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| Unmissable |
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| FILM DETAILS | Certificate
12 | | Cast
Bruce Willis
Samuel L Jackson
Robin Wright Penn
Spencer Treat Clark
Charlayne Woodard. | | Directors
M Night Shyamalan. | | Screenwriters
M Night Shyamalan. | | Running Time
107 minutes |
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Unbreakable
Plot
David Dunn, an ex-jock security guard with a failing marriage, is the sole survivor of a train derailment. Approached by Elijah Price, a dealer in comic book art who suffers from a rare brittle bone syndrome, Dunn comes to wonder whether Price’s theory that he has superhuman abilities might not hold water. Review
As the makers of Blair Witch 2 discovered, the hardest gig in the movies is to follow up something that seemed to come from nowhere and took audiences by surprise. The second time around, everyone is ready for you.
Writer-director M. Night Shyamalan hasn’t made an actual sequel to his breakthrough hit, The Sixth Sense, but he has reteamed with star Bruce Willis, come up with another story of everyday folk baffled by the supernatural (or at least, unknown-to-science), and returned to a Philadelphia presented as a wintery haunt of the bizarre yet transcendent.
This time round, Willis (in earnest, agonised, hair-free Twelve Monkeys mode) has the paranormal abilities, and a superbly un-typecast Samuel L. Jackson is the investigator who digs into someone else’s strange life to prompt startling revelations about his own.
David Dunn is first seen on a train which is set to crash. Following the wreck, everyone else is dead, but not Dunn, who wanders ghost-like out of the hospital leaving behind doctors confused by the fact that he hasn’t broken a single bone. He is accepted back into his family home by wife Audrey, who feels his survival is a sign they should give their faltering marriage another go, and adoring young son Joseph.
Before we meet Dunn, we’re presented with some statistics about sales of comic books in America, and a 1961 prologue in which a black woman (Woodard) gives birth to a baby with such brittle bones that his arms and legs are broken during the delivery.
Elijah Price, nick-named ‘Mr. Glass’ at school, has grown up to be a strange combination of comic book geek, New Age zealot and crippled mastermind. Convinced that his own fragility represents one end of the spectrum of human possibilities, Elijah believes Dunn is his opposite, a real-life superhero archetype.
Many viewers won’t be able to get past the premise, which means some audiences will treat the film as they would a real-life raving crank, but Shyamalan tackles his idea with almost no irony. Willis plays the realisation that he might be set apart from humanity with a quivering uncertainty, strikingly at odds with the bright-coloured glee of a Marvel or DC character.
The primal scene of Superman bouncing a bullet off his chest is rewritten as an amazing kitchen confrontation, as Joseph pulls the family gun on Dad (in front of Mum) in a desperate attempt to convince him that he really is unbreakable (surely Invulnerable would have been a more apt title).
Throughout, the film refers to comic book imagery — with Dunn’s security guard slicker coming to look like a cape, and Price’s gallery taking on elements of a Batcave-like lair — and the lectures on artwork and symbolism actually feed back into the plot.
The last act offers a terrific suspense-thriller scene (similar to the family-saving of The Sixth Sense), which is a self-contained sub-plot that slingshots a twist which may have been obvious all along. However, even those who can get past the ‘Last Son of Krypton’ plot may find the end unsatisfying, closing off developments rather than letting the premise expand into the mythic battle that is suggested.
Verdict
Great performances, moments and ideas. If it doesn’t provide the tidy ending that made The Sixth Sense a talking-point, that might not be a bad thing. Expect an argument afterwards over the difference between silly and profound.
Reviewed by Kim Newman
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Average user rating for Unbreakable
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| A Masterpiece | | I refuse to believe this is from the same director as The Happening. I have no idea what has happened to Shyamalan recently but here he made a cinematic masterpiece in my opinion. Not a perfect one, I'll admit (that ending is still abrupt as hell) but I do prefer it to The Sixth Sense. Highly recommended. ... More | | | Posted by Mr Gittes at 19:03, 04 February 2013 | Report This Post | |
| | | epic | | this film.... i find immense, 10/10 for my part, this is a classic film and empire had every right to put this in their top 500 films of all time ... More | | | Posted by fatboy84 at 19:31, 17 May 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | Dark Horse | | In a world of whizz bang superhero films this has to be the most subtle of them all. Fantastic film. ... More | | | Posted by flennen at 00:58, 08 February 2010 | Report This Post | |
| | | The Most Realistic Superhero movie ever | | All those people who rate this movie anything less than a FOUR are of the immature child type WHO love to watch Spiderman - a
White Angel - beat Sandman -a Black Demon - AND then go to sleep peacefully in their beds comforting their own minds that
they themselves are White and all other people are Black. And then forget about it the next morning. For these people, Life is made
of Black and White and not GREY which is what life actually is for practical ones, unless you are a deranged... More | | | Posted by Amol at 06:11, 26 September 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | The Most Realistic Superhero movie ever | | All those people who rate this movie anything less than a FOUR are of the immature child type WHO love to watch Spiderman - a
White Angel - beat Sandman -a Black Demon - AND then go to sleep peacefully in their beds comforting their own minds that
they themselves are White and all other people are Black. And then forget about it the next morning. For these people, Life is made
of Black and White and not GREY which is what life actually is for practical ones, unless you are a deranged... More | | | Posted by Amol at 06:11, 26 September 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | Laughable | | More ridiculous drivel from possibly the most over-rated film-maker of modern times. ... More | | | Posted by Davechoc at 10:28, 18 August 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | Laughable | | More ridiculous drivel from possibly the most over-rated film-maker of modern times. ... More | | | Posted by Davechoc at 10:28, 18 August 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | Great Film | | By Far, Shyamalan's Best ... More | | | Posted by blaud at 09:27, 12 May 2008 | Report This Post | |
| | | Brilliant | | Unbreakable is one of M Night Shyamalan's best films yet. The cast are surperb and the score is brilliant. James Newton Howard's work is on the up and up. Brilliant story and well told. A must see. ... More | | | Posted by ross_thomson2000 at 07:26, 15 May 2007 | Report This Post | |
| | | | I've seen this film before but was looking through my DVD collection to
find a film my kid brother could watch with me, without it being a kids
film or a comedy. And I found this. In fact, I think M. Night Shyamalan
are great for films to watch with people of all ages, as although they
explore fairly gritty and dark ideas they are fairly family friendly.
On second viewing, I liked this film about as much I did the first time
round - I like it, but it holds itself back. A lot.
Firstly,... More | | | Posted by ukedge87 at 21:08, 12 April 2007 | Report This Post | |
| | | The Greatest Superhero Story | | By far the best thing I've ever seen Samuel L Jackson in..the end, in my opinion, is fantastic, especially with the rousing score. The premise of the story is fantastic too - after all, count the number of superhero films that lose their flair once the origins plot's out of the way - far too many. Watch this! ... More | | | Posted by arfattack at 20:27, 25 April 2006 | Report This Post | |
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