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Published on Friday, June 23, 2000 - 6:18am |
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The Scrubbing Bubble looks at M. Night's UNBREAKABLE script
Hey folks, Harry here. Now... all of you good folks should realize that this is the same draft of UNBREAKABLE that Moriarty reviewed... that IGN's folks have reviewed... that... Well, It's made the rounds. However, I refuse to read this script. After SIXTH SENSE... I try to keep M Night's films as secret to myself as possible. This has minor spoilers, and merely pokes at the ending, without giving it away. You should also know, that this draft is NOT necessarily the shooting draft, and that M. Night may very well of changed the ending... or perhaps has done something even weirder... I don't know, Scrubbing Bubble doesn't know, IGN don't know, Corona don't know... Nobody but Shyamalan and his editors and post folks know for sure. And... we're working on em. Muhahahahaha Just kidding. I don't want to know.
THE SCRUBBING BUBBLE REVIEWS THE SCREENPLAY
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN'S "UNBREAKABLE"
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It starts quitely and builds with power until I almost can't take it and
then-
And then M. Night Shyamalan, who wrote and directed last year's
sensational "The Sixth Sense", tries to give his new script "Unbreakable" a
twist ending. It happens in the last four pages and everything suddenly
falls flat. Maybe he didn't feel an audience would embrace it the way they
did "Sixth" without some mind blowing final twist. Maybe he planned it all
along and on screen it will work briliantly. But for what its worth, on the
page, it doesn't.
Night's October 8th 1999 draft of UNBREAKABLE runs 128 pages. The film,
which has already finished principal photography, stars Bruce Willis as David
Dunne, a security guard at a football stadium. After being involved in a
massive subway car crash in which 131 people die and he survives without a
scratch, he starts to show signs that he's...invincible. Neat, huh?
Then there is Elijah, a man who was born with Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a
rare disorder that makes his bones less dense. That basically means that if
you bumped into this guy the wrong way, you'd hear the sickening crack of his
arms and legs breaking. Samuel L. Jackson should bring major power to this
role. Since his mother gave him his first comic book as a child, he's been
obsessed with these gods who stop crime and have superhuman strength. He
runs a comic book shop called "Limited Edition" and claims to be one of the
world's most knowledgable comic book experts.
Night sets up these two men's lives beautifully. Within just a few pages
I was there, totally sucked in. In a lot of ways, this is a better story
than "The Sixth Sense". It is so original and challenging. That's why I got
a little pissed over the ending.
Basically, Elijah seeks out David. He's been tracking the city's worst
disasters and looking for survivors like David. He's convinced that out
there somewhere exists a man who is his polar opposite. While he jokingly
refers to himself as Mr. Glass, he believes out there is a man who can't be
hurt. And he finds him in David.
These two men, the relationship that develops between them, and how it
effects their lives is wonderful. You sense this profound feeling of hope
welling up while you read. In this dark drab world, we get this slight hint
of hope that there is a man similar to those in comic books. A man who could
protect people who are fragile, like Elijah. Like the rest of us. This
feeling pervades the whole film and finally, when David dones a costume that
isn't really a costume, but at the same time is, we feel this burst of joy.
You're so happy that someone out there who can help us. And you love Elijah
for making him accept what he has to do.
And then Night gives us this really sucky, Usual Suspects ending that
boggled my mind. Sure, it's clever. Sure it might work in the movie. It
might. But this ending totally ruins the emotion and morality of what he set
up. It undermines everything we invested in Elijah and in his philosophy.
And it hurts. It's strange how only a few pages can turn a whole script
around and just ruin that feeling of joy you had at reading something so
great.
Kudos to the script. I loved it. But the ending really let me down
The Scrubbing Bubble
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Reader Talkback
excellent by mmm_free_wig | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:22:54 AM | Twist endings by Brian DePalma | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:32:18 AM | Sounds Good by Mad Dog | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:35:26 AM | brian depalma by mmm_free_wig | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:39:00 AM | Yay by Toshlines | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:42:20 AM | My Idea by Mad Dog | Jun 23rd, 2000 07:08:18 AM | Psst! Wanna hear a secret? by DarthSlater | Jun 23rd, 2000 08:32:40 AM | I saw the Sixth Sense
before... by cozmicrob | Jun 23rd, 2000 08:33:01 AM | Role models are hard to come
by.... by JmanZ | Jun 23rd, 2000 09:17:52 AM | have a little faith by holidill | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:00:30 AM | What's wrong with the ending? by Doughboy | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:03:37 AM | Here we friggin go again, by KingMenthol | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:25:04 AM | tricky ending by oyster boy | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:29:29 AM | Osteogenesis Imperfecta by KingMenthol | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:47:54 AM | C'mon people... by X-Mole | Jun 23rd, 2000 11:56:23 AM | fuckin twist endings by ddd | Jun 23rd, 2000 12:31:03 PM | You guys are going to hate me
but... by mephisto666 | Jun 23rd, 2000 01:48:36 PM | Secret Ending by PHEARMeFanBoy | Jun 23rd, 2000 02:10:40 PM | Oh yeah, forgot to add... by PHEARMeFanBoy | Jun 23rd, 2000 02:14:08 PM | the twist ending by billy | Jun 23rd, 2000 02:47:27 PM | quit guessing at the ending by Reverb | Jun 23rd, 2000 06:35:34 PM | So that's what that is... by WireDemon | Jun 24th, 2000 11:13:49 PM | poor man's roald dahl... by half vader | Jun 24th, 2000 11:47:09 PM | Red Herring by GDM | Jun 25th, 2000 05:32:39 AM | This Idea Sounds Cool! Hope
They Decide Not To Try Too
Hard For by Buzz Maverik | Jun 25th, 2000 02:19:55 PM | WHERE CAN I TAKE A LOOK AT
THIS SCRIPT? by WhiteMidnight | Jun 26th, 2000 12:21:11 AM | Unbreakable Script by greenbear | Jun 26th, 2000 04:24:36 AM |
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