M Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable and Storyform

Greg · September 17, 2017, 10:24pm

Anyone remember Unbreakable?

After watching Split, I decided to put this one in again. This first thing that popped out was that Elijah (Sam Jackson’s character) had a problematic Universe with his brittle bone disease or whatever it was called.

That would put David (Bruce Willis’ character) in Mind. I’m thinking this is his “I’m just a regular guy” attitude.

I’m thinking the RS would be in Psychology and maybe trying to conceive of who/what they are (hero and nemesis).

But does anyone have any idea what the OS would be about? I kind of feel like it was missing (and maybe that’s why this one feels pretty slow compared to Sixth Sense or Signs), but should have maybe been about learning who was causing the various tragedies. Or maybe it could have been about Davids family learning something about him. I feel like the family and the tragedies were both maybe supposed to fill the OS throughline, but I don’t know that either quite did anything.

decastell · September 18, 2017, 1:41am

I somewhat dread jumping in here, but I’ve seen the movie a few times. Here’s what I got:

On one level, it feels like David’s MC throughline is situation “having super powers”, but I think you’re right that this seems more like the basis by which Elijah challenges him to change: Elijah’s situation is the brittle bones and he constantly pushes David about David’s own situation of having powers – that the two are inextricably linked. So, I’d agree that the IC is in Situation and the MC is in Fixed Attitude.
This is also reinforced by the way that David tries to adapt to his environment rather than changing it. His preference is not to do anything about it but just hide his abilities until that’s no longer possible. Only then does he begin to consider “fighting crime” (but even then, it’s a case of, “well, since I can’t stop having these powers, I guess I have to adapt and be the super hero everyone expects me to be.”)
It’s very clear that David is a change character (he finally accepts that he’s not a regular guy and must accept his powers and fight crime). Equally, Elijah never once wavers in his approach. Further reinforcing that Elijah is a “do-er” is the way he changes the environment (causing calamities in order to find his opposite).
The OS is there, but it’s not given prominence. It’s about fighting crime and saving people’s lives. In this case, there’s a lot of handoffs as we move between various criminal acts and David stopping them. By the latter half of the movie, we have the one serial killer guy and it’s a pretty straight up action movie.
The big question for me is what the concerns are. To me, there are two possibilities for the OS: Doing (because there’s a bunch of crashes and crimes but none of them are geared towards some final result like Obtaining would do) or Understanding (because it’s all about understanding what’s real and what’s not and whether super heroes and villains really exist). It’s definitely not Obtaining because, well, no one’s really trying to obtain anything or even kill someone as the goal. I also don’t think it’s about Gathering Information because it doesn’t seem like anyone’s really trying to find any secrets or information – it’s more about understanding what it all means.
That means the MC would either be in Impulsive Responses or in Memories. Impulsive Responses might theoretically work in that David seems to constantly be wrestling with this kind of visceral and immediate revulsion of the idea of being a super hero. That might be kind of weak, though. Memories feels better because it all stems from the memory of the car crash: that’s when his super strength revealed itself and he spent the next decades hiding it from everyone including himself.
This would put the RS in “Developing a Plan”, which doesn’t feel nearly as satisfying as “Playing a Role” (e.g. being a super hero or a villain) or “Conceiving an Idea” (e.g. finally getting the idea that such things are possible). However when I remember back to the film, the conflict between Elijah and David always comes up around making plans. Elijah tries to make some plan for David and he resists – the mere attempt to plan seems to pull them apart.
That would put the IC in “The Past”, which sure seems to fit Elijah. It’s all about what happened to him in the past, how it shaped him, how not being able to play outside meant he read comics which is where all his theories come from, and, ultimately, all the evil things he did in the past as he tried to find his “opposite” – that’s the big reveal at the end of the movie.

So, I could be wrong on all of that, of course, but that’s kind of how the four domains seem to play out to me.

