Die Hard With A Vengeance Trailer Analysis

 Die Hard With a Vengeance trailer

The title appears at the end of the film after a extreme long shot of a massive explosion in the water. The title of the film only appears once throughout the trailer. The title appears on a black background and zooms past the screen really close up and then reveals the title of the franchise in bold capital letters followed by an upwards swipe of the name of the sequel. The title of the film ‘Die Hard’ immediately states that people will be dying within the film and that the main protagonist is involved within a lot of fights, yet the ‘with a vengeance’ gives off an impression that it is someone out to get payback on the protagonist for something he has done and if you watch the trailer the antagonist is specifically targeting the protagonist and is making him do things. Therefore the title has a clear link to the plot of the film. The font used for the title is large, bold and in capitals which is also centred in the middle of the screen. The colour of the title though is done in a chrome colour and looks scratched maybe to signify that it is worn out, just like the protagonist. By the name of the film, I immediately associate it with pain, death, anger and hatred mostly just because of the word ‘Die’ but also the word ‘Vengeance’ brings on other ideas of hate.

Some of the characters such as the main protagonist are already recognised due to the fact that it is the third film in the franchise and seeing as the protagonist is Bruce Willis, it attracts a wide audience seeing as he is known to do action films. Samuel Jackson is also another main protagonist in the film and is also another big star in the film world and has worked alongside Bruce Willis in Pulp Fiction as well as being in other big films such as Jurassic Park. An explosion appears just before the main antagonist is shown with a non-diegetic voice over occurring saying “In the hands of the mastermind of terror”.  This straight away allows the audience to know who the villain of the film is (Jeremy Irons) as well as showing the audience he is a big star too as he is the villain of the Lion King.

So this clearly shows some Proppian character types as Bruce Willis is the hero, Samuel Jackson would be the helper and Jeremy Irons would be both the quest giver and the villain. This therefore shows that some roles can cross over. Due to the fact that both Bruce and Samuel were in Pulp Fiction before Die Hard with a Vengeance which is now a cult hit film and was a great success, it created itself a unique selling point by allowing the audience to know those characters will be together in another film.

The film and the trailer identifies the location of where it is set by showing the skyline of New York with a quick montage showing different shots of the different tourist destinations such as the Empire State building and the Chrysler building. This allows the audience to immediately know where it is set by showing all of the known spots in the city. The lighting for the film is quite high key with a low contrast due to the fact that it is set during the day showing there is more danger going on as there are pedestrians around but things are blowing up causing danger. Although in the trailer it shows some parts which seem life threatening for the protagonist and these scenes are all low key lighting to make it seem all dark and dangerous. Therefore in this there are clear binary oppositions such as light and dark which is the urban city compared against the dangerous underground areas and hero and villains which is the main protagonist and the antagonist.

The film trailer begins with a montage of establishing shots with the speed in between each shot speeding up until it stops with a long shot of an explosion. This helps build an atmosphere of time was running out with the increase in pace between each shot. There are then close ups of the main characters so the audience can identify with them and know who are the antagonist and protagonist. The pace then slows down in the trailer to show the destruction and panic of the pedestrians as well as all the emergency services being scattered around New York. But once again the pace of the film starts to pick up and begins to get faster and faster until the title of the film appears. In these scenes were the pace gets faster, it shows a lot of destruction, guns and car chases which is typical and common of an action trailer convention. The scenes come to a halt with text appearing on the screen announcing the release date of the film making it more dominant than anything else shown in the film until the title. After a final extreme long shot of an explosion, the title of the film appears on the screen against a black background making it the most dominant feature of this film. But as soon as it is finished it reverts back to a very slow paced scene from the film adding a bit of humour to the film.

The trailer starts off with a non-diegetic ticking noise which speeds up as the pace of the trailer does which then immediately stops with a diegetic explosion. The ticking resembles that time is running out and is also symbolic for the ticker of a bomb. A non-diegetic voice over then occurs highlighting the main characters and the antagonist. The voice of the voice over is deep and sounds serious which relates to the mood of the trailer after the explosion. Sirens can be heard over the city whilst people are screaming which connote that destruction and chaos is happening. The diegetic speech of the characters reveals that the antagonist is targeting the protagonist and is making him play silly games such as ‘Simon says’ instead of helping out with the chaos. The music playing in the background is upbeat, fast paced and sounds epic as if something is going down which helps build up the atmosphere, although this is sent to the background noise as the dialogue and non-diegetic voice over are foregrounded. The voice over then says the release date of the film and “When the theatres go dark…. The roof blows off” which is emphasised more than anything else so that everyone knows the release date and that it will be full of high octane explosions and fights. Towards the end of the film the theme becomes more percussive and gets slightly louder whilst the voice over reveals the major actors in the film to grab the attention of the audience with these famous actors. They finally use an explosion to beep out the swear word which adds a bit of comedic value which is straight away followed up by the voice over once again emphasising the name of the Director and the film’s title on a black screen.

Die Hard with a Vengeance clearly and straight away states its genre by being a sequel to an action series which are known for being action thrillers. The trailer starts off with people and the city in panic as multiple explosions happen across New York. The explosions are a typical connotation of an action film. Then the non-diegetic voice over as well as the in film speech states that the antagonist has something in for the antagonist creating an enigmatic code of why he is doing this and creates suspense and a thriller atmosphere. Therefore this film trailer uses Barthes proairetic codes to establish a genre, whilst still raising questions within it. Although it does give hints of what happens in the plot by showing loads of gold bars with the protagonist then stating “they knocked over the federal reserve” meaning the antagonist wants money and therefore allows the audience to know a little about what to expect from the film.

The audience for this film would be males aged from 15-31 due to the fact that the BBFC rating for the film is a 15. The film contains lots of fight scenes, car chases and explosions which are typical or actions films which stereotypically males are seen to enjoy more than females. Therefore with all the action sequences and fast paced editing it grabs the attention of males more. The trailer does contain a few humorous moments though in the film allowing people interested in different genres find something interesting in this film. The film also got reviewed by companies such as the ‘Rolling Stone’ which said “It’s a tense, terrifically funny action dazzler with a wow level in special effects that will be hard to top.” So if people read this review also it makes it clear what genre it is and highlights it to the male audience. The film creates its own unique selling point by turning this action film into a thriller genre also by making the protagonist being played with and manipulated like a puppet by the antagonist so the protagonist has to break free and figure out what is happening. Therefore it creates enigma codes and does something else which isn’t typical of action films. Although it still grabs the attention of those looking for familiarity with the common and clear action conventions.