Movie Comparison- Flight plan, Limitless, Don't breathe

To conclude, Limitless is much more aggressive, faster paced and dangerous that Flight Plan and Don't Breath, as there are dead bodies strewn around the hotel and loud diegetic banging of the protagonist's door, as the antagonists try to break in. In my opinion, Limitless is more tense, due to how volatile the situation is. The film opening has much more action and is faster paced than Flight Plan. I would say that limitless is more of an action thriller, as it has the conventions of violence, weapon and fast paced action.

  Flight plan feels much more like a mystery thriller. This is due to the various flashbacks, which make this opening scene very confusing, and this reflects the protagonist's mental state. This film opening leaves the audience asking lots of questions from the start, and this is a key convention of mystery thrillers.

Don't Breathe starts with one of the last scenes, and cross cuts to the start of the story, which creates confusion, as well as letting the audience discover what will happen near the end of the film, to help them to create questions so they want to watch the rest of the film. This movie feels like a hybrid of thriller and horror, as it includes many of the conventions from both genres, such as fast paced editing,the contrast of good and evil, and the building up of suspense and tension,

  All three thrillers use the four media language techniques to create questions and to introduce the characters, the background to the story and the setting of the film.

In the three films sound is used to build tension and suspense, but in different ways. Limitless uses action, weapons and loud noises (such as bangs and shouting) to build the tension. The director wants the audience to feel worried on behalf of the protagonist, as he teetered on the top of his apartment. Flight plan however, uses eerie silence, distorted sounds and a soundtrack played on a violin, which are designed to create emotional responses from the audience. The director wants the audience to empathise with the protagonist and feel sorry for her. The eerie silence gives the movie an unnatural feel, which makes the audience feel worried and captivates them. Don't  breathe uses a mixture of eerie sounds as well as a fast paced backing track to build up the tension, and this mirrors the fact that is is a hybrid of a thriller and a horror.

Limitless and Flight Plan use the thriller conventions of low key lighting, death, tension and muddling around with time. Don't breathe uses high key lighting to relax the audience into a false sense of security, to make what happens next all the more shocking. It does however muddle around with time, as it starts with one of the final scenes, and jump cuts to the start of the story.