unknown (finished)

unknown blog

Unknown was directed in 2011 by Jaume Collet-Serra and tells the tale of  man who has awoken from a coma after a car crash only to find that he has lost some of his memory as well as his identity and no one will believe who he is, not even his own wife while some mysterious stranger has taken his place and his whole life. 

This movie tends to use one of the most essential thriller devices known very well and this is the use and build-up of tension within the movie, this is very notable in the scene in the hospital where the protagonist is captured by an unknown assailant and is reaching for a pair of scissors which could lead to murder, this is done well with the use of close-ups of the protagonists face and the close up of his hand reaching for the scissors on the ground and the sound is also very key in this scene with it being very disorientating and sounding muffled to some degree as if the only thing he is focusing on that point in time is simply escaping. 

Another classic thriller device which is well used within this movie is the use of the McGuffin,  the McGuffin is the device which sets up the story and gives the initial driving purpose behind main character and what he is doing in that particular setting and then is also the reason as to why any following events unfold, the McGuffin in this movie is quite clearly the concept of prince shall and his interest in world food, the audience is only really interested in Liam Neesons character however and the McGuffin as well and Neeson's reason for being involved in the first place is quickly forgotten and instead replaced with intrigue and focus on what Liam is going to do within the rest of the movie, however it is the McGuffin which gives the movie its initial driving force.

A couple of the film and media theories do apply to this movie as well the most notable for me being the idea of the classic Hollywood narrative structure as this movie is very chronological and does not have any sub-plots at all really, the movie knows where it is going and what its one main story is and sticks to it, Todorov's theory is the other main theory which i could pick up on during the movie and this theory is about the 4 main stages during any movie and Todorov believed these four stages could be placed onto any thriller movie regardless of what it was like, The first of these four stages is the idea of an equilibrium and that everything is as it should be within the heroes life at that point in time which is true to begin with as Liam Neeson is simply on a business trip with his wife and is booking into a hotel until the second stage arrives which is "disruption", this is the stage where something comes into play that throws the equilibrium out of place and more or less ruins everything for the main characters and can be very disorientating as this is different to what they are used to, in the case of this movie the disruption is when the car crash takes place and is also when Liam's identity is taken and no one will recognize or believe him not even his own wife, the next stage is the resolution and this is true of the movie as this is the point where the truth is revealed to him and why no one believes who he is as he discovers that he himself was an undercover agents for an organization and the reason why he cant remember himself properly is because he was confusing his really life with his cover, and finally the last stage is called the "new equilibrium" and this is also true of the movie as it is where Liam resolves the problems and kills his former employer and continues to lead a normal everyday life among society.