The opening sequence of Zombieland uses slow motion footage from a Phantom camera to introduce the post-apocalyptic world overrun by zombies. A narrator explains that the main character has developed rules to survive, like having good cardio to outrun zombies. Scenes show a large man chased by a coach zombie, highlighting Rule #1 of cardio, and a mother who crashes without a seatbelt, pointing to Rule #4 of always wearing a seatbelt. The handheld camera style and interactions of characters with title cards set the scene of a world where one must follow rules to stay alive among the zombies.

1. Analysis Of An Opening Sequence – Zombieland.
Zombieland is a horror/comedy film that fits under the
sub-genre zombie comedy. I have chosen to analyze this
opening as I think the use of slow motion (created by
using a Phantom camera which shoots 1000 frames per
second) and the way that the characters portrayed in the
opening interact with the different titles that appear. I
also like the idea that the main character states that he
has different rules to follow in order to stay alive in
“the United States of Zombieland”.
The sequence starts off with a shot of an American
flag being blown in the wind. This shot uses the mise-en-
scene of a prop to represent that the setting is in
America. The main character, whose name is unknown to use
at this point, narrates over it saying “oh America, I
wish I could still tell you that this was still America.
But I’ve come to realize you can’t have a country without
people.” As soon as this piece of dialogue is finished,
the camera gets picked up by an unknown character to show
the White House with cars in front of it over turned,
crashed and on fire. By this point, the audience will be
thinking that something is wrong by the fact that there
is no-one else around, that cars are over turned and on
fire and by the fact it is deadly silent.
The camera then moves down, the camera angle of all
of this is a point of view shot as the camera is a
handheld video camera, to show more props of an automatic
machine gun such as an Uzi and a normal handheld pistol.
This reinforces that something is not right as it creates
the question of “why is there no-one around, traffic
over-turned and wreck, and weapons strewn on the ground?”
As the unknown character pans around it shows more
vehicles that are on fire and abandoned. A whip-pan

2. follows this, possibly to create tension and a sense of
unease. The sound, which was a kind of rock music type
turns into a beat which is used to create a feeling of
fear in the audience to make them jump and to get their
heart rate increased. The camera then focuses on a man,
pounced onto a car staring down the lens of the camera.
The man is in a suit, bald, creating inhuman sounds while
he is covered in blood. The sounds of the zombie panting
are placed over the music, which is a dramatic
instrumental to create tension within the audience.
The unknown cameraman then starts to run backwards,
keeping the camera on the zombie chasing after him. The
cameraman then stubbles and falls onto his back, the
camera starts to get interference and goes blurry like an
untuned television, yet the man in the suit in blood is
still within the main frame. The cameraman’s body is then
shown within the shoot, with the man shouting towards the
blood-covered zombie. The zombie then starts to bite and
tear into the man. Blood splatters onto the top right of
the camera as the zombie stares into the camera, letting
the body pieces of the unfortunate man fall out of his
mouth as the narrator states “no my friends, this is now
the United States of Zombieland.”
The camera then extremely zooms out to the use of
special effects to show the Earth to be cracked with fire
and lava all over. Over this, the narrator says that “its
amazing how fast the world can go from bad to total shit
storm and why am I alive while everyone around me has
turned to meat?” He then answers his question stating
that its because “of my list of rules” The sequence then
zooms into a scene of a large, overweight man being
chased by a zombie, dressed in a coaching uniform. The
use of the costume of the coach may be to show how that
the zombie was fit in his previous life and therefore
fast whereas the large human is not as fit, and therefore
his capture is inevitable. A title appears beside this
stating “Rule #1 CARDIO”. This then cuts to a scene of a
busy street in which cars are crashing into one another,
zombies are chasing after humans. Then it cuts to a scene
in which a mother is in her car trying to escape
children, covered in blood dressed in dresses which seems
as if they where previously at a birthday party, or a
party of some sort. The mother then crashes into a truck
which cuts her off, resulting in her flying through the
windscreen, shot using the Phantom camera to capture the
moment in slow motion. A title stating “Rule #4
SEATBELTS” appears next to the body of the woman as she
slides across the road, a trail of blood following her.
After this scene, the camera cuts to different moments
within the “United States of Zombieland”, with different
characters interacting with scenes and/or zombies

3. captured again using the Phantom camera. There are 14
scenes in total, 9 of these are shown in the photo at the
top of my analysis. The main thing I like about this
opening sequence, as I stated before, is the way that the
different characters interact with the numerous titles.
The mise-en-scene of the zombie is just a suit that
is covered in blood; his face is blank with kind of black
eyes. The camera is jerky and shaky as it a handheld
camera, which is a thing used in zombie-survival horror
movies. The sound is an unexpected sound.