Characters
Themes
Narratives
Iconography
Audio visual style
Characters
The 2 main typical characters within thrillers usually involves heroes and villain's which is similar to action films. However, this varies within the sub genres of the film. For instance, the characters in The Resident is vary different to Enemy of the state because they are in different sub genres, Enemy of the state is an innocent lawyer (Will Smith) who gets caught up in a conspiracy where some members of the government (headed by Jon Voite) are trying to get back a tape that will expose them as murderer, whereas the characters in The Resident has an innocent victim (Hilary Swank) who moves into an apartment owned by someone who becomes obsessed with her. In Enemy of the State, the villain is not a person but a part of the government is portrayed as the villain which is common in conspiracy and political thrillers but it is quite unusual for the government to be represented as the villain is other thrillers. However, it is expected to have an innocent victim in thrillers which is usually put into a unpredictable and uncontrollable situation.
Themes
Themes are the basic ideas that underly the narrative of the film. For instance, The Resident's theme is obsession and on some level love. The typical thriller themes are obsession because usually the hero and villain are "dead set" on catching each other. Revenge is mostly in revenge thrillers but can be in some other sub genres like in The Fugitive where Harrison Ford tries to find his wife's killer after he escaped from jail which is considered "taking revenge" whereas The Fugitive is considered an action thriller. There is also a power struggle between the good guys and the bad guys.
Narratives
Narratives are the stories or the main plots of the film. Thrillers are usually based around a crime or crimes that happen at the start, something happens that will lead to a big climax, or it is a race against time to stop something big from happening, like in Along came a Spider when Morgan Freeman has to find a kidnapped child before it is too late. The thrillers always include a crime, which involves law enforcement and criminals, and sometimes these are the main points of thrillers. However, this can just be a small part or a big point but not the main point.
Iconography
Iconography is everything you see in the film, like the setting, the gadgets ect. In pretty much every thriller, there are always guns which could represent power. Most thrillers are set in a urban setting like in cities (New York, London, Miami ect) because usually involve law enforcement. In most thrillers in the past 10 years has include very high tech gadgets to keep up with the the 21st century like if it's conspiracy thrillers they will include bugging equipment and satalites, and most thrillers and other films types they always include the latest mobile phones and computers. In a lot of thrillers, there is car chases so this includes fast cars for the chases and because most thrillers are set in a urban environment, the will be lots of cars to create this effect. In a lot of thrillers, mostly gangster and conspiracy thrillers there is a lot of good and bad guys wearing black suits to symbolise power, hence the power struggle between the good and bad guys, however, this is included in other thrillers that include people like FBI or CIA.
Audio visual style
Audio visual style is the editing, camera work and sound that you see and hear in the film, like the soundtrack which is everything you hear in the thriller. Most thrillers have quite a few scenes of fast editing when something big is happening like in Leon where there was fast editing when there was a shoot-out in the apartment. In some thrillers they have jerky hand held camera work to create an element of danger and to put the audience in the point of view with the character.
