History Film / Unbreakable

''Unbreakable'' has ''[[TwistEnding one]]'' [[TwistEnding hell of an ending]], and it's pretty much the only ending to a Shyamalan film that ''hasn't'' received the ItWasHisSled treatment. If you haven't seen the movie yet, '''avert your eyes from the spoilers below'''.

** Arguably the film is more of a {{Reconstruction}} than a {{Deconstruction}} considering David fits the trope of TheCape very well and it isn't portrayed as a bad thing that he is the way he is; rather it shows that him becoming TheCape and the tropes associated with it are for the betterment of him, his family, and the community.

* {{Psychometry}}: The film has David discovering that he has the ability to read evil intentions and/or actions in a person via physical contact. He never gave it much thought, as he never tried to develop it and dismissed it as intuition. Elijah eventually confirms that his intuition is extremely accurate, to the point of describing the look and design of a concealed gun.

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: In-story, Elijah believes that the concept of the superhero, dating back to the epic heroes of the ancient world, was inspired by real-life people with superhuman qualities.

* WhatDoYouMeanItsNotForKids: [[invoked]] In-Universe, Elijah tears into a customer who assumes his comic-book art is an appropriate gift for a four-year-old.

* IndecisiveMedium: With references to ComicBook visuals, by positioning the characters in door frames, and such.

** However, David himself is associated with green, rather than red, yellow, or blue.

''Unbreakable'' is a 2000 {{psychological thriller}} {{drama}} film directed and written by Creator/MNightShyamalan. A {{deconstruction}} of the {{superhero}} genre, the film stars Creator/BruceWillis as security guard David Dunn and Creator/SamuelLJackson as comic book art gallery owner Elijah Price.

* AbusiveParents: David brushes against a woman in the stadium, walking with her son. He hears screams of "No, Mommy, please no!", and is tempted to act, but decides he has more pressing matters at hand. [[spoiler:This had '''[[Film/{{Split}} DISASTROUS]]''' [[Film/{{Glass}} consequences.]]]]

** The line Elijah's mother gives about the "soldier villain" who fights the hero with his hands. While this is likely a reference to the janitor that David just took down, with [[spoiler:the release of ''Film/{{Split}}'']], this line doubles as retroactive foreshadowing for [[spoiler:the emergence of Kevin Wendell Crumb as The Horde, with The Beast persona in particular becoming the "soldier villain" that fights David in ''Film/{{Glass}}''.]]

* SequelHook: The movie as a whole stands alone just fine, but being a SuperHeroOrigin and establishing that David is a real world superhero with the intent of fighting criminals, the movie ends before we see anything come of that. As such, a sequel was requested by basically everyone up until the announcement of ''Film/{{Glass}}'' nearly [[SequelGap 18 years later]].

->''“Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you’re here. That’s... that’s just an awful feeling.”''

Elijah — now a respected owner of a comic book art gallery — contacts David with a letter asking a simple question: [[ArmorPiercingQuestion “How many days in your life have you been sick?”]] David is caught off guard and starts thinking back on his entire life, even consulting his wife Audrey, and he cannot remember taking one sick day, having a single headache, or getting bruised. David makes contact with Elijah in return, who offers a very dramatic possible answer. If he, Elijah, is on one end of the spectrum by being so frail and brittle, then the existence of someone who is on the other end of the spectrum, having superhuman durability, must balance the equation — and he believes David to be this person. He bases this conclusion on his love of comic books, and believing that "super" humans exist but are dismissed because of the commercialization of superheroes.

David doubts he’s a RealLife superhero, but the possibility leads to some deep self-examination. In addition to being (allegedly) MadeOfIron, David also seems to have a subconscious ability to "read" people and know the evil things they have done… or are about to do. He begins to wonder whether it’s possible that he’s never been hurt in his life or if it’s all coincidence and selective memory, and whether his alleged extrasensory powers are all just in his imagination. David starts considering how the theory, if true, could affect his purpose in life and his family’s failing happiness, especially after being the lone survivor of a train crash, both of which have already caused him deep depression. After all of that, David has to ask himself the most important question: is it worth the risk he’ll take to discover the truth?

