The opening cutscene is one of the most complex cutscenes in gaming history. Here it is, explained in full:
SETTING: Bob Page's office (probably the VersaLife building in Hong Kong that featured in the original Deus Ex; note it says "Hong Kong" on his screen).
DATE: The year is 2027. 25 years before the original Deus Ex, which took place in 2052.
SUBJECT: We see a 37-year-old Bob Page, main antagonist from the original Deus Ex (much younger here), and one of the best antagonists in gaming. He is very friendly and outgoing by disposition ("please! call me Bob.."), but is simply devoid of any morality and is extremely ambitious. At this time he is one of the top five Illuminati, a secret society basically in control of the world. Probably third or fourth-ranking in the organization, he leads the "Majestic 12" division of the Illuminati, a section in charge of technological matters. He's also (among other things) the CEO and majority stockholder of the VersaLife Corporation, a multinational medical and bioengineering company with a monopoly on the production of Neuropozine (the drug all augmented people regularly need to avoid having their augments rejected by their immune system). While VersaLife, headquartered in Hong Kong, is the main "evil corporation" associated with Page in the games, note that its only a subsidiary of the massive Page Industries conglomerate, which is Page's main commercial entity. By the time of the original Deus Ex, Page Industries will become the largest and most powerful commercial entity on the planet, several times over (mostly by capitalizing on a cataclysmic stock market crash in the 2040s).
CONTEXT: Up to this point the Illuminati were content in their control over augmentations through VersaLife's monopoly on Neuropozine - however, David Sarif's research team, headed by Megan Reed, is just now preparing to go public with their discovery of a means to make Neuropozine unnecessary. David Sarif is an augmentations industrialist who consistently refuses invitations to get cozy with the Illuminati, because he believes augmentations should be unlimited. Megan Reed is his top researcher who discovered the gene sequence necessary for a complete and total (Neuropozine-free) interface between man and machine - something Bob Page had incidentally been after for a very long time, for his own reasons (see below).
EVENT: Highest-level Illuminati meeting on maintaining control over augmentations. Augs increase both mental and physical abilities of mankind, and can not be allowed to remain outside their control. They have two currently-ongoing plans of achieving control over this process: #1 political lobbying and pressure on lawmakers headed by illuminatus William Taggart (present), which has been going on for some time now and making progress; the idea here is to control augs in the "conservative" way, through the puppet governments of the world. And #2 the introduction of a new "kill-switch" biochip to all augmented people, which would deactivate their augs (individually or altogether) at the Illuminati's discretion. The latter method is now favored, because David Sarif is moving too fast with his discovery.
PARTICIPANTS: There are eight participants in this meeting (seven talking heads + Page). They are the Ruling Council of Five (the top Illuminati body), to which Page belongs - plus three lower-level Illuminati who are directly handling the augmentations issue, and thus fall under Page's immediate supervision (him being in charge of technological matters, as head of the Majestic 12 division of the Illuminati). We'll see those three lower-rankers in the game. None of the Ruling Council of Five appear personally in Human Revolution (aside from Page himself of course, and that only in the intro and post-credits scene). All three lower-level Illuminati heads speak, and can easily be discerned. Of the Ruling Council of Five, two heads speak (plus Page himself of course). That leaves two heads belonging to members of the Ruling Council of Five that remain silent - but we know who they are, because we know the composition of the Five at this time. In order of speaking, the heads are: Zhao Yun Ru, one of the three lower-rankers. CEO of the Tai Yong Medical augmentations corporation. She is more-or-less in charge of the biochip solution. Her task will be to manufacture the biochip with her company's massive resources.. She has also "spoken with Montreal" to ensure the Illuminati-controlled, globally-dominant Picus Network spreads panic to motivate people to get the chip. Zhao is new to the Illuminati and rather low-ranking. [Zhao appears in the game.] Beth DuClare (French accent, with a very deep vocoder). Member of the Ruling Council of Five. Illuminata in charge of medical matters, and basically in control of the UN's World Health Organization (WHO). Her task will be to ensure the Limb augmentation clinics distribute the biochip, through the fact that the WHO "controls their purse strings". [DuClare does not personally appear in any Deus Ex game, but is well known of. Her daughter appears in the original Deus Ex.] William Taggart (he speaks twice), one of the three lower-rankers. He is the illuminatus in charge of the alternative method, the political lobbying for augmentation legislation, which will place the tech under their control through the laws of the world's puppet governments. He's moving too slow, however, and is basically being sidelined in favor of the biochip. Nevertheless, he will proceed with his solution, parallel with the biochip effort. [Taggart appears in this game] Lucius DeBeers (southern accent): Head of the Ruling Council of Five - and basically the most powerful man in the world. He's the aging, but intelligent and very lucid, leader of the Illuminati (about 100 years old now). He's leaning in favor of the biochip method because he thinks Sarif is moving too fast (Taggart tries to convince him otherwise, when Page intercedes). [De Beers does not appear in this game, he makes a brief appearance in the original Deus Ex] Hugh Darrow (British accent), one of the three lower-rankers. The "Father of Augmentation Technology". His task is to develop the biochip. He knows David Sarif personally, and expresses satisfaction at the discovery of the gene sequence, because it allows for the finalization of the biochip's development. [Darrow appears in this game] Finally there's the person Bob Page is secretly instant-messaging with through an embedded signal (The IM-er). There are two basic possibilities. Firstly, that its one of the two silent heads. In that case its almost certainly Page's mentor and sponsor in the Illuminati - Morgan Everett, the current "Number 2" in the Illuminati (after Lucius DeBeers). This is strongly suggested by Page talking with him on the subject of Megan Reed in the post-credits cutscene ("she's here"). They've been discussing her previously - a very likely reference to this opening cutscene. Secondly, if we take into account that Page's keyboard says "Remote access: Sarif Industries", if that means something - then its either a) Athene Marghoulis, Sarif's secretary, Francis Pritchard, or c) an anonymous informant within Sarif Industries. Its not very likely to be Sarif, as Sarif dies an opponent of the Illuminati. However, it must be kept in mind in all this that the cutscenes were outsourced to a different studio and that the visuals may not be as indicative to the intention of the writers as all that. Personally, I find the post-credits cutscene a compelling indication towards Everett being the IM-er. The last, seventh head is most probably that of Stanton Dowd. A very prominent Templar Illuminatus in charge of banking, who logically has nothing to say on this matter and therefore keeps silent. He is the current "Number 3" in the Illuminati, after Everett and DeBeers, and appears in the original Deus Ex.
