[ENTERTAINMENT] THE STORY SO FAR: UNBREAKABLE (2000)

by sloppyvinyl | Jan 16, 2019 | Entertainment, Movies

Spoilers Ahead for “Unbreakable”

Leading up to the release of the highly anticipated “Glass”, let take a look back at where the story began with “Unbreakable”. Starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, “Unbreakable” was ahead of its time by being a superhero movie that brought respect and maturity to the genre before the modern superhero craze we have today.

The story of “Unbreakable” begins with the birth of Elijah Prince (Samuel L. Jackson) in 1961 in a Philadelphia Department Store. At first, assuming the newborn has been dropped, the doctor is shocked to reveal that baby Elijah was born with broken arms and legs due to the pressure forced on him during delivery.  

Fast forward to modern-day where David Dunn (Bruce Willis) awakens in a hospital bed after a disturbing train ride. A doctor walks to David as he notices a body bleed out in front of him. Uncomfortable with the doctor’s expression, the doctor explains to David what has just happened to him along with all the other passengers on the crashed train.

“To answer your question, there are two reasons why I am looking at you like this. One, because it seems in a few minutes, you will officially be the the only survivor of this trainwreck. And two, because you didn’t break one bone. You don’t even have a scratch on you.”

-Hospital Doctor informing David of recent events

After the memorial service of the tragic victim of the crash, David receives a “Limited Edition” branded note on his windshield reading “How many days of your life have you been sick?” Disturbed by the implications of his survival, David asks around his work and household about the last time he has taken a sick day or showed any symptoms of an illness. David’s boss informs him of his perfect 5-year work attendance and his wife fails to recall any time of David being ill.

Flashback to 1974 in West Philidelphia, where a young Elijah Price is sitting in his room scared to go outside and break another bone. The kids make fun of his amount of broken bones and call him “Mr. Glass”. Elijah’s mother (Charlayne Woodard) motivates her son to go outside by placing a gift in the middle of the playground for Elijah to retrieve. The gift is of a comic book, which start’s Elijah’s obsession with superheroes.

Back to present day, David visit’s Elijah’s comic art gallery, “Limited Edition” with his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark). Elijah explains to David how he has been searching through reports on accidents to find a sole survivor to make it out unharmed. As Elijah is on one side of the spectrum, with his brittle bones and weak immune system, he’s destined to find his counterpart that on the other side who healthy and invulnerable.

David rushes Joseph out of Elijah’s gallery and believes that Elijah is trying to scam them. Still having Elijah on his mind the following night, David goes into an old closet where he finds a gun and a collection of newspapers that reported on his college accident.

Refusing to give up on him, Elijah visits David at his work as a university stadium security guard. Elijah is amazed by how fate has brought David to taking a job relying on protecting people. As David reaches his post, he notices a shady camouflage dress man appearing to be holding a gun.

David tells Elijah about his instinct of knowing when someone has done or is planning to do something wrong. Later on, when Elijah spots the same camouflage man, he tries and fails to stop him, leading to Elijah falling down a flight of stairs and breaking even more bones. Elijah’s accident leads him to become a patient of David’s wife, Audrey (Robin Wright). Through their sessions, Elijah reveals his intentions with Audrey’s husband and she reveals her hatred towards violence in her life.

As Audrey explains her day with Elijah to David, Joseph gets a hold of David’s gun and points it at him to prove that he cannot be harmed. After some attempts to talks Joseph from shooting, David admits to his strange power of invulnerability and successfully gets the gun our of Joseph’s hands.

After some brief separation from Elijah, David receives a call from him explaining his realization of David being connected to him as counterparts:

“Your bones don’t break. Mine do. Your cells react to viruses and bacteria different than mine. You don’t get sick. I do. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we coke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected you and I. We are on the same curve on opposite ends.”

-Elijah Prince

Recalling his past accident in college with his wife and not receiving any injuries during the accident, David calls up Elijah for help as to what he should do next.

Wearing his signature university raincoat, David is informed to go to a crowded area and search for trouble. Walking slowly through a crowded train station, David puts out his arms and bumps into random people to see visions of their criminal intentions.

After a couple visions that David cannot stop, he stumbles across an ex-convict that has invaded a family’s home and keeping them all as hidden hostages. David follows the convict back to the house and frees the two children. David is ambushed and pushed off the balcony into the covered pool. As the cover slowly falls apart. David begins to drown. The two kids he rescued pulls him out, leading to David going back up and choking out the ex-convict.

David returns home and reconnects with Audrey. The following morning appears to be normal for Joseph as his mom and dad are simply having breakfast. As Audrey turn away to do some dishes, David points out the newspaper headline of his triumphant rescue the previous night.

As the story comes to its conclusion, David visits the crowded “Limited Edition” to find Elijah’s mom pointing out to him how the villain is always drawn with larger eyes than the hero and how every rivalry can be defined as being either a physical rivalry or a rivalry of the mind.

The final scene of “Unbreakable” has David meet up with Elijah for a final goodbye. Getting in contact with Elijah for the first time, David sees visions of Elijah setting off various disasters and the infamous train derailing that David was on. Knowing how David has taken the mantle of being a hero, Elijah finally knows his place in the world as the villain. David rushes away from Elijah as a text comes up revealing the aftermath of Elijah’s master plan

“Elijah Price is now in an institution for the criminally insane”

After looking over the events of “Unbreakable” what is there to take away to hint at the upcoming events of “Glass”. The most crucial information comes from the origins of David Dunn and Elijah Price along with setting up where they have been left after this original movie. Elijah is sent to the institution and David is off to save the world. How David gets thrown into the institution with Elijah remains to be reveal in “Glass”

I’d like to wrap up by discussing the deep foreshadowing that was not discovered until the release of “Split”. Mainly referring back to Elijah’s mom’s comments to David, both of her statements remain true when looking over the advertising and relationships between the three main characters in “Glass. Elijah’s mom comments on the size of the characters eyes, which are appropriate in the new film’s poster.

As David Dunn, the hero, is shown squinting with minimum coverage with his eyes, Elijah Price and “Split’s” Kevin Crumb’s (James McAvoy) eyes are wide and prominent, indicating the hero and villains. Also, Elijah’s mother states how rivalry can be split into physical and mental; which each villain represents against David. Elijah rivals David with his mind while Kevin Crumb rivalry’s David with his physical Beast personality.