Blank Check with Griffin & David - Unbreakable with Matt Patches
Episode Date: February 8, 2016Matt Patches (Thrillist, Grantland) joins Griffin and David this week to discuss Shyamalan’s fourth feature, Unbreakable. This sad and muted superhero film where mostly nothing happens was seen by m...any critics and fans as a “sophomore slump” when released in 2000. But what are some of it’s redeeming qualities? How does it stand out among the Marvel superhero movie craze in the years that followed? Oh and is there a twist you ask? Well listen along as the gang unpacks the making and reception of Unbreakable, together examine the stylistic choices incorporating the visual language of comic books, begin to notice a pattern of recurring themes related to loveless marriages and disturbed children, and try to shake the dead eyes of Spencer Treat Clark.
Transcript
Discussion (0)
Do you know how I knew David?
I should have known all along.
You know why?
Because of the kids, David.
They called me Mr. Podcast.
Oh boy, oh boy.
That was too long.
Yeah.
Ben, cut out the first 45 seconds of that intro.
Maybe.
Okay, I am Griffin Newman.
I'm David Sims. You might know us better as The Two Friends.
Yeah, we're the two friends.
Hashtag the two friends.
I really said episode one.
I said I really want to weaponize this season.
You want to push the two friends.
The two friends, I think, is a good branding hook.
Which was my idea.
Yeah.
Oh, 100%.
We're the two friends.
We're the two friends.
You might know us better as the host of Blind Check with Griffin and David.
That's the podcast you're listening to.
Hey, guys.
Thank you for listening
And goodnight
This was a little quickie
This was a bonus episode
No we have a guest with us
We have a guest let's get right to it
I just want to get the guest in really quickly because it just freaks me out
No I like sitting here
I'm going to sit in the corner and just stare
Yeah he's going to turn around slowly
No we have a guest with us.
You're hearing his voice right now,
his melodious voice.
Griffin?
Let's trade this off.
Keep going.
He is a host of the Fighting in the War Room podcast
along with last week's guest.
Okay, Rich.
Yeah, we're trying to get them all.
Yeah.
Yeah, this is like a Pokemon thing.
We're going to catch them all.
If you've been paying attention, there's certain collections we're trying to get them all. Yeah. Yeah, this is like a Pokemon thing. We're going to catch them all.
If you've been paying attention, there's certain collections we're trying to complete.
So we still have a couple members from our trivia team to get on.
Almost none.
Yeah, just two, I think.
Two biggies.
Yeah, two biggies.
And we have half of the Fighting in the War Room team.
So he's the entertainment editor at Thrillist.com?
That's correct. Yes.
I was about to say, I have a real job, too.
Yeah, he has a real job, too. No, Fighting in the War Room is a real job. Yeah.com? That's correct. I was about to say, I have a real job, too.
Yeah, he has a real job, too.
No, Fighting in the Worm is a real job. He's a...
Yeah.
I have eight real jobs.
Eight?
Yeah, I can't get in them all.
But Eagle Eye lists...
Do you do security at the University of Philadelphia?
Hey, it's Franklin Field, right?
I'm from Philadelphia.
Yeah, you're from Philly.
So this M. Night Shyamalan series is very important.
We finally have a Philly expert here in the studio.
We got a Philly native on.
Yeah.
It's Matt Patches. Matt Patches. We didn't say his name. Yeah. the studio. We got a Philly native on. Yeah. It's Matt Patches.
Matt Patches.
We didn't say his name.
Hello.
Thank you for being here, Matt.
Thank you for...
It is my pleasure.
So you twist.
It's not.
Bad twist.
I'm sorry.
Twisted is.
Oh, hey.
Double twist.
Do you commute all the way
from Philadelphia here?
Yep.
Yeah, I took the train
where that derailed,
but I got off.
Well, that's how
you got here so fast.
Did you have an encounter
with a woman
and you took off
your wedding ring?
Yeah.
And she had like a tattoo?
Was he unbreakable?
Was he?
Guys, we're getting
ahead of ourselves.
The audience doesn't even
know what movie
we're talking about.
We are talking about
the first scene of the movie.
We're talking about Unbreakable.
I mean, chronologically.
Well, that's not true.
The second scene of the movie,
I should say. Yeah, that's true. We're talking about Unbreakable. I mean, chronologically. Well, that's not true. The second scene of the movie, I should say.
Yeah, that's true.
We're talking about Unbreakable, which is... Unbreakable!
And it's M. Night Shyamalan's fourth feature film.
It's the fourth.
It's the fourth, number four.
But people kind of view it as the sophomore film.
Yeah.
Because it was like...
Let's say this.
It was the fourth movie M. Night Shyamalan directed.
It was the second, quote unquote, M. Night Shyamalan film.
Right.
Yeah.
After the point where that had become a brand.
After the rebirth.
Yes.
Yeah.
After the Lazarus Pit.
Yeah.
He came out of the Lazarus Pit and he had much more creative control.
Yeah.
Although apparently he hated how this movie was advertised, which is a common theme with
M. Night Shyamalan is that he doesn't like how his movies are marketed when they don't do well.
How was it marketed? Do you remember the trailers?
Yeah, and I think it was marketed as a thriller.
It was definitely shadowy.
Very dark posters and a poster with glass shattering and a really, really foreboding trailer.
Which seems emblematic of the movie.
Yeah, it seems good.
That seems pretty fair.
The movie is dark and brooding.
It's dark as shit.
I think he wanted it to be more of a superhero movie in its advertising, and he thought that
they were just trying to be like, this is the new Sixth Sense movie.
Which, duh, that's what they're going to do, man.
That's fascinating.
They just made the Sixth Sense.
That's fascinating.
I have a lot to say on that matter, but I want to do a scooch of housekeeping first.
Yeah.
Just a scooch.
Yeah, scooch away.
This is episode three.
I almost knocked coffee all over the electronics a second ago, by the way.
Who do you think you are?
Rick the intern in the trailer with a scene that was cut out of the movie?
Is that in the deleted scenes of DraftKings?
No, it's not.
I got the Blu-ray.
It's not fucking on there.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is the
third episode of Blank Check with Griffin and David,
which rose from the ashes of...
Some would say it's the second episode.
M. Nightmite. Oh, interesting.
Yeah. Yeah.
Some might conveniently
forget our Wide Awake Praying with Anger
episode. Not because
it wasn't good, but because it was slightly off-brand for
what we were going to become.
Build the foundation. Build the foundation.
Build the foundation. Definitely.
It showed a technical skill set. Deep down, though.
Deep down. The part nobody sees. Deep foundation.
Deep foundation.
I'm going to keep on singing songs. I just made
my face to Griffin, which is the alright face.
On with it. The on with it face.
No, this is important.
Episode 3, since our rebranding as a brand new podcast that has nothing to do with the old podcast.
Great entry point for new listeners.
Tell your friends about it.
We have a new theme song.
We have forgotten to mention.
That's true.
Because Ben doesn't play it when we're here, so I forget that it exists until I re-listen to the episodes.
I'm like, oh, we should give credit where credit is due.
We totally should.
My God.
Lane Montgomery. It's just been
shocking people. Yeah, Lane Montgomery.
Singer-songwriter extraordinaire.
Pop maestro.
Better known sometimes as
The Great American Novel.
His musical shingle.
Wrote the theme song for it.
Fantastic. We're very grateful.
You can follow him on Twitter.
Or go online. On to Bandcamp and such. And look for his name. He's a're very grateful. You can follow him on Twitter or go online, onto
Bandcamp and such. And look for his name. He's a great
American novel. Liam Montgomery. He's a great guy.
And we are deeply indebted to him.
Okay. Housekeeping done?
Well, I think there's a guy we gotta interview.
Because he keeps on
twisting on us. Every week he's twisting on us.
It's true. He's in the room. He's out of the room.
I got an intern. He only works
two days a week. All these twists left and right. Ladies and gentlemen He's in the room. He's out of the room. I got an intern. He only works two days a week.
All these twists, left and right, ladies and gentlemen, sitting in- Another room.
An adjacent room, not visible to our naked eyes, is Ben Hosley, a.k.a.
Producer Ben, a.k.a.
Perdueer Ben, a.k.a.
The Ben Ducer, a.k.a.
The Haas, a.k.a.
The Poet Laureate, a.k.a.
Mr. Positive, a.k.a.
Hello Fennel, a.k.a.
The Tiebreaker, a.k.a. Birthday Benny, a.k.a. Kylo Ben, a.k.a. The Haas, a.k.a. The Poet Laureate, a.k.a. Mr. Positive, a.k.a. Hello Fennel, a.k.a. The Tiebreaker, a.k.a. Birthday Benny, a.k.a. Kylo Ben, a.k.a.
Did you say Hello Fennel?
Producer Ben Kenobi.
I said Hello Fennel.
The peeper.
The peeper.
Yeah, the peeper.
Don't forget the peeper.
Don't forget the peeper.
Very important.
And I got a new one for you today, okay?
Uh-oh.
Okay.
Ben was bragging a little bit.
I really don't think we should have a new one.
He was patting himself on the back when we were doing the audio levels, how crisp the new one for you today. Okay. Oh, okay. Ben was bragging. I really don't think we should have a new one.
Patting himself on the back when we were doing the audio levels,
how crisp the audio sounded.
Yeah. Very crisp audio.
So what are you going to call him?
Professor Crispy.
Oh,
I don't like that.
No,
no.
No.
Is that the first one?
We're not rejected.
Not to stick.
Okay.
Professor Crispy.
We can,
we can refer to it.
Um,
I think, I think it's the end of our housekeeping.
Yeah.
As always, you know, rate, review, subscribe, listen to the other UCB podcasts.
We've gotten some good reviews lately.
People seem to like the Shyamalan stuff.
We were worried.
Thank God.
But yeah, thank God.
Woo!
Wipe some sweat off our brows.
Okay, Unbreakable.
Unbreakable.
Unbreakable.
Hey, Patches.
Hey, I'm on this episode.
Oh, hella on this episode. Unbreakable. Hey, Patches. Hey, I'm on this episode. Oh, hella on this episode.
I'm going to break this movie up.
I didn't know that M.I.
Chamblin didn't like the marketing campaign.
And that was actually one of the first things I wanted to talk about today.
Okay.
Because.
Did we all see this film in theaters when it was released?
I saw it with my grandma.
Wow.
All right.
What did she think?
I don't remember.
I saw it in theaters and I found it to be an alarming and disturbing experience.
Like, it freaked me out.
Yeah, I saw it.
I was still pretty, you know, I was 14, I think.
I was like, ugh.
I mean, if there was anything in The Sixth Sense that was for, like, young people to enjoy,
it was stripped away and unbreakable.
This is the closest to Lars von Trier that Shyamalan will ever get.
This is an unenjoyable film.
Especially for-
But like on purpose.
Right.
Yeah.
So I was 11 when this movie came out.
Yeah, okay.
And it immediately skyrocketed into my top 10 favorite movies of all time.
What a weirdo.
Griffin's so weird.
I mean, I kind of get it.
I feel like this is movie-
Young Griffin is weird.
The Adventures of Young Griffin.
Yeah.
Like, if you're one of these dark knight lovers who just really are into the dark and the
gritty and taking, you know, superheroes fantasy seriously, you may gravitate towards
the Dark Knight or you were really into the Boondock Saints at some point.
But then, like, people who are a little more, no, people who are a little more reasonable
but still, like, want that dark gritty stuff, Unbreakable.
You know, like right below crazy Dark Knight people who spend all day on IMDb putting that at the top.
I will say I like Batman Begins more than Dark Knight.
I agree with you.
Which I know puts me in a minority.
I agree with you.
I think it's a far superior film.
I think they're both pretty great.
No.
I like them both a lot, but I like Batman Begins more.
They're both pretty great.
No.
I like them both a lot, but I like Batman Begins more.
I think it has less to do with the dark and grittiness and more that I, as an 11-year-old,
was really attracted to movies about sad, broken men.
Perfect.
Yeah.
Yeah, I like The Dark Knight because it's about robot people and it's all like Michael Mann, and I love Michael Mann movies.
I don't know.
Whatever.
We don't have to talk about The Dark Knight right now.
Yeah, I like that Batman Begins is pulpier.
But anyway, point is-
Batman Begins is great.
Love this movie.
I had loved The Sixth Sense.
I had loved Wide Awake,
although even at this point
I did not realize
they were the same filmmaker.
That these were
the same M.I. Chamblott.
We talked about it, yes.
Hollywood has a ton
of M.I. Chamblott.
Severe lack of Rosie O'Donnell
in Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.
Yeah, the main thematic thread
he was laying down,
which was,
Rosie O'Donnell's gonna be
in all my movies,
loving sports,
and then she isn't,
that thread is not
Rosie was supposed to be
the De Niro to Shyamalan's
Scorsese.
I very vividly remember
the marketing campaign
for this movie
because there was a lot of hype.
And this comes out.
There was a lot of hype.
That is for sure.
This comes out 14 months
after The Sixth Sense.
It's November 2000.
So, yeah.
15 months.
Yeah, The Sixth Sense
came out August 99.
Which makes,
he's shooting this while he's writing an Oscar high, right?
He was directly nominated.
Yeah, right.
So you said this was a-
I mean, this is the definition of blank check, of what we're talking about, where they're like, okay, all right.
You're the wunderkind.
Do what you want.
When did someone stamp him with the next Spielberg?
That Time Magazine cover was signed.
That was the next move.
Okay. It took the next movie. Okay.
It took Unbreakable.
Yeah, the cover where they said that he was in the cornfield.
That's all I remember very vividly.
Where he spends most of his time.
They finally got a glimpse of his home.
Turn your fucking phone off.
I don't know why it's still fucking doing that, David.
God damn it, Griffin.
I turned it off.
It's on airplane mode.
He's right.
He's in the cornfield.
Wow.
So you said this was a spec sale? This was a a spec script I can look up the details of it I just want to show you guys yeah we'll talk a lot about
that cover neck he looks like he's about to star in lost and yeah it's a very
2001 to tell me what kind of shells are on his necklace that he's wearing there
Jesus and he's got one hand on the hip, but loosely,
in a very get-over-it poster kind of pose.
