Opening Sequence Analysis
In Deadpool the opening sequence helps to establish how the rest of the film is going to be; full of violence, comedy and fourth wall breaks. We get to see this straight from the get go.
The opening notes of Juice Newton’s adult contemporary classic “Angel of the Morning” drown out what are sure to be the final screams of some extremely unlucky hired goons. Here, frozen in time, in the back seat of an exploding Cadillac Escalade.
A hyper-violent tableau takes shape. In what can only be described as some unholy marriage of the Three Stooges and a Michael Bay movie, battered bodies fly in all directions, engulfed in a shower of spit, blood, and broken glass. Guns are fired. Eyes are gouged. Tea is bagged. This is Deadpool… or rather it’s our introduction to Deadpool, the masked mutant in the middle of all that death and debris — the guy deftly executing the wedgie to end all wedgies.
From the moment the first credit appears on screen, it’s clear the Deadpoolopening title sequence is designed for one thing and one thing only: to gleefully take the piss out of the entire proceedings. In a world where star Ryan Reynolds is at once People’s 2010 “Sexiest Man Alive” and Wade Wilson — the chimichanga-craving Marvel Comics antihero with a penchant for breaking the fourth wall -
it’s appropriate for Blur Studio’s opening to acknowledge the fact that it is a title sequence in a movie. Full of sly (and not-so-sly) nods to comic book fans and self-reflexive title cards that say what we’re all really thinking, there is no way to come away from the Deadpool opening sequence without knowing full well what you’re about to get into.
I've taken many stills from the opening sequence to talk about, the first is the first shot of the sequence and shows the main production company and then what appears to be a man choking on a cigarette liter, this gives the audience this initial idea of violence as what is happening here is almost torturous.
The second shot again reinforces the idea of violence by the use of a gun in the shot, also we can definitely establish that we are in a car now as we can see a dashboard, this adds even more danger to whatever is happening. However, despite all of this we can see another credit although this time there has been some comedic value added, by insulting the director instead of using their name. IIt also makes us think that the character is quite childish with what they said
In the third shot we get a relatively small fourth wall break in terms of the rest of the film. As most people knew that Ryan Reynolds was playing deapool and it is him on the front of the cover with the title 'sexiest man alive' this is again quite a childish way of saying that he is in the film, and is quite egotistical.
The 4th shot i have chosen again is another 4th wall break, however rather than boasting about himself, Ryan Reynolds decided to take a stab at one of his previous comic book characters. showing a green lantern card, as the film is considered as one of the worst comic book films ever made. It again adds more of a comedic sense to the film.
The next shot is when we first see Deadpool and he has someone with their face in his crotch this is another use childish and comedic behaviour. Also deadpool is wearing red which he says is so his enemies don't see him bleed, although in terms of media it represents danger, whihc again adds to the idea i mentioned previously.
In this shot we get a big emphasis of danger as we first can see a man fairing what appears to be an automatic machine gun in the air, but also there is a torn up tire flying through the shot and this gives us the idea that the car may actually be spinning through the air and isnt stationary or at least on 4 wheels.
In this shot we see what looks to be a burning car engine so we can now establish that the car that the characters are in is about to explode and also may be in mid-air. However all of this danger is contradicted by another childish form of credit, it could suggest that although there is all this danger there isnt actually anything to be worried about if someone is making a joke.
In the final shot of the credits we can see that our ideas were correct and the car is actually mid-air and on fire and we can see all the characters that we saw throughout the sequence but from a longshot instead what was mostly closeups before. This idea of not needing to be worried appears again as we can see that there is definitely a lot of danger or risk at the moment yet there is still another joke in the credits.