Tuesday, 25 October 2011

Two-minute Intros: Action Genre

The Bourne Ultimatum (2007)



Even before the film starts, the Universal Studios logo is accompanied by suspenseful, high octane orchestra music. This then cuts to a title card with the words: Moscow, Russia. This title card is accompanied by digital sound effects as the letters appear one after the other – like a word processor.
The film then flashes to a guy stumbling away from a handheld camera, the movement of the handheld camera is quite jerky and quite unstable. It is night time and it has been snowing. The music builds up as we discover the man who is stumbling and panting for breath is Jason Bourne, who we recognise from the earlier Bourne films.
Bourne is carrying an injury, as we see him limping to a train station. We find out he is being followed as he keeps looking over his shoulder. We then hear police sirens. As it turns out, it seems the whole of the Moscow police department is set on catching Bourne, and have come armed. At this stage in the film there is no indication as to why Bourne is on the run from the Moscow police.
Bourne is so desperate to evade capture; he tries to outwit the police by getting on a train, only to jump off further down the line. Unfortunately for Bourne, he is spotted by some police officers on a nearby bridge and the chase continues. The police speak in Russian (with English subtitles), it emphasises the fact that he is not in America.
Bourne, now heading away from the train station, discovers a local chemist, and smashes his way in. We assume he’s desperate, as he is knocking over medicines and glass jars, just to find the one he needs. He performs self-surgery to heal his injuries from what we suspect is a bullet wound. The camera shots used during this scene are close-ups and extreme close-ups. He appears to calm down and we see a flashback sequence where he is interrogated, this may start to explain how he comes to be in his current situation.

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