SKYFALL EXTRACT ANALYSIS

For my action and adventure extract I chose the 'Skyfall' train scene at the beginning of the film. It is a classic action and adventure film and I can tell because it contains lots of typical action and adventure features, such as speed, jeopardy, suspense and combat.

The events show many of these qualities, for example the fast movement of the train and car creates speed. The jeopardy comes from the fact that Bond and the villain are fighting on top of a moving train about to go over a very narrow bridge with a huge drop. They could fall off or plunge into the water or onto the train tracks, but you don't know, which creates suspense. Suspense also comes from when the girl is about to shoot. Will she shoot? Will she lose them? Who will she hit? The combat and conflict comes from the two men fighting on the train. This is the typical 'battle between good and evil' seen in many films of this genre.

The action that happens in the extract is typical adventure with high risk involved: two men fighting on top of a moving train, and a girl who has to try and shoot the bad guy without hitting Bond. She also follows the train on a road on a cliff with no barrier to the edge, which is another example of jeopardy but also shows risk and danger, as in most adventure films. The action is again typical of the genre: there is a lot of emphasis on physical feats, like the fight on the train, which takes a lot of skill and balance to stay on and keep fighting. The story is emphasised in a way too, as it is easy and simple to follow; not too many stories or too much dialogue at one time. In fact, there is very little dialogue, which is another common feature of AA films.

The action in the extract impacts the audience by making them anticipate the ending. It grips them and keeps them watching by introducing consistent jeopardy throughout the extract so people keep watching as they want to know how it ends They also start to empathise with the characters, because they seem real and the elements of danger seem real too. They are in such difficult positions that it makes you imagine how hard it be if it were you there instead, and through this the audience feels empathy with the characters and the events they are going through.

Another aspect that makes this a typical AA film is that there is a hero, in this case Bond. Bond is a hero many people know well, so is normally instantly recognisable as good. However, in this extract it would be quite hard to tell the good guy from the bad, although the villain's suit isn't as smart, and he is quite thickset and frowning a lot, so I think you would know this way.
Bond is not a typical hero. He is good, and you can tell because he's fighting evil, and I think for an AA film you would probably expect the hero to have to fight at least once purely because of the nature of the genre (combat, conflict are common) so in this way he is  typical hero. However I would place him more under the category of anti-villain, because of the way he's fighting back and clearly has the potential to be dangerous and violent. He doesn't come across as a typical caring and peaceful person many think of when they think of a hero.

Overall, the characters and events in this extract show many typical features of an action and adventure film.