"I, Lelouch vi Britannia, command you...give this trope more examples!"
A variation of Eyed Screen, One-Eyed Shot is a camera trick where a person's eye is shown onscreen.
Not to be confused with Cyclops, a mythical creature who has just one eye.
See also Eye Open and Open the Iris.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Advertising
- Magazine advertisements for eye makeup (Cover Girl, Maybelline, Revlon, etc.) will often feature a close-up of a woman's eye.
- The iconic Keep America Beautiful commercials of 1971 (there were at least two), featuring one Iron Eyes Cody, reached their climax by zeroing in on his right eye.
Anime & Manga
- JoJo's Bizarre Adventure has a frequent use of this whenever a character has an Oh, Crap! or is experiencing Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises while showing a single-eyed shot.
- Code Geass features many close-ups of Lelouch's Magical Eye.
- Extreme Close-Up on eyes are often seen in Death Parade. The camera will zoom in on one eye only during *extremely* dramatic moments, such as when one character kills another. Decim gets this the most due to his bangs. The camera will zoom in on his Magical Eye, framed by his fringe, whenever he is intimidating someone or his expression changes.
- Dragon Ball Z uses this trope a lot during battles.
- One Piece also did this a couple of times. Case in point, Mr. 1 after activating his Spiral Hollow power during his battle with Zoro.
- This has happened a few times in the Jewelpet franchise.
- Episode 32 of Jewelpet Twinkle☆ features a scene of Ruby's left eye blinking as it zooms in closer and closer to reveal a shot of the Solar System.
- In episode 30 of Jewelpet Happiness, a close-up of Lapis' eye can be seen as it turns from blood red back to its original color.
- There were two close-ups of Luea's eye in Lady Jewelpet, one in episode 32, and another in episode 33.
- Naruto also uses this trope a lot, mainly for people who have the eyes of the Sharingan.
- Done in Hamtaro a few times. One example was with Sparkle in the dream episode The Tale of Princess Bijou.
Art
- Downplayed in Alexandre Cabanel's The Fallen Angel. Although Lucifer's angry, teary eye is far from the only element of the painting, it's its most prominent feature, to the point of most Shout Outs to it specifically referencing said eye, even at the cost of leaving out the characteristic pose.
Comic Books
- In Kryptonite Nevermore, as musician (and later third-rate super-villain) Ferlin Nyxly is playing, the camera focuses on his right eye.
- In The Batman Adventures Annual #1, Scarecrow escapes and decides to give up crime and return to teaching under a new identity. He develops a rapport with a smart enthusiastic female student, who is abused by her Jerk Jock boyfriend. A closeup frame of his eye as he finds out about this makes it clear that Scarecrow is back, and he's pissed.
Films — Animation
- Done in Arlo the Alligator Boy with the Beast when it tracks down Arlo's footprints.
- In Pleasant Goat and Big Big Wolf: Dunk for Future, a close-up of Weslie's eye is shown when he fumbles a shot that costs Team Defenders the championship. The camera zooms in on his eye, revealing blurry shots of Team Tiger mocking him, spectators demanding their money back, and Blazey admitting it's his fault when a news reporter asks who he would hold responsible for losing the match.
- In Turning Red, when Mei wakes up from her nightmare, it's shown using this trope. It also serves as the first indication that she has transformed into a red panda: the area around her eye has red fur.
Films — Live-Action
- Black Mask has a prologue when Tsui (Jet Li) is being injected experiments in a government lab. The entire screen closes up on Jet Li's eye dilating from the effects of the super-soldier serum.
- In Disney's adaptation of Bridge to Terabithia, when Jess is watching Leslie reciting her essay on "Self-contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus" in front of the class, the camera closes in on Jess' eye as he envisions her underwater, complete with fishes and water bubbles.
- A scene from the 2004 British film Layer Cake which featured a shot of Daniel Craig's right eye dilating.
- Donnie Darko also featured close-up shots of Jake Gyllenhaal's left eye dilating.
- The opening of Strange Days featured a closeup of Ralph Fiennes' eye blinking.
- 2001: A Space Odyssey's "Star Gate" sequence is intercut with several extreme close-up shots of Dave Bowman's eye with solarized colors. The colors of the eye only return to normal when his space pod arrives in the alien hotel room. The image is featured on this movie poster
◊.
- Spider-Man Trilogy:
- During the final battle sequence in Spider-Man, after Spidey is flung into the abandoned building, the Green Goblin tosses a pumpkin bomb into the building, followed by a brief close-up shot of Peter's eye as the bomb explodes in his face.
- In Spider-Man 2, when Otto's fusion experiment goes awry, we get a close-up of Rosie's eye as a shard of glass flies into it and kills her.
- There's also a couple of these in Spider-Man 3, first when the symbiote is enveloping Peter's body, transforming him into the black-suited Spider-Man, and then during the fight between Peter and Harry when the latter brings his Goblin arm blade close to Peter's eye.