Yeah, he wrote it as a spec script.
He approached Willis about it while they were making The Sixth Sense.
Okay, so he already had the script.
That's why I wanted to know.
And he had Samuel L. Jackson in mind for the other character.
He wrote it as a spec script.
He gave Walt Disney a first-look deal.
They bought it for $5 million.
Wow. The script. Fucking gave Walt Disney a first look deal. They bought it for 5 million bucks. Wow. The script.
Fucking M. Night.
I mean, Sixth Sense was pretty
darn good. They gave him another 5 million
to direct. Wow, so he got
over 10 million dollars. He got 10 mil before
anything happened. Yeah.
I'd say
And Julianne Moore
was cast in the third role
and then replaced because she went
to make Hannibal
yes
which was a decision
I wonder if that was
was that the right
decision
I mean Hannibal
was a big hit
it's not like Robin Wright
has a lot to do
in Unbreakable
if you want the lead
role of a movie
I agree
I agree
throw away
I definitely agree
I also
I think it's a pretty
well written character
though
I was gonna say
it's not a bad character
but of course it's very much the third lead of this movie and we'll talk about it and it's a pretty well-written character, though. I was going to say, it's not a bad character, but of course it's very much the third lead of this movie.
And it's a distant third lead.
But it's got well-written scenes.
It's not a huge pivotal role.
Does she get her husband?
Doesn't she get her husband?
A lot of motivation there.
It's a simple...
She kills that one scene where...
Can I ask you a question?
Yeah, exactly.
It's like a conversation with Mr. Glass later?
Yeah, sure.
But you're right, of course.
She's very much beholden to this shuffling golem
who barely seems to have emotions.
I'm talking about Bruce Willis' character.
I thought you were talking about Abner Chamblant.
I want to go back a little bit.
The marketing came in.
So he has the script ready.
Sixth Sense blows up.
He goes, hey, guys, good news.
I have a script right here under my butt.
I was sitting on a script.
Here it is for you.
And they go, great, here's a check for $5 million.
And he starts production, presumably, very, very quickly.
Yeah, I'm trying to see.
Well, principal photography began April 2000.
So turned around pretty quickly.
So this is right after the Oscars.
You don't need a lot to make Unbreakable, right?
It's true.
Disney buys the script.
Oh, we're making a superhero movie.
Okay, we need like $100 million, capes.
We're going to get big set.
No, dude, guys, it's Philadelphia again.
They're just going to walk around.
Just get the rain machine.
$1 million for like three days.
I need you to buy me five ponchos.
Yeah, but there's big action scenes, M. Night.
There's big action.
No, no, no.
I just need a swimming pool with a cover over it.
They just have to fight in the same bedroom as the Sixth Sense.
Don't worry about it.
There's one big expense.
Okay, M. Night, anything, anything.
Blank check, anything you want.
We're going to have to make some dents in a wall.
You could blow the wall up.
No, it's just like a wall in a house.
We're going to make a couple dents.
We could build the scenery.
Do you think that's possible?
What about the train crash that we're playing for?
No, no, no.
We do need a train car, but just normal.
Just a damn track.
In fact, just one car, actually.
The rest of the train can function.
One could say that all the inciting incidents happen off screen, the big accidents in this
film.
Hey, they paid for the aerial shot, though.
That's true. And they had to hire a stunt paid for the aerial shot, though. That's true.
And they had to hire a stuntman for Samuel Jackson to fall down a flight of stairs.
That's true.
Samuel Jackson just fell down a flight of stairs.
You know what?
Glass canes don't grow on trees, guys.
We're jumping around here, but before I forget this, I saw a credit that really jumped out to me.
Samuel Jackson famously has a hair guy he works with.
As a man who is, you know, let's not say follicly challenged,
but is perfectly bald,
he has a hair guy where every time he takes on a role,
he's like, okay, I want to design a new look.
Between facial hair, between the hair on my head, whatever. He's got Frederick Douglass hair in this.
Yes.
But you notice he never repeats a look.
Well, you know, he's bald a lot, but sure.
Not that often.
I know, I know.
That's what's crazy.
It's like almost always there's something where it's like,
oh, Looper, I'm going to have gray hair.
You know, yeah, he definitely has all kinds of hair for a guy who doesn't have any hair.
Right.
And he like, that's the first thing when he signs on before he figures out the costume, he goes to his hair guy.
And I never noticed this before.
But in the credits as they roll, and I assume this is the same guy he works with because he says in interviews that like I worked with him for 20 years.
I assume this is his guy and not a guy M1901 brought on for this project.
Samuel Jackson's hair, the name of the guy is his guy and not a guy M. Night Shyamalan brought on for this project. Samuel Jackson's hair,
the name of the guy
is Robert Louis Stevenson.
Fair enough.
Is it Louis like L-O-U-I-S?
It's spelled exactly the same way.
How bizarre.
Okay, marketing campaign.
This is what I remember.
I might be mistaken,
but I feel pretty strong about this.
I was a M. Night Shyamalan-holic
at the point that this film was released. So I was like, you were a nightie. I was eagerly awaiting Night Shyamalik at the point that this film was released.
So I was like, you were
eagerly awaiting. A nightie. Yeah.
Shout out to all our blankies out there.
Eagerly awaiting the
release of this film. Looking for any morsel
of pre-release, you know,
info, marketing, whatever.
The poster was, their two faces,
shards of glass. I don't even remember what the tagline
was, if there was one, but it was very ominous. I don't know if there was a tagline. I. I don't even remember what the tagline was, if there was one, but it was very ominous.
I don't know if there was a tagline.
I think there wasn't.
I think the tagline was from the director of Sixth Sense.
I think that's all you needed for a movie at that point.
No, no, not from the director of Sixth Sense.
From M. Night Shyamalan, the director of the Sixth Sense.
He was a brand name.
What's his name on there?
He was a brand name at this point.
If I'm not mistaken, I believe this film had only one trailer.
Only had a teaser, didn't have a full trailer,
because I remember the entire superhero thing
being sort of a surprise going into the film.
Absolutely.
Yeah, I think that was, it's not a twist,
it was a gentle easing into it.
Especially because the movie opens with those crazy titles
about like 100,000 comic books are read every day or whatever.
14 billion pages.
I was not prepared for that.
Yeah, that DNA is not in the marketing at all.
No.
It's just like a brooding thriller.
There is a tagline way down at the bottom of the poster.
Very small type.
Is it they're alive, damn it?
Is it Izzy?
Are you ready for the truth?
Yeah, that's very vague.
Not much of a tagline.
This is the teaser trailer I remember.
It was the scene of him talking to the doctor after the crash.
And he's like, are you sure you're on the crash?
Why are you asking me this?
Two questions.
And the second, you're going to be the only survivor and there's not a scratch on your body.
And then there were a few quick shots of things.
And then it cut to a close-up of Samuel L. Jackson and a voice over here and say,
are you ready to hear the truth?
Are you ready to find out what you were meant for?
And that was the whole trailer.
Piece of glass breaks.
The shards turn into unbreakable.
Right?
That was the full trailer.
And it felt like, okay, spooky M. Night thriller.
Right.
Like it's not a horror movie,
but it's about a guy who can't get hurt.
What's going on here?
It's like scary phenomenon. And the truth, yes. Ooh. Right. Like, it's not a horror movie, but it's about a guy who can't get hurt. What's going on here? It's like Scary Phenomenon.
And the truth, yes.
Ooh.
Right.
Which was a recent release-ish.
Right?
I think that's about 96, 97.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And Touchstone Picture.
Okay, go on.
They're keeping it in the family.
Of film history, he means.
It was a Touchstone Picture
released by Touchstone Pictures.
I'd say probably the Touchstone...
Touchstone wants all of its pictures
to be Touchstone pictures. Oh, of
course. I mean, Outrageous Fortune, people think about
that as like a real turning point in American cinema.
They teach it in film school. Yeah.
Okay, so.
What's your point? You saw the trailer, it was a thriller.
What is your point here? No, my point is
My point is
you know, at this point
M.I. Shyamalan was the twist guy.
And I think they were keeping a really sort of like tight grasp on this movie to make it like a twist movie.
Like audiences weren't going to know what they were going to see.
Yeah.
They were definitely playing on the like, this is the guy who made the big twist movie that was a scary movie.
Yeah.
This is the poster.
You guys know the poster, right?
Yes. I do. I do.
It's intense. It's intense.
And Sam Jackson is like a big deal, you know. He's not
like he is now where he's just seen everything.
Well, he had just been in Star Wars
Episode 1, so he was huge.
But yes, but he was a little less ubiquitous.
And he was wearing purple again, which is key.
He loves purple, so now he's in all purple.
And you're like, they've really upped the ante of this movie.
The purple is off the charts. This movie's going
all out. They're not just gonna give him a fucking light sword.
They're gonna... You know, I feel like now, Sam Jackson,
he'll be in a lot of movies.
Back then, it was like, he was a leading man, like,
a coast, like, he'd be in, like, Rules of Engagement,
The Negotiator,
Sphere, like, those sort of, like, you know,
Sam Jackson's one of your leads. He does a lot
now. His, like, ubiquitous,itous like presence in the marvel movies makes him feel like it's easy to take him
for granted because it's like well he's gonna pop up in a bunch of shit and do like a scene or two
also the capital one commercials don't help because it just feels like anytime you turn on
a screen samuel jackson's doing a little something so it's like the same thing over and over but
but he's sometimes good sometimes he's the best. Sometimes good, sometimes bad. He's the best. Sometimes Capital One, sometimes.
Yeah.
He rock.
But, you know, our friend and your podcasting co-host, David Ehrlich, in this recent Oscar
season has been talking a lot about Samuel L. Jackson, how much we underrate him as a
culture.
And I do think it is because he is so omnipresent.
Yeah, it's because he does a lot.
And he's so consistent.
Like, he's never bad.
No, I agree with that. Sometimes you're like, okay, I've seen this before. I get it. Yeah, it's because he does a lot. And he's so consistent. Like, he's never bad. No, I agree with that.
Sometimes you're like,
okay, I've seen this before.
I get it.
Yeah.
But if that was the first performance
you'd ever seen from a guy,
you'd be like,
who the fuck is this guy?
Sometimes it's like Kingsman
and you're like,
oh, so his whole idea was a lisp?
I think that's a great performance.
I think he's very funny in Kingsman.
I don't know if he's
why I like that movie.
He would have made my long list
Best Supporting Actor candidates
for 2015.
Wow.
I'll say that.
He'd probably be my 10th choice for best supporting actor in 2050 i think there's other samuel jackson's
from this year i'd say that i think it's maybe his third best performance of 2015
age of ultron no i'm a shy shy rack he's incredible
i put him i do a double number it's a it's a anyway we're a side track anyway um another Chirac. He's incredible. Oh, great. Chirac, he's incredible. Yes, but that's lead. That's lead. That's lead. That's lead.
I put him, I do a double number.
Anyway, we're side tracks.
Anyway, another thing to point out here, Bruce Willis and Samuel Jackson together have a
great track record at this point.
Right.
Die Hard with a Vengeance.
And Pulp Fiction.
And Loaded Weapon 1.
Oh, yeah.
Three classics so far, you know?
So that's what people are coming in thinking.
They're like, we had Loaded Weapon 1.
No way.
They share no scenes in Pulp Fiction.
Do they share a scene in Pulp Fiction?
No, they don't.
No, I don't think so.
I don't think they ever cross over.
And then, yeah, you've got the other one.
Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Die Hard with a Vengeance.
Which is a great end.
Yeah.
They're both great together.
Great chemistry.
So that's all you know
going into this movie.
That's enough.
That's a sell.
So let's talk about
the movie Unbreakable,
Griffin.
Okay.
So I loved this film
at the time of its release.
I, for a very long time,
would watch this film
at least once a year.
I had not seen this film,
I think, since 2010. so this is like the longest stretch
i've gone without seeing this movie okay um i had not seen it since theaters me and match we're
talking i've probably seen it on dvd or something maybe in college again but yeah not since not
no memory yeah no recent memory i was going into this rewatch. I watched it last night.
Yes, I have to be on.
And I was going into it prepared to come here and say,
hey, disclaimer, if I can't be really objective about this,
this is one of my favorite movies.
It is, of all the movies we've ever covered on this show,
the movie I like the most.
Uh-huh.
Which, considering we've covered a lot of movies that we don't like, doesn't sound that good. Wait, wait, including the original Star Wars movies?
That's what I was going to say.
That's what I was going to say 100%.
That's nuts.
This rewatch diminished a little.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a flawed movie.
It's a flawed movie.
Seriously flawed movie.
It's not better than Star Wars.
From 2000-
Exactly.
From 2000 to 2010, Griffin would argue that this film was perfect.
Right. That's crazy. And anyone who had any complaints, I'd argue that this film was perfect. Right.
And anyone who had any complaints, I'd be like, you are dumb.
I think a lot of people agree with you because what I remember, you know, I haven't seen the movie in a very long time, but I feel like I hear about it every few years because either M. Night is being asked about a sequel or, you know, I feel like MTV mounted an entire campaign to like actually ignite sequel plans and stuff.
Apparently Bruce Willis wanted to do
a sequel too. He would talk about like,
yeah, we want me and Sam to fight in
episode two. Of course he wants to do a sequel.
It's an action movie, quote unquote,
with no moving around. It's perfect for him.
This is the moment.
It's very true. Well, but much
like Georgie Porgy Lucas,
our old friend with the original Star Wars
when he was writing Star Wars in 1977.
When he was writing in the early 70s.
Oh my god, what's your point?
He wrote this big thing and they were like, this script is unwieldy.
And he was like, okay, I'm going to take act
one of this script and make it into a movie.
So that's what Unbreakable is certainly.
Yeah, it's just an origin movie.
