Escape Plan Genre Action/Mystery/Thriller

Conventions of an action film:•Violence •Weapons- knives, guns, bombs•Missions •Futuristic cars•Explosions and crashes•Cat and mouse chase•Hi tech gadgets and machinery •Destruction •Always has a motive•Murder of loved ones•Tense•Mainly male lead•Fast paced editing

Conventions of a mystery film:•Build up of clues•Subtle hints •Solving the mystery at the end•Protagonist ‘super-human’ or ‘super-genius’ •Villain leaves obvious clues•Sudden breakthrough•Location – famous/familiar place•Solving the crime and catching the villain

Conventions of a thriller film•Good vs. Evil•Peace disturbed by event•Bad chain of events•Protagonist needs to restore peace•Protagonist is usually a strong, brave male character who saves peoples lives (often females)•Director often bases the film on things that are feared most in society

Escape Plan Action/Mystery/Thriller Narrative

Ray Breslin is a former prosecutor who co-owns Breslin-Clark, a Los- Angeles based security firm specializing in testing the reliability of maximum security prisons. He spends his life getting into prisons to study their designs and the guards' habits to find and exploit their weaknesses. He claims his goal is to ensure that criminals sent to prison stay inside by eliminating the weakness of every prison. He is offered a multimillion dollar to test a top-secret prison and see if it is escape-proof. He discovers that the prison is inside a cargo ship in the middle of the ocean, making a simple escape impossible.

Escape Plan Representation Action/Mystery/Thriller

Sylvester Stallone is represented as an intelligent, wise, strong, brave, fearless and muscular which is usually what is expected in an action film as the main character must solve the case in the end and restore the peace.

Arnold Schwarzenegger is another main character who assists Ray in the plan to escape which represents him as sly, calculating, strong, brave and will do anything for his freedom.

Escape Plan Action/Mystery/Thriller Audience

The film will appeal to those who enjoy films with a 1980’s twist and contains some violence and bad language throughout with shooting, stabbing and bare knuckle fighting therefore it’s not seen as a family orientated film. It’s targeted more at adults, more likely males, as the narrative focuses on the male intelligence and most of the characters are middle aged/ older men. The action involved will appeal to young adults and teenagers as well, Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger draw in the audience as they are huge Hollywood actors who are well known. The target audience is most likely to be in groups ABC1.

Escape Plan Rick Altman

Semantic elements Syntactic elements

Fights Gets offered a deal (money)

Violent nature Being captured

Police Attempting to escape

Prison Getting into trouble (fights)

Helicopter Saving people

Guns Being calculating and figuring out a plan

Glass cells Defeating the criminal (death)

Cargo ship Escaping from the location and getting away

Explosion Being rewarded and unveiling the lead up of events

Non-Stop Genre Action/Mystery/Thriller

Conventions of an action film:•Violence •Weapons- knives, guns, bombs•Missions •Futuristic cars•Explosions and crashes•Cat and mouse chase•Hi tech gadgets and machinery •Destruction •Always has a motive•Murder of loved ones•Tense•Mainly male lead•Fast paced editing

Conventions of a mystery film:•Build up of clues•Subtle hints •Solving the mystery at the end•Protagonist ‘super-human’ or ‘super-genius’ •Villain leaves obvious clues•Sudden breakthrough•Location – famous/familiar place•Solving the crime and catching the villain

Conventions of a thriller film•Good vs. Evil•Peace disturbed by event•Bad chain of events•Protagonist needs to restore peace•Protagonist is usually a strong, brave male character who saves peoples lives (often females)•Director often bases the film on things that are feared most in society

Non-Stop Action/Mystery/Thriller Narrative

Bill Marks is an alcoholic U.S federal air marshal; he enrolled in the Air Marshal service after he was discharged from the police force. On a non- stop flight from New York to London aboard British Aqualantic Flight 10, midway over the Atlantic Ocean, Marks receives text messages on his secure phone stating that someone on the plane will die every 20 minutes unless $150 million is transferred into a specific bank account. Breaking protocol, Marks consults with Jack Hammond, the other air marshal on the flight. Hammond is revealed to be smuggling cocaine in a briefcase and following an altercation Marks ends up killing him in a lavatory. This occurs exactly at the 20 minute mark, resulting in the first death. As Marks attempts to stall for time with the texter, he works with the flight crew and Jen Summers, who sits next to Marks, to discover the texter's identity. When the time runs out again, the captain suddenly dies of poisoning. The public becomes convinced that Marks is hijacking the plane, as the bank account is in his name and a passenger uploads video footage of him treating passengers aggressively with no explanation. Rice manages an emergency crash landing at an air base in Iceland after the bomb explodes, disregarding orders from his fighter plane escort. Despite their warnings, the fighter planes do not shoot the plane down.

