Final Destinati

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The opening sequenceAnalysed by Nico Duckert

Themes/Mood:Final Destination 3 is about a series of killings of a group of teenagers which is foreshadowed by a couple of pictures. The main character figures out pretty quickly that all the deaths are shown on the pictures in some form. This would be classified as a horror since it is quite gory and very straight forward. The images shown are all small parts of fun fare which is edited with scary and very low music. You can see pieces of a carousel with horses, and various images of tarot cards.

The opening sequence is symbolic of this movie. You can see this from the way that the title ‘Final Destination’ is shown by being blended into a stack of tarot cards. This foreshadows the whole aspect of the main character seeing the future (i.e. knowing how people are going to die). From the fact that she is looking at pictures can be drawn onto the same level as reading tarot cards. The sign saying ‘Do You Believe in Fortunes?’ foreshadows later events of the teenagers not being able to stop the process of their dying one by one.

Throughout the title sequence there are various cutaways to the ball rolling through the pin ball game and missing holes such as ‘Luck’ and ‘Fate’. This is representative of the characters conditions in the movie. None of them have any luck or any good fate which results in their fortunes. The title sequence then finishes on a shot of the ball rolling into the hole ‘Death’. This then cuts straight into the actual movie which begins with the characters getting on the rollercoaster. This juxtaposing of shots is foreshadowing the rollercoaster breaking and most of them dying in one way or another.

Characters?

The characters are only introduced after the title sequence finishes, linking the introduction to the actual movie. When the title sequence flows into the start of the movie it is immediately established that the characters influenced by the title sequence are the ones which get the most screen time (i.e. privilege) as soon as the movie starts. When you then watch more of the movie you see exactly how the title sequence links to later events and how much it symbolises.

Titles/Graphics

The titles tend to blend in and out slowly which fits the music. They are also quite serious introducing the genre. Behind the titles the screen lights up emphasizing the names. They also fill up the screen at time because the writing is quite big and bold. The style of the writing is very basic and quite old style with faults to it so it looks a bit chipped. The picture distracts from the titles slightly just because it is quite interesting and odd to see these things from unusual angles.

Music/SoundThe music is made up of very slow and partially low strings. This suggests luring danger and once again emphasizes the genre of the movie. At one point throughout the sequence the music then changes to a higher tone, probably violin, which just keeps the audience on edge. The music complements the image due to the slow blends of the video montage. Everything is timed to fit with the music so the titles blend in quite slowly. All of these factors create a very eerie and sinister mood. The music is non diegetic and there is not a lot of diegetic sound in the whole sequence except for the journey of the balls of the pinball game where you can hear the mechanics working. This makes everything seem odd and dangerous.

EditingThe shot choice does not tell you a lot about the actual plot of the movie. The opening sequence is a video montage which is made up of little details of a balls course through a pin ball machine, a tarot card reader, pieces of signs and posters and all of the are representative of the idea of luck, fate and destination. Because of the slow cuts the mood is kept upright adding to a creepy and mysterious effect which then leads into the actual beginning of the movie. Different shots are juxtaposed with different parts of the opening sequence. So that there is actually only one narrative going on at the time which is the course of the pinball ball through the machine. This is inter cut with other bits and pieces ranging from half a dolls face or signs which portray messages such as ‘Do you believe in Fortunes.’