"They Call Me Mr Glass!"

They call me Mr Steel!!

Just saw this wonderful film with my girlfriend about 30 mins ago. She and I both thought it was great. She's going as far as to say that David is her favourite superhero! Hey, I still say Batman but what you can you, innit?

I had seen it before, but I think I was drunk and only watched the 2nd act. I could only remember 30% but this time I REALLY paid attention to it. It's moody, compelling and an interesting take on the comic book genre.

I take what I said about M Night Shaymalyn. This is his best film, in my opinion. Much better than The Sixth Sense and Signs.

Anyways, what did you guys think of this?

My favorite film of his, for sure. Yoda has it in his top 10 list, I believe. An amazing piece of work, and my favorite origin story for a hero. Yup, I love it.

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Couldn't agree more Prestige and Sedai. Yes, you can expect Yods to pop in here and rattle off his sentiment for the film.

I thought this was a great movie and have watched it countless times. Great performences from all attached to this flick, if you ask me.

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"I was walking down the street with my friend and he said, "I hear music", as if there is any other way you can take it in. You're not special, that's how I receive it too. I tried to taste it but it did not work." - Mitch Hedberg

I liked this film too, for sure. Very well-written, engaging and entertaining... but to be honest, Shyamalan hasn't directed any of my favorite films yet.

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Thanks for the replies so far guys. I'm glad i'm not the only one that likes it. I forgot that Sedai and Yoda were such big fans of the flick. Was it mentioned in the 'underrated movies' thread?

I know what you mean, Michael. M Night is obviously an auteur of considerable skill, but he has yet to that four star film. That said, he came pretty damn close with Unbreakable.

Yeah, it's a solid film for sure. Personally, I'm a bigger fan of The Sixth Sense.

The one thing I like about M. Night, is that everyone was on board with The Sixth Sense and were totally surprised by the ending. Then came Unbreakable and mostly everyone thought it would be much like his first, but I think a lot of people felt let down my M. Night simply because they didn't get the "sixth sense" ending.

Personally, I was in awe of Unbreakable the first time I watched it, I still am. Who all has the Vista Series DVD? It's got some pretty cool things included in the packaging.

I have that DVD, and I love all the little extras, like the Alex Ross drawings... One of my favorite DVDs as far as packaging/extras.

Oh, mine too. I love all the features included on the second disc along with the Alex Ross drawings like you mentioned.

I'm a big M. Night fan I really like that a lot of people just don't "get" his films ya know? Leaves me room to enjoy it more I says. Is there a thread here some where on his upcoming project?

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We are both the source of the problem and the solution, yet we do not see ourselves in this light...

Look, let me make it plain up front that I just am not on M. Night's wave length. I know I'm out of step with all of you folks, and I'm not knocking his movies--I just can't find the beef in this burger.

The Sixth Sense just wasn't all that mysterious to me. There's a scene maybe halfway into the movie where the kid comes home and his mom and the psychiatrist (Willis) are sitting in the living room, they look at him and the mom gets up and leaves the room without speaking to anyone, and I says to myself, "OK, he's dead." The restaurant scene where he talks to the wife and she pays the check and leaves without answering also is a dead giveaway, so to speak. And then there's the recurring red color at certain points in the picture. Still, it's an interesting little film although no big mystery. Other things, like The Village, were neither mysterious nor interesting to me, although I'm sure all of you love it, probably for good reasons that just shot past me.

But Unbreakable really goes beyond my understanding, which I'll admit is not all that great. OK, so Mr. Glass is very breakable, but why then does he assume that someone else is totally unbreakable? That's like saying, OK, I have cancer, so somewhere there must be someone totally immune to cancer, when the truth--or at least logic--may be that we're all susceptable to cancer but some of us just haven't caught it yet!

