The trailer for this movie, like most teaser trailers, only gives away the introductory events of the film and the problem that the characters encounter. It does not show the eventual main plot of the story and the ending of the film, but it gives the audience an insight into what is to come. It tells viewers that Harold and Kumar are being arrested as suspected terrorists and that they try to escape and nothing else.
The sub-text of the film that the trailer shows is the racism of many Americans towards others. The woman assuming that an Asian man on a plane must be an Islamic terrorist and the FBI Agent insulting Harold's eyes as a disability tells us that the underlying text of the movie and that most of the comedy is supplied by the mocking of the ignorance of many towards other races and perhaps not just Americans.
The trailer uses the diegetic sound of the plane hostess caller to set the scene of an aeroplane as soon as the trailer begins and to increase the effectiveness of the scene. The non-diegetic sound of the background music makes the trailer much more effective because it is fast paced and gives the audience the idea of the panic that would occur on a plane if a terrorist was found. Also, the non-diegetic sound of the Arab-like music when Kumar is portrayed as a terrorist makes that section more effective as it makes it more believable that this woman really believes she is faced by a Muslim terrorist.
The costume that is placed on Kumar when he is portrayed as a terrorist is extremely important to the whole trailer as it gives the audience an idea of what the sub-texts of the movie will be and how Harold and Kumar come to be arrested as suspected terrorists. Another important part of the mise-en-scene in this trailer is the plane. Although this is an obvious feature it is very important in showing the audience how and why Harold and Kumar come to be arrested and try to escape. The costumes worn by the FBI agents are also important because they show the high level of the hierachy they are at and how serious they believe Harold and Kumar's crime is.
Although the full plot of the movie is not given away in the trailer, the issues that is raising are clearly shown throughout. The costume of Kumar when he is seen as a terrorist by the old woman and her and the FBI agent assuming that he must be an Al Qaeda terrorist shows us that this movie is a mockery of racial attitudes towards Muslims in America. The racial issues towards East Asians when the agent says Harold is handicapped and a North Korean terrorist also show that the movie is a mockery of racist attitudes.
The narrative of the trailer is a less in-depth version of the overall narrative and plot of the movie. It explains how Harold and Kumar are on a plane journey to Amsterdam when they are arrested for being suspected terrorists and then they try to escape from the authorities, although it doesn't show us through moving image that they are escaping, the text 'This time they're running from the joint' tells us that is what is going to happen.
At no point of the trailer is it portraying the past through a sepia film stock, so it is in colour throughout.
Although there are no visual special effects or computer generated images, the non-diegetic sound special effect of crashes when both Harold and Kumar are pushed to floor are important to the trailer because they portray the full extent of the panic and the force that the agent uses, thus showing how violent they would be towards suspected terrorists.
The graphics used during the text shots are also important to the trailer, espescially the Harold and Kumar series logo. The logo is important to the trailer because it allows the audience to relate back to the first movie and recognise that this is a movie that is part of a sequence.
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