Limitless - thriller genre - analysis

At the beginning of the film opening of 'Limitless' there is a plain black screen. Many of the titles appear quite big on this screen in white text. This is so the text stands out well. Amongst these titles is 'Rogue Productions' this tells the audience that the film was created by an independent company however was co-produced with virgin-production and therefore will have received more funding and will be likely to have more money used in creating the film with this company being involved. The text is all in capital letters. This is so that it is bold and stands out to the audience, which attracts the audience to reading the title sequence more which captures their attention to watching the film opening.

There is a diegetic sound of someone banging on the door of a room really hard, which suggests there is someone trying to hurt someone. The person then says 'I know you're in there' which tells the audience that the man wants to get into the room for a certain reason which is most likely because they want to hurt the person or kill them. We know this is the reason as otherwise the person inside would have opened the door but they did not out of fear.  However, the audience is not aware why there is someone trying to hurt someone which encourages the person to keep watching and to find out what will happen.

Next, there are dead bodies on the floor in an office with men wearing suits and computers that say 'Error'. This suggests that these men were killed so that people could steal information off of their computers (private information). This tells the audience that the story line is probably going to based around this important information considering people have been killed to access it. The computers also show that the CCTV stopped working which shows that it was a planned killing.

It is clear to the audience from the start who the main character is. This is because it is the narrators voice who talks throughout the film opening. The audience is then able to see the face of the main character when he stands on the ledge of a building. This suggests to the audience that he wants to jump. People then want to know why he wants to jump and what he has done, as by the narration it is clear that he does not want to jump out of depression but out of fear that someone is trying to hurt him. Especially when he says 'I will never let them touch me', this is when it becomes truly clear that someone else is going to try and kill him.

It is clear to the audience that the film is set in a city when looking down at the main character standing over the ledge of a building as there are many lights and cars etc. After seeing the birds eyed view of the city the audience can think about the high crime rates in a city and therefore link to this that the genre will be a thriller as the plot will often be exciting and involve crime. It then becomes obvious to the audience that the film is going to be set in New York City as there are yellow cabs and times square that is shown in a shot.

There then seems to be a theme of death during the film opening because the neighbour of the main character is then killed by being shot and there is fear in the main characters face. This shows that it is becoming serious now and makes the audience want to know why so many people are being killed especially because the people killed in the office, the neighbour and the man who fears for his life are all in one apartment block (the same block). This creates an atmosphere in which the audience are worried for the main character and want to continue watching to see what will happen next.

There is then a red brain that is in the film opening which connotes danger to the brain and suggests that the film has something to do with the brain and may be about the information that was stolen from the office and that the information that was stolen is in this mans brain and that's why the people want to find him and kill him or that the information stolen may be about the brain.

It is clear that the genre is a thriller by the plot being unclear but exciting that people want to find out what will happen in the film. Also there is fast paced editing near the end of the film opening when the film title 'Limitless' appears and then the camera moves through the city to different places extremely fast. From this film opening I would try and use good aspects in my film opening as this film and my film opening are both thrillers. Therefore I would try and have themes in my film opening that keep reinforcing It to the audience to give connotations of what might happen in the film. For example, people keep dying in this film opening which tells the audience the storyline is serious, although I would not do my film titles in the same way where at the beginning there are loads of titles that are just on a black screen as this is a boring way to open a film.