Class film opening analysis

When the sequence starts, the audience is presented with Bond falling in to a body of water, what seems to be the sea judging by the rest of the scenes to come. When his body turns, it is revealed to the viewers that Bond has been injured, perhaps fatally judging by his current situation. The viewer of this opening sequence may infer that the movie’s genre is action because of this, because the scenes before this sequence may have shown the series of events to him getting shot. Guns and weapons are commonplace in action movies and are usually the staple in Bond films, hence why this inference can be made.

Furthering this point, later in this sequence the audience can see knives falling in to the same water, creating a graveyard out of weapons, suggesting death, pointing towards the same themes and genres as my original point. There are other things which suggest this in the opening sequence, such as the abundance of skulls presented throughout the whole of it.

2:10 in to the opening sequence, the scene reveals dragon floats circling a shady low key lit background, with what seems to be fire towards the bottom, hence the orange hue towards the bottom of the screen. This may be implying that for the most part, the film may be set in china, as the dragons used here are usually shown at Chinese New Year festivals. Not only that, but the fire at the bottom of the screen suggests that whatever happens over there at what may be a festival, it will most likely go up in flames, which could also relate back to the point about the films main genre being action.

There are also many suggestions of death throughout this opening sequence that may lead the audience to believe that Bond has died, or is close to his death, or is potentially approaching it. The skull shown here transitions in to a grave that has already been dug, perhaps in preparation for the person that has died or is about to die. From previous scenes within this sequence, this may be Bonds grave as the audience knows he has already been shot from multiple uses of symbolism throughout. A few scenes after this, the camera zooms in on the bullet hole on the right of Bond’s chest, revealing a whole new scene within the vessels and make of his body. The viewers are presented with a scene similar to the graveyard near the beginning of the sequence, apart from this time, the graves are crumbling, blood like rain is pouring from the skies, and the graves are actually graves and not guns and knives. The fact that the graves are crumbling may mean that Bond will not yet die, as the symbolism of the grave and skull is symbolical of his death throughout this opening sequence, the fact that they are now crumbling may lead the audience to believe that it is not yet his time. 

Conclusion: Analysing this film opening would be useful if us as a group decided we wanted to be a mainstream production company with a large budget creating an action film, most of which we are not. However, the use of Mise throughout these opening scenes really helps the observant viewer understand some of the plot which took place before the movie starts, and what perhaps Bond is up against in this movie.