The poster for Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy utilises several technical, written and semiotic codes to convey the content of the film to the viewer. In the above image I have highlighted and colour coded the main aspects of the poster and uses of codes.
The poster makes heavy use of blue, to denote the film as being dark in nature as well as giving the impression that the film is serious in tone. The main focus of the poster is on the centre figure, Gary Oldman, who plays the main character - Oldman is also given the priority in the acting credits. This is done not only to educate the viewer on the main aspects and type of film it is, but also to sell it more effectively by using Gary Oldman's reputation as a well-known and well-respected actor. The rest of the cast is displayed in the background, appearing in a similar fashion to a grid, which combined with the faint text of the background gives the impression of a CCTV unit, playing into the themes of the film. Along with the actor credits along the bottom of the title, the director is also given a main credit - the director, while not well-known, had previously made a highly successful Swedish language film that found success in the UK and so could use his name to bring in a greater audience through association with that successful film.
Unusually, the poster doesn't make use of a tagline (the film's tagline was "the secret is out" but would only feature at the very bottom of certain posters and was not very visible), instead relying on the cast and reviews to sell the film to the audience. The reviews take up a large amount of space on the poster so as to draw the eye in, and are placed at the top to make them more likely to be read first. This way, the poster can give off a good first impression to the viewer before they've judged the film based on looks or on the actors.
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