Research: Film Opening Sequence (Secret Window)

Secret Window (2004)

I have chosen to analyse the opening sequence of Secret Window, a psychological thriller starring Johnny Depp and directed by David Koepp. The film is rated 12 and is based on the book Secret Window, Secret Garden by Stephen King. The clip I have chosen to analyse stops 4.30 minutes into the YouTube video.

The sequence takes place first around and inside a motel, then in a house in a forest. The beginning of the clip takes place within a few minutes, then after the titles it jumps to six months later.

The beginning of the story takes place in a car park outside a motel at night during a snowstorm. We see our main character sitting in a car, looking angry. We hear his thoughts, and he is telling himself to turn the car around and leave. After starting to drive away, he then reverses back to the motel, exits his car and steals some keys from inside the reception before driving across the car lot and breaking into one of the motel rooms to find a man and a woman in bed inside. We see they are screaming at each other, but the music and sound effects drown it out so we can’t hear anything that is being said. We can see that all the characters are distressed, especially our main character that can’t seem to believe what is happening. The camera then moves out of the motel to show the storm outside again, then cross-fades to a beautiful blue lake surrounded by trees. The titles then come up as the camera moves across the lake then shows a lone house amongst the trees. The camera moves slowly up to the house and through an open window, then moves around to show various things inside like a laptop with a word document open. The camera then goes into a mirror and seemingly through it, to focus on a scruffy-looking man lying on a sofa, facing away from us. We hear a knock on the door and then a title comes up saying, ‘Six months later’.

The order of events is very significant in this particular opening sequence, as it allows us to see that something has happened at the beginning of the story to distress our character, making us wonder what exactly happened and how it affected him. The shift to six months later is important because we don’t know what has gone on since the event at the beginning of the film and what situation the character is in right now. We can tell from the first scene that he probably isn’t in a very good place, as the first scene shows that he has been betrayed by someone he loves. We can also see that he probably isn’t very mentally stable because of the way he stormed into the motel, stealing from the owner to do so, and started screaming in a crazed way at the couple in this bed. This sets up the rest of the story nicely because we wonder how his mental state will relate to the events in the story and what exactly will happen to him. The event at the beginning of the film and the ‘six months later’ scene are clearly linked as they involve the same main character, and the situation at the start of the film clearly affected his life greatly and is probably still affecting him six months later, so they are definitely connected.

The first character we are introduced to is a man in his 30s or early 40s, fairly scruffy with long hair and stubble. He is wearing a hat, scarf and coat, in relation to the blizzard outside, and puts on a pair of glasses. He is sitting behind the wheel of a car, alone. We don’t hear him speak out loud throughout the opening sequence, but we hear his thoughts. He is telling himself to “Turn around. Turn around. Turn the car around,” whilst looking very serious, showing that he is quite conflicted and his brain is telling him to do something but he can’t seem to bring himself to do it. When he drives back to the motel and steals the keys before breaking into the room, we can see that he is reckless and quite impulsive, and doesn’t always listen to what his brain is telling him. When he goes inside we briefly meet two more characters, a man and a woman in bed together, and we can assume that the woman is our main character’s wife or girlfriend. Their actions are possibly what trigger a lot of the events to follow, as this incident is obviously very relevant to the plot, otherwise we wouldn’t be shown it as the first scene in the whole film. We are also meant to feel sorry for our main character, as he has been betrayed and he is obviously in a lot of torment over this, letting us know that he is the good guy in all of this. Within the first scene, we already have a bond with the main character and will probably root for him throughout the entire film. In the next scene, we are shown a lot of his house and his possessions, and from this we can gather that he is some kind of writer by the document open on his laptop, and also that he is pretty unorganised by the mess around his home. The big hole in his dressing gown and his unkempt hair also add to the idea that he is not too bothered about the upkeep of himself or his home. The fact that he is asleep on his sofa during the day suggests that he doesn’t have any kind of routine to his life, and that he doesn’t have a regular job or much to do with himself. Because he is still living like this six months after the revelation of his wife’s affair implies that he has not moved on and is probably stuck in some kid of rut.

Not a lot of story information is revealed to the audience apart from the fact that the main character has caught his wife cheating on him. From the opening sequence we certainly don’t have any indication of what the main plot will be, but we can guess that it has something to do with his trauma and perhaps his not-so-stable mental state. The reasons why his wife cheated on him are withheld, along with who the other man was. I think the way the camera seems to move through the mirror and out the other side (4.00 mins in) is very significant, and something I don’t think I’d noticed before now, despite watching this film twice before. It is quite a strange thing to do, and it creates a sense of mystery and distortion, whilst suggesting to the audience that everything is not quite as it seems, and maybe even that the events in this movie aren’t actually happening in the way we think they are. After watching the rest of the movie, it becomes apparent how true that is. The setting of the film is also very relevant, as the main character is living in a completely isolated house in the middle of a forest, creating the perfect set up for all sorts of mysterious happenings, as there is no-one else nearby, especially as we assume that the character is living alone. The beautiful setting, with the bright blue lake, is almost too perfect to be true and the audience can tell that something is going to go wrong. The ominous music throughout the opening sequence also adds to the idea that something sinister is going to happen, and that there won’t necessarily be a happy ending for our main character.

The audience is left wondering what went wrong with his marriage, why the camera moved through the mirror, what has happened since the scene at the start of the film and who is knocking at the door. Really, we know very little about the main character, so hopefully the audience will be intrigued to continue watching and find out the answers to these questions.