In 1992, while at R/GA New York, Kyle Cooper directed the opening title sequence for Kevin Hooks’ Passenger 57, starring Wesley Snipes. Still photographs of an array of personal items one might place on a conveyor belt in airport security— keys, perfume, a watch, a belt— and inverted their color to create a negative image. The effect is reinforced by adjusting the opacity of each item and tracking their movement horizontally, as if we are watching as they pass through an X-ray. The objects’ screen direction is from right to left, contrasting with the more comfortable left to right direction in which we read the words in the credits (and reversing what an actual TSA officer would see), thus creating a subtle feeling of instability and tension to introduce this taut psychological thriller.
