Classic Movie Review: 'Unbreakable'

Unbreakable (2000)

Directed by M. Night Shyamalan

Written by M. Night Shyamalan

Starring Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright

Release Date November 22nd, 2000

Published July 19th, 2024

Unbreakable was M Night Shyamalan’s last moment as a seemingly unimpeachable genius of pop cinema. After this came Signs which received strong box office but the first real critical grumbles since his little seen debut feature, Wide Awake. Don’t misunderstand, Unbreakable had its critics, but with Shyamalan still in the glow of his multiple Academy Award nominations for The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable was always going to benefit from that film's coattails.

That Unbreakable wasn’t Shyamalan falling on his face but instead delivering a second straight crowd-pleasing blockbuster is no minor feat. Many directors have shown themselves to be one and done, it-person directors in the past. To have back to back blockbuster critical darlings is far more rare than we imagine.

Unbreakable stars Bruce Willis as David, a seemingly ordinary guy with ordinary guy troubles. David’s marriage is failing, his relationship with his son is strained, and his search for a stable, well paying job has been hampered by his growing depression. Then, David is involved in a train crash that should have killed or, at the very least, left him badly injured. Instead, by some miracle, he’s the only survivor among more than 100 passengers and crew members. What's more, he appears to be entirely unharmed.

David’s miraculous luck doesn’t go unnoticed. A comic book aficionado by the name of Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) hears of David’s improbable survival and begins to seek him out. For years, Elijah has searched for someone like David on the bizarre belief that the man he is seeking is a real-life superhero. Having grown up as a deathly ill and comic book obsessed kid, Elijah has convinced himself that a superhero must exist in the world. Elijah's belief is rooted in his condition, a rare form of Brittle Bone Disease that makes his bones like glass.

In Elijah's estimation, if his bones are entirely breakable, there must be someone whose bones cannot be broken. He's convinced that his direct opposite must exist and would thus be a superhero, someone with unbreakable bones, unlimited stamina, and perhaps, other traits of a superhero. Elijah is determined to find this real life superhero by any means necessary in hopes of proving superheroes are real.

Naturally, there is a twist in Unbreakable but if you've never seen it, you really should see it for yourself. M. Night Shyamalan became known for twists in the early 2000s and thus audiences expected he would have one in Unbreakable. It has been a while so telling you the twist isn't exactly out of line but, I'm not going to. See Unbreakable for yourself and if you can go in not knowing the twist, you might find it as striking and satisfying as I did. Just, do yourself a favor, do not see the Unbreakable sequel, Glass. It's abysmal. It's also a sequel to the very good Shyamalan movie Split and it is a completely misconceived movie.

What Shyamalan does so incredibly well in Unbreakable is establish mood and tone. The mood is melancholy but with a growing sense of optimism in color and light as David slowly uncovers his abilities. The tone of the film is a slow burn of sadness and resignation to ordinary life that builds and builds with excitement through the second act before reaching a pair of jarring crescendos including that terrific twist ending that I mentioned.

It's a shame Shyamalan chose to try and ruin the memory of Unbreakable with the embarrassingly bad sequel, Glass. But, as I am pondering Shyamalan, it makes sense. Shyamalan's great moments as a filmmaker are often equal to or lesser than his stupefying terrible movies. In a strange cosmic coincidence it makes a bizarre bit of sense that Shyamalan would pair a great movie with an unwatchable movie. His career is a series of astonishing peaks and desperate valleys. Unbreakable is a peak that even something as bad as Glass cannot degrade.

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