Analysis of the Opening Sequence of 'The Dark Knight Rises'

Director- Christopher Nolan

Starring- Christian Bale, Anne Hathaway, Tom Hardy, Morgan Freeman, and Michael Caine

Pre- Opening Sequence:

The film begins with the titles; Warner Bros, DC Comics, and Regeny logo. Each of the logos have a dark colour scheme, showing the dark theme of the movie. There are also a metallic texture, which would represent the industry that Gotham City is built from. We then appear to see a slow zoom as ice breaks into the shape of the Batman logo/symbol, this shows that Batman is re-emerging from the depths in which Bruce Wayne gave up on being Batman.
     Next part of the scene we see Comissioner Gordon's speech, this leads up to a sound bridge as the video appears to show a portrait of Harvey Dent with the Commissioner in front of it (Harvey was a character from the original Dark Knight film), the scene then fades to black which suggests a passage of time between the two films.
     Then it shows a CIA agent from a low angle shot, suggesting a sense of power. The agent is also wearing casual clothing and combat trousers, the soldiers around him are fully equipped with the uniform, which is also suggesting he is ranked higher than them. We then see some prisoners in a car with bags on their heads, which is similar with how captured terrorists are seen in the present day. Incidental music is used to build background and to create suspense, which then leads to the talk of a mysterious 'masked man' who the agent calls 'Bane', with only the name, the audience is kept in the dark of the character.
     From this scene we see an aerial shot of a plane, which establishes a new scene's location, the CIA agent seems to want to find out about Bane, as the prisoners are told to be his henchman, he pretends to kill one of the prisoners to scare the others into talking yet one of the other prisoners speaks out and questions him. The voice of the prisoner had been heavily edited to suggest that he was Bane. Bane then shows intelligence by knowing that his fellow prisoners have not been killed. The camera then changes to a forward tracking into Bane's back, ready for the reveal. The agent questions him and Bane refers to himself as 'We', showing that he speaks for what he calls 'All The People'. Then we see a low angle shot on Bane's reveal, this is used to create tension and to show the dominance of this mysterious 'Masked Man', the CIA Agent who is knelt down below Bane is viewed in a high angle shot to show his submission towards him.
     Next we see an extreme longshot which is used to re-establish the scene in the mountain area, which gives the feeling of something else is going to happen; a new and much larger plane appears in the background. From this point, non diegetic/ dramatic music is used to show a beginning of action and a thrilling moment in the film, which also uses quick editing to emphasise the speed of the action from when bane gets revealed to when the plane crashes. Next we see the a blood transfusion Bane plans between two characters, this shows as well as his masculinity he has alot of brains to pull of schemes he plans to do. As well as that, we can see Bane's great leadership by how his henchman shows loyalty and willing to do anything by taking a dive for him to make his plane crash more realistic. Next an extreme longshot is used from the Bane plane to show the symbolise the end of the action and also to establish the scenery, then forward momentum is used to show a change in scene from a city to a bridge to Wayne Manor.