Inception - Film Opening Analysis

• A dramatic score of music featuring a lot of deep strings and brass is played before Cobb, the protagonist, is shown on screen. This helps to build tension and the audience’s anticipation.
• This music stops as the screen cuts to the diegetic sound and image of waves crashing against rocks. This helps to set the scene and presents to the audience that the film is set in the present day. The water also splashes onto the camera lens, making the audience feel as if they are a part of the film. 
• We are then shown Cobb, who appears to have been washed up on shore. There is the sound of children playing in the background, and an eyeline match is shown from Cobb to them. The fact that he is at a distance from them and that the are turned away from him suggests that he has lost some sort of connection with them.
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  Arm/military men find him and nudge him with a rifle - it appears that Cobb, too, has a gun on him. This sets up themes of action and violence but also ideas of danger and threat that will occur throughout the film.
• A wide shot is shown of the beach and a grand house - shows the audience that is where Cobb is being taken.
• The interior of the ‘base’ is a very traditional looking Chinese building, which goes against the general urban locations of a thriller. This foreign setting suggests that the film will deal with large, powerful groups of enemies that the protagonist will have to fight and take down.
• The warm, dim, yellow light in the dark, low room contrasts with the infinite blue of the sky in the previous shot. This gives the audience a sense of confinement which connotes entrapment and threat.
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  The wide, centre shot adds to the scale of importance of the scene and heightens the tension being built.
• All diegetic sound can be heard (footsteps, a box being set down on the table) - this accentuates the sense of fear and suspense as every noise can be heard; nothing can be hidden.
• The music score is deep and dramatic, again conveying the scale and depth of the situation.
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  No faces are shown as of yet, only the back of the head and hands. This builds suspense and keeps the audience guessing who the characters are. Chiaroscuro is used in this setting to add mystery and ambiguity.
• The Chinese man then speaks to Cobb, who appears to be very weak. Immediately the audience will be asking questions - who is Cobb? Who is the Chinese man? Why is Cobb in this place?
• The spinner is shown which, a little later in the film, becomes an extremely significant motif. The Chinese man appears to know what is is - the audience is instantly intrigued by this and will want to know what the spinner does and what it represents.