Mission Impossible 2

Usually a typical spy film has a hero, villain, guns, cars and women who they fall in love with. One example of a spy film is Casino Royale. It contains action, romance, weapons.

John Woo (director of MI2) introduces the three scenes:

The first scene he introduces is the lab. In the beginning of the film the city is shown using birds eye view. This way the director is sure that the audience know where the setting takes place. The camera then zooms in towards the professor. The green and red lights give the audience less comfort and more worries about what’s about to happen. The lights give the audience a sense of mystery and they begin to wonder. The neon lights make the audience know that chimera is somehow special. The director makes the professor look suspicious when picking up the chimera. This is done to make the audience ask themselves “Is he supposed to be touching that?”

When the professor begins to walk, the camera zooms in towards the bag. That way the director is showing that the bag is very significant and is special. When the children begin to sing “Ring roses” the director tries to show the audience by using a flashback that the plague in 1330s is somehow similar to Chimera. That way the audience begin to feel afraid of what could happen to the professor.

The plane scene is introduced in a calm way which doesn’t make the audience wonder anything. The director makes the villain look like a hero by giving him a mask to make the professor and the audience tricked. The atmosphere around the people shows the audience that it’s a calm and peaceful ride. The lights that the director places in give the audience a sense of calmness and peacefulness. The Speech between Dmitri and the scientist becomes less clear. When Dmitri says “You’ll soon be with old friends” the director makes the audience wonder, what friends? Later on the plane has a problem and the director put in flashing lights to awaken the audience from the boring talk to the beginning of action. When the professor says to Dmitri that they have a problem, Dmitri says “You keep calling me Dmitri, you really shouldn’t” the audience realise that they have been tricked. When the look alike Dmitri hits the professor on his throat, the director places extreme music to shock the audience. The camera moves from side to side and has fast movement so that the audience would want to see how Dmitri is hitting him. Later on Dmitri stands in the middle and takes off his mask. The director puts in cool music to make the audience like the villain in  some way too and to show that the villain can be as cool as the hero. The villains face is sweating and red, all to show the audience that the villain might have been in the mask for quite a long time and he’s glad to take it off. Then the villain smiles to his companions, like he’s trying to say “How do I look?”

After this moment most of the audience forget about the professor, and become more attracted to the villain. Later on the villain jumps off the plane leaving it to crash. The director puts in a warning sound coming from the pilot’s seat to make the audience more and more worried and to make them want to interfere with the film. When the plane is about to crash, one of the pilots takes control of the plane, giving the audience hope that the plane and the people will survive, but the plane crashes and the music change, from extreme to sudden calmness.

The director quickly moves the camera to the Grand Canyon. The reason the director moves the camera so fast, is to show the audience that the new scene is really far away from the plane.

The director shows the audience the Grand Canyon and the audience begin to know that that’s where the hero is about to be introduced. The reason for this is that most spy films introduce their heroes in quite dangerous places and in places where a normal person wouldn’t really be able to survive. Here the director uses the Grand Canyon because it’s hot and it makes the audience almost feel what its like in there, and its high and dangerous. The hero is shown by the director that he’s dressed in a sleeveless t-shirt to show off his muscles and strength. The background socca music is cheering up the audience. It’s played in a radio style. Soft and quiet. The director made the sound quiet, but echoing throws the mountains. When the hero climbs, he uses no climbing equipment. That way the director shows the audience that the hero is a brave person and is ready to risk his life regardless of the dangers. The director shows him as a person who works alone and manages it, compared to the villain who works in group. That way the director shows us that the hero is an independent person who can work alone and doesn’t need any help. When the hero is ready to jump from one edge to another, the director stops the music and uses slow motion to show the jump. The hero slips and hangs on one hand. Drumming sounds are inserted. The audience begin to figure that holding on with one hand is totally impossible. Gladly the hero’s second hand grips the rock and the socca music begins to play to show that the hero is going to survive. As the hero reaches the top the music plays even louder. This way the director was trying to show the audience that his mission is now complete. The hero smiles, showing the audience that he is happy for what he achieved.

The film MI2 attracts teenagers because it contains all the action that a teenager would mostly like. In this film the tension, the action and the camera effects add up to make a film that fits in to the spy film genre.