UNBREAKABLE: Part 2

By: Steve Biodrowski
Date: Wednesday, November 22, 2000

The big secret about Unbreakable is that it's really a comic book superhero movie.

Yes, you read that right.

The explanation offered by Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson) for David's miraculous escape from the train wreck is that David (Bruce Willis) is the real-life equivalent of a comic book superhero. Elijah believes that comic books are the modern day equivalent of ancient pictographs and hieroglyphics that portray variations on some kind of archetypal theme of heroism, and he is convinced that David is living proof that there is some essential truth underlying this myth.

It's an interesting idea, and it takes the film in an unexpected direction: instead of watching David come to terms with the psychological guilt of surviving an accident that claimed so many lives, we see him gradually becoming aware of his own, almost completely unrealized physical capabilities. In a clever bit of screenwriting, this shift doesn't undermine the central dramatic story concerning David's failing relationship with his wife (Robin Wright Penn). Instead, the two dovetail nicely, reinforcing each other. Although it's never stated openly (a nice subtle touch), we're clearly led to believe that David resents his wife because he gave up a promising football career for her sake: a physical therapist, she didn't want to be married to a man whose job was inflicting injuries rather than healing them. (In another nice touch, he works as a security guard at a stadium, watching the game he can no longer play.) But through the course of the film he realizes that his physical prowess was designed for a different destiny, one that he can fulfill now that he knows it, erasing any sense of loss regarding the playing field.

That's the good news. Now here's the bad: the comic book motif nearly undermines the film. It suggests another form of realitya level of fantasythat just doesn't mesh comfortably with the rest of the film. Initially, this seems as though it won't be a problem, because Elijah is quick to point out that comic books are a commercialized, simplified, jazzed up version of the superhero idea, leading us to believe that the rest of the film will delineate the differences between the comic book version and the real life experience. But such is not the case. Instead, the film embraces the comic book clichés, pushing them at us one by one and expecting us to accept them simply because we recognize them, instead of working to earn that acceptance.


The result is, in a word, funny. As Elijah launches into each new explanation for what David is experiencing, the titters of laughter spread throughout the audience. Things get even worse when the action starts to turn cornball and predictable in its attempts to justify Elijah's theories. For example, a near drowning in David's past, which at first seems to contradict his alleged invulnerability, is explained away by saying that all comic book superheroes have some weakness; water is, in effect, David's kryptonite. When, late in the film, David finally sets out to act like a crime fighter, you can pretty much guess that he's going to get dumped in a pool. Instead of using this as a moment to undermine the superhero mythto show the difference between expectation and reality, to keep the story at a believable level, to remind us that David is, after all, a human being, not an alien from another worldthe scene plays out exactly like the most formulaic comic book movie, complete with a last-minute rescue and a swelling, uplifting surge from the orchestral score to tell us that he may look like a mere man, but he really is a superman.

The search for meaning is something that is part of most of our lives. Unbreakable works to some extent by playing off that theme. For David, the search is for an answer as to why he survived, and that answer has ramifications that affect and, ultimately, improve the rest of his life. But the quest for meaning can be a dangerous one. Facts don't always conform to our philosophies, and high-minded ideals can sometimes be out of touch with reality. In some ways, pure idealism can be the most dangerous kind of thinking, because it seeks to conform the world at large to a conception that may not be possible. It is perhaps for this reason that we move on from the fairy tales of our youth (with their clear dichotomy between Good and Evil) and explore other, more complex forms of art and entertainment as we grow older. For the young mind, fairy tales provide a way of understanding the world (as Bruno Bettleheim pointed out in The Uses of Enchantment), and they continue to form a rich soil for interpretation and enjoyment even when you're olderbut you would be ill advised to take them literally.

Shyamalan initially seems to be setting up a story that will play off this idea. Comic books are an interesting and entertaining medium, but you wouldn't (at least I hope you wouldn't) try to live your life according to them. When David is told that he is the real-life embodiment of a comic book superhero, he initially rejects the idea, and it's easy to understand why: it's too alluring, too easy. It sounds good, and it seems to answer some obvious questions. But there's something suspicious about it, something that makes us think, This is like expecting a fairy tale to come true; it can't happen in the real world.

Ultimately, the film does fulfill your suspicious expectations, but only with a last-minute twist ending that is dramatically empty and disappointing. Yes, the film says that trying to fit your life into the pattern of a comic book can have bad effects on the psyche, but the message rings hollow, because it is simply presented to us as a bald fact, not as something that emerges dramatically out of David's story. In fact, (without giving too much away) it doesn't even really impact David directly at allcit's something he learns about, rather than experiences. The effect is an ending that falls flat, leaving you wondering, Is that all?

Which is really too bad, because you can see what this film was meant to be, and it comes so close to achieving its intentions--a comic book type movie that you really believe, that doesn't rely on the usual suspension of disbelief that comes with entering a fantasy world. (X-Men worked hard to maintain a sense of realism, but Unbreakable easily outdoes that film, at least on this one level.) If nothing else, Shyamalan's new film leaves you wondering what he could do if given the chance to direct the next Batman film.