Tom Hanks?

By the conditions of the OP, hundreds if not thousands. The opening scene alone, with the kid picking up the package in Moscow, featured a street scence with dozens of people. The real crowd scene was the media crush and party after he gets back. I can't remember clearly but I'm thinking that betwen the press crush and the party guests over 200 extras were involved.

[don't ask]

John Boorman's surprisingly entertaining Hell In The Pacific only featured Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune.

[Phlosphr]

Never Cry Wolf - movie about Farley Mowat's haphazard exploits in Northern Canada only had a few charators I believe.

[Ellis Dee]

I love "two guys in a room" movies. Regarding the OP, in my mind, "major motion picture" means A-List actors. So, with that in mind...

Closet Land is an actual movie with characters, plot, theme, etc. It's a fictional story, as opposed to a one-man narrative. And it's not a cheesy B-Movie; it's A-Listers on an actual set doing actual fiction.

Madeleine Stowe and Alan Rickman comprise the cast of two. There are no extras. (There are, however, some cartoon characters. But don't for a second think that makes this movie kid-friendly.)

Sticking with the torture motif, I think Death And The Maiden, IIRC, only has three people ever show up on screen, and they are A-Listers as well. (Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and I forget the third.)

Another three person movie is Tape, with Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and I forget who the third guy is. Nobody ever leaves the hotel room. There are no extras.

Unfortunately, I cannot seem to connect to imdb at the moment to provide links or refresh my memory as to the actors.

[Lisa-go-Blind]

Another three person movie is Tape, with Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman, and I forget who the third guy is.
Robert Sean Leonard.

Robot Arm, regarding Sleuth:
Yep, just Caine and Olivier. The other four cast members listed are to disguise the spoiler(s).No extras, either.

[SnakesCatLady]

This thread caused a major comedy of errors at my house when I went to ask my husband if there were really only 7 characters in Alien (excluding the cat & ..ug). We ended up in a discussion that ended up somehow with "Ememy Mine" and I came back to my office to discover that the cats had been into my drink - I don't think they drank much but there was a very spirited game of ice cube hockey going on when I got back.

I must say my life has been more, um, interesting since I joined the SDMB.



isn't it said that a very potent curse is "may your life be interesti g" (deliberately misspelled because I don't want to take any chances)

[drm]

Gerry only had Casey Affleck and Matt Damon in it.

[Digital Stimulus]

Two Girls and a Guy (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124179/fullcredits) (1997) had a cast of 5.

[Walloon]

The IMDB page says there was a fifth, a Frank Flanagan who played the "Host of Inn (uncredited)". I don't remember him, nor do I remember anything about an inn.The Taylor-Burton-Segal-Dennis foursome go to a roadside bar, where they are the only customers, and Taylor puts a song on the jukebox and dances provocatively. A woman is behind the bar, apparently the host's wife, but she has no lines.

[Trillionaire]

Also worth mentioning the Blair Witch Project , which IMDB tells me had a total of ten in the cast.

[Walloon]

Other solo films:

• Julie Harris played Charlotte Brontë in Delbert Mann's Brontë (US/Ireland, 1983).
• Monica Buferd played Joan of Arc in St. Joan (UK, 1977).
• The Belgian film Romeo-Juliet (http://us.imdb.com/title/tt0100512/combined) (1990) had the characters of Shakespeare's tragedy played entirely by cats, except John Hurt, who plays Mercutio and a bag lady (no, I'm not making this up). Since the OP defined a cast as "people who appear on the screen," we'll overlook that the dialogue is voiced-over by heavyweights like Vanessa Redgrave, Maggie Smith, and Ben Kingsley.

[Tapioca Dextrin]

Dereck Jarman's Blue (http://imdb.com/title/tt0106438/) Has 79 minutes of nothing but a blue screen. No cartoon charcters, no Belgian cats, just a blue screen :eek:

[Gerome]

Dereck Jarman's Blue (http://imdb.com/title/tt0106438/) Has 79 minutes of nothing but a blue screen. No cartoon charcters, no Belgian cats, just a blue screen :eek:

My VCR can do that.

