Analysis of Terminator 2 opening scene

The opening scene I have chosen for my analysis is the terminator 2: Judgement day Opening scene, Terminator 2 is an action film based on the terminator franchise created by James Cameron. This is one of few films where the sequel is voted that it is better than the original.

 The first few frames show a destroyed highway in Los Angeles, Its shows multiple destroyed vehicles and ruined buildings, this is significant as the action genre is normally based around explosions and mass destruction, this entire picture is the aftermath of a nuclear weapon, the most destructive weapon in our time. The scene uses a tracking shot to follow from the skeleton in the car to the destruction of the city. the frame uses hard lighting with back lighting to create a suspenseful mood as we are seeing a city completely wiped out, so its not the best sight to see so director created a suspenseful mood to ask questions like, why is the city wiped out?

The next scene shows the main antagonist, a T-800, a machine designed to kill off humanity, The character a clear villain as explained in the Proppain theory that each film created has a set of stock characters, i.e. hero,villain. The T-800 is a clear indication of a villain because the red eyes are a clear sign of evil as red is the colour that is seen as evil. the camera in this scene is from a low angle which could be significant as this is the perspective to show inferiority. the explosion in the background signifies that their is a battle tacking place, the action genre needs to feature explosions. The T-800 is clearly representing the evil force and the villain as it his role to kill off humans.

In the final scene of the opening scene it shows zoom in and a tracking shot of the protagonist of the film, John Conner. He is clearly shown as the hero of the film as during the war, the people are in chaos and need a leader, so John Conner takes the role as people look up to him by saluting to him. on the left side of his face he has multiple scars as he has been damaged in war, this is significant as the the hero is showing dedication to surviving and saving humanity(as with every hero) the lighting has a dark lighting and plenty of fog to give it the dark mood of a bad war.

To Conclude, the opening scene was created to give an idea of what the future held for our current heroes in the 80's and what it will become unless it is changed. This sequence is powerful as it portrays the set-up with the movie, you could in openings link it back to beginning. to create such a powerful opening it needs to create psychological effects such as the heroism of the soldiers who fight to protect their fellow man, this creates a dark opening but powerful as it gets us to think how can they prevent it? by putting questions in the beginning can make the viewer want to find out and drags them into the rest of the film. the general sequence of the opening uses the binary opposition, its man vs machine. From this research I've now got a clear understanding on how I am going to portray my opening, although due to limited resources I may not be able to produce explosions or car chases. Although I am going to involve both the protagonist and the antagonist as a flash-forward.