If Pa Kent's jack hadn't failed would Superman know he was special?
Unbreakable, the latest film to be written and directed by Sixth Sense, The (1999)'s M. Night Shyamalan, tells the story of David Dunn - played by Bruce Willis - the unscathed soul-survivor of a train wreck that killed all other passengers.
An ordinary man with a young son and a looming divorce, David is intrigued by a note, found on his windscreen, asking him how many times he has ever been ill. Tracing the note to a gallery of comic book art, Dunn meets Elijah Mr Glass' Price (Samuel L Jackson), a man with bones so brittle that a simple fall can easily shatter his body. Figuring that, if he can be born so fragile, then a person bearing opposite characteristics may exist, Elijah has dedicated his life to finding the one who is unbreakable. Initially dismissive, David slowly develops faith in Elijah's theory by the realisations that he has never had a day's illness or suffered injury and by the previously suppressed memory of his immense strength while rescuing his future wife from a crashed car.
In Unbreakable, Shyalaman has created the first kitchen-sink superhero story, stripping away alien origins and replacing X-ray vision with heightened instincts, David's face is even hidden by the shadow of his rain hood rather than a mask. In keeping with the believable tone of the story, Shyalaman also explores the impact on the hero's family through the sometimes-disturbed reactions of David's son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark) to his father's apparent indestructibility.
With David embracing his role in the world, by taking on a brutal serial killer and facing up to his fear of drowning - his personal Kryptonite - Unbreakable finally concludes with a revelation to equal that of the brilliant Sixth Sense.
Featuring excellent performances from its central characters, and avoiding all the usual superhero clichés, Unbreakable should appeal to a much wider audience and so achieve the success that it so richly deserves.
