Barthe's 5 Narrative Codes

This is the film opening sequence of 'Red Eye' the 2005 thriller with Rachel McAdams.


1.  Identify the key actions within the opening - what kinds of actions are included and how is the narrative moved forward? 
The main action code of the whole sequence is that the manager of the hotel has left for a holiday and is on her way to board a flight, this moves the narrative forward as we follow the story of where she is going. Another action code is the packing and shipping of the boxes in the opening sequence as this leads the audience into the plan which will later be carried out. The final significant action code we see in this clip is the fight in the queue, as this allows our two main characters to meet and for the storyline to continue and develop.


2.  Identify the enigma codes within the opening - what kinds of questions are posed and how is the audience meant to read these codes?
Many questions are posed at the very start of the opening sequence, within the opening credits. The first, posed by the close ups of the pictures, is 'who is this girl? why is she so significant? and this is exactly what we are meant to draw from this, as we find out later the bad guys have used her and her power in her job to blackmail her and commit a crime. The next question posed is why have they stolen a mans wallet? what does he have to do with the story? and when we later find out its the girls dad, we automatically think its not only going to be an attack on the girl, but at some point the dad is going to come into it (blackmail with his wallet?). Another question asked by the audience is what is being packed into the boxes?, we get a shot of what looks like fish within them, but from the menacing music and build up of suspense, it leaves the audience thinking otherwise until later revealed. The very last question posed is who is looking at the plans? and what are the plans about? the music again makes us believe they are evil plans, and we see they are about a hotel which we later find out the girl is the manager of leaving the question in our heads 'what has it got to do with the girl?'. The action of the manager leaving leaves the audience wondering what is going to happen to the hotel not under her control (as we then get to see it deteriorating already (when the girl phones)). It also leaves us thinking what will be the consequence of her boarding the plane, as we know the film is named redeye and she says 'i'm getting the red-eye dad'. We also start to ask the question 'why is the man befriending her?' when he starts to talk to her in the boarding queue, we also wonder why he got so agressive towards the arguementative man, sticking up for the girl, like when he grabs the mans arm and we get a close up of this action, and also when we get a very long shot of his menacing glare- what will happen? will the man retaliate? will the man go further with his agression?. 


3.  Identify key characters and think about what they represent in the opening
There are four main characters introduced in the opening of Redeye. The first is our main character, the girl, Lisa, she is always smiling in the pictures we see of her, we are shown she is very good at her job (is the manager and helps her friend with fussy customers), also that she is very calm (at the airport trying to calm the situation) and generally just a very nice person. By this i feel she is representing the 'good' in the film, the heroine, being very pure and strong minded. The next character introduced is the Dad, we don't see him very much, only that Lisa is going to visit him, hence getting on the flight, this could show he represents something of great importance or something that 'gets in the way'- with her job, the rescue etc. The next character is Lisa's work collegue, she seems very ditsy and not very good at her job, the complete opposite of our main character, and she could be there to represent how the hotel is not in safe hands now Lisa has gone, and things are already going wrong- she is not capable. The last character is the man, he is very stern and has a creepy ora about him, with very cold, sharp eyes, this connotes that he could represent the danger of her journey, and he is not what he seems- his eyes are evil. 

4. Interpret the cultural codes in the opening.  What kind of knowledge is being drawn on? social/historical/political/art and culture etc.  Highlight the 3 most important references in the opening that help with audience understanding.
A very strong cultural code we get is the voiceover of the airport attendant announcing a delay, as anyone that has travelled in an airport recognises the formality and the tone of the announcement usually found in airports and can relate to how all the passengers and travellers are feeling. Another social code being drawn on is the feeling of nearly missing your flight, and being in a cab, not being able to control when you'll arrive. We see this when Lisa is in the back of the cab, its raining, the cab nearly crashes and the driver says 'dont worry you wont miss your flight'- so we draw on the social emotions of when everything is going wrong. 


5.  Identify key themes and analyse how they are presented visually/technically.
Key themes of this opening sequence are mystery, plotting and danger. We draw on the theme of mystery in the opening sequence where a lot is shown to us of the 'evil plan' but not quite enough for us to know what it is, so we start to question what it actually involves etc. The plotting is shown through the hand flicking through the plans at the beginning, and also the way we keep seeing pictures of the girl being viewed in different places by different people, signifying its a plot to do with her. The danger theme is drawn on when things start going wrong for Lisa, for example in the cab she nearly crashes, almost making it inevitable that something is going to go wrong in her journey, then at the airport she nearly gets in danger with the man who starts the argument, and then there is the creepy man who seems to have be-friended her, who has something about him that leaves the audience questioning him and his motives- he could be a danger to her.