Synopsis of Relevant Thriller Films

Flightplan plot summary:

‘Flying at 40,000 feet in a cavernous, state-of-the-art 474 aircraft, Kyle Pratt (Jodie Foster) faces every mother’s worst nightmare when her six year-old daughter Julia vanishes without a trace mid-flight from Berlin to New York. Already emotionally devastated by the unexpected death of her husband, Kyle desperately struggles to prove her sanity to the disbelieving flight crew and passengers while facing the very real possibility that she may be losing her mind. While neither Captain Rich (Sean Bean), nor Air Marshal Gene Carson (Peter Sarsgaard) want to doubt the bereaved widow, all evidence indicates that her daughter was never on board, resulting in paranoia and doubt among the passengers and crew of the plane. Finding herself desperately alone, Kyle can only rely on her own wits to solve the mystery and save her daughter.

This is inspirational for our thriller sequence as it embodies the idea of both espionage and psychological thriller. The idea of it being based in an everyday setting also creates the idea that anything is possible, by losing the daughter on a plane creates the idea of a psychological problem within the protagonist as it is highly unlikely that someone could be in that situation.

Minority Report:

‘Based on a short story by the late Philip K. Dick, this science fiction-thriller reflects the writer's familiar preoccupation with themes of concealed identity and mind control. Tom Cruise stars as John Anderton, a Washington, D.C. detective in the year 2054. Anderton works for "Precrime," a special unit of the police department that arrests murderers before they have committed the actual crime. Precrime bases its work on the visions of three psychics or "precogs" whose prophecies of future events are never in error. When Anderton discovers that he has been identified as the future killer of a man he's never met, he is forced to become a fugitive from his own colleagues as he tries to uncover the mystery of the victim-to-be's identity. When he kidnaps Agatha (Samantha Morton), one of the precogs, he begins to formulate a theory about a possible frame-up from within his own department. Directed by Steven Spielberg, who hired a team of futurists to devise the film's numerous technologically advanced gadgets, Minority Report co-stars Colin Farrell, Max von Sydow, and Neal McDonough.’

This is an espionage thriller; unlike the horror-thrillers that scare and frighten people, this slowly builds to a climax of a conspiracy-based narrative. This embodies the idea of a political conspiracy, and raises questions about morality as well. The fact that it is based in the future however is difficult for my group to consider, nevertheless even though it is based in the future it does still have the features of the current world of today.

28 Days Later:

'A virus that locks those infected into a permanent state of killing rage, is accidentally released from a British research facility. Carried by animals and humans, the virus is impossible to contain, and spreads across the entire planet. Twenty-eight days later, a small group of survivors are trapped in London, caught in a desperate struggle to protect themselves from the infected. As they attempt to salvage a future from the apocalypse, they find that their most deadly enemy is not the virus, but other survivors.’

This synopsis is quite different to the ones above. It is very short and less detailed. This is to try and give as little information as possible to the audience about the film to make them actually watch the film to see what happens. Further more this is a horror-thriller and so the film is trying to scare and frighten the audience. Therefore the synopsis sets the tone for the movie.

Through consideration, I feel it may be more appropriate to do an espionage-thriller, given that we have limited equipment also. A psychological/espionage based thriller is also more interesting to watch as we may capture the attention of audience and develop red-herrings which throws great impact onto the audience.