Unbreakable
A suspense thriller with supernatural overtones that revolves around a man who learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident.
- Director:M. Night Shyamalan
- Release Date:22 November 2000 (USA)
- Genre:Fantasy | Mystery | Thriller
- Tagline:Are You Ready For The Truth?
- Runtime:106 min
Cast
- Bruce Willis : David Dunn
- Samuel L. Jackson : Elijah Price
- Robin Wright Penn : Audrey Dunn
- Spencer Treat Clark : Joseph Dunn
- Charlayne Woodard : Elijah’s Mother
Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) is born with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease in which bones break easily. As a child he is taunted by other children, who nickname him “Mr. Glass”. Drawing on what he has read in comic books during his many hospital stays, Price theorizes that if he is frail at one extreme, then perhaps there is someone strong at the opposite extreme.
Security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis) is also searching for meaning in his life. He gave up a promising football career to marry his love Audrey (Robin Wright Penn), but their marriage is dissolving, to the distress of their young son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). Returning from a job interview in New York, David is the sole survivor of a horrific train wreck that kills 131 of the 132 passengers, sustaining no injuries. He is contacted by the adult Elijah, who proposes to a disbelieving David that he is a real instance of the kind of person after whom comic-book superheroes are modeled. David tries to ignore him, but Elijah stalks him and his wife, trying to get his attention. David’s son Joseph already idolizes his father and easily believes his father is a superhero, but Audrey believes that Elijah Price has probably become mentally ill as a result of the stress of his frailty.
To relieve his family from further distress, David finally agrees to hear Elijah out, and begins to test himself. While lifting weights with Joseph, they discover that his physical strength has no limit. Under Elijah’s influence, David develops his security guard hunches into extra-sensory perception, with which he can glimpse immoral acts committed by people he touches. We also see in a flashback the “injury” that ended David’s football career: A car accident he and Audrey were in. He was not only unharmed, but ripped a metal door off the car in order to save her.
David’s faith in Elijah is shaken when he remembers an incident from his childhood in which he almost drowned. However, Elijah intuits that the incident was an encounter with his one viable weakness: water. At Elijah’s suggestion, he walks through a crowd in a Philadelphia train station and witnesses crimes perpetrated by strangers who brush past him: a jewel thief, a racist hate crime perpetrator and a rapist. The worst offender is a sadistic janitor holding a family hostage and torturing them inside their home. David follows the janitor back to the victims’ house. He is ambushed by the lurking janitor who throws him off a balcony into a pool below, where he nearly drowns but is rescued by the children he freed. He then subdues and kills the janitor, but is unable to rescue the murdered parents. That night, he reconciles with his wife. The next morning, he shows the newspaper article of his anonymous heroic act to his son, but also gestures with his hand that he does not want his son to tell Audrey about it.
In the closing act of the film, David attends an exhibition at Elijah’s comic book art gallery and gets to meet Elijah’s mother (Charlayne Woodard). After talking with Elijah in the back room of his studio, David shakes his hand and discovers in horror that Elijah orchestrated three fatal disasters, causing hundreds of deaths–the last being David’s train accident. Elijah insists that the deaths were justified as a means to find David. He explains that his purpose in life is to be the villain to David’s hero, even going so far as to suggest that his childhood moniker, “Mr. Glass”, should have alerted him to the fact that he was always a villain. The final captions reveal that David led police to Elijah, who was committed to an institution for the criminally insane.Read more
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Unbreakable Quotes
Elijah Price: Now that we know who you are… I know who I am. I’m not a mistake! It all makes sense. In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain’s going to be? He’s the exact opposite of the hero, and most time’s they’re friends, like you and me. I should’ve known way back when. You know why, David? Because of the kids. They called me Mr. Glass.
David Dunn: I wanted to ask you a question. It’s gonna sound a little strange, just think about it for a second, okay?
Audrey Dunn: Okay.
David Dunn: When’s the last time I was sick? Do you remember?
Audrey Dunn: Um, I don’t know. It’s been a while.
David Dunn: I haven’t been sick this year, I know that.
Audrey Dunn: Okay.
David Dunn: Do you remember me getting sick?
