Naked Gun 33 1/3 - Opening Scene

Naked Gun 331/3
The establishing shot at the beginning of the sequence is a Long Shot of a train station with an elderly man in a grey suit the central focus reading a newspaper. The establishing shot introduces us to the setting for the opening sequence. The elderly man is the main character as he is in the central focus.
Later on in the opening sequence we have a Close Up of the main character, the elderly man in the grey suit. He is reading a newspaper which has a joke headline. The close up focusses on the expression of the man, who is anxiously looking at the large clock, as if he is expecting something important to happen. The headline suggests it is a comedy, although the other signifiers suggest it is action.
We then see the clock face moving towards 12 oclock, which suggests that at 12 oclock something is going to happen. The Big Clos Up of the clock builds tension, suggesting the element of action. There is then a woman struggling up the stairs with a pram, and reluctantly the main character goes to help her, which connotes comedy.
The second main character goes to help another woman with two prams up the stairs, which connotes comedy genre. As he is doing so, the camera pans around to 5 men who enter at the top of the stairs. The are all dressed in dark trench coats and hats. The man in the middle is in the darkest coat and hat, showing that he is the main villain.
The main villain then begins to move down the stairs but stops when he sees the main character. The camera moves for a ECU of the eyes of the main villain. At this point the music reaches a dramatic climax and there is a ECU of the main characters' eyes. From this short sequence we can see that there will be some sort of fight between the two characters as the ECU shows his expression to be violent.
Once the shootout begins, the camera cuts to a long shot of the good and bad characters shooting each other. We then get a long shot of the second main character chasing one of the prams down the stairs. He himself is chased by a lawnmower, which adds to the comedy as it rolls along during the shootout. There is also comedy in the fact that the man stops shooting to chase the prams.
During the shootout, the camera cuts to Mid Shot of the main character shooting. He then bends down, whilst shooting, to pick up a coin off the floor. He looks at the coin and continues to shoot at the villain. This backs up the idea that the film is an action spoof as this would not happen in an action film.
Finally, once the shootout seems to be over, the President and the Pope enter from the top of the stairs. They are followed by a terrorist carrying a bomb who the main character shoots. this shot shows the character is being overwhelmed by all types of crime and you begin to get the impression he is a special detective of some sort. The sudden entrance of the President and the Pope is quite comedic, however, as you would not expect it in a train station.
From the entrance of the President and the Pope the camera goes to the entrance of 'disgruntled postal workers' who are all carrying machine guns which they are firing madly. The audience then see a Mid Shot of the main character, who nis firing a large machine gun back at the postal workers, whilst in the background the second main character is catching the babies who have flown out of the prams. As he catches them, he dances in celebration. This adds comedy, as it is an unlikely thing to see in an action film during a shootout.
Suddenly, as the action is building up and overwhelming the main character, it cuts to a MCU of the main character waking up from this bad dream. There is a short dialogue between him and his wife which is comical but explains that he is a retired detective. It then cuts to the title sequence. The fact that it is a dream also backs up the idea that it is a spoof of an action film. The jokey dialogue also backs up the idea that the genre is comedy, not action.