In 2000, Shyamalan released his next eagerly anticipated film, Unbreakable, again teaming up with Sixth Sense star, Bruce Willis, who would be also teaming up again with his Diehard with a Vengeance costar, Samuel L. Jackson. A lot of reunions going on in this movie... brings a tear to me eye.
The movie is about a security guard named David Dunn, who survives a train crash without any injury whatsoever. This captures the attention of an eccentric entrepreneur named Elijah Price, who is stricken with an ailment that makes his bones extremely brittle. Price's logic is that if someone like him can exist, who is so easily broken, then someone must exist who is his extreme opposite, and can't be hurt by anything. He believes this to be David, and begins pushing David to accept his destiny as an invincible super-hero of sorts.
I remember being really anxious to see the movie because the trailer was really mysterious. It never really hinted at why David survived the crash, only that he did, and you would have to come see the movie to find out why. So, having absolutely loved The Sixth Sense, I saw Unbreakable on the opening weekend and was absolutely stunned at how good the movie was. First of all, the whole superhero angle hit me out of left field, but fucking loved it. Second of all, the theme of accepting one's destiny resonated with me more in this movie than it did in The Sixth Sense.
It was my first year of college, and I was living on my own for the first time in my life. Also, by this point in time, my hair was falling out en masse, and I was no longer able to hide the fact that I was going bald from the world, or myself. Socially, college was beginning to feel a bit too much like high school, with people splitting into cliques almost immediately, and every girl that I met who I felt remotely attracted too could care less about me (or so I perceived it, but in those years, my self-esteem was in the red). I hated my classes, I hated my job (I was a night clerk for my dorm), and I felt abysmally alone. I had no clue what my purpose in life was, who I was as a person, and more importantly, who I wanted to be.
In essence, at that point, I felt almost exactly like David Dunn felt. Hell, I was even bald like him too. By the way, I will admit, Bruce Willis' shaved look for this role, and my identification with his character, is a big inspiration for what made me decide to start shaving my own head. Also, after watching this movie, I started writing funny joke ideas and premises in a notepad, with hopes of someday being a stand-up comic - an aspiration I would go on to actualize about 5 years later.
Anyway, Unbreakable turned out not only to be a great movie, but the right movie for me at the time. It's a movie about how a person can be far too accepting of self-imposed limitations, blinding them to their amazing potential. It's also just a really awesome superhero movie. There are so many great scenes, I feel like discussing them all would be overkill... but I'm going to try.
My favorite scene is when David finally steps up as the hero he was meant to be, and saves a couple of kids from a killer, who has already murdered their parents. Part of what makes this scene so powerful is the incredible music, by James Newton Howard, that swells as David saves the day. This particular piece of music, entitled "The Orange Man", was destined for my MP3 player:
I want to mention, by the way, how I loved that David's rain poncho just seamlessly, and organically, becomes his superhero costume as well. My other favorite scene is the one right after, when David sits down to breakfast with his family, and discreetly pushes a newspaper to his son. The front page story is about a mysterious hero saving some kids from a killer. Throughout the movie, David's son has been pressuring him to accept his superhero identity. The kid looks hopefully up at David, who nods an affirmative, and mouths the words, "You were right". Tears begin welling up in his son's eyes. I will admit, tears were kind of welling up in my eyes as well, but I'm a big softy... or pussy, whatever word you prefer.
Finally, my other favorite scene is when David accepts his superhero role and goes out looking for people to save. Once again, Howard's music really helps embellish this scene, but it's also just filmed really well:
Shyamalan once again used a mostly drab color tone to offset brighter colors when they are supposed to symbolize something - in The Sixth Sense it symbolized the presence of a ghost. In this movie, it symbolizes that a person is less than scrupulous (which makes Elijah's revelation at the end not very surprising, being that he favored purple so much).
Speaking of Elijah's revelation, I will say that the movie is, by no means, perfect. The story about David's failing marriage was boring, probably because the actress who played his wife was, herself, boring. Every scene between the two of them felt as if both actors drank a gallon of Nyquil before each take. Plus, it was way too reminiscent of the subplot involving Dr. Crowe's marital problems in The Sixth Sense. Another scene that was just plain absurd is the one in which David's son threatens to shoot David to prove that he's invincible. It's supposed to be an intensely emotional scene, but it just comes off as over-the-top and unnecessary. I'm sorry, but any kid that would hold a gun to his father, in the belief that his dad is a superhero, whether he's misguided or not, is either dumb or crazy. I'm surprised they didn't ship this kid out to Boystown after that stunt.
The last thing that bugged me was the ending. Clearly, Shyamalan was feeling cocky that he had come up with such a smart twist in The Sixth Sense, he felt like he had to do it again. The twist in Unbreakable (spoil alert!) is that Elijah Price was the one that caused the train David rode on to crash. In fact, Price had committed a number of atrocities, among which are the bombing of a commercial jet plane, as well as burning down a hotel, all in the attempt to find David (or someone with his abilities). While this was an interesting turn, it was a lot more predictable than the previous movie's twist, and it felt somewhat antithetical to the point of the film. So, now that David knows he's been working at the behest of an insane murderer, will he continue moonlighting as a superhero? I'm just saying, this twist kind of completely undermines David's journey of self-discovery a wee bit. Wouldn't it be better if the train was just an accident, and Elijah continues being the Professor X to David Dunn's X-Man? Sure, it's interesting to think Elijah goes on to become David's arch-nemesis, but what's the point unless there's going to be another movie to explore this?
Speaking of which, Shyamalan has talked about making a sequel for years, but has finally began seriously pursuing it. No doubt, because a sequel to Unbreakable just might be Shyamalan's only hope of breaking the streak of shitty movies he's made over the last few years. While The Sixth Sense is clearly the better made film, Unbreakable has a lot more heart, and is, in my opinion, Shyamalan's masterpiece. It's also the last great film he'd make before his fall to the dark side...
Next: Signs
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