Movie scenes, where part of the story is told by graphics.

Hello everybody,

I am trying to build a compilation of movie scenes where a point of the story is telled by graphics, displays, type, or any other visual representation.

Usually, scenes like this involve computer displays showing ridiculously over the top graphics and animations and their only purpose is to help the audience understand what is going on or emphasize the importance of a scene. A pretty standard one is “File downloading … 80% … 90% … DOWNLOAD COMPLETE”. Or usually computer graphics are used to show the location or proximity of an object or a target.

I am not looking for these standard graphic tools. I am looking for scenes where the graphics/visual translation IS the scene. Aliens for example makes very good use of the standard “dots on a map to show the location of the enemy” graphic and builds tension with that. The graphic suddenly becomes a key element in story telling.

I have included two examples:

1) Highlander – Signature Scanning Scene

2) The Abyss – Text Messages

The Highlander scene shows without words or particular explanation the true identity of the main character. The text messages in The Abyss tell the story of the main character’s physical decline when he nearly dies because of the pressure of the deep sea by using bad spelling and becoming incomprehensible (not in the scene shown, but in earlier scenes). They also add a lot of emotion and intimacy because they are the only way the main character can express himself right now.

I hope my point became a little clearer :) Does anybody know more scenes where a visual representation of some kind tells a part of the story?

I would love to hear any of your suggestions!

Thank you!