''Unbreakable'' has ''[[TwistEnding one]]'' [[TwistEnding hell of an ending]], and it’s pretty much the only ending to a Shyamalan film that ''hasn’t'' received the ItWasHisSled treatment. If you haven't seen the movie yet, '''avert your eyes from the spoilers below'''.

* AbusiveParents: David brushes against a woman in the stadium, walking with her son. He hears screams of "No, Mommy, please no!", and is tempted to act, but decides he has more pressing matters at hand. [[spoiler: This had '''[[Film/{{Split}} DISASTROUS]]''' [[Film/{{Glass}} consequences.]]]]

* AppropriatedAppellation: [[spoiler:Elijah takes his childhood nickname of “Mr. Glass” as his supervillain name. He lampshades this when he reveals it to David.]]
* ArcWords: “There was one survivor. He was miraculously unharmed.”
* ArtisticLicenseMedicine: In real life, a person suffering from Osteogenesis imperfecta would almost never grow to be as tall as Elijah is (Samuel L Jackson is about 6'2).

* BoringButPractical: David's method of defeating [[spoiler:The Orange Man]] is just to sneak up behind him and get him in a chokehold, until [[spoiler: he's simply dead]]. No brawl, no fight, just [[NoSell enduring all the trashing and hits]] while maintaining his own hold.

* CareerEndingInjury: Subverted. David’s football career was ended ''in'' a car accident, but not ''by'' it, as he faked a leg injury because [[CareerVersusMan his career was incompatible with his love for Audrey]].

* ColorCodedCharacters: A deliberate addition to the style of the film. Like comic book characters, many of the people David encounters sport a ColorMotif. David’s is green. Elijah’s is purple. The janitor is orange. And, like ''Film/TheSixthSense'', red has major symbolic importance in the train station. In addition, whenever David senses someone has done or is planning to do something wrong, they are wearing bright colors or some other distinctive clothing that makes them stand out from the crowd. The wardrobe department played to this by having each character dress in more muted-colored versions of their outfits initially, with the colors becoming more vivid as their heroic/villainous aspects became more apparent.

* DeadSparks: David and Audrey’s marriage.

* DespairEventHorizon: Elijah and his mother spent most of Elijah's life trying to avert this. Elijah's goal to discover a superhero is in order to prove to himself that he’s not a 'mistake' and that he was born for a reason. [[spoiler:But he'll accept ''[[CreateYourOwnVillain any]]'' reason for existing.]]

* DoesNotKnowHisOwnStrength: Inverted. David never ''had to'' push his limits, or at least he doesn't remember any instances of doing so, leaving him convinced he's just average guy with average strength. This conviction in turn created a purely psychological barrier for him. [[spoiler: When eventually trying his strength he runs out of weights and other objects to lift on his bench, while in a flashback he's shown ''tearing apart doors of a car'', but due to the stress he doesn't even realise what he did]].

** Most notably, every establishing shot of Elijah through his life being framed in a glass object (mirror, television, picture display panel) and his mother noting, “They say this one has a surprise endin'!” Details like this make the movie equally entertaining during repeat viewings.
** His mother’s remark that whatever {{God}} has planned for him will happen seems to portent [[spoiler:Elijah’s apparently inescapable destiny as a supervillain]].

* GoodAdulteryBadAdultery: David’s awkward flirtation with a girl on his doomed train trip is portrayed as not only inept, but sleazy. Audrey later asks him, with no strings attached, if he has cheated since they've been having problems, and he tells her no. Her emotional reaction to that (and a DeletedScene) suggests ''she'' may have been unfaithful or nearly was as well.

* HandshakeOfDoom: The film ends with Elijah shaking David's hand - only for David's crime-detecting touch to alert him to the AwfulTruth: [[spoiler: Elijah is directly responsible for three major acts of terrorism, including an airplane bombing, a hotel fire, and the train crash at the start of the movie - all for the sake of finding someone with David's superhuman powers.]]

* ImmuneToBullets: PlayedForDrama when David’s son threatens to prove Elijah’s theory while pointing a gun at David. [[spoiler:Ultimately a Subversion, since David manages to talk him out of it and we never learn what would have happened if David got shot.]]