[Bryan Ekers]

Dereck Jarman's Blue (http://imdb.com/title/tt0106438/) Has 79 minutes of nothing but a blue screen. No cartoon charcters, no Belgian cats, just a blue screen :eek:

I couldn't see that movie.


I'd just taken a Viagra.

[Little Nemo]

MicroCosmos, Winged Migration, and The March of the Penguins all had a human cast of zero unless you count voice-over narrators.

[well he's back]

I think "Sleuth" is clearly the winner here.

[RyJae]

Well The Spongebob Squarepants movie only has "one" real person in the cast David Hasselhoff, if I recall correctly.

[HeyHomie]

Well The Spongebob Squarepants movie only has "one" real person in the cast David Hasselhoff, if I recall correctly.

There are dozens of real, human pirates on a ship (well, real human actors dressed as pirates) in the beginning.

[randwill]

Only 4 main characters in 'Closer'. The imigration guy at the airport is also listed in the credits but he only has one line. The doctor's receptionist has one line also but is not listed in the closing credits.

[RyJae]

There are dozens of real, human pirates on a ship (well, real human actors dressed as pirates) in the beginning.

Yep, I didn't recall correctly. Good catch.

[N9IWP]

I haven't seen Winged Migration, but aren't there any shots of the ultralight pilots?

Do computer generated people count? Because Sky Captian had some crowd scenes, but I'm guessing there weren't very many people there.
(Even if they don't count, still quite a few more people than some of these movies)

Open Water has a cast of 8, didn't see it so don't know if there was a dock scene w/ extras.

Touching the Void had 6 cast members (and 3 "roles" - the real person and the person playing them)

Brian

[davenportavenger]

Open Water has a cast of 8, didn't see it so don't know if there was a dock scene w/ extras.There's a beach scene at the beginning with dozens of people. There are also more than eight people on the boat.

How many human characters were there in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I don't think there were more than five or so (though there may be humans in the crowd scenes).

[Shirley Ujest]

Give 'em Hell, Harry! (1975)

James Whitmore as Harry S Truman

and that's all.



If you ever have a chance to watch this, it is an amazing performance.

[jackelope]

Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0061184/fullcredits) had four cast members: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, George Sega and Sandy Dennis. The IMDB page says there was a fifth, a Frank Flanagan who played the "Host of Inn (uncredited)". I don't remember him, nor do I remember anything about an inn.
I just happened to see this recently; the "inn" is the bar the two couples go to for a while in the middle of the film. I'm pretty sure the innkeeper's wife was on screen as well, but didn't speak.

Tape was the example that leapt to my mind; I guess it's predictable that a lot of these films with extremely small casts are stage-plays adapted for the screen.

[RickJay]

I Sticking with the torture motif, I think Death And The Maiden, IIRC, only has three people ever show up on screen, and they are A-Listers as well. (Sigourney Weaver, Ben Kingsley, and I forget the third.)
Stuart Wilson.

[Sam Stone]

Mark Twain Tonight (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0204468/) has a cast of one - Hal Holbrooke

[Bryan Ekers]

How many human characters were there in Who Framed Roger Rabbit? I don't think there were more than five or so (though there may be humans in the crowd scenes).

There are at least a dozen in the diner scene alone (where Eddie hides Roger in the back room and the Judge shows up), as well as human extras walking around the studio where Roger makes his movies.

[Cicero]

The smallest cast in a live action dramatic feature (excluding movies with an all animal cast) is none. Kostas Sfikas Model (Greece 1974) had no performers, just robots. There are a number of one person films (including the Belgian cat version of Romeo and Juliet where John Hurt was in drag). :o

[Rhiannon8404]

Duel is just Dennis Weaver for most of the movie...and of course the mysterious truck driver. But you only see his arm.