Comparison of opening 3 scenes of The Hurt Locker and District 9

District 9 - Opening 3 scenes

1. Wikus introduces the mockumentary with talking about himself and the roles of the Alien affairs department.
2. The second scene has the experts from the mockumentary explaining how the aliens arrived and all the background information needed to understand the narrative. The scene also has clips of interviews showing how people view the aliens.
3. The third scene is at MNU where Piet Smth is talking about moving the aliens and puts Wikus in charge.

The Hurt Locker - Opening 3 scenes

1. The troops are trying to clear people away from the area and we are introduced to Sanborn, Eldridge and Thompson as they use the bot to uncover the bomb. Thompson ends up being killed in the explosion
2. In the second scene, Sanborn is seen placing an object into a white box that contained Thompson's belongings.
3. The the third scene we finally meet James who is sitting in his dark room with loud music playing and smoking a cigarette. Him and Sanborn introduce themselves and have a fairly decent first impression. 

Narrative structure 

Todorov's Narrative sturucture

For Todorov’s Narrative theory,in the first three scenes,The Hurt Locker starts off with both an equilibrium and not an equilibrium as the team of Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson, Sergeant J.T. Sanborn and Specialist Owen Eldridge are happily working together and make a good team. However, the initial equilibrium is disrupted very early into the film by a bomb exploding and killing Staff Sergeant Matthew Thompson.

However, for Todorov’s Narrative Theory in the first three scenes, District 9 has a more conventional narrative opening as an equilibrium of Wikus working an everyday office job is set up. 

How the hero is introduced

In The Hurt Locker, Sergeant James is actually not introduced immediately, like Wikus is, but instead is only seen after the initial equilibrium is disrupted. This can confuse the audience slightly as we expect for a war film, to be seen through the main characters perspective especially if there is action happening. However this does not happen and the audience themselves have to figure out if the is meant to be the 'hero'. 

However, in District 9, Wikus is introduced immediately as we see and hear him as soon as the film starts. This reinforces him being the main character but possibly not the expected 'hero'. Unlike The Hurt Locker, the audience now sees the events through Wiku's perspective.