Thriller Opening Analysis (Wanted)

The opening begins with what we believe will be the mains characters voice whilst we are looking around an average looking office in an urban setting which is common in thrillers. We eventually see the main character (James McAvoy) who is around 20 to 30 years old and is dressed maturely this type of character is common in thrillers, due to the title of the film ‘Wanted’ this may suggest that the main character could be evolved in a situation that he can’t control which is a very common narrative in thrillers. In the opening of the movie we as the audience get an insight of the main characters life’s, which is very rough this is because his apartment is falling apart, his girlfriend is having an affair with his best friend and he suffers from panic attacks all this makes the audience feel sorry for him and this then makes him a venerable character also.

After a few minutes into the film the story line switches to a well dressed mature man entering a better maintained office in the same urban setting, as the audience we assume that these two different story lines are connective, but creates an enigma because we don’t know how these character and story line are connected (where two different stories are connected this is not very in thriller but it does happen). The music suddenly builds with suspense when the character notices a red laser dot on his assistances forehead; this tells the audience that there is a sense of danger. The audio-visual becomes very fast passed when the assistant gets killed they audience then becomes aware that this character is in danger.

Then the character calmly goes to the opposite end of where the shot came from it show a point of view shot of what the character sees and it shows a slow motion focused shoot of the enemy who is on the roof of the opposite building to his office. Then we see a closes up of the characters foot to show the audience of how much power the character is putting into his run. Then the character run toward the glass window and breaks through and the glass takes shape of his body whilst flying through the air, all this is done is slow motion to create suspense of where or not he his going to make it to the other side.

The iconography in this sense are the guns that the character has, these are the most commonly used weapons in thrillers, and starts to shot toward his enemies. The characters shoot the enemies with precision this tells the audience that he is a professional; this is also shown due to the way he is dressed. As the character reaches the roof top the sense gets more fast paste and the music more intense, however it goes slow-motion when ever a fire is shot this is to build up suspense in whether or not the character will be shoot. The cameras switch fast between what the character see and what the enemy sees this is to again build suspense and for the audience to get a point of view of what each side is looking at.

Finally once all of the enemy are the character phones starts to ring, as he answers the camera starts to go around him in a fast paste this is to show the audience confusion as the character doesn’t know who he is talking to and where that person is. Eventually just before the conversation ends the character look down as sees that he is standing on an large ‘X’ as he dose this the camera moves upward which show the character being tiny and it also show the audience that he is exposed and venerable.

After this has happen the camera show us the character head on and in slow motion we se him get shoot this is to emphasise the bullet going throw his head and makes the audience question as to who had done this. After the bullet has entered the character head we then go back in time however this time we as the audience follow the bullet and where it came from, this is all done fast paste to show how fast the bullet was travelling and far it had to travel. We then see a quite casual man sitting with a large gun, which again is common in thrillers, who says the last sentence to the character on the roof top and then fire the gun. This creates an enigma as the audience doesn’t know what this man has against the character.    

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Thriller Poster Analysis

Liam Neeson character is looking down which shows he has authority. Also he a mature character in his 30s-40s that is dressed very smartly which you would find in most typical thrillers. There is a lot of low key lighting which could symbolise that he is in a situation that he can't control and he doesn't know what is going to happen next because he's in 'the dark'. Its mainly black and white which are very masculine colours, and this is usually found in 'noir' thrillers but it can be found in other types of thrillers. the black and white colours help the word 'TAKEN' in orange pop out of the poster. the tag line could symbolise the narrative of the film because this shows that he wants to get his daughter back, and kill any one who get in his way which is very common in thrillers. The main character in the middle is hold a gun which is the most common weapon used in any types of thrillers. Liam Neeson name is spread right across the top of the poster, this symbolise that he is the main character in the film. it is common for the main character name to be on top of the character itself in any film poster.

 As you can see the only person on the poster is a woman, which could symbolise that she is the main character, however its common for women to be the main characters in any types of thriller, but over the years they are becoming more common, these characters are usually called 'Fem-Fatal' which mean she uses her sexuality to get what they want. The dragon represents Yang (women) which could suggest that they film is based around a woman. The red of the dragon symbolise that the women maybe dangerous because she has a dragon tattoo as the title clearly states. The poster is very low lighted of black and white which are very masculine, and these colour are typically used in thrillers. Also this may suggest that there maybe male within in the films. the title is very big and bold which again, it is common for thriller covers to have this.