The sequence begins with two young teens, denoted by their
80’s youth style clothing riding a dirt bike whilst listening to rock music. This
connotes that these adolescents could be young rebels especially since their
youth suggests they aren’t old enough to be riding this sort of vehicle. The
main overriding score is a rock song which also appears to be diegetic, as one
of the youth protagonists is holding a stereo player common of this decade. A close
up to their faces shows the driver to be stern and composed whereas the
passenger is dancing to the music despite riding a fast vehicle, showing the rider
to be the main protagonist of the thriller due his heroic performance.
Next the sequence cuts to an older man who is deemed to be
dangerous by his “Biker outfit” which is typical of many antagonists from films
of this time, moreover, he is wearing sunglasses over his eyes which makes him
more mysterious or hiding something. This is later used as a red herring to
make the audience believe that he is the antagonist of the film, as this actor
portrayed the antagonist in the prequel to this film. Here a droning, ‘pounding’
score is introduced upon first showing of him again to give the idea that this
man is going to be trouble for the protagonist youths, this helps to create
suspense as the sudden change from music to this score highlights the danger
about to happen. The character appears to be looking in different directions
which lead the audience to assume that he is looking for the protagonist, which
is then affirmed with a sharp turn of his head when the protagonist is brought
into view in the distance by a tracking shot. Here special effects are used to
make the vision of the proposed antagonist to bring the teens face up, and
label him as a “target acquired”, this choice of vocabulary again makes the
audience believe that this character is the antagonist and helps to bring
tension as to whether, he will get his target.
Next the scene cuts to a police man in his car, denoted by
the markings on the car as well as the badge on his chest. The score stops here
which leave the audience believe that this character is not danger. This character
also acts as a red herring to the story, being portrayed as a polar opposite to
the previous character he is also looking for the antagonist, but takes th
approach of asking other kids about his whereabouts, something the other
character didn’t do, leaving his character more of a mystery in the story. The police
attire itself leads the audience to believe that this man is the protagonist
but is later shown to be the antagonist as the plot goes on, act as a red
herring.
The sequence cuts to a parking lot, assumed to be the “Galleria”
that the small girl told the police man. The audience see the proposed
antagonist pull up next to the bike the youths were using which shows that he
knows where the teen is, creating dramatic irony. From here the sequence
crosscuts between the protagonist and the proposed antagonist and protagonist. Whilst
this happens the teen is playing arcade games unaware about that he is being
sought out by two people one of which is shown to be a danger to him. A low
angle shot shows the police man walk across a high walkway, and the biker man
walks in front of the camera, revealing that they are in the same place as the
youth and are about to find him. This shows them both to be powerful and a
threat. The sequence cross cuts to show the policeman walk in front of the
arcade having asked people where the teen may be, this interaction with kids
makes the character not seem like a threat, again reinforcing the red herring,
which are common in the thriller genre.
The policeman interacts with the protagonist’s friend,
asking if he has seen the other teen. The rebellious nature of the youths is shown
here as the teen lies to the policeman about the whereabouts of his friend. This
for the first time highlights the danger of this character despite his
authority, denoted by his uniform. As the policeman makes eye contact with the
protagonist the for the first time we see the policeman become aggressive and
start to push the young teens out of his way to reach the protagonist who
begins to run away. The audience assume that the policeman is trying to help
the teen from the other proposed antagonist but his youth and naivety of the
youth is going to be his downfall, if he is attacked by the other character. This
creates suspense as like a damsel in distress, the audience is led to believe
that the teen is denying the help from the character it is believed will save
him, which makes them confused as to why he doesn’t accept the help, and is
running into the assumed danger.
The protagonist proceeds down a long corridor with a tracking
shot and the score becomes more echoed in the empty hallway. The camera cross
cuts to show the policeman, then the biker, then the teen, to suggest that the
protagonist is blocked at both exits by the characters. The biker man appears
to be holding a box of flowers; this is motif of noir thrillers in which
weapons such as guns are concealed in objects also associated with love i.e.
musical instrument cases, suggesting that this character is armed, as well as
the American policeman, which would connote a standard issue fire arm. An innocent
bystander notices the running child and says “you’re not supposed to be in here”
which almost foreshadows the fight that is about to happen. The camera then
cuts to a medium shot of the teen, it then begins to go into slow motion, which
acts as a reaction shot, as a crosscut reveals the biker man is in front of
him. The droning score comes back, this time acting as a pleonastic score for
the teens heart beat as he attempts to escape the biker. This helps to create
tension as the teen has nowhere to go, and makes the audience question how he
is going to escape the imminent threat show by the biker.
Next the audience see both proposed antagonist and protagonist
make eye contact via a crosscut. Both raise their weapons and aim towards the
teen. A close up of the biker shows him as he says “get down!” to the teen who
is in the crossfire, which reveals the red herring, and shows that the biker is
the protagonist and the police man is
the antagonist, who begins to shoot towards the teen.
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