Culturally Preconditioned

A fellow Survivor fan mailed me a couple of weeks back and asked if I had all the other Survivor opening themes and video from previous seasons. Being a huge Survivor fan since Episode 4 of Season One, how can I not have them in my collection? Anyway, there are now 9 seasons, and a total of 130 Survivors, and watching the Opening Credits gives you a short recap, if you will, of all 130 of them. But besides that, one of the reasons that I enjoy watching the Opening Credits is because I believe there is clues hidden within them that dictates how the game pans out.

Speculation based on the Opening Credits are a HUGE taboo in the Spoiling community. Why is it so? Because sometimes the speculation and theories can be SO TREMENDOUSLY OUTLANDISH that it doesn’t make sense. It’s like, you’re trying to come up with a story that fits you, when in actual fact, there’s nothing there. But I have to admit that I am a huge believer in these Opening Credits. Laugh all you want, but true or not, personally, I think it’s always fun to speculate. Kinda makes the show more interesting.

AND believe it or not, Mark Burnett has actually confirmed that there are some truths with regards to clues hidden in the Opening Credits (at least for the first two seasons). The following is a recap on my analysis of the Opening Credits speculations.

Survivor : Borneo

Mark Burnett has confirmed that one of the hidden clues in the first season was splicing in a few snapshots of the Final Four : Richard, Rudy, Kelly and Sue.

Personally, I don’t think the man in the picture is Richard, but most probably a body double (or a lookalike). This shot was also supposed to be a snapshot of the Final Four

Then of course, the introductions for both Kelly and Richard (the final two) were the longest among the 16 castaways.

Other than those, the editing team has made a blunder with the inclusions of these pics in the opening credits :

This picture proved that Jenna and Kelly survived the merge (they are shown being together in this shot)

This picture signified that Rudy made it very far in the game based on his beard (heavy hair growth)

Survivor : Outback

The first animal imagery to be used in terms of how the story arc is going to be was presented by a snake and a crocodile, followed immediately by the Wicked Witch herself, Jerri

As for the actual winner herself, Tina’s opening credits were filled with burning fire, and as Jeff always says “Fire represents life”. Mark Burnett, never confirmed that part. What he DID confirm was the inclusion of the sun in the Survivor logo at the end. The reason was because Tina’s nickname was “Sunshine”

There were also a couple of red herrings thrown in. After revealing to the public about the inclusion of the Final Four’s faces in Survivor : Borneo’s opening credits, he put in some faces this second time around, hoping to fool speculators into believing that these were in the Final Four (they definitely used body doubles and lookalikes for this - Amber, Keith and Elizabeth with the familiar looking headdress)

Survivor : Africa

NO confirmation was made by Mark Burnett or CBS for Africa’s Opening Credits, although someone has speculated that the winner’s intro was siginifcantly longer than the other contestants, like Borneo.

If any of you are familiar with Tapewatcher’s Follow The Star theory, which likened Ethan to Jesus, might well be interested to find this interesting shot of Ethan too. Now, could that be the Shroud of Turin?

The most wildly talked about in Africa was Teresa’s opening credits. Not only her intro is followed immediately by the words “39 days” (which is how long the Survivor winner stays in the game), AND the fact that her opening credits is made up of a total of 39 individual frames. Coincidence? I don’t think so. It’s a planted red herring.

Yet another misdirection was the blatant split second shot of Lex’s lookalike after Jessie’s intro. It’s there. Blink and you’ll miss it.

Survivor : Marquesas

Once again Tapewatcher prophesized at the beginning of the game that “The answer is in the shells”. Obviously this set off alarm bells in Opening Credit followers.

The shell was referred to the submerged clam shell at the end of the credits. It had a shot focusing on the letter V (Vecepia?) and also had another shot on the letters VO (Vavrick-O’Brien?). Of course, eventually we know the winner is Vecepia. I’m not certain on this, but I’m 95% sure that either Mark Burnett or someone from CBS has confirmed that the hint from Marquesas’ opening credits is the TWO fire shots immediately following Vecepia’s intro.

