'I Am Legend' Shot by Shot Opening Analysis

Shot 1

Below is an establishing shot of the city. It straight away shows us that it is abandoned with cars being everywhere. The city looks wrecked and abandoned, exactly how it intends to.




Shot 2

Here we have another establishing shot, but this one a close up of a street. We can see wild grass growing in different places and worn out signs, giving us a sense of abandonment again.

Shot 3

In this shot we see the top of a tall, modern looking building, before it goes down and we see the broken streets and environment below. It appears fine and unbroken, before it lowers to see that it is in fact broken and abandoned.

Shot 4

This one is another shot of a street. Unruly grass is growing everywhere in this one and signs of a long since abandoned city come further into play.

Shot 5

Another establishing shot of a street with grass growing in certain places. The silence and calm feeling again emphasizes on the abandonment and desertion of all life.

Shot 6

We see here even further signs of abandonment. Pieces of grass are again in some places. The shot is also a parallel shot, as both sides of it parallel each other.

Shot 7

In this final establishing shot we track a sole car driving through the empty streets, appearing isolated from civilisation. One survivor of a destroyed city. This shot is birdseye and paralleled, a very good shot and probably my favourite from this opening for it's uniqueness.

Shot 8

We then see a hand gripping a gun, indicating possible danger and caution from the man, accompanied by the sound of a car engine to suggest we're now in the car.. We go up to see a man surveying the scene in a medium close up with his hand on the wheel. He looks to the passenger side.

Shot 9

In this shot we get a medium close up of a dog in an eyeline match with the man, looking to the man when he man looks at him.

Shot 10

Here we cut back to the protagonist in the same shot as shot 8, who looks down and appears to fiddle with something before again surveying the area.

Shot 11

The next shot is outside the car looking down its right side. We see the window slowly opening, due to the man fiddling, and the dog's head looking out in a medium close up.

Shot 12

This next one is a tracking shot of the car from behind, driving through the dead streets, with no other apparent life, before birds erupt from the road into the sky.

Shot 13

We then cut to a close up of the protagonist with the dog next to him, watching the bird fly away.

Shot 14

Next is a first person shot from the man in the car, watching the birds fly off from his POV, putting us into the eye of the character. We stay in this shot for a while, seeing the abandoned streets, before we come to what looks to be tanks and vehicles belonging to the army, where he swerves to turn the corner.

Shot 15

Here we see the car swerving around the corner and racing past the camera. The shot then focuses on a poster that the car drove by on a tank, stating 'God still loves us', which is torn up and surrounded by grass.

Shot 16

We then get another shot of the car driving past the camera, following it along the deserted streets into some scaffolding.

Shot 17

Next is a first person shot from the POV of the protagonist driving through the scaffolding of the building.

Shot 18

The next shot is a tracking shot of the car driving through the scaffolding of the abandoned building and onto the road, where the camera focuses on the building that the car drove through.

Shot 19

Here we see another first person shot from the protagonist of his dog staring forward into the road, where something appears to have caught his eyes.

Shot 20

This is the shot with the first line of dialogue, one and a half minutes in. It's a close up of the man, who asks the dog what he can see before looking forward like his dog.

Shot 21

Another POV shot from the protagonist, where we see an animal, perhaps a deer, jump past the car and make a noise.

Shot 22

We then get a very short close up of the man swerving his car out of the way.

Shot 23

Another short shot of the car swerving out of the way from the outside, with the many deer running in the same direction past the car.

Shot 24

We get another very short shot of the wheels of the car swerving out of the way. These shots are done in quick succession.

Shot 25

Here we have a very short over-the-shoulder shot from the protagonist of the car continuing to swerve.

Shot 26

Another shot of the car swerving from the outside, hitting some stop posts in doing so.

Shot 27

We get another shot from the wheels of the car still swerving past the stop posts.


Shot 28
Then another over-the-shoulder shot of the car swerving from the POV of the protagonist.

Shot 29
Another shot of the car swerving, this time looking from one of the wheels.

Shot 30
A medium close up of the protagonist in the car trying to keep the car under control while swerving.

Shot 31
Finally, we get a wide shot of the car finishing its swerve and stopping. I believe that all of these shots of the car swerving was to increase the previously non-existent action and add excitement.




Shot 32
We then get a medium close up of the man fiddling with something in the car.

Shot 33
A shot of the car pulling off from behind and driving forward.

Shot 34
A tracking shot of the car driving through bushes and grassland, presumably chasing down the deer that are also in the shot.

Shot 35
This is a POV shot from the car chasing down the deer. The audience looking from the point of view of the car makes the chase seem faster and adds action.




Shot 36
Close up of the protagonist looking through the front window, concentrated on hunting down the animals.

Shot 37
Shot of car racing out of the grasslands and back into the city, still chasing down the deer ahead of it.

Shot 38
First person shot from the POV of the protagonist in the car, now chasing the deer in the city.




Shot 39
Shot of car from corner swerving around the corner, still hunting the animals.

Shot 40
Close up of protagonists face through the front window again, this time more intense.

Shot 41
POV shot from the car looking to see deer on it's left running off.

Shot 42
Tracking shot of car moving through city with deer in the foreground and in front of it.




Shot 43
Medium close up of man raising his gun, ready to presumably shoot a deer.

Shot 44
Over-the-shoulder shot of protagonist holding the gun so we see what he sees.

Shot 45
Tracking shot of deer running into a  dark tunnel.




Shot 46
Another close up of man lowering his gun due to the deer running into the tunnel.

Shot 47
Quick shot of car driving by camera.

Shot 48
Another shot of car driving past the camera, this time we look at the car driving past into distance.




Shot 49
Shot of deer running by and car coming from around the corner, catching up with them.

Shot 50
Over-the-shoulder shot of man, again, chasing down the animals in his car.

Shot 51
Tracking shot of car chasing down deer from the outside.

Shot 52
Over-the-shoulder shot of man chasing deer down a street from inside the car.




Shot 53
Shot of car swerving around corner again and chasing down the animals.

Shot 54
Shot of car having to skid to a halt as the deer run by due to another car being in his way.

Shot 55
Lower shot of car from wheels further skidding to a halt in front of cars.




Shot 56
Medium close up of protagonist skidding to a halt and looking past the camera at the cars and escaping deer.

Shot 57
Shot of car, lifting up for a shot of the street ahead, full of cars and deer jumping through them.

Shot 58
Medium close up of man looking on, disappointed, and dog barking behind him.