Max Payne opening analysis

The beginning to Max Payne starts off with the very familiar 20^th Century Fox motif, which is instantly recognisable, and after its big trumpet ending cuts to a black screen. Whilst this black screen is in view you can hear some non-diegetic wind and then max Payne (Mark Wahlberg)’s off-screen diegetic monologue. At the end of this monologue Max Payne bursts onto the screen drowning in cold, partly frozen water. With this scene you can hear Payne’s frantic on screen diegetic breathing and splashing which is in stark contrast to the previous scenes cool and calm monologue. The next scene shows Payne sinking and is again in contrast with its sound as all you can hear is silence and quiet diegetic bubbles. There is another monologue as the scene shifts to the picture of a door with an ominous golden light behind it. You can still hear the bubbles that tell the audience that this is a flashback and that Payne is still underwater; this is accompanied by off screen diegetic sound of a baby crying. You can also hear the sound of wind chimes in the background, which add to the mystery of the scene and build tension to what is behind the door. The scene once again cuts back to Payne who is now close to drowning as the last few bubbles of air leave his body and there is another monologue. The scene then shifts to Payne entering the golden door and the light enveloping him to a ‘phased’ soundbridge to reveal the dead body of a woman on a bed. There is also the sound of a clock ticking which grows increasingly louder throughout the last few scenes, this adds atmosphere to the scenes as it gives the sense of something getting closer. There is then a shot of the source of the wind chimes which is a baby’s mobile which then stop and make you ask, what happened to the sound of the baby’s crying?

The scene then shows Payne, by way of another non-diegetic ‘phased’ soundbridge, still sinking and almost at the bottom of the river; you can then hear another monologue as the screen cuts to black. The screen then fades out of the black to show a skyscraper with the words ‘one week earlier’ on it and the off-screen diegetic sound of a police siren in the background and the sound of a bustling high street giving you the idea that this is a big busy city and in stark contrast to the scenes depicted before.

The whole opening scene is more than enough to have the audience on the edge of their seat on sound alone with the rollercoaster of clever silent monologues and puzzling, disorientating flashbacks with baby’s crying, a clock ticking, frantic splashing, quiet bubbles and eerie wind chimes all the accumulation of one week in the life of Max Payne.