Unbreakable
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- This page refers to "Unbreakable" the film. For other uses, see Unbreakable (disambiguation)..
Unbreakable is a 2000 movie written, produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson.
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Details
As a film, Unbreakable explores the role that myth has in our civilization, and specifically explores the way that humans use comic books to explore mythic dimensions of the real world. The film works on a second level, for within the film itself comic books are in a real sense man's last link to an ancient way of story-telling.
In DVD commentary, Shyamalan claims he was in the process of writing a single movie using a comic-book three-part structure (the superhero's birth, their struggles against general evil-doers, and their ultimate battle against the "arch enemy"). However, he found the "birth" section far more interesting than the remainder and decided to base the entire movie around the idea.
Many have compared this film with The Sixth Sense because it shares the same writer and director, and star actor, has the same type of plot structure, and reveals a surprise ending. The film was only a modest box-office success though critically acclaimed for its original and offbeat spin on the superhero mythos. Shyamalan himself, however, considers the film a lesser effort, though many of the film's fans feel it is underrated.
Plot
Elijah Price is born with Type I Osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease in which the bones lack collagen of sufficient quality and/or quantity, and thus break very easily. He is even born with broken bones, as shown in the first scene of the movie, and later receives the nickname "Mr. Glass". He lives his life searching for a reason for his own existence. He theorizes that if he is at one end of a curve then perhaps there is somebody else quite opposite to him at the other end, someone with greater than usual strengths.
David Dunn is equally searching for a meaning to his life. He gave up a promising American football career to be with the girl he loved, but even after their marriage and the birth of a son he still felt a hole - something was missing. After surviving a train wreck (unharmed and as the only survivor), he is contacted by Price and slowly begins to believe in Price's theory, that Dunn is in fact a modern day "superhero" (although the word is never used through the course of the film). Elijah theorizes that comic book superheros are a modern manifestation of something ancient about humanity; even Egyptian hieroglyphic stories could be seen as a version of this, trying to record something long past. Elijah thinks that maybe comic book heros are an echo, expressing pre-historic stories of human begins who truly had greater than normal strength and abilities. The first comic book heros were more or less realistic, but over time "Hollywood" and marketing got in, and started inserting things which were scientifically impossible (laser eyes, transformation into animals, etc.) until it became outlandish. Still, Elijah thinks that going back far enough, there really were humans who had more or less plausible powers like increased strength, resistance to damage or illness, and even the ability to know if someone has done something wrong (essentially a very advanced level of Instinct), which Dunn possesses. As Dunn begins to understand his purpose in the world, he begins to feel whole again and is able to renew his relationship with his wife and his son. The film climaxes with David going out wearing his "Security" poncho (which draws visual parallels to a "Superhero" in a cape and hood) at Elijah's insistance to prove if he truly is something more than normal. David walks through crowds on the street, until his Instinct power warns him that a man he has passed is a serial killer in the middle of a home invasion, that is holding a suburban family hostage in their home. David follows him back to the house, where the family's father is already dead and the serial killer has raped the mother. David infiltrates the house and frees their two children, removing their bindings and telling them to go to safety in a neighbor's house. David then confronts the serial killer, and after a struggle David is caught trying to choke him from behind, while the crazed serial killer slams him backwards repeatedly into a wall, but David is "unbreakable" and not seriously harmed. David ends up choking the killer to death, but the mother dies from her injuries as he unties her. The next day, the front page article on the Dunn family's newspaper says that a "hero" saved two children from a serial killer, and shows a police sketch artist's concept of what he looked like; a very stylized drawing of David in his poncho/cape, which looks remarkably like a comic book superhero drawing.
In the final moments of the film, David discovers that Price has caused several terrible disasters, including the train accident that opens the movie, in order to find someone who would miraculously survive as David did. Price insists to Dunn that he performed these deeds only to find meaning in his life. Price then justifies his actions by comparing his relationship with Dunn to that of an often repeated motif in superhero stories: that the hero and the villain are often similar, even friends at first, and exist to provide a comparison for each other. Captions run over the final shot, saying that after leaving David informed the police about Elijah (who's office is littered with newspaper clippings and evidence right in the open that he was responsible for the disasters), and Elijah is arrested and sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Comic book references
- As in comic books, the main characters have their identified color schemes:
- David's clothes are green, and he is wearing a dark green hooded rain poncho on his first night out.
- Elijah's clothes are purple (a favorite color of Samuel L Jackson), a prominent color amongst supervillains, especially in the 60's and 70's (cf. Lex Luthor)
- The serial killer's janitor uniform is bright orange.
- David and Elijah are shown to be each other's opposite in many ways. Their contrasting skin color, hair and class status are such examples. Their colors - green and purple, respectively - are also placed opposite each other on the color wheel.
- As in many comic books, the hero's first and last names are alliterative (cf. Clark Kent, Bruce Banner, Peter Parker, Matt Murdock, Reed Richards)
- When Joseph watches the television news report on the train wreck, the station logo (an encircled "4"), vaguely resembles the logo for the Fantastic Four comic books.
- The cover art for Elijah's first comic book is similar to that of Wolverine vs. Lobo.
- Elijah describes how the artwork of a villain features a slightly enlarged head and eyes. Elijah's head appears slightly larger than normal because of his hairstyle.
- The hero has a Achilles' heel-weakness (in David's case, water) that wouldn't normally affect people, like Superman being affected by Kryptonite.
- The superhero and the villain were once friends before they became arch enemies (cf. Superman and Lex Luthor, Mr. Fantastic and Dr. Doom, Spider-Man and Harry Osborn, Professor X and Magneto)
- A Superhero uses "basic english" in speaking, Supervillain uses "learned (i.e., well-educated) english" in speaking.
David Dunn's Powers
- He has never been sick except for one incident which revealed his weakness, water (drowning, pneumonia).
- His tissues are far more resistant to damage and stress than equivalent normal human tissue.
- He has tremendous strength, easily able to lift weights of at least 350 pounds (he benches 500 in a deleted scene). He has to exert himself, and doesn't just effortlessly lift incredible weights (like Superman), but in the weight lifting scene it is revealed that the functional limit of his strength is many times what he thought it was.
- He has the ability to tell if someone has done something bad if he comes in physical contact with them, a form of psychometry. This is explained in the film as an extremely developed form of instinct.
Elijah Price's Power
- Evil genius
- The exact opposite of the "spectrum" from David Dunn, he has a specific weakness caused by his bone disease that makes him extremely susceptible to physical harm.
- Like David Dunn, he is vulnerable to water: it is easier for them both to drown, if they drink it too fast they might choke, etc.
External links
- M. Night Shyamalan - Unbreakable
- {{{2|{{{title|Unbreakable}}}}}} at The Internet Movie Database
- M. Night Shyamalan Fans - Unbreakable
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