So anyway, Mr. Glass starts searching for some superhero who can never be injured, never be ill. But to what purpose? Is he seeking a blood transfusion or a bone marrow transplant that he hopes will shift him from very breakable to maybe just occasionally breakable? And can one obtain blood or bone marrow from someone who is truly unbreakable? Is it possible even to cut the hair of a totally unbreakable person? And if you can cut his hair, draw his blood, remove his bone marrow, is he truly unbreakable? Seems the superhero can not be invulnerable, just vulnerable enough.

So OK, let's say we have these two total opposites, Mr. Glass and Mr. Steel. Why can Mr. Steel suddenly also read the minds of the people he encounters in the subway station so that he knows who are the worse criminals and who aren't? Is it because Mr. Glass can't read minds at all so, being his total opposite, Mr. Steel can? I just don't understand how he picks out a particular killer. And if Mr. Steel is invulnerable, how come he nearly drowns in that pool before a couple of the victims rescue him? What does that say about individual hero-vs.-non-hero abilities?

What's worse is that at the end of this long bloody mess of mass murders in search of a superhero, nothing is resolved. As far as I can see, Mr. Glass is still Mr. Glass and Mr. Steel has given up the superhero business. I just don't get it.

That's his only weakness. Take Superman for example, he's invincible to damn near everything, but put him in close proximity of kryptonite, and he's useless. This is the same with Mr. Steel. I thought that was the most understandable thing out of the whole movie, but that might just be me.

Just about everything is resolved. Mr. Steel alerts authorities to Mr. Glass' location and Glass is subsequently apprehended. This is explained right before the credits. As for Mr. Steel, he has found a desire to help those in need. He was initially discouraged and felt that Mr. Glass was in need of strong medication, but after he saw the train wreckage, it occured to him that maybe he was right, at which point he accepted his ability and went to the station where he bumped into the janitor, and thus is superhero business started.

Yes, Spud said it correctly. He just prior to that accepted his abilities. Nowhere there did he say that that was his last attempt at being a hero.

Actually, deep down I always wanted some kind of sequel. I know it will never happened but that thought has always entertained me to keep me happy.

Oh my. Couldn't disagree more! I'll do my best to explain my feelings and objections, well, objectively, but be forewarned that I adore Unbreakable and that that fact will likely color my response.

Ah, but he doesn't assume. He wonders. He also expresses doubt about what he's doing, and indicates at one point that he'd nearly given up hope.

On top of that, we have the line from David's wife Audrey, the physical therapist, who explains to their son Joseph that when people's bodies are broken again and again, sometimes part of their mind breaks, too.

It sounds silly, but think of it from Elijah's perspective. We have a bright, articulate boy, psychologically mangled by pain and fear before even his birth...and raised on comic books. So, in his fear, and through the glasses of his love of comic books, he wonders if there's a hero for people like him. "Someone to protect the rest of us."

It's almost a religious longing, really. I'm sure you wouldn't be incredulous towards any character who reached out for a savior when life started kicking them around. In my mind, that's all Elijah's doing; he's just doing it in the only way he knows how; the way he learned by immersing himself in comic book worlds. And all his deranged plots (and significant eccentricities) go unchecked by his implied professional success (who ever heard of a poor arch-villain, anyway?).

Nah, it's got nothing to do with curing himself. It's got to do with his purpose in life. When David discovers his secret at the end of the film, Elijah says "now that we know who you are...I know who I am."

In other words, he believes his condition existed only to spur his search for David, which ultimately benefits others. Thus, instead of being randomly cursed with a horrible disease, he is an integral cog in a larger plan. By finding David, his life turns from a cruel cosmic joke into a life of profound meaning and importance. His suffering has a purpose.

This requires a small leap of faith, I think. It's not really mind-reading...it's just a vague instinct.

Earlier in the film (at the football stadium), Elijah asks David whether or not he has good instincts for spotting unsavory types. David says he does, and Elijah asks him if he's "ever tried developing [it]." The train station scene is a continuation of that. It's not tied to his borderline invulnerability; it's just something which allows him to use it to protect others. I mean, c'mon: the premise is that superheroes are real, but not in the cartoonish way we think of them. It seems to me, then, that David's abilities are accordingly toned down.

