A man stepped off the curb without looking. A car screeched to a halt an inch from his body. Standing there, heart pounding, he thought: What if it had hit me? What if I had waited one second? Then he thought: This is a movie.

Helen, played by Gwyneth Paltrow, races for a London Underground train. In one version of her life she makes it. In the other, the doors close in her face. From that half-second her world splits in two, and the film follows both storylines at once. Two women, two futures, one missed step between them.

SLIDING DOORS (1998) was itself was a lucky accident. Peter Howitt, its writer, could not get it made until, by chance, his friend John Hannah mentioned the idea to producer Sydney Pollack. Hannah happened to have the script in his bag. Pollack read it overnight and called Howitt the next day.