Fight club is one of my all time favorite thrillers, because of how it affected me psychologically when I watched it. I could not stop thinking about it for days afterwards.
The film starts inside what looks like a brain, or part of the body, and the camera is swooping sometimes very quickly and sometimes very slowly through this maze of CGI (I assume) created images. It looks almost cartoon, and there are flashes of chemical reactions taking place inside, with electric blue colours throughout, illuminating the dark body parts/cells.
The credits are bold and capital, and they are white which means they contrast in a big way to the surrounding colours of dark blues and grays and black. They flash onto the screen when ever there are chemical impulses which catches the audience’s attention and could make them feel as if they are on some sort of drug or medicine which gets them into the mood to watch the following film. They are also slanted which could be linked to the mind or brain being warped and altered.
The music is quite dancey, techno and racy, which gets the audience hyped up for what is to come, and creates a mood of fast pace film and action. The pace of the music also goes well with the speed that the camera is moving, and the big movements it is making through the brain.
The whole brain with all it’s synapses looks almost like a huge sky or universe, especially when the camera is zooming out. All of this seems rather trippy and suitable.
After the credits are finished, the camera suddenly and quickly zooms out of the main character’s eye and there is a close up of his face. The loud music suddenly cuts out and there is a big gun in his mouth. His expression is incredibly worried and terrified, and there is sweat dripping uncontrollably off his face, with his eyes as wide as possible. This shows that he is being threatened or abused by someone, and perhaps being used for information, or being punished for doing something wrong.
There is a narrative from the main character, and his voice sounds as if it’s echoing in a big room. The camera then cuts to a side profile of him looking up with a hand holding the gun. It is pretty clear that it’s someone else’s hand holding the gun but it is possible that it could look like it was the man with it in his mouth holding it. It is obvious that the man with the gun in his mouth is the narrator, because he is being spoken to by another person’s voice, and the first shot we see of him is so personal that it is only natural that the story will be told from his point of view, and is about him.
The lighting of the room is very gloomy and dark, which creates an air of mysteriousness and when the camera shows a shot of the narrator’s face with the gun in his mouth from the point of view of Tyler Durden, he looks almost dead, the light has been very cleverly used to make his eyes look like sockets and make him look as scary and hard to understand as possible. This makes the viewer wonder what is wrong with him, whilst also very cleverly using a high angle camera shot to make him look incredibly vulnerable at the same time, he is in the hands of someone else. The only light source we can see is the faint lights from the other buildings behind the one they are standing in.
The voices of the characters are surprisingly calm, which juxtaposes with the scene. Usually if somebody has a gun in someone’s mouth they are far from calm, yet Tyler’s voice is relaxed and there is no music in the background, only the echo of his voice in the quiet.
The room its self looks like it could be a big smart office building, because of the glass wall view of the gaping city behind it. This contrasts with the character’s clothes which look somewhat cheap and dirty, as if they have thrown their lives away and are wondering what to do with themselves.
The character of Tyler is kept a secret for the opening, you never see his face, only the back of him or up to half way down his face in the reflection of the glass. This is deliberate I think, so that the audience wonders who he is and why he is the situation he is.
At first you can’t hear what the narrator is trying to say with the gun between his teeth. This gives a slight insight into how confused and messed up he is.
Gradually you start to notice the sound of ticking in the background, the sound of a bomb, and the camera swoops down from the room they are in to what looks like the bottom of the building, and through to another near building into a basement. There is what looks like a big piece of machinery showing, and the narrator’s voice over tells us that there will be a bomb. There is something about the room the bomb is in that makes it clear that it is about to erupt, and a big change is coming.
Tension is being built throughout the whole scene, and more obviously when Tyler says ‘two and a half’. It is totally clear now that he is counting down some sort of bomb or destructive thing.
The long shot of the narrator on the chair and Tyler facing out of the big glass window looking out to the lit city is extremely beautiful and se metrical. Tyler is clearly in control as his figure looks powerful, as if he is a king looking over his kingdom, and the narrator looks smaller and more vulnerable tied to his chair looking round at the king. Both characters are silhouettes which makes the scene even more mysterious.
The camera then cuts and zooms into the narrator’s face as he turns around, away from the light and looks towards the camera. This shot creates the effect that he has just realised something, maybe a plan to escape, or maybe he has just come to terms with the fact that he is totally helpless and has given into death. The way he turns away from the light and the light shines on the side of his face makes him seem slightly suspicious and as if he’s got something to hide, as only part of his face is being lit.
The only sound left is the sound of the bomb ticking, which the audience has to be aware of by now.
Overall, this opening scene is incredibly effective in building tension, with the ticking noise of the bomb, the loud music in the beginning and the sudden silence a little further in. Also, it instantly grabs the viewer’s attention as they want to find out more about the main characters.
