The opening scene of Inception shows the main protagonist washing ashore on a beach in a confused and exhausted state. As he lies on the beach, he hallucinates seeing two children playing, creating confusion for the audience about his mental state. He is then seen with a gun to his back by a man in a military uniform, establishing tension. The introduction also shows an old man closely examining a small trinket, implying it will have significance later in the film and setting up a sense of mystery.

1. Inception
Opening Analysis

2. The film opens with a close up of
the main protagonist as it shows
him washing up ashore on the
beach allowing us to see emotion.
At first his face is hidden to the
audience, but then revealed when
the sea washes away. The use of
lighting on his face is lit up more
to the rest of his face engaging
the audience more.
The camera then zooms up to his
face expression displaying
confusion and exhaustion. Which
creates a enigma code as the
audience ponder upon what’s going
on? What’s he doing? What’s
happen to him?. We then see two
Children playing on the beach
which showing us that the
protagonist is imagining the
situation/ hallucinating creating
confusion to the audience. The
introduction of the children shows
the audience a part of his life it
could possible is showing his past
but we are yet uncertain. This tells
the audience the film is
thriller/action/sci-fi/ adventure.

3. Sounds:
 Non-diegetic sounds used.
 Music helps set the scene
 The music gets louder and heavier throughout the scene then we hear the ambient
sounds such as the waves.
 We then he children voices in the background
 The camera then goes back to Leonardo Dicaprio and we hear more waves
 We then hear rattling keys and see two guards which implies to the audience that
Leonardo has been captured/he’s a prisoner
Editing:
 Short/fast cuts creating the tension of thriller. The fast cuts suggest to us there’s lots
of things happening in one scene.
 In addition there are jump cuts
Lighting:
 First scene we see bright lighting creating good atmosphere, but then the lighting
darkens around the body only focusing on Leonardo face showing us he cuts and
bruises on his face.

4. We then see the main character with a
gun to his back. Then the scene with
the children ends which tells the
audience it was a hallucination. The
two children create an enigma as we
wonder who they are. This connotes to
the audience the two children are
important.
We then see a medium shot of the person who’s
holding a gun which is a man wearing a military
uniform. This creates tension for the audience as the
man expression shows he’s serious and angry. The
audience then ponder upon what’s he going to do with
Leonardo.

5. The next seen we see a trinket
which a old man appears to be
playing with paying a lot of
attention to it. This shows us
the trinket will play an
importance to the film later on.
This also creates an enigma
code as we question what it is.
We then see a close up
shot of the man hands
playing with the trinket
as he glares at the
object. We acknowledge
that the trinket will play
a very important role in
the film. This creates a
scene of mystery which
sets the genre of thriller.