Inception (2010) Film Opening Analysis

Analysis stops at 2 minutes

The third film that I will be analysing is Inception (2010). Inception is a British-American science fiction film starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, directed by Christopher Nolan, distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures and the studios being Legendary Pictures and Syncopy Films. It earned $825,532,764 at the box office and subsequently is the 38th highest-grossing film of all time. Upon release, the film garnered worldwide critical acclaim.

At the beginning of the film, there is a MCU pan from right to left of of the ocean. This then cuts to a CU shot of a man, laid on the beach in the sea who looks to have just come back to consciousness. The character's make-up has been done to make him look slightly battered and bruised, which is an icon of the genre. The character's costume is a dark green/brown jacket with matching trousers. They both seem to be slightly torn and dirty which tells the reader that this character has already been on a big adventure of some sorts. The costume connotes practicality and that the character is used to a lot of physical activity. This is also a costume which is archetypal of a typical masculine male as men are stereotypically seen as the gender who are used to the outdoors.

Diegetic ambient sound of waves crashing against the shore has been added in the background of the scene which is used to add to the atmosphere of the scene and infer to the reader that the rest of the film is going to be set around the seaside.

This then cuts to a POV shot of two children playing in the sand with diegetic sound of children laughing accompanying it. We can tell that this is a POV shot due to the canted angle of the shot which is similar to that of the angle of the characters head and also the use of the loss of focus at times during the shot which implied that the character has still lost some consciousness and his vision is blurry.

This then shot reverse shots back to the CU of a male character laying on the beach in the sea in which he loses consciousness again. This then cuts to a shot of a man in a uniform, which suggests authority and power, prodding the man in the sea's back with a gun, which also connotes authority. This is where the atmosphere changes as the tense music starts to increase in volume and becomes more prominent which suggests to the audience that the character is an antagonist. The mise en scene here of the character in uniform suggests that this character is of importance and the low angle shot also backs this up as it makes the man on the ground seem weak and the man with the gun seem strong.

The character in uniform then shouts up to another man atop of a cliff next to a large building which we can see in an establishing shot. The man shouts in a different language which tells the audience that the film is likely to be set in a foreign country. This then cuts to another establishing shot which zooms in on to this large room, presumably inside the large building seen in the previous shot. Inside the room, the colours used are dark yellows and oranges which at first looks gold which is a colour that is an icon of luxury and wealth. However, low key lighting has been used to give a darker, more sinister atmosphere which contrasts with the bright beach outdoors. This dark and sinister atmosphere tells the audience that something bad is going to happen and gives a reading to the audience that the character at the table could be the antagonist of the film.

This cuts to a MS of the back of somebody's head sitting at a large table. A shot reverse shot is used to show the character putting a gun down on the table which then goes back to the MS of the back of his head. The emphasised diegetic sound of the gun being put down emphasises the power and the damage that the gun can cause. The character sitting at the end of the table is wearing a white shirt and is sitting at, what looks to be a conference table and the fact that he is sitting at the end of it, tells the audience that he is a man of power and high authority. This is also archetypal of masculinity as men are stereotypically seen as the more powerful and dominant gender.

This then cuts to a long shot, which zooms slowly into the room, of a character being dragged into the room by two other characters which cuts to a MS shot which pans upright slowly on a character eating from a bowl. After cutting to over the shoulder shot of the other character at the other end of the table, a shot reverse shot is used of a MCU of the character's hand touching an object on the table.

Tense incidental music is used throughout this whole scene which adds tension for the audience, but also tells them that something bad is going to happen, which is typical of a sci-fi film.

The mood throughout the whole opening scene is that of mystery and confusion as the audience are not given any explanation at the very beginning to why the character is face down in the sand on the beach. This intrigues the audience as they want to find the answers to all of the questions they are thinking.

The ident of Legendary Pictures at the beginning of the film, which is revealed as the text zooms out, is on a black background and the serif typography is dark grey. This then fades to black.

The second ident is of Syncopy and like the previous ident, has a black background with dark grey typography. The text is made up out of a number of lines that are formed at the start of the ident. This then fades to black. Dramatic incidental music is played over these two idents, which immediately sets the scene for the type of film it is going to be and is typical music of a sci-fi film.