Audrey Dunn: Um… not a specific day. What – what’s this about?
David Dunn: Audrey, do you remember me ever getting sick? In the three years we lived in this house? In the old apartment? Before Joseph was born? Before we ever got married?
Audrey Dunn: I – I can’t remember.
David Dunn: Don’t you think that’s kind of weird, not remembering one cold or a fever or a sore throat? What do you think it means?
Audrey Dunn: Um… I think it means probably too tired to remember.
Joseph Dunn: I’m just going to shoot you once!
Joseph Dunn: Do you think you could beat up Bruce Lee?
David Dunn: No.
Joseph Dunn: I mean, if you knew karate?
David Dunn: Nope.
Joseph Dunn: What if he wasn’t allowed to kick, and you were *really* mad at him?
David Dunn: No, Joseph.
Audrey Dunn: No shooting friends, Joseph!
David Dunn: You should never do anything like this. You know that, right?
Joseph Dunn: Yeah.
David Dunn: What should you do if something bad happens?
Joseph Dunn: Get Mom.
Elijah Price: Why is it, do you think, that of all the professions in the world you chose protection?
David Dunn: You are a very strange man.
Elijah Price: You could have been a tax accountant. You could have owned your own gym. You could have opened a chain of restaurants. You could’ve done of ten thousand things, but in the end, you chose to protect people. *You* made that decision, and I find that very, very interesting.
Comic Book Clerk: You’d better not be back there jacking off to the Japanese comics, I swear to God…
Joseph Dunn: I thought maybe because you’re my dad… I thought I might be like you… I’m not like you…
David Dunn: You are like me. We can both get hurt. I’m just an ordinary man.
Joseph Dunn: No, you’re not… Why do you keep saying that?
Elijah’s Mother: They say this one has a surprise ending.
Elijah Price: Do you see any Teletubbies in here? Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name printed on it? Do you see a little Asian child with a blank expression on his face sitting outside on a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it? No? Well, that’s what you see at a toy store. And you must think you’re in a toy store, because you’re here shopping for an infant named Jeb.
Elijah Price: One of us has made a gross error, and wasted the other person’s valuable time.
Elijah Price: You made that decision, and I find that very, very interesting. Now all I need is your credit card number…
Elijah Price: It’s hard for many people to believe that there are extraordinary things inside themselves, as well as others. I hope you can keep an open mind.
Elijah Price: It’s alright to be afraid, David, because this part won’t be like a comic book. Real life doesn’t fit into little boxes that were drawn for it.
ER Doctor: And, to answer your question, there are two reasons why I’m looking at you like this. One because it seems in a few minutes you will officially be the only survivor of this train wreck, and two, because you didn’t break one bone, you don’t have a scratch on you.
David Dunn: You killed all those people.
Elijah Price: But I found you. So many sacrifices just to find you.
Elijah Price: Are you ready for the truth?
Elijah Price: [from deleted scene] Can I tell you a secret? I’m going to be very, very sad if this doesn’t work out the way I think.
David Dunn: [talking to Elijah on phone] I’ve never been sick, I’ve never been injured… what do I do now?
Elijah Price: Go to a place where people are… you won’t have to wait very long.
Elijah Price: This is an art gallery, my friend, and this is a piece of art.
Elijah Price: I have something called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. It’s a genetic disorder. I don’t make a particular protein very well and it makes my bones very low in density… very easy to break.
Elijah Price: Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you’re here.
David Dunn: I had a bad dream.
Audrey Dunn: It’s over now.
David Dunn: Friends listen to each other! And they don’t shoot each other, do they Audrey?
Audrey Dunn: N-… No shooting friends, Joseph…
Elijah Price: Your bones don’t break, mine do. That’s clear. Your cells react to bacteria and viruses differently than mine. You don’t get sick, I do. That’s also clear. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we choke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected, you and I. We’re on the same curve, just on opposite ends.
Dr. Mathison: It appears that your baby has sustained some fractures while inside your uterus… his arms and his legs are broken.
[Elijah's mother bursts into tears]
Orange Suit Man: I like your house. Can I come in?
Hostage Father: No.
Orange Suit Man: Are you sure?