- Sometimes, this trope may be inverted, and a close-up of both eyes are shown in the shot, like in the ending sequence of Drag Me to Hell; when Christine sees the cursed button, the camera zooms in on both her eyes, followed by a close-up of her left eye that pans to her right eye.
- The Spiral Staircase, a film about a crazed Serial Killer, features multiple tight close-ups of the killer's eye, as he is staring at his victims and as he's staring at his next film, Helen the protagonist. This is combined with P.O.V. Cam when the shot of his eye is superimposed over a POV shot of his victims right before he kills them.
- Event Horizon close-up of William's eye.
- First Love (1970): 16-year-old Alex has been mooning around after his neighbor Zinaida, who is 21 but has several older admirers. One day another of her admirers tells Alex that if he really wants to find out what's going on with Zinaida, he should go out to her garden late at night. Alex does so and sees Zinaida having sex with... his father. The camera shows a close-up shot of his single staring eye as he peeps at them through the window.
- The 1966 Yoko Ono film "Eye Blink" consisted entirely of a shot of one of her eyes blinking, shot at a very high framerate, but played at normal speed.
Live-Action TV
- Blake's 7: In "Voice From The Past", rebel conspirators arrive at an auditorium only to find it empty of their supporters. Then Supreme Commander Servalan appears on the theater screen to inform them that the Federation has known about their plot the whole time. As she speaks, Servalan's image is reduced from a Close Up On Head to an Eyed Screen to a single eye.
- Used in the 2017 Doctor Who Christmas Episode "Twice Upon a Time" as part of the new Thirteenth Doctor's dramatic reveal.
- Happens many times on The Flash (2014) with close-ups of Barry's (and, later, Jay's) eyes whenever he taps into the Speed Force to do something cool. There's usually electricity in the eyes.
- Interview with the Vampire (2022):
- The set of "Vampire Eyes & Fangs" promos feature one-eyed shots of Claudia, Lestat and Louis.
- A Season 1 vertical digital billboard focuses on Louis and Lestat's right eyes.
- "The Thing Lay Still": There's a close-up of Louis' left eye as he watches a newsreel about Adolf Hitler.
- The set of "Vampire Eyes & Fangs" promos
- Many episodes of Lost begin with a closeup shot of one of the cast member's eye opening. It's also the final shot of the show, with Jack closing his eye as he dies being a reflection of the first shot of the show being his eye opening.
- Used for comedic effect in an early episode of Malcolm in the Middle. Lois throws open a curtain to wake up the boys, and we get a closeup of Malcolm's eye as his pupil constricts down to a pinpoint from the sunlight.
- The Six Million Dollar Man had a close-up on the hero's left eye whenever he used its bionic abilities (along with a sonar ping-like sound effect).
Music
- The cover of Garth Brooks' album "Fresh Horses" features a closeup of Brooks' left eye.
- The video for The Escape Club's song "I'll Be There" featured several close-ups of the lead singer's eye.
- The cover of the self-titled studio album by The La's consists solely of a woman's eye in a close-up.
- The video for Kimiiro, the tenth single from Sanrio and Sega's virtual idol group Beatcats, features a brief close-up of the character Chelsea's right eye.
- The video for Rush’s "The Enemy Within" opens with extreme closeups of Neil Peart’s green eye, Geddy Lee’s hazel eye and Alex Lifeson’s blue eye (in that order).
Pinball
- Godzilla (Sega):
- The side of the cabinet is dominated by a closeup of Godzilla's eye.
- Obtaining a replay prompts an animation focusing on Godzilla opening one of his eyes (with "replay" overlaid on it).
Professional Wrestling
- The Summer 2014 issue of WWE Kids Magazine featured a quiz that featured nine photos each featuring a photo of a WWE wrestler's eye.
Video Games
Web Animation
- The Amazing Digital Circus: When Pomni ends up in The Void, she's momentarily stunned during the trip with a single shot of her eye appearing.
Western Animation
- Amphibia: In "True Colors", Anne gets a single eye shot prior to her Traumatic Superpower Awakening.
- The Gargoyles: The Goliath Chronicles episode "For It May Come True" cuts to a shot of human Goliath's horrified eye when Elisa is killed in a helicopter crash. Good thing it's All Just a Dream.
- The Powerpuff Girls (1998):
- The episode "Members Only" featured a couple of shots of Blossom's eye.
- We get a closeup of the Mayor's monocle in "A Very Special Blossom".
"TWO THOUSAND DOLLARS?!"
- Samurai Jack: In the episode "Jack in Egypt", Jack gets a one-eyed shot when the Minions of Set attack him from all sides.
- The Simpsons: The episodes "Brother, Can You Spare Two Dimes?' and "I'm Spelling as Fast as I Can" do this with Homer, in scenes spoofing 2001: A Space Odyssey and Requiem for a Dream respectively.