Not sure how you'd come to this conclusion. I had no indication that David was going to stop saving people, and several other things were resolved. Elijah is locked up, David has accepted who he is, and presumably the responsibilities that come with it.

I don't know that any of this will change your view of the film, but I do hope it paints a somewhat richer picture of what Shyamalan was probably trying to convey.

Well said. If anyone is going to go all out defending Unbreakable, Chris would be that guy.

I love the movie, but Chris LOVES it loves it. Wouldn't surprise me if he named his first born David Elijah, or Elijah David.

Bear with me--I'm not purposely being obtruse, but getting caught in something and nearly drowning doesn't seem like the equivalent of kryptonite to me. It's more like not being death-proof. Besides, I didn't get the feeling that Mr. Steel is actually Superman and bullets are going to bounce off his chest. I thought of him more along the lines of Batman or Black Hawks, or Captain America. A human without magical powers who uses his strength and mechanical gimmicks to overcome evil.

The way you explain it, if the train crash had occurred on the bridge and Mr. Steel had gone into the water, caught in the wreckage, he would have died with everyone else.

As for resolution, how does Steel "alert authorities" to Glass? The cops aren't looking for a mass murderer are they? How does Steel prove that Glass has done anything illegal?

brilliant underrated film The more u watch it the better it gets.

Only m night could have made this film. I dont have time to get into to it but will later.
I heard he intended a trilogy with this but backed out after the negative response. Yoda, any updates on this? or anyone?

I loved signs too. Didnt like some parts though like morgan who is twelve but talks like an intelligent 17 year old. " there are one of two outcomes of an invasion. One they fight and are defeated and return with full forces, hundreds, maybe even thousands of years later".
"Dad, they think these are stages immediately preceding an attack. I was wrong. They are hostile".

I dont buy this and would suggest m night to give kids simpler dialogue next time.
Didnt like the unnatural behaviour at the start when graham rushes into the crops and finds morgan staring who says "dogs were barking. woke us up."

Overall however, great film

OK, I can definitely buy into Mr. Glass being a crackpot!

OK, that sort of makes sense, although it's not a conclusion I would have reached on my own.


Uh-oh, you're losing me again. Glass doesn't want to get better, he just wants to know that his life mattered somehow. He kills hundreds, thousands of people in his crackpot scheme to force Steel to the surface, who then saves, what, 2-3 people? The ratio doesn't seem quite right, does it? What if he had put all of his time, money, and knowledge into finding a cure for his disease instead. Wouldn't his life have meant more in the long run? What kind of mind finds "profound meaning and importance" in a superhero? You want purpose? Why not just fund a religious cult instead?

Well, if you were David and your sense of evil in a person was "vague" and "toned down," wouldn't you have gone for the first rapist that appeared on your screen? I think I would, not knowing whether an even worse criminal might have come along later. And who knows how many conscienceless killers David may have walked by--war criminals or mass killers like Glass who have no remorse about their crimes. David did not pick up on Glass's evilness while they were paling around at ball games.


I think the key word here is presumably. You presume David will carry on as superhero. I'm not so sure. In real life, can superheroes maintain a job and family relations the way they can in comic books? Which is more important? Attending your kid's Cub Scout meeting, your inlaw's anniversary dinner, or saving a bus-load of strangers across town?

Thanks for explaining the film. It gave me a different perspective on it. But I don't think I'll ever become a card-carrying member of Shyamalan's fan club.

But this is what he cared about, what gave his life meaning. I imagine that this comic book world that he lived in was in some ways more real and meaningful than anything he could find outside of it in the *real* world. It *was* his religion, to borrow from what Yoda was saying.

By proving to himself that David does in fact have superhero powers, then Elijah get to become the arch villain. That's his purpose.

Did you not see the final scene in the movie? The blueprints for bombs, and all kinds of schematics were posted on the wall along with newspaper clippings of the disasters he planned.

Granted, newspaper clippings doesn't make you a mass murderer, but the schematics for bombs and what not should very well make you the prime suspect.