The most famous scene in Joss Whedon’s first Avengers film is arguably, as TVTropes.com’s page for the film labels it, “the oner”: the single long take sweeping around Manhattan as each Avenger does what they do best. It’s shots like these that really give Whedon time to shine as a director. He enables us to be completely enveloped in the spectacle of a scene by giving it to us in bits and pieces while also keeping the overall theme of the shot very “zoomed out” so we never forget the bigger picture. Black Widow, piloting a stolen spacecraft, ducks out of the way of an oncoming Chitauri attack, as Iron Man flies near her; we follow him as he shoots energy from his suit and pan down as he zooms across the bridge and lands near Captain America. He is busy fist-fighting Chituari, and Iron Man takes a few shots before taking off straight up along a building, flying by Hawkeye on the roof, who’s systemically knocking out baddies one by one with his arrows. We follow the path of one of them as it hits a Chitauri craft and causes it to plummet into the giant Chitauri Leviathan, on top of which stands the Hulk and Thor thrashing and hammering enemies to a pulp. A blow from Mjölnir sends the Leviathan crashing into Grand Central Station and ends the long shot. Every character is featured for just the right amount of time to understand their overall contribution to the battle, and why each of them is necessary to take down the invasion. It’s the entirety of The Avengers summed up in one shot. Whedon was a masterful director of this scene in particular, and it shows why he went on to have such success with its profits.