Die Hard With A Vengeance

The opening sequence of Die Hard With A Vengeance is relatively short compared to other blockbuster movies, at just 1 minute and 20 seconds (not including the distributor’s logo clip) and is primarily used to set the scene of the overall story.

The first 15 seconds of the opening sequence is taken up by the logo for the production company Cinergi, who had previously been involved with several high-profile movies before this such as Super Mario Bros., Renaissance Man and Medicene Man all of which were big budget flicks, but with a varied reception. A non-digetic sound of the Cinergi 'theme' plays behind this.

We then see an ariel shot of the world famous Brooklyn Bridge in New York, which is the first of a series of establishing shots in this opening sequence. The non-digetic sound being played is the famous song Summer in the City by The Lovin' Spoonful (1966), with which the title of the movie appears in two separate bursts. The words DIE HARD appear in bold white letters and WITH A VENGENCE afterwards in a bold black font. It is important that DIE HARD appears on its own so that the audience makes the association with the two previous films of the series, but then see that the 'vengeance' part of the title is going to be the basis of the narrative.

Many elements of the mise en scene are used to create a positive atmosphere over the next minute or so. We can place the time of day as the morning due to the sun rising over various shots of New York City and it's landmarks. The edits between each shot are clean with no fading or cross-dissolving etc, and they also come in between each line of the song. After 7 different views of the city at sunrise we are actually taken into the city.

We see the bustling city in the morning as people are starting to go about their day, with a variety of long shots, mid-shots and close up shots of different individuals and groups of people, lots of digetic sounds that you would expect to hear in New York (i.e. traffic, beeping car horns), still with the upbeat tune of Summer in the City playing and the sun beating down onto the streets - all of which connotates that it is going to be a good day for everyone. A lot of effort has been put in to showing the diversity of the residents in the city, so that the audience sees that the film makers view everyone as equal (something which is later brought up in the movie).

Everything is going along perfectly until bang - the layer of non-digetic sound disappears, and there is a massive explosion (using pyrotechnics and a lot of smoke). To the audience they would think it has gone silent, but we hear the sound of glass smashing, metal being crushed, brakes screeching, birds fluttering and eventually sirens. The explosion has been filmed from 6 different angles of varying distance and is repeated as many times. The explosion to the end of the scene takes up about 20 seconds, although this seems like a much shorter time in comparison with the rest of the opening sequence we have already seen, and the mood instantantly drops to one of, not any emotion, but confusion as to what has just happened. We then cut to the interior of a police station where the film continues.

This opening sequence has some differences to others of the genre and other blockbuster movies. We do not see any opening credits other than the title, although it can be said that by having the mention of Die Hard the audience make the connection to the main star Bruce Willis. We do not learn who directs, produces, wrote the screenplay etc. as the focus is on the actual story and setting up of the narrative.