Essay style analysis of 'The dark knight' opening sequence.

The introduction of the film institutions creates a dark atmosphere from the beginning. The logos are shown in very dark colours suggesting dark themes to continue for the rest of the film. Meanwhile, quite eerie, realistic, non-diegetic sounds of wind and the odd drum beat contributes to the atmosphere during the film institution logo's. A faint, sustained note begins playing after the logos and with the first establishing shot of rooftops comes a single beat of a drum, this creates a sense of anticipation and begins to build tension.

Establishing shot switches to a mid shot of a man wearing a clown mask, the mask plays on the common fear of clowns leaving the audience to establish that he is the bad guy.

After the window is smashed the picture goes back to ground level where a man dressed in dark clothing (dark clothing gives negative imagery confirming that the masked men are indeed the bad guys). The shot gradually zooms in to another variation of the clown mask making the two characters already introduced linked. Again the clown mask being used to create negative imagery and possibly scare the audience.

A black truck pulls up next to the man in dark clothing and the man enters. As the truck pulls up an up tempo beat starts playing, this suggests there is more action to come or even that a plan is beginning to unfold. After we see the two men from the very first shot use a zip wire to get onto the roof of another building the shot switches back to the men in the car who we now discover are all wearing the clown masks. This forms the idea of all the men being part of a gang, the audience is gradually understanding more about the potential plot.

An over the shoulder shot is used to view the two men’s conversation in the front two seats as well as allowing the audience to see the man in the back seat loading a gun. A gun is an extremely common prop used to allow the audience to establish the genre and used mainly here to confirm suspicions that some kind of elaborate scheme is about to take place (possibly theft).

The two men in the front two seats begin talking about shares in money, their gruff voices, colloquialisms and general dialect suggest a low status as well as stereotyping them as gangsters or professional criminals.

The two men in the front seats also mention ‘the joker’ for the first time, this hooks in audience members who know the batman saga well as he is a main character (it also allows those audience members to almost laugh at the naivety of the masked men “huh, he thinks he can sit it out and still take a share”). But for those audience members who so not know the series of films well, the mention of ‘the joker’ is very thought provoking, if even merely through his abnormal name. Which again is a hook to make the audience want to keep watching.
Further physical descriptions of the joker are mentioned from the two men on the roof, “I heard he wears make-up”, this is again thought provoking for those who don’t know of the jokers character. Physical descriptions make the audience await the entrance of the character which is another hook.

A high-angle shot of the men positioned on the roof switches to a low angle shot of the man who was sitting in the back of the car. This direct contrast to the previous shot singles out the character as being the most dominant suggesting he could go on to be a stronger character or even a main character. 

As the men run into what appears to be a bank, they begin shouting creating a busy atmosphere. This appeals to the target audience of the action adventure genre, sparking the adrenalin rush they seek in these films.

The first killing of the sequence takes place on the roof, his ease in committing murder is quite distressing for the audience yet the presence of so many armed men suggests this will not be the only death.

The killer then grabs a holdall and proceeds with a fast pace down several stairs to a vault. This makes it now obvious a theft will take place. The picture then returns back to the main lobby where a man wearing a suit (presumed to be the manager of the bank) fires a gun through the window of his office. Through the use of a gun by a man working in the bank it becomes clear that this is not a usual or even perhaps a strictly legal bank. This is later confirmed with “do you have any idea who you‘re stealing from?!” shouted by the man wearing a suit with the shot gun.

After the shot is fired at one of the masked men it becomes clear that the man singled out at the very beginning is the only one unharmed. He then fires several shots at the man wearing the suit. Staring down at the injured man the masked man tilts his head slightly in a kind of inquisitive way which is quite frightening for the audience.

The man singled out becomes the only man that the audience sees as really scary suggesting again he may be a main character.

When the picture moves back to the vault one of the men says “I guess the joker‘s as crazy as they say”. This is one of the final solid references to him leaving the audience with a negative impression of the joker who they are still anticipating the entrance of. Bags are loaded with money showing the plan to be successful. The two remaining masked men have a stand off where the 180 degree rule is used.

They circle each other lead by the man who’s not got his gun up which is quite puzzling until we realise what he was trying to do. The bus drives through the wall and knocks over the man with his gun held up, the other man was just trying to get him in the right position. This suggests that he knows more about the plan than the others.

After the final member of the gang is killed it becomes clear who the ring leader is and as he de-masks himself we see that the joker has been there all along. He creates a negative view of his own character with the line “What doesn‘t kill us only makes us stranger.” The audience now sees the scars and still wants to know more about him which is another hook after one has finally come to its climax. The opening sequence ends with the school bus (an unusual get-away vehicle) driving out into the perfect camouflage.