What Is A Thriller?

A thriller is often characterized as a fast-paced suspenseful film or book that is designed to keep the reader/viewer on the edge. The thriller genre in a film is often accompanied by many sub-genres. These again show different elements of the film/book to the audience. They can be medical related thrillers, or crime or psychological or action thrillers, or even a combination of many. The Bourne Ultimatum in my opinion is a great example of a conspiracy, crime and action thriller.

Thrillers such as this offer the audience red-herrings, keeping the audience unsure and making unpredictable plot twists just when the audience may have figured out the plot. So it is almost obvious from the outset that there will be many elements of a suspenseful-action thriller used to portray the typical conventions of a thriller such as Bourne, things like explosions, guns, high octane chase sequences, and another key element, knowledge. Knowing something the villain or the hero might not can be the important piece of information that is needed to figure out what will happen next. Alfred Hitchcock’s example of ‘the bomb under the table’ is a prime example of the piece of information.

All of these keep the audience on the edge of their seats, not just watching.. but also trying to engage and keep themselves ahead of the plot.

Trailer for Bourne Ultimatum

- Mehmet Tarhan