Action Thriller Conventions

Action Thriller:

• Obvious antagonist
  - find out through mise-en-scene e.g. costumes.
  
• Race against the clock scenario
• Features more violence than other sub genres
• Disruption to equilibrium requires the protagonist.
  - use action to solve the problem.
  - protagonist must be physically fit or athletic.
  
• Usually involves characters of the opposite sex to drive the narrative e.g. rescue a female by a male/or the other way around.
  
• Their loyalty will be questioned (the partner or the opposite sex to the lead character)
  

Examples of Action Thrillers:
- Iron Man
- Hostage
- Equilibrium
- Double Jeopardy
- Taken
- Blood Diamond.



Taken is an action film from 2009 and we know this from the race against time to find a mans daughter before she gets killed by the people who took her.
We immediately know who is the good in this movie and the bad. The protagonist is Liam Neeson playing the girls father and the bad is not played in the trailer clip however they do appear later in the movie.
A popular phrase from the film is:
"I don't know who you are, I don't know what you want, if you are looking for a ransom, I can tell you i don't have money, but what i do have, are a very particular set of skills, skills that i have acquired from a very long career, skills that make me a nightmare for people like you.
I will look for you,
I will find you,
and I will kill you."
The drama from this phrase allows the audience to identify with the characters.
We know that this is an action film because the message in this phrase can automatically tell the audience that Liam Neeson will fight and kill anyone necessary to have his daughter returned. To fight the bad people, the protagonist must be pysically fit and athletic.
Liam neeson is the protaginist and his loyalty is questioned by his wife in the film as they are divorced and she doesn't believe he can find her. This is unusual because he is the main character.