That was supposed to be act one of the film and he was like,
this is too big. I have too many ideas. I'll try to make it
a trilogy. I'm just going to take what is my planned act one and make that the
whole script and at the time for years i was so angry that he never got to make the other films
that's the other big shift i had watching at this time i was like no good thing he probably only
made this one uh yeah well i still love this movie but um a i think we would have had diminishing
returns i don't really trust him to have made the second film well.
And B, at the point where you make the sequel,
as much as it's like, come on, get to the action,
it's like, won't it just then be like Blade II?
Yeah, I'm trying to think of who would be the villains
in Unbreakable II based on how muted Unbreakable is.
This movie is muted at every turn.
That's what we have to talk about.
Every time that it makes a choice it makes the choice to be muted and dark and slow yeah like
glacially slow yeah but i think sad's a big word because i think this film's very depressed in a
way i relate but that that implies that there's a lot of emotion to these scenes which i would say
it's muted muted everything is very muted i'm I would say it's muted. Muted. Everything is very muted.
I'm not saying it's emotionless, per se.
But it's just not over-the-top sad,
if you know what I mean.
No one's crying.
Well, you know, mostly.
Robin Wright cries.
And Bruce Willis chokes up a lot.
Bruce Willis has several glassy-eyed moments in this film.
This is maybe the most he's come close to crying in one film. Yeah, it's more like crying if you're smelling a lot of Bruce Willis has like several glassy eyed moments in this one this is maybe the most he's come close to crying in one film
yeah it's more like crying if you're smelling a lot of
onions or something it's not quite
crying because you're upset he cries
a lot I'm gonna bring it up again
12 Monkeys the scene where he listens
to Blueberry Hill
on the radio in 12 Monkeys
best Bruce Willis scene
in any Bruce Willis like in terms of
his acting in that, that's wonderful.
I always forget
that 12 Monkeys exists.
12 Monkeys,
I've watched it like a million times
because it was a movie
I owned on VHS
so I just,
you know,
one of the,
back in the day,
pre-Netflix.
Time to watch Cop Out again.
Oh,
we talked about Cop Out
with Katie.
What?
What?
What a movie.
I think we're going to talk
about it every episode.
Even now we're out of,
well,
so let's talk about,
let's talk about,
I just kicked the table.
Let's talk about Bryce a little more, okay?
So at this point.
Bryce?
Bryce Willis.
Oh.
I saw like a Stella Live show like 10 years ago where they went on this rant where they were like,
oh, and Bryce Willis, what, you think you're better than us now?
And they just did like four minutes of calling him Bryce Willis and eventually four minutes in they paid off with like, yeah, you think you're so cool you're going to make us all call you Bryce now?
Fuck you.
We're going to call you Bruce.
Okay.
They invented a nickname for him and antagonized him for throwing it upon us.
Bryce Willis.
At this point, it feels like, jokes aside, like, okay, this is the De Niro Scorsese of Touchstone Thrillers.
Rosie, you do The View.
Yeah.
It's Bruce now.
Right, but he's going to make
Bruce movies now.
Okay.
And this script feels,
even if he had the script already,
it feels like he maybe
refitted it,
re-tailored it to Bruce.
To Bruce A.
Because we were saying last week,
we think Bruce Willis' performance
is very good in the six out.
Yeah.
But also, it's not a classic
Bruce Willis character.
No.
It's no wisecracking. Rightis character no it's you know wise cracking
right but uh and this doesn't have any wise cracking either no nobody cracks wise for the
106 minute running time not once i fucking love this performance i think he's great in this movie
i know i have a feeling i'm not gonna have no i think he's all right i mean i don't think he has
a lot to do he's a pawn here for the mood. It's all the mood.
Yeah, I think that he's okay.
He's good.
This is what I'm going to argue.
I think it's one of his best performances, if not his best.
Well, Quentin Tarantino agrees with you.
Really?
Tarantino loves this movie.
Tarantino says it's one of the best movies released since 92,
since he started making movies,
and he says it's Bruce Willis' best performance.
Yeah, I mean, I'm almost inclined to agree with that.
I also think maybe Quentin should re-watch
and see if he diminishes a little.
Get a re-watch, Quentin.
I went down a little, right?
Because I used to think this movie was flawless,
and now I'm aware of the flaws.
This movie is not flawless, but what it is is meticulous,
and there's a lot of intent in the way he frames all these shots
to look like these sort of comic book frames and like i don't know the way he very very slowly builds up
this like you know like it's not even a mystery i mean i guess it's an art like this myth yeah
right right and so i can see that like it's you know like you can admire the intent of that it is
a controlled movie yeah um but uh hello come on guys can we talk like a human
like level of discourse well don't you think that the movie is we should back all the way up let's
back all the way touched at it before but the opening title card is this absolute nonsense
about comic book it's a wikipedia entry like a sidebar on a wikipedia page yeah doesn't this
whole movie feel in conflict whatever whatever that is setting up?
Like someone about comic books?
Yeah.
I mean, the movie gets into that a little bit.
Elijah's theme is about how comic books shape us or how they inform what we think of as heroes.
And the sense that there's some sort of connection to our past about what we're...
That has nothing to do with fandom.
That has nothing to do with comic book collecting and how many you will read or collect
if you're obsessed with comic books.
It more seems like Shyamalan being like,
comic books are a serious business, guys,
and you should take that seriously.
Because it is like the end of the 90s, I guess,
and nobody thinks of comic book movies.
This is November 2000.
Now remember, X-Men had come out four months earlier.
And surprised everyone with being a pretty decent movie
that was a success.
But the first X-Men is
you know looking back
at it now
especially with how much
shit's shifted
looking back at it now
it is fucking charming
as shit
oh I love the first X-Men
because it's like
there's like four characters
yes
nothing happens in that movie too
not much happens
it's kind of the unbreakable
of the current comic book wave
the original X-Men
is pretty austere
in a weird way
it's slow
it's moody
and like it's pretty like dramatically and like, we should talk about it sometime.
It's pretty like dramatically like, you know, emotionally overwrought.
And the big plan is like Magneto's going to get in like a little platform he built on a park near the city, and he's going to shoot some rays.
Yeah, like the Statue of Liberty.
The Statue of Liberty, right.
Yeah, you know the Statue of Liberty from Ghostbusters 2?
Yeah.
She's a great actress.
Got a lot of range.
Sometimes you can hang out in her torch and sometimes you can dance down the street.
Oh my.
But so, wait, let's talk about the opening of this movie.
So you've got that, right?
And then you have like-
Well, this is what I want to say.
No, because-
Go ahead.
I think you saying that he was unhappy with the advertising campaign is interesting because
I wonder if that opening title card was in the script originally or if after he saw they were advertising it as a thriller, he was like, I want to get the audience primed for comic book stuff.
See, it feels like the original idea.
David, put my hand down.
It feels like the original idea that was then transformed into the movie he made afterward, which is more like Sixth Sense.
Right.
Yes.
Because you can imagine a more comic book-y version if the whole movie was the first act of something. Right. Yes. Because you can imagine a more comic book-y version
if this was,
if the whole movie
was the first act of something.
Right.
It was like battling,
I don't know,
a man with a hammer
for a hand or something.
Oh, you're talking about
Hammerhand?
Hammerhand.
That was the original villain.
Dr. Hammerhand?
It is, you know,
he could just beat the shit
out of Mr. Glass.
I mean, we'll get to this.
Right.
I'm your archenemy.
Oh, really?
That's why there can't be a satisfying sequel. That's why the film has to end where it does. I mean, I guess Mr. Glass. I mean, we'll get to this. Right. I'm your archenemy. Oh, really? That's why there can't be a satisfying sequel.
That's why the film has to end where it does.
I mean, I guess Mr. Glass is just like a Luthor type, you know, like villain from, you know,
the background, right?
Well, that's what they say at the end of the movie.
Well, maybe he gets a really big, strong guy to carry him around like Baby Voldemort.
Oh, yeah.
Or he's like Krang in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
Like he's operating in some sort of suit.
He hangs out in someone's belly.
A glass suit.
So the movie opens with those titles.
Then we have like Mr. Glass's origin moment, which is his birth.
Fucking horrific.
It is.
It's really.
Yeah, you can swear.
Do it.
Whatever you want.
Fuck.
Yeah.
Yeah.
It's really horrific.
I think it's really well done.
I think it's Eamon Walker.
He's a great actor.
He plays the doctor.
And you don't really see the baby.
It doesn't look disfigured or anything,
but just the whole mood of it is really creepy
that all the baby's bones are broken.
I wanted to see Glass Baby, Glass Broken Baby.
Is that weird?
I just wanted to pick up this baby and it'd be a puddle
like a hanging, like Gak.
I wanted it to look like Gak
with kind of some bones around it.
We gotta put this back together.
I feel like that would come with a He-Man toy.
You'd get a bucket of slime and it'd have bones stuck into it.
Like little plastic bones.
Yeah, the Unbreakable toy line actually had that originally.
It was purple Gak with bones in it.
With bone shards.
That was the Mr. Glass action figure. Merchandise Spotlight.
This
entire sequence is done in
one continuous shot with no edits.
Oh, really? Yeah.
This film from the get-go, M. Night's
getting showy. It's very showy
with, like I was saying, with the framing of
every shot. Go on. Yes.
Well, he perpetually, over the course of the film,
frames the characters into frames within the frames
to resemble comic book panels.
So there are a lot of scenes that are done through door frames
or windows or even the thing on the train
where it's only seen from between the two chairs.
Which is cool.
Very cool.
But he's separating characters into separate boxes, which is, you know,
often his films are about people who need
to learn how to reconnect with other people.
That's like the main, I feel like, overarching
theme of M. Night Shyamalan's films
is like emotionally repressed men who feel
the need to reconnect with their spirituality,
with their family, with their career,
whatever it is. They have to find their connection
back to their thing after being self-isolated for a while.
There's all that sort of framing stuff,
but it's a lot of like, this movie does not have many edits.
A lot of sequences play out in just a couple shots,
and he's not doing like shot, reverse shot.
He's doing like, here's my master,
and I might cut in to punch into one detail to emphasize it.
But other than that, it's very slow.
Well, there's nothing to cut to,
because nothing happens in the movie. You don't even need an insert
because there are no props
in the movie. There are not a lot of set pieces.
Other than the cane. But even something like
the six cents. And the poncho.
But he wears it, so you always get that.
Six cents, which
is also pretty methodical
and deliberate.
In dialogue scenes, he'll cut between two close-ups.
No, no, I agree with you.
And this movie barely does it.
It's somewhat showy.
And, like, I love that.
I mean, I don't love it's too showy, but I think the train scene is suspenseful.
Yes.
In a cool kind of way where, you know, even though it is like, oh, look at this creep, like, hitting on this lady.
Yeah.
Like, taking his ring off and, you know.
It's not a great way to be introduced to Bruce Willis' character.
That tells you a lot
no I know
but like
but there is a lot
of suspense
where you're like
what is gonna happen here
like it's not cutting
and we're you know
the movie is very
suspenseful
just because you have
no idea where
not like
because you're on
the edge of your seat
because of something
internally with the movie
but even
I'm thinking
after the train wreck
he's sitting on the
on the hospital and then the blood is spreading on the like gau the train wreck he's sitting on the on the hospital
and then the blood is spreading on the like gauze in front of him in like the sort of yeah and that's
another like frame within a frame where we're seeing someone get operated on right and you're
just like in the foreground out of focus what is this that is that is how i feel about most where
you're like and i guess that's fulfilling if you can pay off and not really you can stick the landing in some way all of that mystery is valuable well yeah i mean that's
why i'm so surprised that he wanted the marketing campaign to reveal that it was a superhero movie
because i feel like the whole movie functions on this sort of idea that the audience has no idea
where it's going on a scene-to-scene basis, you know? What kind of film it is, even.
And even watching it now, it's still
like, we've seen it before,
we know. But it still does feel
like there's such an air of unease,
even if spooky things aren't happening.
Unease is a good, certainly, way to put it.
Unease is the thing. But look at these
three opening sequences, right? And you are also
like, this is the Sixth Sense movie.
I think the whole time you're like,
I'm waiting for it.
Yeah, is Misha Barton
going to show up again
and barf all over everyone?
That'd be such a good twist
if every film
had Misha Barton
barfing on somebody.
God.
And he had to just
keep going to it.
Even his Misha Barton's
career craters.
He's like,
Misha, we're getting you in.
There was a point
where she would have
gotten the and,
where she had gotten big
and they would have had
to put her above the title
and then there's a point
where he's like, I'm doing it as as a favor misha's been there with me
since the early days um those three sequences are all really really showy yeah cinematically
it's a director being like okay i'm gonna fucking use my tricks now and we've always talked about
also being like i have your attention i'm you know yeah yeah right i'm i'm gonna i'm gonna lead
you down.
You've got to follow me now.
Just based on my name.
I mean, here, I have the title card.
Right.
No Marvel executive would allow any of the artistry that takes place in this movie.
That's the thing that's most fascinating.
So he has that title card written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan.
I just screenshotted it just because it just amuses me.
Yeah.
Right over his.
Right over Bruce Willis' face.
Price Willis.
Sleepy Bruce Willis.
All three of the sequences are showy.
We've talked a lot about how Shyamalan...
But there's no train crash.
No train crash.
Like, we don't see a train crash.
We've talked a lot about how Shyamalan
was like a child of Spielberg.
And I feel like Spielberg's
strongest skill as a filmmaker,
the thing that I think puts him over the edge,
is that he is ingenious with blocking.
Like, he knows how to block scenes
and block characters within a frame and,
you know,
sync the camera movements
with character movements and everything, so
there is an economy of shots.
He can tell as much as he possibly can within the fewest
number of shots possible, and
action informs character, movement
informs character from all of that.
And this is like him doing that to like the nth degree,
but like really kind of cramming it in your face where the opening thing with
the baby being born,
he uses like,
there's a mirror against the wall.
Yeah.
So it's like the other,
her coworkers are standing in the doorframe.
The doctor walks in,
he's going between the mirror and flipping the camera around
so he can get both people's
responses in one shot
because they're facing
the same direction.
It's something you don't see
today because we don't make
these medium budget movies anymore
where you have enough money
and enough time
to compose and light.
