Transporter 3 Opening Scene Analysis

 

Transporter 3 is a 2008 French-produced action film, starring Jason Statham. The series follows Statham's character Frank Martin, a man who will transport any package without questions for the right price. The film opens with a closeup of a piece of paper being held with the name Malcolm and a phone number written on it. The whiskey in the background of the shot is a very masculine drink and has a sophisticated image associated with it, appealing to the action genre target audience of men. The camera changes to a mid-shot, showing two men sitting at a table, one of them Frank Martin, the other an unknown eastern European man. Frank passes the paper over to the unknown man, who seems displeased as he was asking for Franks price for his services and instead received an alternate man to call. Shot reverse shot is used to show the characters conversation and reactions to each others lines. Lines of dramatic impact are delivered in a closer shot. The soft and quiet background music amplifies the tension. As Frank refuses the offer once again and stands to walk away, he is surrounded by 3 other men who stop him in his tracks. The man grabs Franks jacket and tells him he has 10 seconds to change his mind, Frank comes back with a cliched cheesy action line "I'll give you 5 seconds to remove your hand."

Suddenly the shots speed up dramatically, and the background music changes into something more fast-paced. Shots here vary a lot to give the audience the best view of the fight scene that begins. Another cliche of the genre is the bad guys never attacking the hero at the same time, and that is conformed to in this scene. A brief pause from the fast pace of the editing shows an example of match on action, where we see Frank throw his jacket to one side and in the next shot we see the jacket landing perfectly on a coat hanger.  Many shots of Frank twisting the attackers arms or causing them pain in some way are shot from a low angle, with Frank above his attackers to make him look more powerful. When the 3 accomplices have been dealt with Frank and the other man from the beginning of the scene square off against each other. After another brief pause to show the characters preparing for the fight, the action resumes again. Each shot tries to show the characters moves from different angles to make the scene more interesting. After the man bad guy has been beaten, one of the accomplices returns, only to have his head smashed against a piano repeatedly by Frank. This gives the audience a piece of the violence they wanted to see from a film of this genre. The scene ends with Frank catching his jacket just before it falls to the floor, and calmly walks away from the chaos. This again makes the character seem as cool and masculine as possible, so male audience members enjoy putting themselves in his shoes.

This opener lets the audience know the filmmakers know exactly what they want from the film, and they waste no time in giving it to them. Although clearly incredibly cliched, (particularly with the white male hero and the eastern European villains) it's also clear that the film is aware of this, and embraces these cliches so they can get to the action sequences, which are more important to the audience than an amazing and original script.