Non-Stop Representation Action/Mystery/Thriller

Liam Neeson is the main character who is represented as an alcoholic however he is a air marshal who is brave, clever, determined, strong, fearless and turns out to be the hero in the end. He has to find out who is the culprit on the plane

Julianne Moore is also another main character who is a passenger on the plane, she is represented as worried but calm and collected.

Non-Stop Audience Action/Mystery/Thriller

The film will appeal to those who enjoy films with violence and mystery. It’s targeted more at adults, more likely males, as the narrative focuses on the male intelligence who acts as the hero. The action involved will appeal to young adults and teenagers as well, Liam Neeson is a huge Hollywood actor who will attract an audience, and is usually involved in action packed films.The target audience is most likely to be in groups ABC1.

Non-Stop Rick Altman

Semantic elements Syntactic elements

Fights Undercover

Violent nature Traitor identified

Police Threatening phone messages – hacking

Plane Deatth every 20 minutes

Guns Must discover texters identity

Murder

Bomb

Explosions

Genre evolution The form finds itself

Dr. No (1962)This is an early example of an action thriller film as it makes use of these typical conventions of violence, weapons, fighting, deaths and injuries before the genre was labelled specifically. The film involves a lot of action and fast paced movement with guns and makes the audience feel exhilarated. James Bond is a brave, strong masculine character which is usually what is found in these types of film as he is seen as a hero. The women are mainly seen as sex objects and normally have to be ‘saved’ or ‘rescued’ as these early action thriller films portray women as weak and vulnerable. This has changed, modern day films represent women in a positive way and portray them as strong and independent. The narrative throughout the James Bond films are always similar and results in Bond defeating the villain and getting the girl. Dr. No was followed a series of successful James Bond films, Skyfall became a homage with 879.8 million in box office. There are iconic conventions throughout all of the James Bond films to establish a link, for example at the beginning, James Bond is noticeable through the view of a gun barrel.

The classicDie Hard (1988)

Die Hard is an example of a action thriller classic film as John McClane, officer of the NYPD, tries to save wife Holly Gennaro and several others, taken hostage by German terrorist Hans Gruber during a Christmas party at the Nakatomi Plaza in Los Angeles. This film is also highly critical regarded with lasting appeal as more films started using similar conventions such as guns, explosions, helicopters, hostages and murder. This led onto a series of films being created; Die Hard 2 (1990), Die Hard with a Vengeance (1995), Live Free or Die Hard (2007) and A Good Day to Die Hard (2013). Die Hard became the defining template of later action thriller films, for example White House Down (2013) where a Capitol policeman has to save his child while protecting the President from a heavily armed group of paramilitary invaders. Die Hard opened in limited release in 21 theatres on July 15, 1988, earning $601,851—an average of $28,659 per theatre.

Stretching the boundaries of the genre

The Terminator (1984)

This is an example of an action sci-fi thriller film as it makes use of typical conventions which are apparent in other action thriller films with violence, weapons, fighting, deaths however it begins to stretch the boundaries of the genre with sci-fi due to the robots and scenes that are set in the future. But The Terminator still has car chases, gun fights and explosions which is what the audience expects in an action film. The villain and hero are both time travellers from the future which is clear evidence of the sci-fi elements. The film also has parts of horror as the unstoppable monster won’t be defeated and it’s mostly set at night with a girl being chased. Therefore the film incorporates a range of conventions from a variety of genres to create a new but familiar narrative.

ParodyHome Alone (1990)

This is an example of an action comedy as it takes elements from an action thriller film however it is made into a ‘spoof’ which is suitable for families to watch together. An 8-year-old boy who is accidentally left behind while his family flies to France for Christmas must defend his home against idiotic burglars. The two burglars plan to break into the house however the young boy, Kevin, sets numerous booby traps to stop them which is amusing for the audience. The film takes a worrying situation and turns it into a comedy which is light- hearted. It proved to be very popular and therefore stayed in theatres past the Christmas season, and was the number one film at the box office for 12 weeks. There were sequels after Home Alone which includes; Home Alone 2 Lost in New York, Home Alone 3 and 4 and then Home Alone: The Holiday Heist.

HomageThe Bourne Identity (2002)

This is an example of an action mystery thriller homage, a man is picked up by a fishing boat, bullet-riddled and without memory, then races to elude assassins and recover from amnesia. It is easy to recognise distinct genre conventions and they are represented in a purposeful fashion and the film is therefore respected and reverential. A lot of tension and suspense is created throughout the film which is important to the action genre, there is hand-to-hand combat, police chase, gun fights, assassins, hostages and agents. In its opening weekend, The Bourne Identity took in US$27,118,640 in 2,638 theatres. It was followed by a 2004 sequel, The Bourne Supremacy, which received a similar positive critical and public reception. A third film, The Bourne Ultimatum, was released in 2007 and the fourth film of the Bourne franchise, The Bourne Legacy was released in 2012.