But then it's either now
he's making low budget movies.
He would never be able
to do this.
Or big budget movies,
you'll never have the artistry.
And this movie is beautifully lit.
It's very... Yeah, it was shot by Eduardo Serra, I think.
It's a great, one of the greats.
The main character of this movie is James Newton Howard's music.
Music is terrific.
And I think very thought-through.
I think they wanted, they were like,
let's make this moody superhero score.
Here's the thing I remember distinctly,
because the Unbreakable soundtrack's kind of my jam.
I listen to it all the time.
And when I'm trying to pump myself up
and feel like a hero and I'm going to save my marriage,
I listen to the Unbreakable score.
He gave the script to James Newton Howard
before they started filming
and asked him to write themes
so that he could work sequences
knowing emotionally what the music was going to play like.
So I believe James Newton Howard
had the Mr. Glass theme and and the mr poncho theme set and he was like okay these are my james
yeah once your poncho is his name um you know that thing where they say like you know whatever
you see your first interaction with sexuality is like a child like forms you in some way where
it's like where's this going you're gonna see you're gonna see
but you know what I'm saying
it like ties into like
oh like this person
the first person you saw naked
was a redhead
so you like redheads
or feet or whatever it is
I didn't know that they said that
but okay sure
there's like something
if you have a formative experience
at a young age
you're fetishist
what's your point
and now I
I shaved my genitals
based off of Bruce Willis
my point is
I was watching this movie
and I was like
god this movie does almost
everything I like cinematically.
It follows all the principles.
I like a minimum of edits.
I like camera movement,
block, all this sort of...
The style of the film
is very much how I like
films to be directed.
Is that because you saw
Unbreakable in a young age?
That's what I wonder
because I feel like at 11...
The chicken egg thing?
At 11, right?
I'm like, oh, director.
Tim Burton is clearly a director because all his characters look the same.
You know?
When you're 11 and you're like trying to identify like, okay, what makes a director a director
when I'm watching a movie and I can't see the director?
Right.
I'm like, all his characters have dark circles around their eyes.
He's a director.
I get the through line between all his movies, you know?
And like Joe Dante, I was like obsessed with Small Soldiers.
I was like, okay, he makes movies about little things that terrorize
big people. Got it.
O'Tor. O'Tor, right? He is.
Those were my favorite directors. Oh, he is. He's one of my favorite directors still.
But those were two guys who jumped out to me in early
age where it's like, okay, I'm seeing through lines.
And then M. Night Shyamalan, I was like,
I'm seeing cinematic language in
a very basic way as an 11-year-old.
I was like, this movie's clearly directed.
And I'm paying attention to that scene where he's speaking to the doctor.
The fact that it's like you don't see what they're operating on.
Do you see a lot of repetition not just in, well, it's not repetition, but he obviously evolved from Sixth Sense to here.
And it's more composed.
I think also trusted himself.
Yeah, definitely.
But I think he repeats himself a little this movie like trying to you know mirror
six cents like the whole gun scene
when his son pulls a gun I'm like wait
this is exactly watching it again
it's exactly what happens in the opening of six cents
and a lot of just like the walking around
Philly and that kind of stuff
which I like that stuff better
but yeah I mean and I also
I think the scene with the doctor is a little obnoxious
where it's like
it's well done but at a certain point you're like, okay, we get it.
The train crashed.
He's not injured.
You know, the doctor's like, and you're sure you were on this part of the train?
And then.
You're sure.
And there's one person who survived and he's right there.
Ah, the blood guy.
Yeah, that's the other survivor and he's dead now.
Dead.
He doesn't say those.
But I also think, are you unbreakable?
Are you unbreakable, dude? And then they let him go. Let me ask you a few questions. They let him walk out. Yeah, he's dead now. Dead! He doesn't say those words. But I also think, are you unbreakable? Are you unbreakable, dude?
And then they let him go.
They let him walk out. Yeah, he just walks out of...
Oh, you're unbreakable, actually, but see ya.
Yeah, I know. Just come back in six weeks. I do kind of like
the idea where the doctor's like, well,
nothing wrong with you. I guess you
could go?
He does this a couple times in the movie, though, and I really like
it where there's, like, something
out of focus in the foreground.
Our characters who are speaking are in the background.
The foreground detail just looks like a compositional thing.
And then as it goes on, it's like, oh, no, wait, that's an important detail.
That's called twist making.
Twist!
It's a pretzel shop, this movie.
I'm saying I do think this film established a lot of what I like in filmmaking in a weird way.
Watching this again, I was like, oh, this is sort of the Rosetta Stone for me,
where I was able to identify, oh, that's a very conscious choice to cover with a mirror
so that you can get both people in one shot.
Does it feel textbook?
Does it feel like this is a science?
And I've now replicated, I've taken parts from all the Hitchcock and Spielberg
and taken all these parts and made this amalgamation
that's using comic book
language to speak to a contemporary
audience. I think so
to a degree. I said in our first episode
and I
want to keep on using this phrase, I think he's a very
algorithmic filmmaker, you know?
In terms of trying to get audience response
but also he just has obviously a
very good sense
of technical craft and of film language i think we have made that point right but he is definitely
cribbing from the greats and i also feel like this great artist do as they do i feel like this movie
was him going like okay i'm just gonna show him like all the shit i can do let me do a bunch of
cool stunts you know like this is his is his Channing Tatum pony moment.
Right, right, exactly.
He's doing, like, all the moves.
Damn, M. Night!
But in a movie that is so, like...
Austere.
I'm now picturing M. Night thrusting.
M. Night just doing the...
Not even the full dance.
I'm just picturing M. Night fully dressed in a bedroom by himself just thrusting.
This is a film that is so emotionally bottled that is so austere and he's doing
backflips in
the language of the thing.
Because the movie, I said
glacial before. We get it at the start.
He's unbreakable. This is the thing.
The movie spends, Bruce Willis'
character has to spend so much time confronting
the reality of this, even though he was
in a fucking train crash and they're all dead
and he doesn't have a scratch on him.
I love that.
Don't you think in real life if that happened to you, you'd be like, what the fuck?
You'd have a really hard time accepting it?
I think the movie is convincing, but I mean, he goes to something and he's like, have I
ever been sick?
And she's like, I don't know.
I can't remember.
I think you would.
Not in the last few years.
You would know.
It would be more momentum to understanding why this would happen to you.
Like, I just survived.
I'm unbreakable.
Right.
What the hell
yeah yeah yeah i mean i would be punching walls or some shit i guess one of the yeah right one
of the things that the movie does to sort of combat that is like he walks back into his life
and you realize like oh god this is a guy who's like basically having a midlife crisis right his
job is like he's a security guard and he doesn't know what to do i'm unbreakable but my emotions
Job is like he's a security guard and he doesn't know what to do.
I'm unbreakable, but my emotions are so susceptible.
They are in charge.
A lot of similarities. His wife is basically going to leave him maybe.
His kid, I mean, there's something wrong with that buddy.
Sorry, Spencer Tree Clark, but he's a weird looking dude.
Was that Ben laughing at that?
Yeah.
It was Ben laughing.
Spencer Tree Clark is like a zombie in this movie.
He's got like the blackest, like Bobby Durst eyes.
You know what he looks like?
He actually looks like Haley Joel Osment, but in that scene in AI where he puts on spinach.
Yeah, his mouth and his face is drooping.
God, that scene's so creepy.
Whoa.
Creepy.
Yeah, he does.
But he also like, he's always shooting Bruce this vacant stare.
Yeah.
You know, of this like,
are you a superhero?
I put on all these weights.
All of them.
Can I speak to the lifting scene?
Please.
I mean, that's basically the next big thing, right?
I mean, I guess Bruce talks to Mr. Glass,
who's this, we have all these scenes of Mr. Glass,
you know, like comic books, we have all these scenes of Mr. Glass, you know, like, comic books,
the covers are important. Yeah, that scene
where he yaps at
the customer in his gallery is quite funny.
Killed me as a child.
There's also this scene. That's so true.
They are art.
Do you see an Asian child with a blank expression
outside and a little rocket ship that
jiggles when you put in a quarter, vibrates when you put
in a quarter? No, because this is not a toy store and then he talks to bruce willis and he's
like you're a superhero bruce willis is like okay well you're crazy and then he lifts so ben you
want to talk about the lifting scene he lifts like 300 pounds 350 pounds something crazy i just feel
like that was such a tame scene like there were so many opportunities to do like a fun montage
something absurd a fun like the movie just suddenly kicks like a fun montage. Something absurd. The movie just suddenly
kicks into a fun montage? Yeah.
I have the tiger plays. Have him lift up a car with his son
and they're laughing and they go to the zoo
and he lifts up an elephant.
Shit like that. So Ben, you wanted this to be
just a totally different movie is what
you're saying. Yeah, I mean, what can I
say? I have big ideas.
They could be lifted by Bruce Willis
in Unbreakable.
That scene is another scene like we were talking about where he's keeping the camera I have big ideas. They could be lifted by Bruce Willis in Unbreakable. Unbreakable.
That scene is another scene like we were talking about where he's keeping the camera away from the weights themselves.
Yeah.
And Spencer Treat Clark is popping off screen and then coming back on and he lifts it and
he's like, oh, you put more on, didn't you?
Which Bruce Willis is like, turn your head from left to right.
Come on.
But he's seeing what we can see.
Maybe we all OD'd on twists from M. Night in this movie because each scene is like, turn your head from left to right. You know, come on. But he's seeing what we can see. Maybe we all OD'd on twists from M. Night in this movie.
Yeah, there's a lot of little twists.
It's like a little twist.
Well, okay, we're missing, you skipped over a big part.
There's a flashback to him as a little boy.
He's framed in the television set.
He's inside a little isolated frame, right?
His mom comes up.
He has a broken arm and a cast.
This is Mr. Glass.
Mr. Glass, yes.
Yeah, when he gets ill.
Right, and she leaves a comic book across the street. His name is Elijah Price, I cast. This is Mr. Glass. Mr. Glass. Yeah. When he gets ill. Right. And she leaves a comic book across the street.
His name is Elijah Price, I think.
Elijah Price. Is his actual name? Yeah.
She leaves a comic book across the street
and he has to go across the street to get it.
And he opens it up and it's the camera twist and it's
clearly like a big revelation moment. She goes, there'll be one
of these here every morning if you're brave
enough to go across the street and say it. Do you know what I'm
going to say now? I hope you're going to quote the next line.
Yeah. And then she goes, I'm getting giddy
here. Yeah, I hear this one has a surprise
ending.
So he's already playing
with the expectations of being like, I know you guys think
I'm going to fucking do the
M. Night Shyamalan. You guys know. You guys know that
I'm M. Night Shyamalan, right? And we should also talk about, he's
planting the seeds. I mean, we're going to spoil
Unbreakable. Yeah. Just FYI.
Everyone listening to Unbreakable podcast right now. He is planting the seeds, I mean, we're going to spoil Unbreakable. Yeah. Just FYI. Everyone listening to Unbreakable podcast right now.
He is planting the seeds, I think, in Elijah's first meeting with, what is Bruce Willis'
character?
David.
David Dunn.
David Dunn.
I know all these characters right off the top of my head.
Where he says-
Some of my best friends.
You know, there was a fire in a hotel and like a million billion people died.
Yeah.
And then there was, what was the other accident?
There was the hotel fire.
There was a plane crash. Didn't the building blow up? Plane crash. Oh, maybe that's- That was the hotel the other accident? There was the hotel fire, there was a plane crash.
Didn't the building blow up?
That was the hotel fire.
There's a plane crash.
And 800 gazillion
people died.
And then there was a train crash.
I waited for the news after all these accidents
for one very specific set of words.
How do you know he'd be in Philly?
There's been one survivor and he's miraculously on high.
I'll tell you why.
If someone's from Philadelphia, we're all on break.
Yeah, come on.
If someone's going to be fucking on break,
well, they're going to be from Philly, right?
Well, at the reveal at the end, I mean,
not to jump ahead too much, but I just want to say,
weren't there news clippings from disasters all over the world?
Yes, there are news clippings from everywhere,
but I think you're not supposed to think
that he's responsible for everything.
He was paying attention to this.
He's the Philly wing of the disaster makers corporation.
It is very Spectre.
It's like, ah, crisis in Malaysia.
Ooh, dictator assassinated in Myanmar.
I am the architect of all of your natural disasters.
So in the scene in the office where he's explaining all this to him,
so in the scene in the office
where he's explaining
all this to him
behind him
is a big
like Egyptian
tablet
of like hieroglyphs
and then like
paintings of like
the Virgin Mary
like all these
different artifacts
from like history
and I was like
oh that's kind of clever
it's like
this is the through line
in history
of like how we tell
stories and myth
and how these things
well he says that
well okay
and then he said it
I forgot that he had the line of dialogue.
I'm so smart.
Look at me looking at the background.
It was so annoying to me.
Oh, wait, oh, there it is.
Because I forgot he had the line of dialogue,
and I was like...
M. Night comes and he's like, ah?
Yeah, I was like, nice directing, M. Night,
and then he felt the need to literally name off
everything on the wall,
and it was like, just fucking trust yourself a little more.
He's not a subtle writer.
And I don't need him to be.
That moment just drove me a little crazy.
No, I agree with you.
Because it's like, you're doing the work.
You don't have to give us the answers afterwards.
Okay.
Okay.
But then there's the bench pressing scene.
Right, which I love.
It's a good scene.
It's, again, really tense.
Would you agree, Matt?
Like we were saying about the train scene,
it's just tense because you're like, what the?
It's so foreboding and oppressively dark. Yeah, you just feel the movie clenching. Yeah, it's so foreboding and, like, oppressively dark.
Yeah, you just feel the movie clenching.
Yeah, yeah.
It's a clenched movie.
And you feel the, like, that.
You feel the weight of it.
You feel the weight.
I was going to say, yeah, because, like,
it's not like Bruce Willis is just, like, you know,
yeah, balancing these on the end of his pinky.
Like, it's hard, but he can do it.
