Starting with a long shot centering the back of a character standing waiting along the side of a busy road, holding what appears to be a Halloween mask and a duffel bag, instantly inflicts stereotypical robbery props on the audience. This instant shot at the start invokes the theme of danger and crime for the audience which is then established through the quick and eerie tempo of the non-diegetic soundtrack, and as the scene progresses this tempo is increased along with sporadic drumming to invoke the intensity of the scene.
We are quickly introduced to the characters new location in a shot transition as we follow this character, and this time all of the characters are masked hiding their identities which establishes the robbery event about to take place from their costumes, as they are dressed in all black and the diegetic dialogue of their conversation about ‘splitting’ the cash establishes the monetary ambitions of the robbery. The immediate and growing tone is anticipating and preparing for the event which is expressed using the fast tempo of shot duration and the shot reverse shot between the characters, following their conversation which is focused on the event. Another example of this building intensity comes from the dangerous element of the event through the establishing, low shot on the height at which the characters are scaling to get from one building to another which I can infer reaches the target audience from the action-based impact from this shot in relation to the previous shots so far.
Another key entailment from this sequence in relation to the predictions for the rest of the plot comes from the diegetic dialogue at which the characters converse about ‘the joker’ which is linked through a cross-cut from one location to another between two separate groups of robbers as they ‘prepare’ for the event; this is evident as it suggests to the audience of the strong significance that this unknown character brings to the plot and specifically his relation in ultimately controlling this robbery.
The use of guns also establishes the dangerous element of each of these characters along with the final location of a bank which further demonstrates the intention of the scene, finalizing the anticipating tone of previous shots. We know from this scene that the target audience is influenced from the action and dangerous element which is also established through the use of pleonastic sound effects of shooting and screams which depict the high intensity element of this event and the fear at which these characters are causing. The audiences focused is threading in and out of differing locations of the characters as they ‘complete’ their robbery, suspending the audience's engagement through the variety and also confirms the well planned out nature of the robbery.
A twist is added as the robbers deceit each other and gradually shoot one another, confirming through dialogue to the audience that it was the ‘bosses’ orders, and when we finally get to our focus on the last living robber, we soon find out it is the mentioned ‘Joker’ remaining; this establishes the notion of his significance as the main ‘villain’ of the plot which skillfully invokes his importance which aids audiences predictions of the films narrative.
This opening sequence successfully incorporates the notion of danger and engages its target audience in reaching high intensity action moments throughout the first 5 minutes of the scene, developing the plot with the establishment of the main villain and also imposing this character's characteristics and traits of slyness, violence and his calculating agenda.
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