Trivia for
Unbreakable (2000) More at IMDbPro »

• Several camera angles were chosen to simulate the comic book device of a frame around each scene.
  
  
• Julianne Moore was offered the part of Audrey Dunn.
  
  
• The establishing shot of Audrey at the care center as seen through a fogged circle frame echoes the intro shot of Lois Lane through Jimmy Olsen's camera in Superman (1978).
  
  
• The film takes place in Philadelphia. On the wall of Elijah's workshop among the newspaper clippings is a headline "Killer Virus Released at Airport". Bruce Willis starred in Twelve Monkeys (1995), in which a killer virus was first released at the Philadelphia airport.
  
  
• The logo of the news station reporting the train wreck should look familiar to comic book fans: it is the same as the logo used by the Marvel superhero group The Fantastic Four. The logo can be seen during the news report shown on TV.
  
  
• The piano piece that is played during Elijah's exhibition is the same one being practiced by Marie's/Rogue's mother in the opening scenes of X-Men (2000).
  
  
• In Die Hard: With a Vengeance (1995), Inspector Cobb (Larry Bryggman) says of McClane (Bruce Willis) that "by next month he's gonna be a security guard". In this movie, released five years later, Willis' character David Dunn has been a security guard for the last five years ("5 years, no sick day. I get it. You want a raise.").
  
  
• Elijah asks David what made him choose protection as a career out of all the things he could have done, such as "founding a chain of restaurants". In reality, Bruce Willis is one of the founders of the Planet Hollywood restaurant chain.
  
  
• Several scenes relating to the "Mr. Glass" character involve glass: - as a newborn, he's primarily seen reflected in mirrors - as a young child, he's seen reflected in a blank TV screen - he leaves his calling card on the windshield of David Dunn's car - he's reflected in a glass frame in his art gallery - his walking stick is made of glass.
  
  
• Osteogenesis Imperfecta is a real but rare disease.
  
  
• As in comic books, the main characters have their identified color schemes. David's is green and Elijah's is purple. They show up in their clothes, the wallpaper and bed sheets in their houses, Elijah's note to David, and various personal items, among others.
  
  
• The name Elijah is a biblical reference. Elijah was prophesied to return to Earth to pave the way for the coming of a savior.
  
  
• The newspaper article that David shows his son states (in part): Headline: SAVED "Hero" Rescues two children; Parents found dead in house Byline: By Nicole Marsella TELEGRAPH STAFF WRITER Story: Police today are investigating what appears to have been a home invasion that left three dead in Bala Cynwyd. Law enforcement agents and detectives are baffled by the circumstances and motivations of a good Samaritan who last night rescued two small children. Details of the incident are sketchy, but police believe that after freeing the children the unknown hero struggled with and killed the home invader responsible for the deaths of the parents. The police are still puzzling over the identity of the "hero". The children described him as approximately 6 feet tall wearing a dark green hooded rain poncho. The children's names have been withheld until notification of next of kin. Police at this time are still trying to determine the identity of the alleged assailant. Any information leading to his identity would be greatly appreciated by the Philadelphia Police. Police made a grisly discovery after.....[illegible]
  
  
• The stadium that David Dunn (Bruce Willis) works at is actually Franklin Field at the University of Pennsylvania. It is the oldest stadium in the country and the first to have an electronic scoreboard, an upper deck, and the first site of a live radio and television broadcast.
  
  
• Bruce Willis' character is named David Dunn. It is very common for the "secret identities" of comic book heroes to be alliterative (e.g. Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Matt Murdock and Clark Kent).
  
  
• The glass cane that Elijah Price uses was Samuel L. Jackson's idea.
  
  
• Charlayne Woodard, who plays the mother to Samuel L. Jackson's character, is actually almost a full 5 years younger than her on screen son.
  
  
• Using the colour purple as Mr Glass's colour to David Dunn's green was Samuel L. Jackson's idea - purple is his favourite colour. He even asked George Lucas for a purple lightsaber in Star Wars: Episode II - Attack of the Clones (2002).
  
  
• Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [car accident] A car accident is a pivotal point in David and Audrey's relationship.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [Home Invasion] The "Orange Suit Man".
  
  
• Director Cameo: [M. Night Shyamalan] Stadium drug dealer.
  
  
• M. Night Shyamalan is often compared to Alfred Hitchcock. In this movie the scene on the train in which we first meet David Dunn is filmed partly from the right, making the train appear to go east (right on a map) while actually it is a New York-Philadelphia connection (going southwest). Hitchcock did the same during train scenes in North by Northwest (1959) in which Cary Grant's character fled west.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [twist ending]
  
  
• The people whose bad deeds are sensed by David are identified by an article of clothing in a single bright color (red, orange), to contrast them with the dark and dreary color scheme.
  
  
• We see 4 characters die on-screen and hear about a total of 513 other off-screen deaths.
  
  
• Just prior to watching the report covering the train disaster, David's son briefly watches the cartoon, "PowerPuff Girls"; a parody on American Comic Book Heroes, concerning girls in kindergarten who have superpowers.
  
  
• Director Trademark: [M. Night Shyamalan] [Philadelphia] Set in Philadelphia, like most of his films.
  
  
• The film derived from the first third of the original script. Shyamalan felt no connection to the last thirds of the text and decided to discard them.
  
  
• Shyamalan came up with the idea for Unbreakable (2000) while filming The Sixth Sense (1999).
  
  
• M. Night Shyamalan always had Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson in mind to play the roles of David Dunn and Elijah Price.
  
  
• Of all the films he's made, Unbreakable (2000) is M. Night Shyamalan personal favorite.
  
  
• The name David Dunn is a probable homage to the characters in Marvel Comics, where they're names are often alliterations, e.g. Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, Scott Summers, etc.
  
  
• Samuel L. Jackson would later play another supervillain in The Spirit (2008).
  
  
• Some camera shots show David in a hooded raincoat. Which may be to imply that he's some sort of a caped crusader.
  
  

• SPOILER: Many of the comics shown in the background when Elijah Price is on the screen are Thor. For a time in the 1980s, Thor has a curse upon him where his bones were brittle and would break easily, the same as "Mr Glass".
  
  

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