And you get the sense of, like, something.
Yeah, he's still squeezing.
Right, you get the sense of something, like,
building up that may be like this, you know, like, like the start of uh of an evolution like what's also i
love that it's not just like oh he can suddenly lift up anything it's like uh elijah kelly uh
elijah price elijah kelly was the star of uh hairspray and the whiz live uh elijah price
says to him aka mr glass um you, when he goes to the stadium with him
and he is able to identify the guy as a gun,
and he's like, have you ever tried developing this ability?
And he's like, developing an ability?
What the fuck are you talking about?
Sure, right.
And the weightlifting sequence is sort of like,
oh, maybe there isn't a cap on how strong he can be,
but he still would have to build it up.
Not like he'd have to build up muscle,
but he has to like...
Right, he needs a training montage.
Right, he can't literally just pick up a building right now.
He needs to like...
Matt, you're talking about.
Go grab a building.
Yes, exactly.
You guys.
Well, actually, I found this more satisfying than.
Take it to the limit.
I thought about the Spider-Man like origin.
Yes.
I have powers scene.
Yeah.
And this is much more fulfilling watching someone go through the like.
Right.
Slow process.
Yes.
Of learning.
But also what you said.
We should also say, this is an origin movie
before there had been a lot of this.
So we're not quite as tired, at least in 2000,
of seeing this play out where we're like,
we get it, he has powers, let's get to the new thing.
I'm actually thinking, had there been any origin stories?
Because Batman 89, already Batman.
Superman.
Superman sort of.
They do a major flashback to his childhood.
Brief, like he lifts up the car flashback to his childhood. Brief,
like he lifts up the car
when he's a baby.
Well,
there's no learning power.
He's like,
I can already run in high school.
I know that I'm Superman.
Right,
and X-Men has like,
you know,
the singer movie has like
a brief like rogue origin clip.
Yeah,
rogue is the closest thing
to an origin in the film.
Everyone else has already
got their powers.
I thought rogue knows
that if she touches people,
she's just on the road
because she's a flashback
to her kissing the boy.
Remember,
that's the sort of first thing
where she's kissing a boy
and then he sucks.
So sad.
He sucks.
She sucks the life out of him.
But he sucks, too.
He also sucks.
That guy's a fucking basic bitch.
That guy's a basic bitch.
As you said,
you actually feel the weight
in this scene.
And this was another thing...
Oh, Matt said that.
Both of you said that.
Both of you were very nice.
We both said it. Well, say he touched on Both of you were very nice. We both said that.
Well, say he touched on it
and then I am nice
Shyamalan'd it
and I was like,
I'm just going to say this out loud.
I'm going to tell you
what's going on in the background.
There is weight
in the weight scene.
Weight in the weight scene.
I, as an 11-year-old
in this movie,
it was a breakthrough for me
in a number of ways
because this is also like
a quote-unquote adult movie
about still little boy stuff
I was interested in.
It's like, oh,
it's a superhero movie
done like a serious drama.
So I was like, I feel like an adult watching this.
I do remember distinctly and it stuck out to me even this time.
Like, oh, this doesn't feel like a movie scene.
This feels like real life in that like these clearly aren't dummy weights.
I'm not saying they were making an actual 500 pounds, but he's lifting something.
His face turns totally red while he's doing it.
There's like a big vein popping out of his forehead.
You know, like he's like really
you feel the pressure of it. Bruce Willis is like
giving it. And this movie felt like
very
one could argue, I wouldn't, but it
seems like you guys lie on this
side of the Rio Grande line a couple
times in this film. Go on.
You know, a little
too concerned with process. Yeah.
With slowly delving into every moment.
But I'm a sort of detail obsessed guy
and as a kid I was like, yeah, I just want to watch them put on
ten pounds at a time.
Like, I like all of that. I don't think that's
the slow part for me. Not this scene specifically.
I'm saying that scene is when
he's like,
I've never been sick.
The slow build of the revelation.
The whole thing is, was he injured
in a car crash that
caused him to not be a professional football
player? Right, because that's what the kid tells Elijah
that. He's like, well, he was in a car crash.
At strike one. Right.
We know that he faked it back then
and he knows that he
faked it back then. So, hey,
you are a superhero, dude.
You know it.
And this is the thing.
Just get over it.
Shyamalan is trying, I guess,
to sell us on the idea
that he's somehow repressed all of this, right?
Yes.
That he's somehow just kind of like
ignored the fact that he's always sick.
He's always sick.
No, that he's never been sick.
That, yeah, that he pretended to hurt himself
to fall in love with his wife, I guess.
That's how you fall in love.
Because she didn't like football.
Yeah.
And I guess that's it.
And then there's the water thing comes in really late.
The thing as a child that comes in late, yeah.
Two things about the water thing.
One, why does this happen again in science?
I know.
Two successive movies.
M. Night hates water.
Shyamalan really has a problem with water.
I'll tell you what.
From Philadelphia, we in Philly, most people say water.
Water.
This does not happen in Unbreakable.
Very interesting.
But I wonder if M. Night Shyamalan hates water because he says water and everyone in Philly says water.
And he's like, fuck you, Philly.
So it's a meta commentary.
Stop saying water.
It's water, you assholes.
There's a movie all about water.
Tell them how you guys
asked for Italian ice.
Water ice.
I'm not Philly enough, I will say.
Well, I was gonna say...
There are no hoagies in this movie. There's no Scrapple.
There's no Eagles.
Yeah, but he loves these city streets.
There's no Beggles.
Philadelphia is like a character in this film, you know?
I do like when I see a filmmaker who clearly
is attached to their home.
There's a certain effect you can see with
just how they shoot a basic street corner.
I do watch this movie. But he's not going
to different parts of Philly.
He's going to kind of rich person
Philly. I mean, I guess there's some in the
neighborhood that they're... I'm not saying he makes Philadelphia look
great, but I do see a familiarity there where it's like,
this guy knows Philadelphia.
He's shooting Philadelphia like he knows these streets.
He knows some of the streets in Philly.
I just think it's a little weird that the music in this movie
ends up having a beat.
Yeah, I hate that.
As if it's more street or something.
That starts getting offensive to me and a misunderstanding of Philadelphia.
In the very opening, like the opening credits, they use like the beat.
There should have been a rap over this.
And then it drops out.
There should have been.
God.
God.
Oh, God.
Imagine a Bruno.
Remember, Bruce Willis did a couple albums as Return of Bruno, where he was playing that
harmonica.
He could have done like a sort of like scat over.
Just waiting this out.
The Unbreakable theme.
Who would have done the Unbreakable rap in 2000?
Someone from the Wu-Tang Clan.
They fucking love superheroes.
Like, you know, the RZA or something.
Cisco would have done what was called the Glass Song.
Let me break that glass.
Negative 10 points.
Least funny joke of all time.
That's the worst joke.
I'm going to have to actually cut that out.
No, keep it in, but dock me 10 comedy points. Least funny joke of all time. That's the worst joke. I'm going to have to actually cut that out. No, keep it in, but dock me 10 comedy points.
So, wait.
Well, so then there's this scene we were talking about, like, where Elijah thinks that David, like, has ESP or whatever and can, like, sense that there's a gun.
He chases after this.
He walks after.
It's the slowest chase scene that then ensues.
You know, David's like, eh, I don't know.
He doesn't even get him.
He doesn't even get him. David's just like,
I thought that guy might have had a gun and the guy walks away.
David does security at
what's the stadium? Franklin Field.
Franklin Field, which is like the UPenn.
It's the oldest football field in America.
Really?
Really.
That's a cool location.
I like those scenes.
Like you guys were saying,
I think two episodes ago, he just has a knack for locations.
Yeah, he's got good sense.
The man knows where to set his movies.
And I even like when Elijah goes into his car before he sees the guy walking out and chases him, the car's all padded like leather.
Which is like, oh, okay, practical concern, of course.
Like, he's got this vintage car, and it's full of, like, padded, like it looks like an insane asylum.
Because, like, okay, if it crashes, he's got to, you know, he's got to be insulated all the time. Yeah, right, he's got this of padded, it looks like an insane asylum, because if it crashes,
he's got to be insulated all the time.
But it also does
look like a great supervillain mobile.
It does.
Mr. Glass's pillow car!
You know?
I would have bought that.
The Kenner pillow car.
It's the best
scene in the movie.
That's the best scene in the movie. I mean, maybe. No, it's a good scene.
But it's a good scene.
The thing where he walks after a guy
and you're still like digging your
fucking hands into it because they do a good
job selling that Samuel L. Jackson can't
fall down. Like, before he falls
down, you're already like, this guy can't fall down.
That's not good. Yeah, he fucking broke bones in the womb,
motherfucker. And he's like walking after this guy
and yeah, he chases him down some subway stairs.
He falls.
His glass cane shatters.
Do we see Mr. Glass on the floor after that?
Yeah, we see him kind of upside down almost because he gets that.
He should have been like.
I know.
Torded over, knotted up and broken.
He wasn't even literally in knots.
Jackson, who I will say has a very unique like scream, you know, and he has the scream
in Revenge of the Sith. Yes. You know, like that. I love it has a very unique scream, and he has the scream in Revenge of the Sith.
Yes.
I love it.
I love it.
He does that scream.
That sells.
That's him selling the bones, I think.
And, of course, he does catch a glimpse.
This guy had the gun that Bruce Willis.
That's the final.
And then Bruce Willis goes,
50% chance most guns will be the same.
Which is nonsensical.
Come on, Bruce.
Come on, David.
This does feel like another moment
where he's explaining the hieroglyphs behind the head
where it's like, oh, Mr. Glass falls over
and then his glass cane falls over
and you hear the bones crack
and then you see the glass shatter.
He's made of glass.
Oh, they're the same.
He and the cane are one.
They are but one, David.
Yeah.
Woo!
Unbreakable!
But then he becomes a superhero at some point.
Right.
Then what happens?
I was going to say.
So there's this stretch in the like.
It sort of sets up all the bits.
The third of four acts basically is him just hanging out with his family, right?
Because Mr. Glass goes into rehab.
Right.
And meets his wife.
Whoa.
Did he plan it?
Yeah. No. His wife's like a physical therapist. Yeah. Perfect. goes into rehab and meets his wife. Whoa! Did he plan it? Yeah,
who is like,
his wife's like
a physical therapist.
Yeah, perfect.
And that's where
he puts together
in like a somewhat
leading dialogue scene,
yeah,
oh,
he faked the football
accident injury thing.
Oh,
I should put that together
because he realizes
she hates football.
That's when the movie
comes to a halt.
I mean,
I guess I'm kind of
into Robin Wright.
She's good. She's good. Going on a date. That's I guess I'm kind of into Robin Wright she's good
and Bruce
going on a date
that's cute
and this isn't her really
it's a first date
they have to start over
the date scene's okay
although it really
reminded me of
the Sixth Sense date scene
where he's a ghost
it's a very similar plot line
yeah
also it's dimly lit
it's golden
in the background
it looks exactly the same
she might be wearing red
I don't know
you know we said last week
that like Sixth Sense doesn't really do right by Olivia Williams
because by the nature of the twist, she doesn't get to have scenes where she interacts with people.
Yeah.
This movie feels like a mea culpa but to a different actress.
A little bit, yeah.
He's like, I'm going to make another movie about a marriage on the rocks, but this time
the woman has agency because she's not speaking to somebody.
If you remember, this is what Robin Wright was kind of not doing much.
No.
You know, she had just kind of not doing much. No. You know,
she had just kind of
stopped doing big stuff.
Like, you know,
she'd had her Forrest Gump
like sort of, you know,
and then like...
That was five years earlier.
Yeah, I mean...
And she was sort of out of it.
She did well.
Isn't she lovely?
What was that movie called?
Yeah, she's in She's So Lovely.
She's in Hurly Burly
and Message in a Bottle,
but like, you know...
Yeah, but she was mostly,
I think, raised in family.
Yeah, this was her family moment.
This is before I think she... Anyway, we're not going in family. Yeah, this was her family moment.
This is before I think she, anyway, we're not going to speculate.
Before she started working a lot.
That whole stretch of the movie is when it gets even more emotional because it's about the family.
That's the gun, the kid pulls the gun scene out.
I hate that scene.
That scene's the worst scene, I would say.
You like that scene?
To me, that scene is him overplaying his hand
after considering the tone and pace of the movie.
Well, I just think this is the moment when the movie's supposed to get fun.
Like, oh, wait, he is a superhero.
Right, right.
And no, it's going to get even more dirgical.
That's the thing.
I never wanted this movie to get fun.
I wanted it to get more and more sad.
Every scene I wanted to get sadder and sadder.
Well, I mean, because what I like about it, I do like it when it gets quote unquote fun, which
is when he's like, alright, I'm going to put on this poncho.
I'm going to go just rub up
against people in a train station.
That scene is disturbing.
The groper. It is.
Where he's seeing everyone's dark secrets.
People are getting raped.
People are getting murdered.
There's the racial slur. There's the one where they break a bottle
over a woman's head and they go, go back to Africa.
Yeah, yeah. It's a little
on the nose, but it's a
cool conception of a character who like
in almost like a Christ-like
way, like feels all of our sins
and our pain. His superpower is kind of empathy.
Yeah. And absorbing
our sins. And there's water.
Water! There's water.
That scene is when they bring back the fucking techno beat, which drives me crazy because
I love the score so much.
The opening credits.
Remember the Matrix has just come out.
You know, the electronic music.
Let's get it in the score.
Yeah.
But the rest of the score is so fucking good.
You don't need that.
It's a great score.
James, come on.
James Nudie House.
So that's at 30th Street Station or whatever?
Yes, it is. Yeah. I mean, that's a pretty cool. It'sudie House. That's at 30th Street Station or whatever? Yes, it is.
Yeah, I mean, that's a pretty cool-
It's a great location.
Great location.
And it's really, he does a good job framing him there, I think.
I like that.
That's the best, is what I was going to say.
I'm not sure what time of day it is, because it's always-
It's the magic hour.
It's the opposite of the magic hour.
Daytime.
