Inception Opening Essay

Explore the use of film language for effect in the opening sequence of Inception. How does the director engage the audience?

The film opens with a title sequence accompanied by loud dramatic music, already beginning to build tension before the film has begun. As the film starts this music is juxtaposed by the sound of the sea along with a brightly lit open frame shot of the waves. The audience then sees a close up of a man, played by Leonardo DiCaprio, lying on the shore amongst the waves, establishing him as the protagonist of the film. He is evidently very weak and injured which can be seen from his scarred face and pained body language as he struggles to sit up. Water droplets collect on the lens creating the idea that the viewer is a part of the situation. The camera then cross cuts between close up eye line matches of DiCaprio and wide picturesque shots of the beach. We see children playing on the sand, a contrast to the usual conventions of the thriller. The children are playing happily and dressed in colourful clothing, a distinct difference to everyone else in the opening, highlighting them as out of place. Although, because of the placing of the eye line match either side of the shot of the children, it is hinted that they may not really be there and are just simply a figment of his imagination. The soundtrack becomes quiet and eerie hinting at the dreamlike state that DiCaprio is in. This is reinforced by the very bright shots, some slightly out of focus to show how he is not fully conscious and taking in his surroundings. The series of opening shots creates an immediate sense of intrigue as it leaves the audience with the unanswered questions of how and why the man came to be in this situation.

 We see a shot of DiCaprio’s body from above, a gun pressed to his back, the high angle shot helping to portray him as helpless. There is then a shot of this new man holding the gun from a low angle making him seem powerful, he is carefully placed in the centre of the mid shot so he is directly in front of the the sun, blocking out the light. He is dressed in a military style uniform and this coupled with his gun gives the audience an immediate idea of his nature, juxtaposing the beach and the cheerful children from before. The gun he holds is the first proper hint to the audience that this film is a thriller, as guns are often seen as iconography of the thriller genre. We hear the first dialogue of the film which is in Japanese and then see a wide shot across the beach showing us a very traditional Japanese style building, helping to establish the location of the film. This wide shot also shows that the children from before have now disappeared, backing up the idea that they were not real.

The location then changes to inside the building, which like the outside, contains an obvious Japanese design. There is a strong orange tint on all of the shots of the inside and they are brightly top lit by an array of lanterns, adding to the Asian feel of the scene. The first shot we see of the interior is through the door, displaying the backs of three men, masking their identity and so building mystery. There is no lighting coming from outside the room making the men appear as silhouettes and drawing the audience’s attention to the extensive décor of the room. The shot slowly zooms closer towards the centre man, switching to a close up, though his face still remains hidden, further increasing tension. The man is positioned in the centre of the shot, at the head of a long table and dressed in a formal suit, all hinting that he is man of a high status and importance. We see him reach for his wine glass but then after a match on action close up of the spinning top being placed on the table he retracts his hand, this could be an example of motivated editing, indicating to the audience that the spinning top is of greater importance than it would at first seem.

 The shot then changes to DiCaprio being hauled into the room accompanied by a non diegetic synchronous crash, grabbing the audience’s attention. We see from his body language, hanging limply without even the strength to lift himself, that DiCaprio is clearly very lifeless at the moment. His clothes are oversized and old, contrasting the pristine military uniform of the men dragging him. The shot then jumps forward in time slightly to DiCaprio sitting at the table, opposite the suited man, eating some unappealing looking food. The shot pans up slowly from the table first showing his reflection before the image changes to an over the shoulder shot. This shot beings with a long focus pull which along with the low speed editing in the scene, links back to the idea that the opening is in fact taking place inside a dream. We hear the suited man speak, looking towards DiCaprio whose eyes stay fixed downwards, not meeting the suited man’s gaze and staying silent. This conveys the idea that the suited man is in the position of power in this situation and has the control over what is going to happen next. We then see a close up of the suited man moving his hand from the gun to the spinning top, again indicating that it has some kind of hidden power or meaning. As he picks up the spinning top there is a close up with a very shallow depth of field, making the man out of focus, creating the idea that the spinning top is more powerful than even him. As the opening ends the background music crescendos over the top of a long close up of DiCaprio, where he looks up for the first time, straight into the camera, establishing the audience’s emotional connection to him for the rest of the film.