# What Major Motion Picture Had the Smallest Cast? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 19, 2005, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818 "2005-08-19T22:58:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Blake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/a9a28c/32.png) [@Blake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Blake)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/21 "2005-08-20T00:32:30Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/22 "2005-08-20T00:34:28Z")
John Boorman’s surprisingly entertaining _Hell In The Pacific_ only featured Lee Marvin and Toshirô Mifune. ---
**Author:** ![Phlosphr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c68b51/32.png) [@Phlosphr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Phlosphr)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/23 "2005-08-20T00:43:06Z")
**Never Cry Wolf** - movie about Farley Mowat’s haphazard exploits in Northern Canada only had a few charators I believe. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 3:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/24 "2005-08-20T03:14:27Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/25 "2005-08-20T03:21:27Z")
> [@Ellis Dee](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![SnakesCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/4af34b/32.png) [@SnakesCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SnakesCatLady)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 4:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/26 "2005-08-20T04:25:10Z")
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) ---
**Author:** ![drm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/a88e57/32.png) [@drm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drm)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/27 "2005-08-20T04:52:47Z")
**Gerry** only had Casey Affleck and Matt Damon in it. ---
**Author:** ![Digital\_Stimulus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@Digital\_Stimulus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Digital_Stimulus)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 5:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/28 "2005-08-20T05:56:51Z")
[Two Girls and a Guy](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0124179/fullcredits) (1997) had a cast of 5. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 5:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/29 "2005-08-20T05:58:26Z")
> [@El Zagna](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![Trillionaire](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/aeb1de/32.png) [@Trillionaire](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Trillionaire)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 5:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/30 "2005-08-20T05:59:46Z")
Also worth mentioning _the Blair Witch Project_ , which IMDB tells me had a total of ten in the cast. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/31 "2005-08-20T06:15:59Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Tapioca\_Dextrin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tapioca_Dextrin)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 6:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/32 "2005-08-20T06:52:57Z")
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: ---
**Author:** ![Gerome](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/85e7bf/32.png) [@Gerome](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gerome)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 12:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/33 "2005-08-20T12:53:45Z")
> [@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: My VCR can do that. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 4:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/34 "2005-08-20T16:25:11Z")
> [@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: I couldn’t see that movie. I’d just taken a Viagra. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/35 "2005-08-20T16:32:33Z")
_MicroCosmos_, _Winged Migration_, and _The March of the Penguins_ all had a human cast of zero unless you count voice-over narrators. ---
**Author:** ![well\_he\_s\_back](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/3ab097/32.png) [@well\_he\_s\_back](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/well_he_s_back)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/36 "2005-08-20T16:54:22Z")
I think “Sleuth” is clearly the winner here. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 5:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/37 "2005-08-20T17:11:34Z")
Well The Spongebob Squarepants movie only has “one” real person in the cast David Hasselhoff, if I recall correctly. ---
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/38 "2005-08-20T19:32:21Z")
> [@LostGoals](#): > > 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. ---
**Author:** ![randwill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a3d4f5/32.png) [@randwill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/randwill)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 8:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/39 "2005-08-20T20:54:43Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![RyJae](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/9d8465/32.png) [@RyJae](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RyJae)\ **Post date:** [August 20, 2005, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818/40 "2005-08-20T22:31:56Z")
> [@HeyHomie](#): > > 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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-major-motion-picture-had-the-smallest-cast/317818.md?page=3)