OP I just rewatched this movie with my 74-year-old mother tonight aftr a few beers, browsing through the Prime Video section. The most important thing to understand about the pace and tone of Unbreakable is that it is by no means a super-hero movie. It is essentially a drama about a sad aging man with a marriage failing and a deep sadness because he has sacrificed his true talent for his love even though she would never have asked him to do so.
It's a story about a Superman who works security and keeps modest and small to keep safe with his family, because he feared he would lose Lois if he became what he was. But it's merits as a movie and through Bruce Willis' performance had little to do with his Superman role and more to do with his inner life exploring his power and sense of purpose and belonging in the world, that he willfully ignored for so long. I legit cry on most rewatches of this movie.
The drama alone, between him and his wife so artfully underplayed by Robin Wright, is essentially a satisfying adult movie of the type we rarely see these days, and it would be so even if his denied destiny was that of a celebrated artist or wrestler. The "comics as exaggeration of real-life... something" isn't meant to hold up the weight of the movie: the human relationships do that, including the relationship between David and his son, and David and Elijah.
But... man. M. Night accidentally nailed a very clever and powerful real-world, powered-down adaptation of a super-hero model...
...in a story that was cleverly scripted to really hold its twist back and hit you with it unexpectedly...
...and I can say it worked like gangbusters on my mom. I saw the movie 20 years ago but she never had. She had the shock I had when it was revealed what Elijah had really done to find his opposite in David. M. Night got two solid twists in his career before he became known for them and everybody started searching for them and he failed to impress with The Village. Unbreakable, after Sixth Sense, was the "fool me twice." And he did, the mad bastard. He fooled us twice. I don't now of anyone watching the movie at the time who called the true nature of Elijah, but on rewatches, of course, it's all right there, all the mentions of the accidents he surveyed to find a lone survivor, etc. All the flashback scenes, to lead you to understand his character, all the clues. This was M. Night's last chance to surprise us, and he did.
I think it's his best movie. Both M. Night's and Bruce Willis'. And I fucking love the first Die Hard, too. But it doesn't consistently make me cry. This movie, man. I don't know what to tell you. It appeals to the male mid-life ego, that's for sure. It speaks to the hidden power in all of us, that we set aside to pursue safer avenues for the sake of the ones we love, for fear of their response to being with someone who becomes... super.
Split was an excellent thriller and it's last-minute twist adding David Dunn in a cameo was genius and M. Night's last chance to play that card again. But it had none of the heart and soul of Unbreakable, even though James McAvoy deserves endless praise for his work in the film.
Glass on the other hand approaches none of the emotional depth of Unbreakable and just kills everyone and everything we came to care about in some sort of meta commentary conspiracy plot that plays poorly and leads directly to a literal Dead End. It felt like "Fuck You" the movie and he should have made it five to ten years after Split when he actually felt hungry and gave a shit about the characters again.
I wish it never happened, honestly. A fucking puddle. I would take a "David Dunn and son" interim movie, though. Willis could use it!