IN SUMMARY: the participants are: DeBeers (head of the Illuminati; speaks; Southern accent) Everett (second-ranking; the likely instant-messenger with Page) Dowd (third-ranking, completely silent) Page (fourth-ranking, or perhaps third?; depicted in person) DuClare (French accent, distribution of biochip) Taggart (ordinary American accent, pressure on lawmakers) Darrow (British accent, development of biochip) Zhao (Chinese accent, manufacture of biochip) The first five (as was noted) are the Ruling Council of Five, the highest Illuminati officials whom we know from the original Deus Ex. They do not appear in this game. The last three are their subordinates, in charge specifically of containing augmentations. They are our antagonists for the game, introduced for that purpose. They do appear in Human Revolution - and all die according to the ending that's (been recently revealed as) canon. Sarif also dies.
DECISION: In the end it is decided to go forward with the biochip solution immediately: they will kidnap Megan Reed and the rest of the Sarif research team, both to prevent their publishing the new man-machine interface gene sequence discovery - but also to force them to help develop the biochip, which (as Darrow says) could greatly benefit that effort.
SECRET AGENDAS: There are two separate secret agendas in this meeting, that of Bob Page & Morgan Everett (the person with whom Page is messaging) - and that of Hugh Darrow. Meanwhile, Bob Page also has his own secret intentions, unknown to Morgan Everett (whom he will betray some time before the time of the original Deus Ex). Secret agenda of Bob Page and Morgan Everett (Page especially). They are out to develop NANO-AUGMENTATIONS (as opposed to mechanical ones), for which they need Megan Reed's gene sequence. Bob Page's VersaLife corp has been trying to find that sequence for decades. Unbeknownst to anyone, Megan Reed has discovered the gene sequence - all developed - in the DNA of the game's protagonist Adam Jensen. And Adam Jensen is in fact an orphan rescued from one of Bob Page's murderous VersaLife labs as an infant, just before the labs were burnt down (they were murdering babies en masse and one of the employees couldn't take it). NOTE IN THIS REGARD: In the cutscene, when Bob Page finds out (from Everett in their messaging) that Megan Reed has the gene sequence he needs for his nano-augmentation development - he immediately intercedes against Taggart and argues for the biochip method. Which will involve the kidnapping of Megan Reed and their quick acquisition of the gene sequence. Secret agenda of Bob Page alone - unknown to Morgan Everett, Bob Page (his protege) is developing the nano-augmentations as part of a secret pet project of his - to make himself a LIVING GOD (which he very nearly does in the original Deus Ex). To do that he needs (among other things) that gene sequence that allows for a complete (and obviously Neuropozine-free) interface between man and machine, and thus also facilitates NANO augmentation. In fact, the sequence is originally his, not Megan Reed's - Reed just found it in Jensen. His company developed it - through using human babies as lab rats, and murdering them. And its pretty unlikely that the Illuminati in general knew about these experiments. They took place in White Helix Labs (a subsidiary of his VersaLife Corporation), which fronted as a research center for congenital genetic diseases. Adam Jensen's biological father and mother (we don't know their name, it wasn't 'Jensen') succeeded in spawning the sequence in a child that was their own biological offspring (presumably like many others). That's Adam. At that point, they decided they could no longer take this, and, knowing there's ultimately no escape from Page, decided to burn the labs down along with themselves - to stop the experiments. Adam was however rescued by a nurse, and was later adopted by the Jensen family. Of course, at the end of the game, with Sarif Industries collapsing, Megan Reed joins Page at VersaLife. That means one way or another - Bob got his gene sequence... In a roundabout way, through Megan Reed - who got it from her ex-boyfriend, Jensen. To move his plan along, Bob also needs an AI. And nano-augmentation in general. Finally, there's the secret agenda of Hugh Darrow (the scientific genius and billionaire) tasked with actually developing the biochip. Unknown to the other Illuminati, he has come to HATE augmentations and does not seek to control them (as the Illuminati do) - he instead wants to make sure they're rejected by humanity, and destroyed altogether. He is the man who discovered them (which is how he made his fortune and why he was invited to join the Illuminati), but now he thinks they will destroy humanity... which they kinda almost do later on in Deus Ex. He will develop the biochip, not as a "shut down switch" to maintain discreet control over all augmented people - but as a "go crazy switch", which will make all augmented people go insane (while the signal is on) through induced violent hallucinations, and force a ban by the authorities. He convinces the kidnapped Megan Reed to help him in this goal. This is what happens at the end of Human Revolution: Darrow broadcasts a "go nuts" signal and all augmented people basically go insane and violent (temporarily! the effect passes once the signal is shut down).