Thriller Anaylsis: Mission: Impossible 3

Mission: Impossible 3(2006)

Director: J.J. Abrams

Writers: Alex Krutsman, Roberto Ocri

Stars:  Tom Cruise, Michelle Monaghan, Ving Rhames

 Plotline

 Ethan Hunt comes face to face with a dangerous and sadistic arms dealer while trying to keep his identity secret in order to protect his girlfriend.

Storyline

 IMF agent Ethan Hunt has given up field work to train agents instead, because he is seeing someone, Julia whom he wants to marry and live a normal life with. But his friend, Billy Musgrave, an IMF big wig informs that an agent he trained is being held by an arms dealer. Ethan decides to rescue her and does but because of a dead man's switch that was implanted in her, she is killed by remote. When Ethan returns, high ranking IMF man, Brassel chastises both Ethan and Musgrave for their actions. Ethan decides to go off book and bring the arms dealer in. But before leaving he marries Julia. After apprehending the arms dealer Ethan returns with him to the States but upon arriving they are attacked and the arms dealer escapes. Later Julia is abducted.

 Opening Title Sequence

This scene opens to the sound of the main character in pain. This is then greeted with the production companies name in the bottom right corner of the screen in the film's signature font. There is then a straight cut to Ethan Hunt. Throughout the scene there are many straight cuts between the unknown antagonist and the already known protaganist. The extreme close ups and handheld camera work during the scene increase in size the futher the sequence goes on. There is no score to this scene uhtil a gun is fired. The score is then included with high pitch violin notes for tension. When the tension drops only bass and percusion remains. When the gun is fired again however there is an immediate straight cut to a burning thread which sets of the title sequence set to the frachises famous score. The titles in this sequence are slowly increasing in size and are in the main font of the film. Due to the dialouge being the main source of sound in this opening sequence tension is built up. The dialouge also mentions events that appear in later on in the film implying that this is at the end of the film and perhaps foreshadowing a dark and in depth story.