Sci fi film- The day after tomorrow opening scene analysis

The film opens with the film company logo '20th century fox' which in this case for this film has an unusual element made for this particular film of lightning striking around the logo which is a dramatic type of weather which sets theme of the film of extreme weather and reveals that dramatic events will occur so this will therefore excite the audience. The actual film opens with music which is quite empty and has no beat to it, which is eerie so suggests that a disaster of some sort has struck and has wiped out a population, it also has a slight echo which hints loneliness. An establishing shot/ high angle shot reveals a vast expanse of ice caps  that are melting, this is showing the audience a taste of the worlds natural beauty that will soon be gone if global warming continues, the scientific element of global warming alerts the audience into identifying the film genre. This scene showing the ice caps is placed at the start of the film to shock the audience into thinking that this is a significant sight to see these ice caps that could potentially be gone soon if global warming continues. The camera is moving fast over the ice caps which indicates that the purpose of this is to show to the audience that the ice caps are melting fast. The music becomes more dramatic as the vocals stop, this is to emphasis the significant effect that global warming has on the worlds poles and it's power to wipe out a population, the singer portrays a human and the human's voice is lost leaving only the music. The establishing shot reveals that this location has a great deal of importance to the film. A close up shot of the American flag waving in the wind hints to the audience that the researchers are American, and in typical Sci- fi films Americans are known to save the day which hints out their pride. The next shot is a two person shot which denotes two researchers who are doing work on the poles. They are both wearing thick coats which connotes to the audience that the location they are at is extremely cold. The next shot is a close up of one of the men drilling into the ice caps which suddenly cracks. Another key feature  is of a sci- fi film is the use of technology to explore social, political or philosophical issues. In this case they are using drills to drill into the ice caps to explore the social issues of climate change. The crack in the ice connotes danger and is dramatic as from the introduction the film shows this vast expanse of natural beauty and the fact that someone is drilling into it indicates that this is the cause of global warming and would make the audience feel annoyed at this researcher. The fact that there are people researching on the poles suggests that this film is set in the future as it is hinted that the issue has got to it's worst so something needs to be done to stop this climatic issue.