Greg · September 18, 2017, 3:24am

I started with Elijah on this one, but went between thinking that Elijah clearly has a problematic Situation with his body, but that he seemed to be trying to influence David with his attitude about comics and heroes. I think Jim’s Article The Fugitive: When A Situation Isn’t A Situation is helpful and well-timed because I think it helps to see that Elijah isn’t trying to influence David from his situation of a broken body, but from his perspective of an unbalanced universe. I think that would include all the stuff about Elijah being at one end of the spectrum and looking for someone on the other end of it, the way he thinks comics are about real life, his broken body, and all of it. (i also think Elijah’s trying to influence David with his knowledge of comics feels more Psychological and Relational)

Yes, I think this is a good example of a switch not just from problem to solution, but also from Mind to Universe, as discussed in this thread.

I kind of thought maybe that’s what the story was going for, but I’m having trouble seeing a “they” perspective, at least one that is shown to be problematic. Ultimately I saw all of the criminals as being there strictly for David’s personal throughline. But then, that’s why I asked. To see how others see it.

I think all it would have taken for me to see this as a proper OS throughline would be something like this. When the news reports about the derailed train or the exploding jet or burning building are being shown, have a transition either to or from a report about a killer on the loose and a missing family. It’s not much, but it would have brought it out of just David’s throughline and into the Overall Story. At least for me.

Good explanation and I can see where you’re coming from. Since I didn’t really think there was much OS, I can’t really speak to this much. I’m not married to the idea that the OS should be in Learning because I didn’t look at the Concern level that much. But based on which way I was leaning in some of the other throughlines, I was looking at an OS Concern of learning. Like I said in the last post, I would have thought it would be about gathering information about who’s behind all the tragedies, or gathering info about who does or doesn’t have special abilities, or heck, even something closer to home for David. Gathering info about whether he was flirting with that woman on the train at the beginning (I was doing dishes during this part and don’t remember it much, but my wife made a comment that he was flirting with her).

I didn’t feel like David was hiding his strength. I didn’t feel like he really knew he had these super abilities. All he seemed to be hiding is that he wasn’t really hurt in the crash. He still assumed he could get sick or otherwise be injured so I’m not sure I like memories for him. Based on how I was initially looking at it, he would be in Conscious, or Contemplations. I would have said being conscious of his wife’s (at the time, his girlfriend) feeling about football, he used the opportunity of the crash to get out of playing football.

It might also be a problem that he’s never considered that he might have these abilities. Because he never considered that he was special, he got a job in security rather than being a straight out superhero. Because of that, he feels empty everyday until he starts acting as an actual superhero. [quote=“decastell, post:2, topic:1237”]
This would put the RS in “Developing a Plan”,
[/quote]

What had me looking at the lower right quadrant for Concerns was the relationship. One of Elijah’s last lines was something like “now that i’ve shown you who you are, I finally know who i am.” It was during the speech about how Elijah is David’s nemesis. That kind of retroactively put a spin on the whole relationship of figuring out who they are to each other. Are they random strangers? Are they friends? Enemies? Hero and Nemesis?

Prior to that point in the film I would have said that Elijah’s planning was largely to get David to conceive of himself as something special and David trying to get away from this line of thinking, thus driving them apart.

Looking at IC in Present, Elijah is always concerned with “am i going to get hurt if i do this…go down that staircase…whatever”. He’s also concerned with whether there is presently anyone else on the same spectrum as he, only on the other end.

All of my points above were just sharing my own initial thoughts on the movie. Not trying to argue or say your points were wrong. And definitely not trying to turn this into a sequel to the Captain America threads! That said, hope i didn’t justify any of your dread! Thanks for jumping in and sharing your thoughts!

Prish · September 18, 2017, 6:32am

If the Overall Story problem is Faith (thinking of Elijah), and MC is Fixed Attitude, that gives MC a be-er with two choices for OS concern: Obtaining or Changing One’s Nature. I agree that the OS is “not given prominence.” So, that is a broad brush stroke going on, which happens with some romances. Elijah and his setup seems to give a faith problem to the overall story, for me, leading him to target the mc. I wonder if the Elijah reveal has more to do with the OS than the MC/IC. Since the MC is change, the overall story and the MC throughline have a problem with faith.

