Unbreakable (2000)

A man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident.

Director:

M. Night Shyamalan

Writer:

M. Night Shyamalan

Stars:

Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Robin Wright

2 wins & 13 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bruce Willis	...	David Dunn
Samuel L. Jackson	...	Elijah Price
Robin Wright	...	Audrey Dunn (as Robin Wright Penn)
Spencer Treat Clark	...	Joseph Dunn
Charlayne Woodard	...	Elijah's Mother
Eamonn Walker	...	Dr. Mathison
Leslie Stefanson	...	Kelly
Johnny Hiram Jamison	...	Elijah Age 13
Michaelia Carroll	...	Babysitter
Bostin Christopher	...	Comic Book Clerk
Elizabeth Lawrence	...	School Nurse
Davis Duffield	...	David Dunn Age 20 (as David Duffield)
Laura Regan	...	Audrey Inverso Age 20
Chance Kelly	...	Orange Suit Man
Michael Kelly	...	ER Doctor

Storyline

Actor Bruce Willis and writer/director M. Night Shyamalan reunite after the surprise success of The Sixth Sense for this supernatural thriller. David Dunn (Willis) is taking a train from New York City back home to Philadelphia after a job interview that didn't go well when his car jumps the tracks and collides with an oncoming engine, with David the only survivor among the 131 passengers on board. Astoundingly, David is not only alive, he hardly seems to have been touched. As David wonders what has happened to him and why he was able to walk away, he encounters a mysterious stranger, Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson), who explains to David that there are a certain number of people who are "unbreakable" -- they have remarkable endurance and courage, a predisposition toward dangerous behavior, and feel invincible but also have strange premonitions of terrible events. Is David "unbreakable"? And if he is, what are the physical and psychological ramifications of this knowledge?

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Plot Keywords:

supernatural power | train station | train crash | superhero | comic book art | 

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Taglines:

Are You Unbreakable?

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Genres:

Drama | Mystery | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for mature thematic elements including some disturbing violent content, and for a crude sexual reference

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

22 November 2000 (USA)

Also Known As:

No Ordinary Man

Filming Locations:

Ontario Street Comic Book Shop, 2235 E. Ontario St., Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$75,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$30,330,771, 26 November 2000

Gross USA:

$95,011,339

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$248,118,121

Company Credits

Production Co:

Touchstone Pictures, Blinding Edge Pictures, Barry Mendel Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

106 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital EX SDDS DTS-ES

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.39 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Julianne Moore was offered the part of Audrey Dunn but turned it down to work on Hannibal (2001).

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Goofs

Early in the movie David is reading a "Philadelphia Inquirer" newspaper. At the end this becomes a "Philadelphia Telegraph".

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Quotes

David Dunn: You killed all those people.
Elijah Price: But I found you. So many sacrifices just to find you.

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Crazy Credits

The producers wish to thank: Miramax Films

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Alternate Versions

Several deleted scenes are included in the DVD: They include:

• Audrey and Joseph sitting in the hospital waiting room, awaiting information about if David survived. She tries to cheer him up by buying him all the sugary foods and drink he usually can't have.
• A scene showing TV footage of the wreck, while through the cracked open door we see someone in the shower. The scene cuts into the shower and we see David crying.
• Elijah at age 7 goes to the fair and gets on a spinning teacup ride. He uses two stuffed animals to hold himself in place, and wraps his jacket along the lap bar. Eventully, the animals and jacket fall off the ride as his mother watches in horror. He then goes swinging from side to side breaking his bones.
• After the wake, David sees a priest about his survival. The priest sets his priesthood aside to tell David that it was nothing but luck, and how he had a nephew on that train that died. He also tells of other tragedies he had, and that if David was looking for some kind of miracle answer, he won't find it from him.
• Audrey calls David pretending it's their first meeting and asks him to dinner. They go out and talk, when one of Audrey's friends comes in and says how David is cute and what kind of lawyer he is. The friend realizes that shouldn't have been said, and leaves while David becomes a bit upset.
• David checking on Joseph to make sure he is sleeping okay.
• Elijah is taken away by doctors after talking to Audrey.
• David goes to the locker room at the stadium to lift more weights and lifts around 500 pounds. When he gets up, he sees the entire football team watching in awe.

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Connections

Referenced in Tosh.0: American Idol Girls (2010)

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Soundtracks

Lotus Blossom
(1962)
Written by Billy Strayhorn
Performed by Fred Hersch
Courtesy of Nonesuch Records
By Arrangement with Warner Special Products

User Reviews

Just fantastic

Willis finds out some strange things about himself after being the sole survivor in a train wreck. Jackson tells him he's special. Is he really?

Unbreakable really is an act 1 superhero story stretched to feature lenght (Night tells us in an interview). Genius. For once I believe Willis is the person on screen, not that he's playing Bruce Willis, the cool actor. Night uses colors (mostly blue, purple and green) and well chosen camera-angles as imagesystems (word is that the storyboard read like a comic). Most of them really work out well. I loved the slow pacing of the film. It really takes it time to tell us what's going on. As usual Shyamalan puts human drama first in his script. The first scene where Willis meets the woman in the train... You have to see the genius of it. In a few lines of dialog Shyamalan let's us discover the character Dunn.

Another reason why I love this film is because Shyamalan shows he has courage to make THIS after the enormous success of The Sixth Sense, which I think is inferior to this film. I just know the studio execs where pushing for something more tangible than this, but he chose this instead. A homage to comic books. And it works! BEAUTIFUL!!