Unbreakable is a movie I’ve always been meaning to see, and with the upcoming release of Glass, now seemed like the perfect opportunity to do so. Unbreakable is the second film made my M. Night Shyamalan, following The Sixth Sense. This was during the height of Shyamalan’s career, and so this is actually a pretty decent movie. I think that in recent years, with the releases of The Visit and Split, Shyamalan has kind of improved himself again, but it is still nice to watch his early work again when he truly shined.

As a fan of comics, I really like Unbreakable’s story, because it tackles a sort-of real-life superhero story. Basically, in the beginning we meet Elijah Price, a man who’s been given the nickname “Mr. Glass” because he has a rare disease where all of his bones are extremely fragile and brittle. As such, it’s really easy for him to break a bone from a simple fall or bump. Elijah is obsessed with comics, and so he becomes fascinated with the idea that if someone like himself exists, maybe there might be someone out there on the other end of the spectrum that has bones that are unbreakable. Enter David Dunn, a man who is in a terrible accident at the beginning of the movie where a train derails. Everyone on the train dies except for him, and he has miraculously suffered no injuries whatsoever. It’s at this point that David starts to think about his life and realize that he’s never been injured, or even been sick for that matter, and so he starts to question what’s wrong with him. Elijah seeks out David and starts to convince him that he might have some sort of superpowers. To say anything beyond this would definitely spoil the movie, which in itself is a really interesting mystery that’s exciting to watch unfold.

To be honest, I don’t have a ton to say about Unbreakable. It’s one of those movies that, for a review at least, I feel like the less that’s said the better. That being said, I really enjoyed the movie, so I’ll try to sell it to you as best as I can without giving much else away. The main draw to me was the story, because it was an interesting subversion on the superhero genre. You won’t see any men in capes and spandex, but you will see men that have abilities and personalities that closely mimic the comics that they’re imitating. Another big draw for me was the two leads. Bruce Willis plays David and Samuel Jackson plays Elijah. I love both of these actors alone, but together they’re fantastic, as seen in other movies like Die Hard 3 or Pulp Fiction. Both of them give great performances here and make the movie really interesting. One other big selling point for me personally was the directing too. Shyamalan seemed to be very experimental at this point in his career, because there are so many times where he crafts really unique shots, such as a very early scene where we see David talking to a woman on the train through a crack in the seats. These kinds of shots might not be for everyone, but I thought that they were a fun diversion from the norm.

And that’s all I really have to say about Unbreakable. I’ll be honest, it’s not like it’s one of the absolute best movies of all time or anything. There are certainly tons of other movies that I could always suggest over it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not worth your time. It admittedly has a few slow moments, and some other parts that don’t make a ton of sense on the first viewing. These kinds of things do drag the movie down a bit for me, but otherwise I think it’s great. It’s a movie that I’d mostly recommend to people that are interested in the story’s concept, and so it isn’t necessarily a movie that’s for everyone. The other reason you might have to watch it is that, like me, you saw Split and didn’t realize that it was going to be a partial sequel to Unbreakable. If you’re in this camp, my honest feeling is that Unbreakable and Split are of a pretty similar quality. Neither are the absolute best movies ever, but they’re definitely really interesting and enjoyable. Give it a go if the concept interests you.

4/5