Rosie suddenly notices something behind him. The camera cuts to behind her so that we can see her facial expressions and her body movements at a medium shot. His head turns and then we see a point of view shot for the both of them looking at the picture on the wall. The camera then comes back to the previous position of being behind her and porter explains “yeah I know, it’s not much but at least you’ll be safe here”.
He then proceeds to tell her to “sit down” and “relax” when the phone beings to ring. This is just after he has said; “nobody knows I’m here”. We then see his very shocked and worried reaction shot followed by a point of view shot from the phone creating tension as we are not sure on whether he will pick it up or not. Then to add more tension and suspense, music is added creating excitement, terror and confusion in the audience as to what will happen next. There is now a close up of the phone which is black and an old style circular dial phone to again create this Noir feel, and then again back to the shot of the two of them. They both sit down and look t each other in worry and thought about what to do. At this point, the music is quite quiet and mostly on a monotone to create tension.
We then see him move out of shot and her just sitting there worried and obviously confused about whether he will pick up the phone or not. He says; “nobody has this number” which makes us wonder even more about who could be calling and there is a part of us that wants him to pick up the phone and a part that doesn’t. We then see a low angle shot of him above us as the camera is at the angle of the phone looking upwards at him. His hand moves slowly towards the phone and at this point the audience is really worried that he will pick it up. Instead, he reaches beyond the receiver and grabs the wire from behind the phone. We are at this point, still bemused as to what he might do and the suspense increases with the constant, monotonous ringing of the phone.
Just as we think he is going to pull the wire, the camera moves back into more of a full shot, where we see him move under the bed to have a look at where the wire leads. The shadows in the room are at this point prominently angular and dull looking again illustrating the eerie atmosphere. There then is a cut to a shot under the bed where we see the dog lying in front of us, and wires under the bed, which Porter looks at. This is followed by a close up of the bomb and then back to his and the dogs reaction shots. This relieves a slight amount of pressure in the form of very mild humour. I feel it is also supposed to highlight the fact that dogs smell danger and that was why he was lying by the bomb. Next there is a cut up to him kneeling by the bed in a medium shot to show his reactions in a clearer light. He, at this point, appears to be thinking carefully about his next move. We then see her reaction shot and he moves across the screen and then out of shot with her looking at him all the time. She then edges back into her chair. She now is in the same position as the audience and does not really know he is going to do either.
There is now a cut to him standing by the window with the typically Film Noir Venetian blinds creating immensely fragmented shadows on his face creating evermore uncertainty. We see him looking out of the window which leads on to a clever point of view shot of his eyes through the blinds and we see a car driving along the road on the street below. A black border of shadows frames it in, which are of course the blinds. Yet it creates this feeling of being trapped and behind bars, but at the same time hidden. The camera then pans across creating the border even more tilted and fragmented, to see a car parked by the sidewalk. We can see two men in the front, but only from a distance so it is still unclear. The audience now starts to get the gist of what’s going on, if they hadn’t already guessed. The car is also black making it more conspicuous and being parked next to the zebra crossing keeps the theme of fragmented images reoccurring.
We then cut back to Porter who is still looking out the window and moves down from the cover of the blinds to the uncovered part of the window, which creates worry that the men in the car can see him. He then makes the comment “somebody does know I’m here” and get up away from the window.
The camera now is outside and slowly closes in on three men in the car, which is obvious that it was the same car Porter was looking at. Humour is added at this tense moment with a joke about Rosie, Porter and the Dog. This slightly relieves the tension, which at this point is very high. We see the man closest to the camera holding a phone, which is obviously the same one that is ringing the room. Then in an extreme close up, there is a cut to hands cutting a pipe or wire in a dark surrounding. This puts the audience in a state of confusion, making them think that it could be the bomb, or anything else for that matter. We do not know who is cutting what at this point.
Now there is a real build up in tension, created by music playing in the background. We see a liquid of some sort spurting out of the pipe which, as we soon discover, is a yellowish colour. The audience can then establish for themselves that this is the underside of a car and the liquid is fuel. This is evident from the new features in shot telling us that it is a car. Then there is a cut to the men in car all facing the same direction. Looking out the front window, their point of view shot up to the window Porter was looking out of and then another cut to the underside of the car showing the pipe bleeding this flammable fuel. Then to a pan up the side of the car to see the men about to try to call Porter again smoking a cigarette. When suddenly there is a cut to the rear-view mirror and there is Porter in the reflection and the audience suddenly gets this sense of almost satisfaction. Cut back to the men in the car and their reaction shots to the realisation that he is there. This is followed by a sequence of cross cuts between Porter holding is cigarette, looking like he is about to drop it, the, men in car’s reaction shots and the slow motion of the cigarette being intentionally dropped and hitting the ground. Consequently to catch the fuel alight and it coming toward the camera, which is underneath the car, as a great speed.
The next part follows a sequence of lots of cuts of the car at different angles blowing up and Porter, bemused by the whole situation, still in the exact same position he was in when he dropped the cigarette. We see him through the fire, symbolising certain immortality and religious cleansing that makes him the ultimate anti-hero. He says, “I was moving up in the world” in the famous Noir voice over, which adds some morbid humour to this vivid scene. He then walks off the right hand side of the shot onto the sidewalk, maybe symbolising walking to safety. Or that walking off the right and side means he was right to kill them.
From the moment the camera moves outside to start filming the men in the car there are about twenty-seven cuts, which get faster and faster as the car is blowing up. This creates a sense of tension and suspense in audience. The whole film is shot with low-key lighting and a blue filter over the lens to create the near monochrome effect, as in Film Noir.