OS problem of Faith = Elijah’s search in general
MC problem of Faith = MC faith in IC

just mulling things over, here

glennbecker · September 18, 2017, 5:14pm

I’ll try to watch the movie again tonight. I haven’t watched it in a few years, but …

Spoilers

Isn’t the Overall Story obscured for the sake of the twist ending at the end? The initial driver seems to be the train wreck that David Dunn walks away from in the beginning. The movie felt like it wraps up with with the reveal that Elijah was behind not just the train wreck, but also a myriad of other crimes in his quest to find another like himself.

Again, I’d have to watch it again before I could try to separate the throughlines. I think the domains are correct. My guess at concerns would be:

Main Character: Memory (the car crash with his wife, “Have I ever taken a sick day?”) The issues of lying to yourself, hiding from the truth, noticing the evidence (no scars, never being sick, lifting the weights), your son pointing on a gun at you on suspicion that you can walk away from being shot.

Influence Character: The Past (“They called me Mr. Glass”, being a collector of comic book art/historian of sorts, etc) Fate, prediction, interdiction (burning down buildings, causing train wrecks), and destiny seem to describe Elijah pretty well.

Relationship Story: Conceptualizing. As in, finding where you fit into the world. (Hero and Villain). I’d need to watch the movie again for examples.

Overall Story: Understanding. Need to watch the movie again, but having a goal of Understanding who is behind all these deadly catastrophes feels right to me.

My two cents.

glennbecker · September 19, 2017, 12:24am

Just realized I basically reiterated everything @decastell said. I wrote my thoughts without reading the full thread first. My bad, Sebastian.

Great minds?

Greg · September 19, 2017, 4:55am

Thanks for weighing in, @glennbecker. I’ve been thinking it over most of the day, but I just don’t see the quadrant you guys are seeing.

I’m not sure how the memory of the car crash is the source of the problem. He has a memory of something that was a problem, but I don’t think it was his memory that was the source of the problem.

I also don’t think he’s lying to himself. He thinks he’s a regular guy that can get hurt because he almost drowned as a child. He just lied to others about being hurt in the crash. I think because he considers himself an ordinary person, he doesn’t remember that he’s never been sick or injured. I wouldn’t say he is suspicious or has suspicions either. The weight lifting thing feels to me more like an Investigation or maybe a Reappraisal.

I could be wrong here, but I think if he had been lying to himself, or if he really knew he had super abilities, then pretending to be a regular person would have put him in Being, or Playing a Role.

For what it’s worth, the part about the kid threatening to shoot his father is finally giving me an idea of the OS. While David Dunn is the only one who finds a problem in his failure to see himself as special, everyone seems to be concerned with gathering information about whether he is a real life superhero or not. And someone trying to shoot you so they can show you that you are a hero seems like a clear way to gather information and is problematic if you think you will get hurt.

He doesn’t seem to recall being called Mr. Glass particularly fondly, but again, that doesn’t seem to be the source of the problem. Just a Signpost/journey within the problem. I don’t know that the film did a great job of expressing it, so i may be pulling from something not in the film, but I think the point of the disease was that it offered a constant ever-present threat. Not that it was something that caused a problem when he was a child only.

Burning down buildings and causing train wrecks didn’t look like an effort to change a predetermined course. I’m starting to see that as part of Gathering Info in the OS. “Is there anyone super on this plane? Nope. In this building? Nope. On this train? Yep.” I don’t see much Prediction for him.

I mostly just posted to try to get an idea of the OS, and the conversation about Concerns, even if we disagree on them, has led me to seeing an OS for the film. It’s still a very weak and under-represented throughline within the film, but at least I can see that it is there now. So thanks for that. I think the reason I was unable to see it before is because the storytelling for all four throughlines has them all tied together really tightly. With the OS being underplayed, it was hard to pull that thread loose.

On a side note, IF the goal is Learning then I think we have an IC Protagonist and an MC Antagonist.