Introducing Characters - 'Now You See Me'

 

In Now You See Me the four main characters are introduced to the audience in the opening sequence.

They are: J. Daniel Atlas, Merritt Mckinney, Jack Wilder and Henley Reeves.

J. Daniel Atlas is the first protagonist to be introduced to the spectator. He starts off by presenting a magic trick to an eager audience. His confidence and sleek "slight of hand" make this magic trick all the better. We then see the confidence established here, throughout the rest of the movie.

Mise-en-scene is presented with his black clothing and floppy, long hair. This could reflect his "dark side" of being a magician and being secretive, along with his long hair possibly imitating him hiding secrets and being hard to find (which we discover later in the movie).

He flicks through the deck of cards and when he asks the woman to pick a card, however, he then repeats this action. This shows how confident and how sure he is that this trick will work, which shows an "all eyes on me", arrogant side to him. 

The second protagonist to be introduced to the audience is Merritt Mckinney. Straight away we learn that Mckinney is a mentalist, which brings in some excitement for the audience.

He has his money making plan all worked out when he tries to get his "victim" to confess to having an affair with his wife's sister. He shows confidence and slyness during this magic trick. as he will only make the man's wife forget about the affair, with the payment of 200 dollars.

His hat brings attention to his head (in other words, his mind) which hints at the fact he is a mentalist. 

Jack Wilder is the third protagonist to be introduced to the audience. He presents his magic trick on a motor boat, in front of a group of people.

His magic trick is bending a spoon and unfortunately his trick's secrets are revealed by a member of the audience. This possibly hints to the fact he is the youngest magician out of them all and has less experience, which would mean more room for his tricks to go wrong. He then steals the man's wallet and phone, suggesting that he is not the wealthiest character.

He's also wearing very relaxed and somewhat scruffy clothes, again implying that he is not the wealthiest of characters and is trying to make a living out of magic.

Lastly, the final protagonist is Henley Reeves. She is the escape artist out of the 'Four Horsemen' and she is introduced to the audience by doing one of her stunts.

She, again, is very confident like the others and is not shy of being the centre of attention. She gets dunked into a tank of water while in handcuffs, and has to escape before the timer runs out and a shoal of piranhas get released into the same tank. 

She struggles to free herself in time, and the piranhas enter the tank. It then fills up with red liquid and the audience get a fright. However, this is all a hoax to scare the audience and to make the magic trick even more unexplainable. This part of her personality (deceiving) could reflect the plot of the movie, where not everything is as it seems.

Again, as with Forrest Gump, characters are introduced through a combination of music, mise-en-scene, editing and cinematography.