Analysis of the Opening to Now You See Me

The opening begins in an unconventional way by establishing each of the four main protagonists through a sequence of magic tricks performed by each character in a variety of locations. The opening shot is immediately a close up of one of the magicians, directly addressing the audience through an eyeliner match. There then several shot reverse shots between him and the woman he is performing the trick to, hinting that he is attempting to impress her. There is quiet non diegetic music as the soundtrack, paralleling the visual as it helps in building the tension as the trick is set up. The trick is performed to audience as well as the woman allowing then to from the off set feel apart of the film themselves. As the magician tells the crowd that they have been looking too closely it becomes apparent why all the shots so far have been close ups as so the film audience will, just like the audience to the street magic, be oblivious  to what else is happening around the cards. As the cards are thrown the camera pans upwards to show a wide shot of the building, a contrast to the previous close ups. You hear the diegetic sound of screams from the crowd and the music becomes a lot louder and more theatrical, emphasising their excitement. There is then a wide city scape shot displaying  just how large a scale the trick was on, impressing the audience.


The scene the quickly changes to an extreme close up of the eyes of another man, establishing him as a second protagonist. His speech parallels the visual as he tells the audience to "look into his eyes". The shot then zooms out revealing this is only a photograph, further backing up the idea that we are looking at things too closely and therefore not seeing what is truly there. When he begins to read the man's mind the editing becomes high speed, showing how frantic the man is as more and more is found out about him. As the mind reader becomes closer to finding out the truth the editing speed increases further and we see the man's face twitching, reviling his uneasiness. The camera then focus on a close up of the money being passed over, emphasising how money is important to the mind reader and that he does this for his living.

The third part to the opening begins with a more conventional wide establishing shot, showing that this part of the scene takes place on a boat. The music begins to pick up with loud drums, building the suspense over a diegetic ship horn, again helping to establish the location. There is then a mid shot with the camera following him upstairs with an audio bridge of him introducing his show. The audience can tell straight away from his body language and the way he talks to the crowd he is cocky and over confident in his trick. As we see the trick being performed through a sequence of mid shots, furthering the story, the camera itself bobs up and down slightly, making the film audience feel they too are on a boat. As a man comes from the audience to expose how the trick is performed the shots quickly change to become close ups and the editing starts to be high speed to trick the audience into thinking things are going wrong.

For fourth and final part of the opening we are shown a more glamorous side of magic, a contrast to the previous street performers. The is several close ups of the the performer being locked up, conveying the danger of the trick to the audience. We here almost game show type music playing and can tell from the way she talks to the audience that she is very confident in her trick. Once she falls into the tank the shots begin to cross cut quickly between her and the timer, showing that her time is running out and building the suspense, a key theme in the thriller. She manages to break free a moment too late, another common idea in this genre. We see an eyeliner shot of the piranhas falling down onto her with an ear piercing diegetic scream over the top, shocking both the film audience and the crowd in the film. In the final shot of the opening we see a close of of her reaching out to the audience for help, placing the audience themselves in a state of jeopardy as they are powerless to stop  what appears to be her inevitable fate.