Opening sequence analysis - Children of Men.

Children of Men. 

There is no music, just the distribution companies which as shown were Universal Studios, Strike Entertainment Production and Hit and Run Productions. Then there is a blackout followed by a voiceover of a man and woman presenting the news. 

From the voiceover we learn that there has been a siege in Seattle for 1000 days about which there are  demands for it to stop.  There is a reason why British borders will remain closed after 80 years which we discover is because of illegal immigrants. Then we get the lead story which is that the youngest person on the planet was killed. This is a sign that there has been a humanity disaster for several years. As soon we are told this we are shown a crowd of people in a cafe yet the news keeps going as a sound bridge. 

From this frame we see that it’s very dark and depressing because of the colours used like blues, reds and blacks. The peoples facial expressions are very sad, shocked but some are neutral. This is obviously a tragedy happening for the world and questions are raised as to why. The people in the scene are all adults who are looking up presumably at a TV screen watching the news and we see what they are seeing because there is another screen in the frame. 

Then a character walks through the cafe and orders a drink. The audience would look at this character with interest to see what he is doing and we then follow him with a tracking shot. The camera switches to the screen they are watching and back again, then tracks the man. As we track throughout the crowd there’s people crying and wailing. We learn that the youngest person was 18 years old; this gives across the idea that some sort of disaster has been happening for 18 years. 

When we track out of the cafe onto the street we get a view of a busy street with cars, people, shops and the sky looks quite gloomy, although some of it is quite modern with big moving screens on the major shops and buses. The date is shown to be 16th December 2027, so we know it’s in the future. It says London so we know where it is set. We pan around through the crowded street following the man who the audience will assume to be the main protagonist of the movie. There are no signs of children as it is very adult dominated which raises more questions. When the man stops the camera pans around him to a reverse shot while he is putting something into his coffee. There is suddenly an explosion from the cafe and there is destruction on the street and a lot of screaming. The camera tracks past the man toward the smoke where a woman carrying her severed arm comes out. This raises more shocking questions. Then there is a blackout and the title of the movie appears.