In today’s video, we are going to go through 2000’s American Superhero Thriller, Unbreakable,
where a man learns something extraordinary about himself after a devastating accident.
Spoilers ahead! You have been warned. Before we get into the video, please give it a like
and subscribe to the channel.
The movie opens at a Philadelphia department store in 1961 where a woman gives birth to
a boy and names him Elijah. There happens to be a doctor around the store. He takes
the baby in his arms but his smile fades as he asks if they dropped him. The mother and
the people surrounding her answer no, only to be told that the baby’s limbs are broken.
Present day, David Dunn is travelling from New York to Philadelphia in a train. The engine
of the train keeps getting louder and the train speeds far more than the limit. The
passengers panic.
David wakes up in an emergency room. The doctor by his side asks him basic medical questions
and then enquires the position of his train seat. He says his seat was by the window in
the passenger car to which the doctor looks at him funny. The train had derailed, causing
the accident and David was the only survivor with no broken bones. He has no wounds on
him, not even a scratch.
As he comes out of the emergency room, his son and wife hug him while people around stare
at him - an anomaly, a miracle.
At home, his wife, Audrey, asks about his interview in New York. He says he didn’t
get the job but still plans on moving there. They are going through marital problems which
is why they sleep in separate rooms.
When David is leaving the memorial service for the victims of the Eastrail train accident,
he finds an envelope on the windshield of his car. The paper inside is embossed with
the words, “Limited Edition''. There’s only one sentence written inside the fold:
how many days of your life have you been sick?
He goes back to his job as a security guard at a university football stadium. He asks
his supervisor to check the number of sick days he had taken. His supervisor, having
heard of the accident, gives him a 40 dollar raise and confirms that he’s not taken a
single sick day. Back home, he asks his wife when was the last time he was sick. She says
she doesn’t remember.
In the past, in West Philadelphia, young Elijah sits before a TV with a fractured arm. His
mom urges him to get out but he fears he’ll get hurt more. He’s called Mr. Glass at
school because he breaks like glass. She tells him that there’s nothing he can do about
his condition and that he cannot spend his entire life afraid and hiding.
His mother gets him a present but sets a condition: If he wants it, he has to get it from the
bench across the street. With her encouragement, he crosses the street and sits on the bench
to open the present wrapped in a purple paper. It’s a comic book. His mother tells him
that every time he wants to come out to the bench, she’ll keep one on it.
David and his son reach the ‘Limited Edition’ art gallery. They meet the owner, Elijah Price
who had sent the letter to David. While chatting with Price, David says he’s most probably
never been sick or injured in his life but his son, Joseph tells Price about a car accident
in college; the reason he can’t play football anymore.
Elijah Price has studied comic books his entire life. The inspiration of the superhero narrative
comes from true experiences that get covered up with cartoons and commerciality of the
industry. He had observed man-made disasters and accidents but never had he heard the words
‘sole survivor’ until the Eastrail train accident.
He tells David about his condition: Osteogenesis Imperfecta, where the bones have low density
which make them brittle. He always thought there was someone on the other end of the
spectrum, someone with above average strength, someone who will protect others.
David believes that Price just wants to take financial advantage. The envelope gave him
hope. He reached out for a solution and is reasonably put off by Price’s theory.
At night, he digs up newspaper cut outs of his football career and the subsequent car
accident. Audrey and David talk about their broken relationship.
She says that she wants to work on their marriage again, adding that she’s so thankful that
he survived the car crash.
Price visits him at the stadium, supported by a glass cane. He finds it interesting that
David chose to be a security guard, a profession of protection. As they stroll around the stadium,
David has a hunch that a man in a camouflage jacket is carrying a gun. When he starts searching
the people going in, the man separates from the line and leaves.
Price asks David if he has powerful instincts. He explains that superpowers in comics are
just an exaggeration of instinct. David argues that he could be wrong about the gun.
Price leaves the stadium and follows the man to prove his theory. As he gains on him, he
falls down a staircase and yells in pain, his glass cane shattering beside him. At the
very moment, he sees a flash of a silver gun on the man. David was right.
After work, Joseph tags along with his father to help him workout. He puts 250 pounds on
the weights. That’s the most David has lifted while bench pressing. Joseph says he’ll
take off the weights but adds 20 more. David reprimands him for it but they keep adding
as much as he can lift. By the end, David lifts 350 pounds.
Elijah is in a wheelchair due to his fall. He visits David’s wife, a physical therapist,
as a patient. Audrey indulges him when asked about how she
met her husband. They keep chatting and Elijah ends up telling her how he discovered David
and his condition. He tries to make her see what he sees in David.
Meanwhile, David gets a call from Joseph’s school saying he’s hurt. He sits with the
old principal as she recollects David’s drowning incident from his childhood - one
he doesn’t remember until now. Joseph explains how he hurt himself as a result of thinking
he was like his father.
When Audrey is telling David about Elijah’s visit, Joseph finds his dad’s gun and bullets.
He tries to shoot David to prove Elijah’s theory that he cannot get hurt. Audrey tries
to talk him down. David tells him about the drowning incident. When Joseph doesn’t comply,
David threatens to leave the house if he shoots him. That gets him to lower the gun and the
family breathes a sigh of relief.
David meets Elijah who accuses him of faking his car accident injury to avoid success in
football for marriage. David shares the pool incident of his childhood with him, disproving
his theory.
Then they decide to end their communication forever.
David and Audrey go out on a date. When they come back, there’s a voice mail from Elijah.
In it, he says they may be on the opposite end of the spectrum but their common weakness
is water.
A flashback plays of him saving Audrey from the car crash. A man asks if they’re hurt,
Audrey’s injured on the legs but David doesn’t answer. In the present, he calls Price and
confesses that he’s never been injured. He tries to develop his instincts by going
into a crowd.
When he comes in contact with someone, he can see their worst deed. He lets people rush
past him and sees some of the terrible things people have done - hit and run, theft and
molestation.
He’s overwhelmed by seeing the worst of people. A maintenance man walks by and David
sees a vision of him breaking into a house and killing a man.
He follows the murderer on a rainy night to that very house. He sees flashes of the crime
as he walks in. He steps into a bedroom where he finds the victim’s daughters handcuffed
inside the closet. David helps them escape. Before he can untie the wife in the next room,
the murderer finds him and pushes him from the balcony, in a pool, almost drowning David.
Luckily, the daughters save him. He goes back to fight and ends up killing the murderer.
Then he unties the wife. He comes home and seeks comfort in the arms of his wife after
the traumatic experience.
Next morning, Joseph enters the kitchen and David shows him the newspaper in which the
last night’s event is reported. Joseph tears up.
David visits Price’s exhibition and meets his mom. She quotes her son: there are villains
of two kinds - ones who fight with hands and ones who fight with the mind.
He follows Elijah deeper into the establishment. Elijah has the day’s newspaper in his hands.
David confesses he didn’t feel sadness today. When they shake hands, he sees the worst of
Price. He discovers that the accidents in the city were caused by Price only to find
someone like David. He sees drafts and plans as evidence of his guilt in the back room.
In the end, David leads the authorities to Price who’s then kept in an institution
for the criminally insane.
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