Then of course, there’s this one VERY OUTLANDISH theory based on the following vidcap (which I very distinctively remember posting at realiiity.com a few years ago)

Yes, the ocean splashes looked as though it’s showing the letters ZOE. Hmmm.. apparently, we were wrong. But you cannot discount the fact that the editor really DO digitally alter several scenes in the show (evidently in Brandon’s buff colours in Africa, and more recently, Shii Ann’s buff colours in All Stars)

Right off the bat, I made the conclusion that Hunter is not going to last long in the game, and I did it based on his opening credits. His credits consisted of two boring challenge shots (not even a ‘winner’s’ still potrait.) and I thought to myself, no way a winner gets such a shitty intro like that. I was right, and that still holds true till today. The winner always gets a ‘colourful’ and
interesting shot in the opening credits.

And I just wanted to include that in here for the benefit of ntv7 watchers. If you paid close attention, ntv7 heavily butchered Sarah’s intro out of the opening credits. Mmmm… oookkkaaaaay. Whatever works for them, I guess.

Survivor : Thailand

Thailand had two different opening credits. The one used in the first episode showed the women grouped together, and followed by the men. They used this to keep viewers in suspense until the tribes were actually divided down into equal groups of men and women. Out of the 16 castaways, three had the most interesting credits :

Not only are they good shot, they also had huge fires growing around them. Some have argued (post show) that these were an indication to the most interesting characters from the season (which really wasn’t saying much).

But if you look at the Final Four intros, you would’ve noticed that Brian had the fire, and the rest had water washing down on their pictures. If that’s not a blatant signal as to who’s going to win, I don’t know what is.

One more thing from this season was Penny’s shot. Hers had a picture of a cheerful Penny, and transformed to a more sullen and serious looking Penny. Like Jerri’s intro, this was an indication of how her story arc was. Percepted as the token American cheer leading sweetheart at first, she was later revealed as the fake, manipulative, backstabbing bitch that she really is [/channelling Shii Devil]

Some have also speculated Penny to go far because of the shot below which had tiny coins (ie. pennies) placed in the Survivor logo.

Survivor : Amazon

The opening credits opens with a lone shot of a local bird, the Jaburu.

bla bla bla… and another shot of the Jaburu

ooh and look, another Jaburu

Hmmm.. makes you think, doesn’t it? I personally only thought about this after the show ended, because.. i mean, seriously… who really thought Jenna was going to win this game? Come on. Don’t lie! But after the show, I realised that despite the three Jaburu shots in the Opening Credits (signifying the women would somehow prevail over the men), Jenna’s shot was highly interesting

She was shown fishing. Now what was the men’s tribe called? Oh that’s right. Tambaqui (ie. Fish). Jenna was basically edited as the lazy young model in the Amazon, so why was her opening credit shot showed her actually doing some ‘work’? And her work? Fishing. Hook, line, sinker. Jenna wins. I really thought that was BRILLIANT (the insertion of her opening clip)

This shot was taken during Joanna’s credit, but interestingly enough, Jenna was the center of attention in this shot.

Oh right, besides the Jaburu, there was also a shot of an eagle getting fish out of the water. Not a good season to be a Tambaqui, in my opinion

Some of the guys also had interesting shots in their opening credits.

All had trouble balancing on the beam from the first challenge. All of them did not make the jury.

Survivor : Pearl Islands

Pearl Islands got a very interesting opening credit. It’s interesting because they are all very interesting. LOL all of them had a challenge shot, and a beautiful still shot which made it hard for us to speculate.

This was a shot taken from the opening credit. It showed Nicole and Darrah jumping off the boat. Many have speculated that Nicole was the first person voted out, and Darrah could possibly be the winner. Evidently, that did not happen.

(side note : HOWEVER, if you rewatch the first episode, you can see all of the survivors jumping off the boat and into the water. All of them. Except for Sandra. Again, something to think about)

Sandra didn’t really have a standout ‘winner’s opening credit. Her shot is kind of similar to Tina’s in the Outback. Hers could possibly be the only winner unaccounted for in the opening credits speculation.

