Kingsman: The Secret Service opening scene

The very first scene in the opening to the film does not tell much about the whole film, the music played in the background is really slow and peaceful, it is the kind of music which would be expected to be played during meditation. There is a line which transforms into multiple lines and a skyline like picture above it, the lines move to the music, they could represent seismic waves during an earthquake. The scene really does not say much about what the film is about.

The 3D effect used when the random circles cover the blank black screen to reveal one of the producers name is very questionable, this is because it gives nothing to what the film is about or even the general theme. It both does and does not fit in with the music overlay, it is a very mystical with what is happening which fits in with the music however it can make the audience feel the opposite way to relaxed as they do not know what is going on.

The third scene is a complete contrast towards the previous two scenes, it is not animated but in real life, it zooms out of an extreme close up on the stereo to revel a small snippet of the background surrounding it. The background shows that this scene is set in a dessert-like area like the middle east, the sand bags suggest that it could be a war area. This can make the audience feel more comfortable as they are finally in a setting rather than the previous scenes, however it can make them feel uncomfortable and scared as the setting looks dangerous. The subtitles at the bottom show the date and location of the scene, this gives the viewer basic information about the setting. The foreign writing above the English subtitle shows that the generic setting and maybe even the cast are middle-eastern which gives the audience a further idea about the content of the film.

As the camera zooms out further two characters are revealed, they look middle eastern and wearing war-like clothes. The both look relaxed, this is shown by both characters by sitting down causally and with one smoking a cigarette, this can make the audience feel relaxed as it doesn’t look like anything bad is going to happen. One of the characters is casually holding an RPG, by seeing this can automatically make the viewer on edge and uncomfortable as it is not normal to have an RPG and defiantly not by just casually sitting down with one. In the far background there looks to be a helicopter flying towards the two men, this adds questions to what is happening/going to happen in this scene.

When the helicopter flys closer into the shot there appears to be two people hanging down from it, this makes the viewer feel on edge as they know something bad is going to happen, when the pervious two characters notice the helicopter approaching them they jump up and attempt to shoot it down, the helicopter people shoots one bullet each and kills both characters. This shows the contrast between the characters and can tell the viewer that they are the more superior people and can also show that they will be the main focus in the film.

The helicopter carries on flying over the scene like nothing has happened, the music begins to speed up and build up to the chorus which can almost give a sigh of relieve to the viewer as they find out that the helicopter features the “good guys”. It can also make the audience feel tense about what is going to happen as the music is building up really fats compared to the slow relaxing music previously played.

A high angle pan of the helicopter is swiftly followed by an extreme long shot showing a castle-like building, the music suddenly gets to the fast beat chorus, as soon as this happens the helicopter fires missiles at the building, it comes across as giving an comedy effect to what is happening. The scene does not give much about the storyline but just that these people want to dispose of this building. The lack of information is purposely done to make the audience more gripped as they question what is happening.

There are many missiles which are fired from the helicopter causing many explosions on the building, it shows that these characters mean business and will stop at no lengths to compelte whatever their task is. The rock debris which has fallen from the building fall down and spin around in a line-something which would not happen in real life, it makes the viewer question why this is happening.

The rocks which were shown in the previous scene bounce closer to the camera and reveal that they are in letter shapes and turn to a metallic gold colour, the letters spell out the opening credits of the producers and producing companies.

As the camera zooms in closer it comes clear that the rocks are in letter shapes and also shows that a lot of damage is being done towards the building.

The camera continues to zoom into a window in the building with all of the damage happening around it, this makes the audience question why that room is so important and what is happening to it and why people are attempting to destroy it. The overall vibe of the opening scene of this film is to get the viewer to question the plot and piece together the small amount of information which is shown.