Fourth Wall: the imaginary invisible wall through which an audience views film, television and stage drama productions. Clive Owen breaks this wall in the beginning of the film, giving him an omniscent persona.


Protagonist: the leading character or hero in a film with whom the audience can identify and from whose point of view the action is positioned, often set in binary opposition against the antagonist. Denzel Washington plays the protagonist, Clive Owen is displayed as the antagonist but this status is dispelled toward the ending on the movie.

Hybrid: A cross betweenone film genre and another. Inside Man is a mixture of crime and thriller.

Equilibrium: the harmonious state that often exists at the start of a narrative before disruptive or transforming elements are introduced. The equilibrium is when the bank is moving along fine and people are going about their business in the bank.

Disequilibrium: the disruption of narrative by persons or events presenting a challenege to the harmonious equilibrium often found at the beginning of a film or other media text. The disequilibrium is created when the bank robbers enter the bank, the disruption itself it highlighted when the security guad notices something is odd and goes to stop the robbers but is held up at gunpoint.

Institution: any of the organisations responsible for the production, marketing, distribution or regulation of media texts.