Unbreakable (film)

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Unbreakable is a 2000 film written, produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie was inspired by the world of comic books and its interest in exploring mythic dimensions of the real world.

Origins

In a DVD bonus feature, Shyamalan noted that the film's script originally had a comic book's traditional three-part structure (the superhero's "birth", his or her struggles against general evil-doers, and the superhero's ultimate battle against the "archenemy"). Finding the "birth" section more interesting than the remainder, he decided to base the entire movie on the idea.

Plot

Elijah Price (Jackson) is born with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease in which the bones lack collagen of sufficient quality and/or quantity, and break very easily. He is taunted by other children, who nickname him "Mr. Glass" due to his fragility. Drawing on what he reads in comic books, Price theorizes that if he is at one extreme end of the spectrum, then perhaps there is somebody at the other end, someone with greater-than-usual strengths.

Security guard David Dunn (Willis) is also searching for a meaning to his life. He gives up a promising American football career to be with Audrey, the girl he loved, but after their marriage and the birth of a son Joseph, he still feels an emptiness—that something is missing. After surviving a massive train wreck that kills 131 people (unharmed and as the only survivor), he is contacted by the now-adult Elijah, who summons him to his art gallery. Elijah proposes to a disbelieving Dunn that he is, in fact, a modern day superhero. When David tries to ignore Elijah's theory, the art dealer interferes with his family life by repeatedly stalking David and his wife, trying to get David to listen to him. David's son, Joseph, is convinced that what Elijah says is true, but Audrey believes that Elijah is mentally ill.

After much distress in his family, David finally agrees to hear Price out. Elijah believes that comic book heroes are an echo, mimicking stories of extraordinary feats which have passed down through time. Elijah believes that Dunn is supernatural. However, there are several instances where he seems to have been harmed; in elementary school, he nearly drowned. Elijah claims that the possibility of drowning is simply an exception to his powers - every superhero has a weakness.

Under Elijah's verbal influence, Dunn practices and develops his extra-sensory perception, which allows him to glimpse immoral acts committed by anyone who touches him. While lifting weights with his son, he discovers that — with effort — his physical strength has no real limitation. This leads to David's first heroic act: At Elijah's suggestion, David walks through a crowd in a Philadelphia train station and witnesses crimes perpetrated by strangers who brush past him. By far the worst offender is a sadistic janitor, who has broken into a house with an intent to kill and torture the family inside. David follows the janitor back to the victims' house, where he finds two children tied up in a closet. David is ambushed by the janitor, who throws David off of a balcony and onto a tarp which is covering a pool below. The tarp begins to sink beneath David's weight, exposing him to his fatal weakness - water - nearly killing him. At the last moment, he is rescued by the children he freed. David then confronts the janitor and throttles him to death with his superior strength. The next morning, David shows the newspaper article of his heroic act to his son, who believed in him all along.

In the final moments of the film, David attends an exhibition at Elijah's gallery. David shakes Elijah's hand and discovers to his horror that Elijah has committed several acts of sabotage, including the train accident that David was involved in, with the purpose of finding someone who could miraculously survive. Elijah insists that the deaths were justified by finally finding David. He then explains that he has come to realize his purpose in life: Elijah is the villain to David's hero. As David walks away in disgust, Elijah reveals that he realized who he was "because of the kids", proclaiming that they "called me Mr. Glass". The final caption reveals that David informed the police about Elijah, who was then arrested and sent to an institute for the criminally insane.

Deleted Scenes

• The carnival scenes (in a deleted scene) were shot at Sharswood School in South Philadelphia.
• In another deleted scene, Dunn tests his strength a second time. Slipping unnoticed into the locker room of the football stadium (while the players are changing) he uses the athletic equipment to bench press roughly five hundred pounds while the players look on in awe. This scene was deemed superfluous by Shyamalan as he had already established Dunn's superhuman strength in an earlier scene.
• A deleted scene had a conversation between David and a priest who elaborates on the disasters that the city has recently experienced: An airplane crashed on takeoff and his cousin was aboard; A hotel caught fire and an entire family from his parish died; His nephew was in the train wreck in which David was the sole survivor. Subsequently, he is enraged at David's suggestion that something is special about him in particular.

Trivia

• This is the third movie that Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson have worked on together. The first was Pulp Fiction, and the second, Die Hard with a Vengeance.
• As he does in his other movies, M. Night Shyamalan makes a cameo appearance. Here Shyamalan plays a man who David suspects of dealing drugs inside the university stadium where David works.
• The stadium where Bruce Willis' character works as a security guard was filmed in University City at the University of Pennsylvania's historic Franklin Field. Mr. Glass' infamous fall down the train steps occurs at the nearby SEPTA University City train station on the Spruce Street entrance.
• Despite being "unbreakable", David Dunn has a scar above his left eye. This scar is Bruce Willis' and was not covered up.
• Like with many films made by M. Night Shyamalan, color plays an important part in the film. According to DVD bonus features, green was selected as David's color, while purple represents Elijah. (David's poncho is green, and Elijah wears purple in the majority of the scenes he is in.) Samuel L. Jackson apparently made the suggestion himself that Elijah's color be purple, feeling the character had a "regal" quality to him (Jackson also suggested his character in Star Wars should have a purple lightsaber). Also, the film's "minor" villain is identified chiefly through his bright orange clothing, along with other "villains" being identifiable by their brightly colored clothes.
• The comic books in the movie are all fictional, save for the shots of various Spider-Man, Daredevil and Thor comics in the comic book store and in Elijah's personal collection.

• The movie itself, as revealed in the extra features, was filmed "like a comic book". For instance, in the first scene you meet David Dunn, he is "framed" by the seats in front of him.

• Each time Elijah Price is first shown as a baby, a child and again as an adult, it is in a glass reflection.

External links

• Unbreakable - M. Night Shyamalan Online
• M. Night Fans - Unbreakable
• Movie Mythology on Unbreakable

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Last updated on Friday March 07, 2008 at 18:01:41 PST (GMT -0800)
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