Film Poster - Hostage

The first thing you notice when looking at this poster is the very well known Bruce Willis. As he has been in over sixty films his popularity has grown and he is best known for his die hard masterworks. This plays a big part is selling the film as all action/thriller lovers will pay to see this movie. Most films starring Bruce Willis is this type of genre and this is what the target audience expect to see. The main image of Bruce Willis holding a gun instantly represents violence and danger. Once again he is involved in a narrative with people's lives on the line and it's his responsibility to help them. The poster looks like it has been damaged and scratched, this gives the impression the narrative is dangerous and people are in danger of getting hurt.

On this poster there is a lot of text with the title being the biggest one that stands out the most. The title "Hostage" is bold and is a red font. The title has also been stylized to look like it has been scratched to give that element of danger. The stars name "Bruce Willis" has been positioned just above the title in the same red font which means his name is just as good, if not better than the film title. The poster carries two taglines with the biggest one reading "On March 11th there will be no negotiation". First of all there is a date which tells the audience when the film is going to be released, this means it has been structured in the form of a coming soon poster. This tagline also anchors the audience into believing that Bruce Willis will get his way no matter what. The other tagline reads "Would you sacrifice another family to save your own" which tells the audience that Willis is going to show a lot of courage to save everyone. The taglines and all the other text on the poster are in a white font. At the bottom of the poster it mentions it is based on the number one best selling thriller. This also helps with selling the film as people will understand it is based on a very popular novel. Also at the bottom is all the information about who was involved in the film. It is in a very small font with the various jobs being mentioned as always. The director's name only appears in this billing block which means he is not very well known.