Before the season started, information has been leaked about an Outcast tribe among the spoiling community. RUmour has it that an older woman returns back from the dead. I wasn’t surprised to see these in the opening credits, the question back then was, which one’s coming back to life, and which one stays dead?

Tijuana had an interesting credit, in the sense that hers was the only one that was shared with another castaway, Jonny Fairplay. God knows why they edited it as such though.

Survivor : All Stars

All Stars had an interesting opening credit. Again, the winner’s credit is unaccounted for except for this shot :

The Chapera celebrating their Man Of Fire challenge. Amber is in the center of this shot, but even I think it’s pretty outlandish. If we were looking for a winner’s ‘edit’ I would’ve said Jenna Lewis fit the profile

She is seen leading the way, in front of two former Survivor winners. She is in the center shot of Tina’s intro, and takes up half of Amber’s. But I’m really glad she didn’t win though.

Rupert fans kept focusing on the number 33 and 33A as shown in the film strip, and analyzed it to death (to no avail).

Some have also argued that Big Tom’s fire carrying shot definitely meant something. Mmm apparently not. I would like to see it as Tom being in the water = not a good thing. Also not so good are shots of people struggling in the water. The Mogo-Mogos had pain written all over the challenge shots.

The two interesting shots that came from this season are the shots of Jerri and Colby. Like Penny from Thailand, the sequence of their pictures signified how their story arc were to become.

Jerri’s shot turned from a serious looking one, to a smiling one (we can see that the editors have been kinder to her, and tried to portray her as more easy going - which actually didn’t work that well.. Once a bitch, always a bitch is what I always say. But I love her for it). And Colby’s shot turned from a smiling gleaming one, to a more serious one, which in a sense showed how Colby’s
“heart is not in the game this time around” (which has been confessed by Colby himself and other players in the game)

and of course there was this shot

which appeared before Alicia’s shot. I lughed my ass off when I heard Tina’s
commentaries on the All Stars DVD “Did Alicia get bitten?”. LOL.

Survivor : Vanuatu

Vanuatu also have two different opening videos. In the first one shown in the first episode, it showed the castaways alternating between male and female. After it has been made clear that they are separated into tribes of men and women, the subsequent opening credits showed them in the order of their respective tribes.

The Final Five

I loved Julie’s opening credits. It’s a little too similar to Mia’s though, but Julie’s is way better. It is showing her being rowed to the shores by locals, like a Queen. This.. in a land that regard “pigs as better than women”. I find it highly interesting. If I was a betting man, I’d say based on the opening credits, Julie might win it all. But don’t quote me on that.

Scout and Twila both have very similar intros. Both have fires in their intros. We have learned that fire represents life. Is this an indication that they both make it to the Final Two? Or is it an indication that these two will get burned? (which can also happen at the Final Two)

Eliza’s intro is non too outstanding. Her other shot is of her swimming (and smiling) and looking back at her tribemates. And this shot, with a yellow Survivor logo.

Chris’s intro shows him chopping off a banana leaf. And also another shot with a yellow Survivor logo.

But before we start jumping on the yellow Survivor logo thingy, two other castaways have them too.. and they have both been voted out

Leann’s opening credit is one of the most interesting ones to date. It shows her picture falling off and revealing a skull at the back. People have predicted that this would be the indication that she gets evacuated from the game. Well, I guess not, but it certainly shows her falling off from her high horse. That would’ve been more appropriate for Ami, if you think about it, but if they put that into Ami’s intro, 85% of the viewers would know that the Ice Queen would be dethroned and that would probably killed the suspense.

In the first opening credit, it is interesting to note that Eliza’s intro came immediately after Chris’. And interestingly enough, both of them had shots of dealing with plants (Chris hacking off the banana leaf, and Eliza plucking the leaves of a plant - this shot was taken out from subsequent opening credits)

Definitely something to think about.

So, there ya go. Pretty outlandish, I must say, but like I said, it’s fun to speculate. And that’s why I don’t even look away from the TV set when the opening credits are rolling.