** Also averted with Elijah, who spends most of his childhood cooped up, since he knows this doesn’t apply to him.

* KryptoniteFactor: [[DiscussedTrope Explicitly acknowledged]] in the film, as every hero has some weakness. Shyamalan uses water as a weakness for the main superhero. In this case, though, it wasn’t that he was especially vulnerable to water, but rather he was just as susceptible to drowning as a normal person — though it was theorized that the dense bone and muscle that made him ''unbreakable'' also made him ''unfloatable'' and so was at a higher risk for drowning. It was also a [[WhyDidItHaveToBeSnakes psychological weakness]], as he had almost drowned once as a child (probably due to the aforementioned bone density), an event so traumatic he blocked it from his memory but left him with a phobia around water, even if he couldn’t remember why.
* LanternJawOfJustice: When showing off a piece of comic book art to a prospective client, Elijah explains how the square jaw is common to superheroes, while supervillains have more pointed facial features. Later, [[spoiler:a sketch artist’s rendering of the the hero who saved the kids (David) is given a jawline to rival ComicStrip/DickTracy]].

* MeaningfulRename: [[spoiler:Elijah dubs himself "Mister Glass", a name his peers had called him when they were kids due to his condition.]] It’s a stark contrast to David, who pretty much assumes the name of the film with his "power".

* AMillionIsAStatistic: The movie makes efforts to avoid this. We hear about 100+ people dying in the train crash, but a memorial service for the dead shows a mural with pictures of every one and the pastor is reading off every name and their occupation. David falls into a depression over SurvivorsGuilt. Elijah states that he had been watching all these various incidents that result in mass deaths looking for someone like David, [[spoiler: and when David realizes Elijah orchestrated all those accidents he is shaken over the loss of life]].
* MyBrainIsBig: Elijah comments on the tendency for villains heads to be larger than average. especially to evoke intelligence. [[spoiler: Elijah's afro-esque hairstyle has the effect of exaggerating the size of his head]].
* MyDadCanBeatUpYourDad: Made especially ironic/funny when Potter says this to Joseph, who turns away so Potter won’t see his smirk because he knows what his dad can do.

* OhCrap: Several. One of the most notable is when [[spoiler:David realizes that he’d fallen on the plastic cover for a [[KryptoniteFactor swimming pool]]]].

* SecondaryColorNemesis: Elijah talks about the use of secondary colors to characterize villains in comic books. The first villain David faces on his path to becoming a superhero is a sadistic janitor who wears bright orange overalls, while his diabolical arch-enemy wears [[spoiler:purple, because it’s Elijah himself]].

* SeriousBusiness: When Elijah is first seen as an adult, he is speaking about the artistic merit of a very valuable concept sketch for a comic character, and the customer says he’ll take it. Elijah walks out while congratulating him on his purchase, but stops when the other man remarks, “My kid’s gonna go berserk.” At that, Elijah [[TheReasonYouSuckSpeech tears into the man]].
-->'''Elijah''': Once again, please?\\
'''Customer''': My son Jeb; it’s a gift for him.\\
'''Elijah''': How old is “Jeb”?\\
'''Customer''': He’s four.\\
'''Elijah''': No. No, no, no, no, ''NO''. You need to go. Now.\\
'''Customer''': W-What did I say?\\
'''Elijah''': Do you see any Series/{{Teletubbies}} here? Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name on it? Did you see a little Asian child with a blank expression sitting outside in a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it? No? Well, that’s what you’d 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. Now, one of us has made a gross error, and wasted the other person’s valuable time. This is an ''art gallery'', my friend, and ''this'' is a piece of ''art''.
* ShoutOut:
** Elijah’s hairstyle is based on Frederick Douglass.
** Given the movie’s comic book themes, there is a subtle one that is FridgeBrilliance on later viewings. As noted above, the ColorMotif that goes with Elijah is purple, and his office has a large Egyptian mural behind his chair, both of which are references to [[spoiler:Ozymandias from ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. It's FridgeBrilliance after you’ve seen both movies, read the latter’s source material, or both, and know that both characters are actually secretly the villain of the work]].

* TheSmartGuy: Elijah, though just as with David it's massively downplayed. He doesn't so much have genius intellect as a superb attention to detail, a good education, and an utter devotion to his goals. [[spoiler: Oh yeah, and a complete and utter LackOfEmpathy. He has that too.]]