He took the night part of his name very literally, and he was like, okay, people like M. Night
movies.
These all have to look, even in the afternoon. M. Night took the night part of his name very literally and he was like, okay, people like M. Night movies. These all have to look
even in the afternoon.
M. Night in the afternoon. There's the one scene where
David walks by his son and the
son's playing football and he wants his dad
to play football with him. That's my favorite
scene in the movie, maybe, because that's actual
emotion. I know.
I'm not a football player. I'm not a shot in extreme distance.
He's probably talking about the foreground
fucking background thing. Yeah, and here's like a big
cool dude who's playing with the kids and he's like
acting. And it's the guy that the lady talked about on the train.
Right. Twist!
I know, that is so obnoxious.
But that's the same as the fucking hospital sequence
where you don't realize
he's important until they crack focus.
But that's like reasonable stakes.
You know, when the movie goes and
everyone's got burned, fucked and like, uh.
But here's, I just missed out on my football career.
I think that's more emotional for me.
Right, and I'm not really like going to be able to.
I'm going to lose my family and my son pulls a gun on me.
Right, I'm failing to impress my kid.
You know what I really like?
I like that.
You know what I really like in the gun scene?
I don't know if it's a perfect scene, but it works for me.
The line I really like in the gun scene is when Bruce Willis is is trying to talk him down and he goes like you know and i i feel
like we were just starting to kind of become friends yeah yeah that's yeah sure he's he's so
divorced from his family right he goes and friends don't shoot each other right and she goes no no
friends don't shoot friends don't shoot which i think is funny but i also i like the use of the
word friend that like he's so aware that he's so emotionally distant
that he's having a relationship with his son
is to be a friend to him.
It's not even like a dad.
He wants to feel like his kid's also a fucking weirdo.
What is his setup?
So he was living in New York,
but he was a security guard at Franklin Field?
No, he was at a job interview
to try to get a job in New York,
and then he would move there.
Maybe at Madison Square Garden.
That's the idea. Yeah, you know. No job in New York is a step up from a job in New York and then he would move there. Maybe at like Madison Square Garden.
That's the idea.
Yeah.
You know,
but a job in New York is a step up from a job in Philly.
I'm here to tell you.
Wow.
Sorry.
Patches thrown down.
What if it's working at a, at a water purifying station?
Water.
Water.
Better not fall in.
Yeah.
Hoagie plant.
So,
okay.
So then the denouement of this movie,
much like the Sixth Sense,
this film has one big action sequence and it is not big at all.
It's like a very small set piece.
But it's exciting.
Yeah.
I mean, again, I remember at least in the theater is unbearably tense.
Like, yeah, he follows this guy who has like chained a family to their radiators.
And M. Night goes there.
I mean, he makes it so unsettling.
He's a janitor who loves family.
Yeah, right.
There's that creepy scene where he is at the door.
You see him at the door being like, can I come in?
Yeah.
And M. Night's kind of doing the color thing here.
That was extra creepy.
Good job, guys.
M. Night's doing the color thing here where, like, the film is so desaturated that, like,
Sam Jack's purples stick out, but purple's like a darker, deeper base color, you know?
You have orange jumpsuit guy.
That's what I was going to say.
So even when he goes to the flashback
and the guy isn't, when he touches him
and he sees the thing,
the guy isn't wearing the jumpsuit,
but he's got an orange shirt
and like the rest of the image is like black and white
and you see the orange.
So it's like, okay,
if you see a glimpse of orange in the background,
you're going to get scared.
No wonder I never wanted to wear colors as a kid.
I saw them breakable and I'm like,
only the cool people wear black.
Must desaturate.
True story, orange was my favorite
color until I saw this movie. I used to wear
all orange. You're such a weird kid. I'm a weird
fucking kid.
Orange will change you. Orange will change you,
Mitch. You used to call me Mr. Orange.
So he follows
the kids, David. He follows this
janitor to this house.
Not even a Sam Jack impression. This is old man.
Yeah, or he's tied up this whole family.
It's awful. And he frees the family.
But, you know, good on you, M. Night, for
making it feel dramatic. Like, there's like a real
stake here. This isn't like him stopping a
burglary. Right, because it's true. Like, every Superman movie,
he's like, great, I'm Superman. And then there's
like a bank robber. And he goes and he
busts up the bank robber. I'll punch the car.
It's always the same, right? The bank
robber's like, I'll shoot you with a gun.
That's my idea.
It doesn't work.
And he's like, what?
I like that the thing he's stopping is the actual real evils in the world.
Like guys who will break into a house and chain a teenage girl to a wall.
These are the most unspeakable evil fuck-ups.
We all agree.
We're all anti-chaining a teenage girl.
Just don't do it, guys.
100%.
Definitely no way. And if any of our listeners are doingaining a teenage girl. Just don't do it guys. Definitely. No
way. And if any of our listeners are doing that
let's say it formally cut it out.
And also don't rate us
on iTunes because we don't like Sith Lords
we don't like ghosts that
don't know that they're ghosts or orange jumpsuit villains.
Those are three big no-no's.
But so then there's this sequence
basically amounts to him
being pushed into a swimming pool.
Cool shot.
The overhead of him falling into the tarp is the top.
Yeah.
And realizing.
Absorbing.
Right.
Yeah.
And then so he.
It's like his poncho is becoming one with the tarp.
Yeah.
Have we talked enough about the poncho?
It's cool.
So he's got a poncho that's his work issue.
It says security at the back of it.
And security is almost like his hero name.
Exactly.
Which is cool.
Yeah.
And then. Yeah. He makes it like his uniform. Like when he goes to the fucking train station. And security's almost like his hero name. Exactly, which is cool. Yeah. And then, yeah,
he makes it like his uniform.
Like, when he goes
to the fucking train station,
it's his uniform,
and then at this final sequence,
it's like...
It's a little obvious,
like, superheroes wear capes.
What's a real cape?
Oh, a poncho.
Cool.
But I also like that
it just makes him look
like a shadow, you know?
That's like...
Sure.
The whole thing.
He looks sort of like
a Dementor
from, like, Harry Potter.
Like, he's, like...
And he's wearing
a baseball cap over his eyes, too. So he's just, like... sort of like a Dementor from like Harry Potter like he's like and he's wearing a baseball cap
over his eyes too
so he's just like
all you see is that
it's like a real version
of like a
secret identity mask type
you know
hero
sure
like Matt said
like a caped hero
it's like a
very low key
this movie's low key
low key low key low key
not
no Avengers
where's Loki
where's Loki
he's on the sidelines
should have been
after the credits
twist Loki's sitting on a throneelines should have been after the credits twist
Loki's sitting
on a throne
if this movie
was like a huge hit
do you think
you would have seen
like a bunch of kids
that Halloween
just wearing a poncho
and their parents
were like thank god
this is the cheapest
costume ever
was this movie
not a hit
it wasn't okay
well let's talk
about the end of the film
then I think we need
to talk about the reception
a lot
yeah so
yeah you know
he gets pushed in
but then the kids pull him out of the water.
He's saved, which is nice.
What is that supposed to mean?
I don't know.
It's like water's his weakness, but is that just literally like he can't swim?
Is that how water's his weakness?
Well, he's drinking it, and it's kind of like suffocating.
Well, I guess it would probably hurt no matter who you are.
Yeah, that's what I'm saying.
It's an odd thing to be a weak person.
Everyone is impervious to,
no one is impervious to drowning.
Maybe if it didn't hurt him,
he could rip the tarp pretty easily
because he's strong.
Right.
It incapacitates his powers.
As Mr. Glass phrases it,
he says,
we both have the same weakness.
It's water.
When we sip too much of it,
we choke.
It fills up our lungs too fast.
Why is Mr. Glass' problem with water?
Because heroes and weaknesses have the same thing.
You know what his other problem is?
You don't get to see him drink water.
Bones.
He's got some problems.
He's got a couple weaknesses.
Bones.
Stairs.
But wait.
Wait.
I'm fine.
Oh, yeah, and then he goes back and he takes this guy down.
Music swells.
He puts the guy in a sleeper hold.
Right. The guy tries to- Do you think he killed him? I don't know. Oh yeah, and then he goes back and he takes this guy down. Music swells. He puts the guy in a sleeper hold.
Right.
The guy tries to like- Do you think he killed him?
I don't know.
Now, isn't there a news story about him getting arrested?
Yeah, I think he incapacitates him.
Because there is some news story over the radio and like Spencer Tree Clark looks at
David Dunn.
It's the newspaper.
And he like nods at him over the news.
I guess I was just thinking like, did David call the police after he put him in a choco?
Because he undoes the woman who's on the radiator. She falls over. Maybe she's not going to call the police after he put him in a choco? Because he undoes the woman
who's on the radiator.
She falls over.
Maybe she's not going to call the police.
The kids are awake.
Maybe he calls the police.
But do you leave two kids
who are just chained up
by this man in an orange jumpsuit
with the orange jumpsuit man?
No, he stayed with them.
He watched them drag and tail.
Because he wasn't around
when the police came.
He bounced.
Because the mother is also deceased.
The mother's dead.
The father's dead.
It's three kids.
The oldest one he seems to have been
abusing sexually
and the other two.
Oh, the woman
and the radio
is an older woman.
I also used to think
it was the mother,
but I realized this time
in the newspaper headline
that says mother and daughter,
mother and father
found dead,
three children alive
tortured in hell.
So,
he spins the newspaper around.
Yeah, he's,
yes,
he makes the dents
on the wall, the music swells. I like that moment a lot because it's like, he's doing it, he's fucking doing around Yeah he's Yes he makes the Dents on the wall
The music swells
I like that moment a lot
Cause it's like
He's doing it
He's fucking doing it
He's fucking
Something's happening
In this movie
It's a miracle
And then he goes to
Meet Mr. Glass
At his gallery opening
Yeah
And Mr. Glass is like
Well Sun now knows
That everyone's admitting
That he's a superhero
Yeah
Oh we're skipping over
What was his
Literally my favorite
Moment in the film
What
He comes home After saving those children.
Sure.
Breakfast.
And Robin Wright Penn is sleeping.
And he picks her up from the bed.
And James Newton Howard plays a very sprightly version of his theme.
Just plucking the piano.
It's going.
Do, do, do, do, do.
That's his song.
And he carries his wife back up to his bed for the first time.
They're going to sleep in the same bed together
she lies in the bed
next to him
and she goes
what's wrong
and he goes
I had a bad dream
and they cuddle
it's nice because
I like love David
it's a nice moment
I like the hero theme
plays over him
carrying his wife
because it's like
this is the real
heroic thing
is restructuring
his priorities
and becoming a family man
the real heroic thing
was saving three kids
when he took out
the jumpsuit guy.
That was really good.
That guy was no good.
That guy was no good.
He went into people's houses and killed them.
I want to restate this.
I don't like that guy at all.
He is the worst person.
The interesting thing about the movie is that he was trying to cuddle the guy in the orange
jumpsuit also.
Yeah, I had a bedroom.
But it was an aggressive cuddle, so he learned a lot.
Luckily, Audrey didn't have to suffer the same thing.
You take your first shot at something, maybe it doesn't work out, you learn from your mistake.
Yeah, so the first time we tried to cuddle Audrey, he accidentally put her in a sleeper hole.
He was like, sorry, force of habit, I've been doing this all night.
This is, I'm the sleeper hole guy now.
Okay, so then he goes to, Elijah has like a comic book gallery show.
This is the big-
It's the opening of a new show.
He talks to his mom, who's played by Charlaine Woodard.
Good performance.
Yeah, good actress.
And she has this whole, I mean, these monologues sometimes are just sort of like,
now it feels a little goofy where she's like,
there are villains who don't use strength.
They use their intelligence.
What are you trying to say, M. Night Shyamalan?
And then Elijah is back in his evil, like, lair with computers and pipe bombs.
Love it!
You know, news clippings on the wall, like Ben said, of every natural disaster that ever happened.
And his getup looks more supervillain-y.
Like, his outfit is so, like, yeah.
And we get to see him, like, conducting evildoer business.
Right.
Well, he shakes his hand.
He goes, I think this is where we part ways.
Let's shake hands.
He shakes hands, and then there's the immediate flashback to all the bad things he's done, which is...
A terrible old man just divulging information about the...
Working a building for 40 years, you learn a lot of secrets.
Yeah, well, like what?
If someone lit this hotel on fire, everyone would die.
But you wouldn't do that, would you?
Promise me.
A lot of things where he walks away
from a lot of people dying. Yeah, you said
a hotel on fire, he blew up a plane
or something? He sabotaged a plane.
Yeah, the plane blows up and everyone's freaking out
behind him and he's just sitting there. He just walks away.
I'm just waiting for someone to be like, sir, do you know what's happening?
I'm made of glass. I can't get up.
But also, he didn't want to watch the explosion.
Everyone else is facing in the same direction.
He's got his back tanned.
Yeah.
He's like, I know how it looks.
That's the Mr. Glass version of walking away from the explosion.
Yeah.
And then Sam Jack gives a great monologue.
He goes, now that you know who you are, I know what I am.
Do you know what it's like to not know your places in the world?
Sure.
He's like, I'm a villain now.
Right.
I think I maybe know this entire speech by heart.
But the big crux of it is he says,
and usually the hero,
you know how you can always tell who the villain is?
He's the exact opposite of the hero.
And usually they're friends, like you and me.
I should have known, David.
I should have known all along.
You know how?
Because of the kids, David.
The kids, they called me Mr. Glass.
It's like he's talking to me.
Wow. And then I like how pulpy the sort, David, the kids, they called me Mr. Glass. It's like he's talking to me. Wow.
And then I like how pulpy the sort of like end.
You do?
I do.
The end titles?
I don't like those.
I like it.
I like how pulpy they are.
Because I was about to say, I actually like the ending of the movie a lot.
I like how the score is swelling.
I like Bruce Willis.
You know, David is just like, oh my God.
Jesus fucking Christ.
You're a maniac.
And he full on cries at that moment.
Do you like when it freezes and says, like, I do.
I don't like that.
I like it.
