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Pondering a separation from his wife, David interviews for a job in New York. On the way back, he becomes the sole survivor of a train wreck. He is uninjured, and this attracts the attention of Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson). Elijah is a passionate comic art dealer who believes that Willis has special powers, which he seeks to develop.
Could it be that the balding, middle-aged David is more than just a listless security guard? Could it be that he has been living the life of the secret identity of a superhero? Or maybe Elijah is just a nutjob. The bad haircut is a giveaway.
How I felt about it. Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan remains best known for his breakout film, The Sixth Sense. Unbreakable followed shortly later, and has several things in common with its more successful predecessor. Both star Bruce Willis, both have a 'surprise' twist ending, and both have a pre-adolescent boy in a leading supporting role.
Yes, and both are long, slow-moving films. They are watchable, though. The revelation that Willis is unbreakable is hardly surprising, but the final plot twist is pretty good. This is probably because it involves Samuel L. Jackson, whose brooding, pensive performance is more interesting than that of Bruce Willis.
Willis, you see, underplays, as he did in The Sixth Sense. That characterization worked, since he was, after all, already dead. What more could anyone do to him? In Unbreakable, Willis merely acts as if he's dead. When his wife asks him, in her passive-aggressive way, whether he's coming or going, he merely stares at her as if he was evaluating one of Jackson's comic art drawings.
He does wake up, however briefly, when his worshipful son points a loaded handgun at him. "I'm just going to shoot you once," he promises. Please, not Bruce Willis. He's probably the most modest moviestar in Hollywood.
How others will see it. Unbreakable was a moderate critical and commercial success. As such, it was mildly disappointing, given that it came one year after The Sixth Sense, a lavishly praised blockbuster. The user ratings at imdb.com are generally good but show a steady drop with advancing age. Men like it more than women do, perhaps because the only consequential female role, that of Robin Wright Penn, is wishy-washy. Then again, she's working against a somnambulant Willis.