Face off opens firstly with Touchstone Pictures’ logo which fits with the genre of Thriller. The font of Serif, black background and capitalized font emphasise seriousness, while the visual, scratch-like part of the logo give an element of mystery and could a kind of clue that is often found by detectives in Thrillers, as well as the jagged edges pointing towards violence.
Then the opening credits roll with the Producers, Directors on a black background, which is followed by the lead actors in the film’s names shown as half black, half white showing the binary opposition between good and evil which is frequent in Thriller films. There is also a ‘whoosh’ sound that accompanies the titles when they fade.
An out of focus shot starts off the film, along with a lot of movement from a carousel. This links well with the conventions of a Thriller as it is all about mystery and figuring out what is going to happen.
The non-diegetic music that runs throughout the credits and much of the first scene is very melancholic, this is apt for a thriller film which usually tackles dark subjects; however, the music may represent good as opposed to evil – which is the main theme that the film tackles. While that could be the case, the music is also ambiguous as it feels neither totally good nor totally evil as well as not being particularly threatening in tone and quite calm, but also suits the actual scene in which it runs over – John Travolta’s character enjoying a carousel ride with his Son.
Slow motion is used when Travolta is shown playing with his Son, with close ups and 2 shots to show the physical and emotional love, and their closeness as it shows how close they are and allows us to inspect their relationship more thoroughly by looking at their body language and movement as well as their facial expressions which shows they are very happy together and enjoy spending time together.
We are then shown a long shot of the Carousel, establishing that it is fairly busy with other people around it, and these will become witnesses if something bad is to happen. A blue colour filter is also used to make the scene looked almost black and white because washed out colours, and again points to mystery and bad happenings.
A sudden extreme close up of a sniper rifle sight accompanied by another ‘whoosh’ sound; this time it appears to be enhanced diegetic sound as he whips the cover off his rifle & sights, as well as an eerier soundtrack which is achieved with a choir singing deep bass notes which all creates a sense of evil as opposed to the previous ‘good’ music. This ominous music also highlights that the silhouetted figure we see in the long shot is the villain of the film.
The extreme close ups of Nicolas Cage’s character show us his facial expressions and we can see how he feels about his job; and he is shown to be very focused and shows no remorse for his victim, or his child and their relationship – which also shows his experience in the job while making the audience take a dislike to him.
We move to a POV long shot showing Cage looking down the rifle’s sight as he waits for an opportunity to fire, he waits for a clear shot of his target. We then have an extreme close up of him pulling the trigger which is accompanied by an exaggerated diegetic sound of the bullet coming out of the gun and an extreme close up of the CGI bullet as it flies through the air in slow motion and into the back of Travolta.
Travolta and his Son both fall onto the ground revealing one of the horses on the carousel which has blood on it and a distressed horse sound, which sounds diegetic but can’t be, is heard to signify death. This connotes terror and that something bad has just happened, this is then followed by balloons rising in the sky, hinting that it is the child who has been killed as balloons represent innocence and childhood.
We find Travolta on the ground and still moving and crawling to his Son’s side, and then a cut of a close up of Cage’s reaction as he realises he has not taken care of his victim. Travolta is mortified by the loss of his Son and screams in agony. With this heightened mood of horror the camera zooms into the carousel- which is sped up, where more horse sounds are played and the music uses sound spikes to emphasise the brutality of what we have just witnessed.
Following an ellipsis edit with a black screen saying “six years later”, there is a subtle change in music to compliment Travolta’s thinking as it sounds very dreamy and ominous as well as a tracking shot showing the city skyline. We are shown his numerous awards and can easily denote that he is a detective, and a very successful one at that. The camera pans down the awards and then uses selective focus on a handgun on Travolta’s desk, connoting that he has to kill in his everyday working life, and also that he may use it to avenge his son’s death. We next see a close up of a computer screen which at the time would be cutting edge, and a tracking shot around the office showing it is busy and productive. Then an extreme close up of Travolta picking up handgun, which alternates between the office and handgun being placed in it’s holster.
The villain’s name is shown on an extreme close up of the computer screen showing Castor Troy’s (Nicolas Cage) many aliases. Connoting that he is very good at his job as an assassin, and showing he is an equal match for Travolta (equality is vital to a thriller to make the film interesting for the audience, and so is one of the many conventions of the genre). An establishing long shot of a church choir links with the heavenly music that has been playing while Travolta has been preparing his fire arm.
The camera then zooms out and dissolves into a long shot of the antagonist which goes into a crane shot, and a close up of Nicolas Cage’s face as he shows a blank expression, we can see he has not changed at all and is still doing the same job he was six years previously. We then track over Cage’s shoulder to see a skull and crossbones which denotes death and danger, and we immediately know that he is trying to level the building with a timed explosion.
We immediately cut to John Travolta walk through an office door in a close up, showing his anxiousness and eagerness to get the case solved and there is narrative exposition when he says “we’re a covert anti terrorism team” and we see his frustration in over the shoulder shots from Travolta’s perspective and his hand on his head and non verbal codes.
Another cut shows Cage is smoking a cigarette with an evil look on his face, connoting he does not care for his victims or about his past. A close up of the countdown timer shows that his job is done and it is only a matter of time before he adds to his many victims, which is then followed by a close up of him looking pleased with himself.
We see yet more cross cutting between Travolta and Cage, but this time with more pace as Cage prepares the bomb. Travolta’s colleagues try to calm him down, but he knows that Cage is up to something (which shows their equality yet again). Next we a tracking shot as Cage begins dancing to the sound of the choir singing ‘Hallelujah’ connoting joy and happiness, and contrasts with his actual outfit, which is a black Vicar’s robe and a crucifix necklace. A binary opposition is therefore made between the evil Castor Troy and the good of the church and God.
Then we cut to long shots of the choir and panning and tracking showing the front and back of the choir, showing the sheer size and scale of the building. Following this is a pan around the front of the choir where we see Caster Troy head banging and making a mockery of the choir, he then walks over to help a young woman in the choir to pick up her music papers and pans around so we can see him behind her and whispering into her ear, possibly showing that she is helping him carry out the crime. The camera then pans up to the ceiling, and then we see the outside of the building and pan onto a close up of a sign that tells us it is a church choir convention.
The last scene is of particular note, we see another convention of the thriller genre; the protagonist's fatal flaw. In this case, Travolta has two; the death of his son and his obsession over it, and his broken marriage. We see this as he leaves his Wife on hold, as the loss of his Son means more to him than his marriage.
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