I do.
I know.
It says, like, David went on to be a great man.
Elijah was convicted of terrorism and sent to an institution for the insane or whatever.
David gave his orgasm a wife.
Jesus Christ, Griffin.
Orgasm a wife.
Jesus Christ, Griffin. He named his orgasm a wife. Yeah Christ, Griffin. Orgasm a wife. Jesus Christ, Griffin.
He named his orgasm a wife.
Yeah, he did marry an orgasm after this.
Mrs. Orgasm.
And yeah.
That would have been such a mediocre joke if I had landed it.
It would have been a home run.
Here's why.
I do like the chyrons because it is almost like deflating the idea that this is a superhero movie where it's like,
oh, that crazy person who did all that stuff went to jail.
That's what I like.
It's right away. And that's the moment where I'm like, oh, thank God he didn't make a stuff went to jail. That's what I like. Like, right away.
And that's the moment where I'm like, oh, thank God he didn't make a sequel.
Because as we said, he couldn't fight Mr. Glass.
Like, he'd just punch him once and the guy is down.
So I like it.
Hammer hand, man.
What's a hammer hand?
What's the resolution of this?
The resolution is the guy just went to an insane asylum.
Because he's a crazy lunatic.
David kept on being a good guy.
Gave his wife and poor Gath.
Earlier, my mind wandered for a second to that scene
I just want to talk
about Mr. Glass for one second.
In the comic book store.
Love it.
That's a great scene where he's defiantly
twisting his wheelchair.
He is emotionally bottomed out
because he feels like I just
blew up my third major
thing. Terrorists can be
sad too. And
he thought David was the one but
he's not. But we don't know that.
No he says in the first scene he's like I've waited
a long time. I've had a lot of disappointments.
And he keeps on saying like first strike, second strike.
He's like I have to be careful. We've gotten close
before. And it's clear that like David
is the closest he's ever come. The furthest
a guy's come without disappointing him. So I think at that point he's like fuck it's not gonna happen i have no purpose
it's just a great scene i just love the face he's making he's making this like poopy baby face he's
in his uh wheelchair he's got like a leg you know broken leg sticking out i'm trying to think of
what comedy bit that reminds me of where like someone's out of control in a wheelchair just
knocking things over whoever i don't know who's playing the poor comic.
Yeah.
Yeah.
The guy's good.
He's good.
The guy who's playing like the comic book clerk who's like, can you just like, you know, stop
They're not be jerking off to those Japanese anime comics.
But then he's like, oh, I'm sorry, you're in a wheelchair.
And then.
He doesn't say manga.
That's what jumped out at me is he doesn't say manga.
He says like Japanese anime comics.
He goes the long way.
He doesn't take the shortcut. Let's also note a anime comics. He goes the long way. He doesn't take the shortcut.
Let's also note, a lot of great merchandise on the wall at this comic book shop.
It's a good merchandise spotlight.
I mean, I love all the covers, the comic book covers in this movie.
Yeah.
And just the detail.
I mean, I guess some of them were designed for the movie, but there's a lot of nodding to, like, Watchmen.
Yeah, yeah.
Nodding to all these comic books.
Actually, I was reading on IMDb.
So IMDb trivia is notoriously awful.
But you must, both of you must know that, according to IMDb trivia,
this is a very important fact.
Near the end of the movie, Samuel L. Jackson's character is sitting in his wheelchair
below three comic book covers, Thor to the left, Daredevil to the right,
and Nick Fury of S.H.I.E.L.D.
Now, Nick Fury was redesigned around this time to look like Jackson.
And then Jackson starred with Thor in a movie.
And as of 2015, and here's the trivia, there are rumors that Daredevil may meet Fury in the same universe.
Wait a second.
That's a trivia for this movie.
Wait a second.
Samuel L. Jackson plays Nick Fury?
All right.
Whoa!
What a twist!
I do want to say something.
Like, the two big covers that they use as props
are made up
and it's weird because I was just thinking
oh they must have just not gotten rights to use
a Marvel or a DC
Jaguaro they create characters
and it's a little goofy
but anyway
but then you see the Thor cover
so I was just like
I guess to make it more
idiosyncratic yeah like you can But then you see the Thor cover, so I was just like, I don't know. I guess to make it more like drawing a direct line.
To control.
Yeah.
Yeah, like you can.
It looks more like him.
Yeah, and also I guess Shyamalan doesn't want to be like, I'm making a Batman movie or I'm making a Wolverine movie or whatever.
I guess he wants to avoid being a direct connection.
And really, why does the last frame of this movie not freeze frame turn into a comic book?
Illustrated.
Why doesn't it go full Ang Lee?
I was about to say, that's the shit Ang Lee went for
three, four years later?
Like, not that long after.
2003, yeah, it was three years later.
So, you know, Ang Lee, yeah.
We will talk about that movie one day.
That was the last time, like, these two movies
were the last two times that filmmakers tried to, like,
literalize comic books as a visual idea. Like the actual layout
of a comic book page into the movie.
Sky High does it a little bit.
Ooh, CBGB though?
So good. Oh yeah, you told me CBGB has
fucking comic book motif, right?
It's fantastic. It totally
fits in with the story. I highly
recommend that film for anybody who hasn't
seen it. Well, good thing that director is now
in jail for involuntary manslaughter.
Hell yeah.
Sometimes you shouldn't play on the train tracks.
Oh, God.
This is taking a dark, Unbreakable-esque turn.
Unbreakable.
They gave him four years for involuntary manslaughter and one year for directing CBGBs.
That was the full sentencing.
Okay, let's talk reception.
So this movie comes out 15 months after Sixth Sense.
It does.
Sixth Sense at the time that Unbreakable-
Comes out in November.
It's a Thanksgiving weekend movie.
Big Thanksgiving weekend movie.
Families go to see it.
Everyone's happy.
And then Unbreakable.
I want to point, it opens number two.
Behind How the Grinch Stole Christmas?
Behind the Grinch.
Which was-
Juggernaut.
Was the number one movie that year.
It was huge.
It was a juggernaut.
And its first weekend, Unbreakable makes $30 million. Good opener. which was the number one movie that year it was a juggernaut and it's first
weekend Unbreakable makes
30 million dollars
and it makes 46 million over the whole
Thanksgiving
it's budget
it's budget 75
I assume Willis
and Jackson made a lot of money
I think Willis got a full 20
and then 10 went to fucking Shyamalan
that's the thing.
It speaks to just how long
they probably shot this movie
and how much
they could control it.
It's wonderful.
Yeah, I think,
and you know,
each of those comic book covers
cost $5 million to commission.
And that train scene
that got cut.
It was huge.
Right, right.
They shot all of it.
Huge.
Huge.
They shot like a Super 8,
you know,
like 18 cars going over it.
He actually flies off like the end of The Matrix at the end of this movie.
But that got cut.
He restaged an homage to Silver Streak where the train crashes through the train station.
And he got Richard Pryor to come back and reprise his role.
He wanted this film to take place in the Silver Streak-iverse.
And they cut all of that.
The SSU.
So people liked this movie?
People hated this movie?
Well, I think reactions were tempered.
I mean, I don't remember being super well-liked critically.
It did well.
It did like 98 million,
but it didn't do hugely well.
Yeah, I can tell you.
It made a total of $95 million.
Yeah.
You know, fine.
And then worldwide, it collected another 153. So. You know, fine. And then worldwide,
you know,
it collected another 153.
So it made like 250 worldwide.
Pretty good for a movie
that looks like this.
But yeah, certainly
it comes down.
The one before this
took $300 million
and he got nominated
for picture, director,
screenplay,
supporting actor,
supporting actress.
And this got a grand total
of goose egg Oscar nominations.
And I think people viewed it as sort of being a sophomore slump.
As being a, you know, sophomore slump as a fourth film.
But I mean, talk about hype that you could never imagine.
Yeah.
It was a classic, like people, yes, people painted this as like a classic second album thing, right?
Yeah.
Yeah, where it's like, you know, he's out of the gate and like, you know, how could he possibly eclipse it and then he makes this weird
moody movie, you know. And then I think
we'll talk about Signs next week.
That's Shumlin's very self-aware
movie. Shot him out of a cannon in a
different direction. Yeah.
But Signs is him trying to get the public back in his
like, at his table. A crowd pleaser.
It's a crowd pleaser.
I think this
movie is not meant to be a twist movie.
It has a twist.
I know.
It's framed as a twist.
I know, but...
You think it was sort of guided into that?
This is, I think, the difference.
I think it is a movie that has a twist
rather than a quote-unquote twist movie
because he starts to become known for twist movies.
And Sixth Sense is a twist movie where you rewatch it,
colors the whole experience a different way on the second time.
You know the twist.
The fact that the mother says the surprise ending thing at the beginning, the fact that there's a lot of telegraphing,
where even if you just watch it now, you're like, yeah, this guy's clearly positioned as a villain.
You know, from the way he talks about the comic book cover at the beginning of the film.
Like there's a lot of foreshadowing.
And it's not that you just go like, well, he didn't trust the audience.
You know, he wanted to foreshadow it.
He shows such restraint with that shit in Sixth Sense.
I think he was like,
this movie has an ending that is unexpected.
There's like a twist,
but my idea isn't to make a film
where the ending fucking shakes the foundations
of your beliefs.
It's not a Sixth Sense style twist,
but it's a twist.
It's a decent twist, actually.
It's a decent twist.
Because it does kind of complete
the sort of arc of the movie
where you're like,
oh, right, he needs a nemesis.
And like, that's cool.
Like, it's a good idea.
I like the twist fine.
But I do agree with what you said, Matt,
that I think every scene in this movie
is kind of a twist.
I think it's more of a movie of like,
you don't know where it's going.
It's a reveal, right?
It's a reveal.
It's not a twist.
Exactly.
A twist is like,
aha, whoa!
And this is a movie like,
ah, interesting. It's a reveal film. Exactly. A twist is like, aha, whoa! And this is moving like, ah, interesting.
It's a reveal film.
You wouldn't go back
and re-watch this necessarily
to pick up on any things
you missed the first time.
Right, which is why
I hadn't seen it in a decade.
Unless you're Griffin Newman
and you are certifiably insane
renting a room out
next to Mr. Glass.
You want to do
a performance review?
Yeah, fine. We haven't talked about the performances too much. I know there are a couple supporting ones we want to do a performance review? Yeah, fine.
We haven't talked about the performances too much.
I know there are a couple of supporting ones we want to talk about.
Bruce Willis.
I love this performance.
I think it's maybe his best ever up there with the first Die Hard.
Here's what I like about it.
Maybe it's the top five, Willis?
Probably, but there's not too much competition.
I like Willis.
He's great.
To me, you've got Die Hard.
You've got 12 Monkeys.
I kind of have to group
all the Die Hard together.
I think he's very underrated
in Pulp Fiction.
He's actually my favorite
performance in Pulp Fiction.
That's literally
the stupidest thing
you've ever said
on this podcast.
I am a Bruce fan.
That's crazy.
Think about,
just sit down
and think about
Pulp Fiction's actors
for a second.
I remember watching it
for the first time
being like,
why doesn't anyone
talk about Bruce?
He's got a shaved head.
He's got a ball in his mouth for a big chunk of it.
Yeah, but he works that ball so
good. I didn't mean that in a sexual way.
Samuel L. Jackson's in that movie.
Yeah, he's good. John Travolta.
I'm not a Travolta guy.
Travolta irks me. I admit he's good
in that movie, but I have
Travolta roadblocks.
Okay, this is what I like. Things I like
about Bruce Willis' performance in this movie. Number one,
love that he shaved his head.
Love that he's not wearing a stupid tube, or painting
his scalp a different color.
A tube.
I'm calling it a tube for short.
I know what the word is.
I'm being fucking familial.
Okay, okay.
He's not wearing a tube, David.
Okay. And it's not even like he's like, well, I'm just trying to make. Okay, okay. You know? Go on. He's not wearing a tube, David. Okay.
And it's not even like he's like,
well, I'm just trying to make it look like I shaved it
for like aesthetic reasons.
He's got enough stubble that you can see like,
dude's rocking a donut.
I'm just going to look like a guy.
I'm going to look like a guy who works a security job
and doesn't have good hair.
Right?
All right.
He has hair in six cents.
He does.
He has a funny, weird sort of side parting.
Yeah.
And he had done Pulp Fiction and 12 Monkeys full shape.
And then he was like, maybe I want to have hair again.
And then Armageddon, he has that bleached job.
So your whole performance to him is just the hair?
No, that was point one.
Bruce big thumbs up on the hair choice.
He's bearing his dome.
I like an actor with a lot of vulnerability.
To his head.
Yeah.
Thing I like number two. I think Bruce Willis with a lot of vulnerability. To his head. Yeah. Thing I like, number two,
I think Bruce Willis is a very sad performer.
I think he is a sad man.
I think the best Bruce Willis performance is
use that to their advantage, right?
He's charming.
He can be a quipster.
But when you just have him quip,
it's like, who fucking gives a shit?
I disagree.
I love him quipping.
But I think it needs to have an undercurrent of remorse and disenfranchisement.
Yeah, he's good in Moonrise Kingdom.
That's why John McClane's good.
Well, yeah, Moonrise Kingdom, he's another sad man.
Yeah, John McClane's a great, yeah.
I mean, the first one where he's like a divorce guy.
He's a real guy, and it's like, I think Bruce Willis is good at emotional men who don't know how to express their feelings.
Okay.
Thumbs up from you, Matt.
Big thumbs up.
One of his best moments.
I can say it's very realistic because I was very sad about moving from Philadelphia to
New York and leaving my woman at the time.
But then I went in a different direction.
Did you go to college?
Was this when you moved?
Yeah, I went to college.
Goodbye, high school.
I was in the exact same position.
I'm unbreakable, so it was the exact same position. I'm unbreakable,
so it was the exact same position.
Right, you had the car crash,
you faked your injury.
I was going to play football
professionally,
but decided to go to film school.
So it was a very realistic performance.
I do like the idea
that of course he'd be great at football.
He's unbreakable.