* {{Supervillain}}: Also deconstructed, in that the film explores what would drive a real person to become one, and what massive loss of life the scale of true super-villainy would entail. [[spoiler:The hero-villain relation is also reversed; the villain isn’t there to give the hero purpose in the plot, the villain created the hero to give ''himself'' purpose in the ‘plot’ of life.]]
* SuperDrowningSkills: Played with. David has a phobia of water due to a childhood incident. [[spoiler:It’s shown that David may be invulnerable, but he still requires oxygen, so he can drown just like anyone else, and due to his greater density with his abilities, he sinks like a rock.]]
* SuperStrength: David is clearly shown as being an incredibly strong individual; however, the film never actually confirms the upper limits to David’s strength: they run out of weights to put on the bar for him to lift and put several heavy objects on top of that.[[note]]A deleted scene shows he can lift an excess of 500 pounds.[[/note]] He’s able to wrench open the door of a crashed car. David wasn’t aware of this, as he never pushed himself beyond what he thought he could do. It’s almost StrongAsTheyNeedToBe.
* SuperToughness: David discovers that he is highly durable when he’s involved in a train crash and comes out unharmed without a scratch on him. His durability is shown to have limits, for although he sustained no serious harm from the crash, it did knock him out for a while, since he woke up in the hospital. It is also revealed that he nearly drowned as a child. It's unconfirmed how he would respond to a gunshot, since he successfully talks his son into giving up the gun, and even Elijah points out that he never said David couldn't be killed. As a deconstruction, this ability leads to David having a serious case of SurvivorsGuilt as he is the only one to walk away from the train crash unharmed when so many others died.

* ThisIsThePartWhere: “I think this is where we shake hands.”

* TragicVillain: [[spoiler:Elijah is {{desperately looking for a purpose in life}}. He thinks that being a super-villain is better than not knowing who one really is, so he engineers several disasters to find his antithesis, a real-life superhero. He seems to express remorse for the sacrifices necessary to complete his life’s work, but believes it was worth it to finally know who he is.]]

* UnbuiltTrope: A deconstructive film that explores what a ‘realistic’ superhero would be like, long before ‘realistic’ superheroes were even a thing in motion pictures. It’s older than ''Film/BatmanBegins'', preceded only by actual comic book deconstructions such as ''ComicBook/{{Watchmen}}''. It also goes even further than later deconstructions: David is entirely human, has only some above-average abilities and no super-gadgets, and struggles with accepting his role because he thinks heroes are just the stuff of stories, whilst his EccentricMentor Elijah speculates that heroic characters are in fact inspired ''by'' real-life heroes such as him. [[spoiler:Elijah proves how dangerous applying tropes to real life can be; to force it into a narrative that makes sense to him, he arranges the deaths of hundreds of people to cement himself as a super-villain and find his natural opposite, David’s superhero.]]
* UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: Elijah’s mother. Her introducing him to his first comic book, in an attempt to cheer him up, ultimately led to [[spoiler:Elijah becoming a real life super-villain by causing ''hundreds'' of deaths as he attempted to find his antithesis in a real-life superhero]].

* WalkingSpoiler: More like ‘Limping Spoiler,’ but going into great detail about Elijah’s character ''will'' spoil a large part of the film.
* WeddingRingRemoval: In his first scene, David removes his wedding ring before flirting with a much younger woman on a train. After a while, she ends the conversation by telling him she’s married.

* WhamShot: [[spoiler: Near the end of the film, when David shakes hands with Elijah, he sees a series of visions showing Elijah at the sites of various deadly accidents, with the final one being Eastrail 177.]]

* WoobieDestroyerOfWorlds: [[spoiler:Elijah suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, which creates a brittleness in his bones that makes them very susceptible to fracture. He can’t do things other kids can do in his childhood, is constantly in casts, and has only comic books to bring him joy. Then he decides that his purpose in life is to be a supervillain...]]

->''"[[spoiler:[[HeelRealization I should’ve known way back when... You know why, David?]] [[KidsAreCruel Because of the kids!]] [[AppropriatedAppellation They called me Mr. Glass.]]]]"''