Shot Evaluations - The Final Shot

The final shot is very important in any opening, as it is, essentially, the last thing that the audience sees before the film moves into the opening credits or next scene. They will remember the opening by the final shot and possibly their opinion of the film could change because of it!

The interesting thing about our final shot is that it is in black and white. The shot doesn't start in black and white, but is very desaturated, and then it slowly changes as the shot goes on, to create a seamless transition. The subtlety is almost unnoticeable, except if you put the first and the last frames next to each other, and then it becomes clear. Interestingly, the opening shot of our film starts in black and white as well, so it comes round in a circle, starting in black and white and ending in black and white creating a cyclical feel. The opening shot goes from black and white to full colour, whereas the ending shot goes from colour to black and white. It is very hard to notice the black and white in the opening shot, as the train tunnel is just about only black and white anyway, but by adding the effect it just defies any possible colour creeping in. The significance of this is that he is leaving the scene after a disaster. The mission has just gone wrong, and his life must turn in a different direction, and clearly the direction wont be a good direction. He is walking into the grey horizon. In the openign shot the significance was that this mission was a great opportunity to get out of the bad life and into the good life, and this is neatly reversed at the end, when he has to go into an even darker life, as if all attempts to reach the light only end in a deeper darkness. Davidson is also walking into this darkness, showing that this is the next road of his life that he must journey down. A few posts ago I analysed a shot I named 'The Establishing Shot', where I said that there is darkness where Davidson is coming from, yet light where he escapes. In this shot it reveals that there is no light on the other side, only a deeper darkness, and the mission has failed badly as the supposed light has 'gone out'.
At the start of this shot Davidson is out of focus and quite blurry so not a lot is seen, then it becomes clear that it is Agent Davidson walking away. This makes it seem like Davidson is trying to get his head straight, and he can't figure out what has just happened. The slight colour in that shot is like the last ember of hope, yet when he comes in focus it is like he has figured it out and he has descended further into the darkness. With the loss of colour and sharpening in focus, Davidson loses all hope in reaching the light, and realises that the only path remaining leads to darkness. The dark coat that Davidson wears compliments this scene, as with the black and white effect, he effectively becomes a silhouette. It is as if he is shrouded in shadow and is an agent of darkness itself. Even his trousers become black, and he becomes a dark figure.
This shot overall is very effective in evoking the emotions of the characters in the scene. It clearly shows Davidson's descent into darkness without a single word being spoken, and the audience realises what is going on. It follows 'The Death Shot' neatly, as with that you can see the shadows creeping in from the side of the shot, whereas here the whole shot is covered in darkness, so the descent is made more obvious through this.