He's unbreakable.
Have you ever heard of unbreakables?
Those people who are unbreakable?
He's one of them.
That's the thing.
If you get in a car crash and you're not hurt at all,
does something start dawning on you and like, wait,
I can both love her because I'm not going to get injured
and I can play football.
Push it down, deep down.
It's like a somatic.
I think he truly believed he was injured.
Samuel L. Jackson.
Great.
I think it's great.
What do you think?
He's just crackling up there.
Although we were talking about the scene where he's he's chastising the customer.
Yeah.
And that's a rich customer.
And the final monologue is fucking good.
Yes.
This movie could be much sillier.
And it's not because Samuel L. Jackson loves comic books in real life and turns it into poetry here.
But look, he is putting one single thinly sliced piece of ham on top of the dish.
He knows just the right amount of ham to put on it.
You know?
Yeah.
He's not giving you a ham sandwich, but it's chicken cordon bleu.
And you're taking a bite.
You're going, a little ham in there.
A little ham in here.
A purple suit helps.
Yeah.
I'll disregard that ham until later.
And at the end, he goes, surprise, there was ham throughout the dish.
I am a villain.
Robin Wright.
Love it.
Good.
This was.
You love all these performances.
I think they're all pretty good. I also, I love her. I wanted her it. Good. This was. You love all these performers. I think they're all pretty good.
I also, I love her.
I wanted her more.
Yeah.
Because she is really good.
She seems broken in an authentic way, but I wish she had a little more, I don't know.
Could have been a very, very rote character.
Yeah.
Because it's a very familial.
I'm glad we saw her at her job.
Yes.
That's good.
Me too.
I like seeing people be good at the things they do
and liking their work.
But I like her scene where she asks him
if he was ever with any other women.
It's so good.
He's just like silent for like 80 minutes
and then he's like no and she starts crying.
Immediately.
When she says it's fine no matter what
whatever the answer is it's fine.
I just have to ask you this question.
It's not going to hurt me either way
so just be honest with me.
And then the second he says no
she like breaks down into tears right no cuts
so he's like really showing off that like Robin Wright didn't like do the first half that scene
and then go like hey I'm like can I have 30 and then like listen to you know while my guitar
gently weeps and like cut some onions and then cried like she had to fucking do it on a dime
it's real acting brought it I love her I think she's one of the prettiest ladies of all time I
think she's a very underrated actress.
Gorgeous woman. I mean, Princess Bride.
Robin Wright. What does this say about me?
I weirdly find her most attractive in this
film. That's weird.
I am a lunatic. She's normal. I mean, she's very
pretty and she's very normal. She's not being dressed
up. Yeah, I do sexually fetishize
normalness. Okay.
Spencer Treat Clark as Joseph
Jonathan Taylor Thomas. Which is weird.
My name is David
and my brother's name is Joseph.
And the characters here
are David and Joseph.
Is this a twist?
And your mom used to be married
to Sean Penn.
Oh my god.
That's terrible.
Spencer Treat Clark.
He's alright.
Sean Penn's kind of the guy
in the orange poncho.
It's a hard thing to do
after Haley Joel Osment.
You know, I just saw him.
It's very hard to do after Haley Joel Osment, right? You know, I just saw him. It's very hard to do
after Haley Joel Osment.
He still kind of looks like
that he has this sort of
very distinctive eyes
and weird look.
Bobby Durst eyes.
Just saw him in
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.
He's still around.
He's still around.
He was in Gladiator.
Is he still playing
an eight-year-old?
Still playing an eight-year-old.
God, this was a big year for him.
Gladiator and Unbreakable
came out in the same year.
Who did he play in Gladiator?
The Tiger?
He's the kid.
He's the Tiger.
He played Shyamalan.
He's Oliver Reed.
He did Oliver Reed's stand-in stuff after he died.
That's incredible.
No, he's like Connie Nielsen's son.
Connie Nielsen's kid, yeah.
Yeah, he's fine.
I don't know.
I think he's good.
I do remember at the time people being like,
oh, new kid.
I bet the kid's the key to the next Shyamalan movie.
And so when the kid ends up just sort of being, like, a side thing.
That sucks because Spielberg, obviously Shyamalan's idol, steals Haley Joel Osment.
Yeah.
Sure.
And then Shyamalan gets this kid.
Yeah.
Shyamalan gets, bleh.
But then Shyamalan gets Breslin, Abigail Breslin, in the next one.
Yeah.
And Rory Culkin.
I guess that's good.
Yeah, Rory.
Not bad.
Yeah, so Charlene Woodard as Elijah's mother is very good.
She's like an experienced, like, she's a playwright.
She's a great actress.
Eamon Walker.
Eamon Walker as the doctor is cool.
The only other, I mean, down, you know, the ER doctor in the scene is Michael Kelly, you know, from like House of Cards and stuff.
This movie's missing a Wahlberg.
Why is the Wahlberg not a janitor guy?
The one, they should at least go to a Wahlbergers location. One of the scenes could have been set at a Wahlberg. Why is the Wahlberg not a janitor guy? They should at least go to a Wahlbergers location.
One of the scenes could have been set at a Wahlbergers.
Yeah, he could have been a janitor at a Wahlberger
chaining people to
Wahlbergers. I don't know. Wahlbergers!
And we should wrap up.
David, there is one
performance that you
texted to me. No, I'm not trying in this movie.
It's a good, properly sized role. Oh, you mean the babysitter? Yes, you identified as your favorite performance in the film and said you wanted to me no i'm not fine in this movie it's a good properly oh you mean
yes you identify as your favorite performance in the film said you want to talk about that's why i
went to performance mckayla mckayla carol here i have a screenshot of her um it's a great little
scene here she is she's so good where she's a babysitter yeah where she reports to them that
like he got news of a job in New York after their date, I think.
And she's like, by the way, thanks for telling me you're moving to New York.
Geez, great guys.
I mean, she seems like she's losing work.
She's funny.
It's a weirdly funny little moment.
And Bruce Willis, of course, is like a dead zombie man.
And he's like, no.
Giving the performance of a lifetime.
What other?
I think Flesh Golem. Did I call him a lifetime. What other? I think flesh golem.
Did I call him a golem already? Yeah, that is very accurate.
I thought you were referring to M. Night himself.
What else has she done?
Have you looked her up on IMDb?
Oh.
In summation, best movie of all time.
Wow.
So you came back around.
I don't grade it low, but I still love this movie.
It's hard for me to be critical.
I really think it's excellent. I don't think it's perfect, but still love this movie. It's hard for me to be critical. I really think it's excellent.
I don't think it's perfect,
but I like this combination
of highbrow and lowbrow.
You really did almost nothing else.
Really?
That's a bummer.
I'm going to write a comeback picture for her.
She was in a movie called
Cerebral Print,
The Secret Files.
There's a character called Diamond.
That one is probably not a good movie.
You know what?
She is very good in that.
I will give her that.
She is very good.
Diamond is the breakout character.
Here is the cover.
Jesus Christ.
Anyway.
Do you notice the website underneath?
855films.com.
But it looks like ass films.
The font they used was quite unfortunate.
It's blocky to begin with, so the five looks like an ass.
Okay.
Okay.
Now, I have to offer, I looked up any news regarding Unbreakable 2. Okay. Okay. Now, I have to offer, I looked up any news regarding Unbreakable 2.
Okay.
And it looks like M. Night Shyamalan was interviewed by Collider.
And it's not confirming anything, but I'll just give you some of his quotes here.
So, he says that during the time when he was initially pitching to Disney,
Disney said, and quote, comic books, there's no market for comic books.
How wrong they were.
That's all they make now. Disney of all people.
It was a hilarious conversation.
What wretched fools they be.
I mean, that's the most fascinating thing about this movie.
We got to wrap up.
But in context now, you can't believe this is a superhero movie.
Maybe Poncho Man can show up to the Infinity Wars.
Yeah, maybe he'll be in the Infinity War.
Let's call him Unbreakable.
Maybe the fifth Infinity Stone is in Philadelphia.
Disney does own Unbreakable, though.
I guess so, yeah.
They could work it into the Marvel Cinematic Universe.
As long as Ultron doesn't make it rain, Poncho Man will be there.
And the point he does make, too too is that i think it would be
interesting to see this sequel in in the market today because it's so different than all the
comic book movies that it would have to look more like today's comic book movies hammer hand
but like fucking samuel jackson's like in his late 60s now right bruce willis is getting pretty old
i don't know if we need another unbreakable movie. My friend Jordan Fish used to say that he thought if they made a trilogy,
it should be called Unbreakable, and then the second film would be called Breakable,
and the third film would be called Broken.
Good arc.
I like that.
What about Unbreakable, Broken, and then Rebuilt?
Oh, yeah.
Hey.
Although if it's Shyamalan, it's going to get sadder.
Right, that's what I'm saying.
They get sad.
I like this movie
it defined my sense of cinema
a lot
I watched it today
it feels a little more
blunt
yeah like a
like a junior grid movie
yeah but as a kid
it was like
oh this is how movies work
this is what movies
for grown ups
are sort of like
but it's still about
kid stuff that you like
a varsity good movie
yeah and you like sad people
I just as we wrap up here
this movie
you know you guys
are running a comedy podcast.
Yeah.
Well, wait a second.
It's been redefined, reclassified on iTunes under TV and film.
Well, let me just say, it's a funny podcast.
I was watching Unbreakable and I thought there are a lot of joke opportunities here.
So I wrote some.
You did some punch up.
I wrote some Unbreakable jokes.
I just wanted to test them out.
This is great.
I love this.
Great way to do it.
This is like, Ben,
this is like your kind of corner.
I love this. This is great.
This is real true comedy.
Think about using
a stand-up set maybe.
So this section is called,
this new segment is called
Matt's Serious Joke Hut.
Okay, knock, knock.
Who's that?
Haley Joel Osment.
Haley Joel Osment, yeah.
Ha!
This is the first time
anyone,
no one remembers Haley Joel Osment and everyone loves is the first time anyone no one remembers
Hailey Joel Osment
and everyone loves
Spencer Trait Clark
That's a pretty funny one
That's good
That's a good start
You started strong
Thanks
I'm gonna do that
Don't do that
Don't do that
I'll do different sound effects
Here's the second joke
You ready?
Okay
Knock back
Who's there?
David Dunn
David Dunn who?
David Dunn who?
I'm the only survivor
of a massive train crash
I'm fucking unbreakable.
All right.
Here's the third and final joke.
Get ready.
I hope it's a knockback joke.
This is another classic three-act structure here.
Yeah, perfect.
I'm unbreakable.
I'm unbreakable.
I'm unbreakable.
Knockback.
Who's it?
Mr. Glass.
Mr. Glass who?
Ah!
Open the door.
I just broke my hand from knocking because I'm Mr. Glass.
That was good. That was the best one. Great twist. You hand from knocking because I'm Mr. Glass. Na, na, na, na, na, na, na.
That was good.
That was the best one.
Great twist.
You got to finish strong.
Great twist.
Merchandise spotlight.
No.
No, I have thrilling news for our audience.
Okay, you got the Ray figure.
I found one.
Okay, good.
All right.
Now you can shut up about it.
You don't have to send me toys.
He's been trying to get this fucking Ray action figure.
I ordered off Amazon.
It was on stock at Amazon for like an hour.
I had an alert for when it went back in stock.
That is insanity.
Yep.
Toys.
Good thing I'm complete as a human being now.
Yeah, but how many Unbreakable toys do you own?
None.
Do they ever?
No.
No?
I would buy a Mr. Glass for $0, but I'd have one.
There's not like a 14-inch maquette of...
That's all I want.
I've looked for any fucking piece of merchandise.
All right, guys.
We got to wrap this up.
Thank you for listening.
It was wonderful to have Mr. Matt Patches.
Thanks.
Everyone read Thrillist.
Yeah, do that.
Thrillist is great.
Listen to Fighting in the War Room.
Check out Thrillist.com, man.
It's a thrill.
And there are lists.
Yeah, doing cool lists every day.
I click every day now
on those damn lists
you kids like lists right
the best kind of lists though
yeah
let's be honest
there's a lot of cheap lists
down the internet
no it's a good list
it's a thrill
yeah
next week
we will be covering
motion picture signs
with
Murph Meyer
and Diana Kolsky
yeah they're on board
of Ménage à Trois
yeah those two dirty birds
there's a couple dirty birds.
Spoiler alert, they've had sex.
They've had sex with each other.
That's enough of that.
And also some other people.
They're married and they have sex with each other.
All right, okay, okay.
This is not how I want to end this podcast.
Is there anything else?
No, I think we covered everything.
We're right there.
Keep reviewing, rating, subscribing.
Thanks for your support.
Thanks again to my mom and dad.
Keep sending in your suggestions for merchandise that you guys want.
We're setting up that shop.
We're setting up that shop.
Yes, please, please send in your fan fiction.
We're looking for people who are shipping David, myself, and Ben in any combination with any number of our guests.
Oh, God.
So if you have art, if you've written stories.
Can I write fanfiction about me
with you guys?
we're gonna turn it into a comic book
blankcheckpod
is it blankcheckpodcast at gmail.com?
blankcheckpodcast at gmail.com
blankcheckpod
on twitter
we do not have a myspace page yet
but we're working on it
we're waiting for approval.
Getting a lot of copyrights cleared.
Yeah.
You can download us on your Nokia N-Gage.
All right.
Anyway, thanks for listening, guys.
Thank you, Matt.
Thank you.
We're going to start releasing episodes on HitClips format,
so if you can get some HitClips.
And as always.
And as always.
I don't know.
They called you Mr. Glass. No, I was going to. They called you Mr. Boss.
No, I was going to say they called me Mr. Ass Films.
I was going to try to tie it back into the ass films thing,
but then I wondered if it was too much of a reason.
They called you Mr. Ass Films.
They called me Mr. Ass Films.
All right.
Thank you.
Go to www.assfilms.com.
No, it's 855.
But if you go to Ass Films, you might have more fun.
Stop!
This movie's about butts.
Stop!
Butt movie.