The Sixth Sense

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The Sixth Sense is a 1999 film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that tells the fictional story of a troubled, isolated boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) and a child psychologist (played by Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film is set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

1 Plot
2 Awards
3 Production
4 In popular culture
5 Soundtrack
6 Cast
7 Trivia
8 External links

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Plot

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a prominent child psychologist, who in the opening scene, returns home one night with his wife from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone, and a disturbed, nearly naked man (Donnie Wahlberg) appears in the doorway of their bathroom with a gun. He is upset that Crowe has not helped him, and Crowe realises that he is Vincent Gray, a former patient whom Crowe treated as a child for his hallucinations and delusions. He blames Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later pulls the trigger on himself. Image:Movie i see dead people.jpg Months later, Malcolm returns to work with another frightened boy, 9-year old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a similar condition as Vincent. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him, after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart. Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately confides in him that he is clairvoyant and can see dead people. Though Crowe is naturally skeptical at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth, and that Vincent may also have had the same ability as Cole. He continues to help Cole by suggesting that Cole try to find a purpose with his gift, by trying to communicate with the ghosts, perhaps to help them on their journey by aiding them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole attempts to communicate with the ghost of one girl who appears in his bedroom, and who appears to be sick. He finds out where the girl, Kyra Collins (Mischa Barton) lives, and going to her house, where a wake is being held for her, he discovers a videotape where Kyra told him to find it, and gives it to Kyra's father. Watching it, Kyra's father realizes that Kyra secretly set up the camera in her bedroom when she was bedridden with illness, and that her mother was poisoning her food, which led to Kyra's death. Empowered now by his ability to use his gift to positive effect, Cole confesses his ability to his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette). Athough his mother is troubled by his story, Cole tells her that her mother (Cole's grandmother) went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, though Lynn did not know this, because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. Lynn accepts this as the truth, and her rapport with Cole is strengthened.

His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Crowe returns to his home, where he finds his wife sleeping on the couch, watching their old wedding video. A short 'conversation' with his sleeping wife follows, and it is then that the film's major plot twist is revealed: Crowe himself has in fact been dead all along, having died the night that Vincent shot him. Template:Endspoiler

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Awards

The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Haley Joel Osment), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Toni Collette, who played Osment's mother) and Best Director (M. Night Shyamalan, who also wrote the story).

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Production

The film, with a budget of approximately $40 million, earned $293,501,675 in the United States and a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, making it the #22 on the list of box-office money earned in the U.S. as of December 2005.

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In popular culture

The line "I see dead people" became a popular catchphrase after the film's release. A parody:

"I see dumb people." was printed on t-shirts due to the excessive use of the original line. The line was one of the caveats of the horror spoof Scary Movie.

The line made the lore of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling when Planet Jarrett "buried" the careers of Team 3D in October 2005 (James Storm, before making a joke, said mock-frightened, "I hear dead people!").

In the 2002 film Undercover Brother, the title character (played by Eddie Griffin) undergoes a form of brainwashing by the Brotherhood (an African-American spy group) to absorb white culture go undercover in a white-owned company. After having to watch Riverdance, Major Dad, and Murder, She Wrote, Undercover Brother finally has a "caucasian overload" and whimpers "I see white people!"

That line had previously been invoked by Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards in the spring of 2000. In one of his sketches, the TV camera would zoom in on various celebrities in the audience, and Crystal would speak a joking line that was supposed to be what the actor was "really thinking". When the camera focused on Michael Clarke Duncan of The Green Mile, Crystal said, "I see white people!"

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Soundtrack

Composed by Oscar-nominee James Newton Howard, the soundtrack was criticized for its track listing. One of the final cues was entitled "Malcolm's Dead" giving away the spoiler ending. Since the soundtrack was released before the film, itself, this stole a lot of the surprise from the film's ending and made for some disgruntled viewers.

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Cast

Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear)
Bruce Willis (Malcolm Crowe)
Toni Collette (Lynn Sear)
Olivia Williams (Anna Crowe)
Glenn Fitzgerald (Sean)
Mischa Barton (Kyra Collins)
Donnie Wahlberg (Vincent Gray)

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Trivia

The book DisneyWar contains an account of the business dealings behind The Sixth Sense. According to the book, David Vogel of The Walt Disney Company read Shyamalan's spec script and instantly loved it. Without obtaining approval from his boss, Vogel bought the rights to the script, despite the high price of USD$2 million and the stipulation that Shyamalan could direct the film. Disney later stripped Vogel of the title of President of Walt Disney Pictures, and Vogel left the company. Walt Disney Pictures, apparently in a show of little confidence in the film, sold the profits to Spyglass Entertainment, and kept only a 12.5 percent distribution fee for itself.

The part of Kyra Collins, the young poisoned girl whom Cole befriends and whose mother he helps to expose as her murderer, is played by a young, pre-fame Mischa Barton.

Shyamalan has a brief cameo in this movie, playing the part of the doctor who examined Cole after the events at the birthday party.

The color red is used prominently in the film, as it immediately draws a human's subconcious mind into the film. This is just one of many ways that the film is cleverly created to target the subconcious.

When there is a dead person near, Cole gets very cold and the viewer can see his breath. This is very similar to Danny in Danny Phantom, because when a ghost is near, Danny shivers and his breath is visible.

According to M. Night Shyamalan, the movie was inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? called "The Tale of the Dream Girl" in which both male leading characters are ignored by somebody and don't realize that they are dead until the final moment. In the tale of the dream girl, the boy notices that his sister who can see him shows him the newspaper of him and his girlfriend dead.

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