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Unbreakable (2000)
272 Plays8 months ago
M. Night Shyamalan's Unbreakable was considered a disappointment when it was released, but that's because no one really knew that it was supposed to be a superhero movie. Bruce Alexander joins Perry to look back on this film and what it could have been if it were better marketed.
Visit Authentic Identity Management to learn more about Bruce's life coaching for ADHD adults.
Want to tell us what you think? Have any questions or comments for Perry about superheroes in media or comics? Leave a voice message to play on the show. You can also apply to be a guest on the show.
PARAGONS OF EARTH is a comic book project I’m developing with Thomas Deja and Eric Johns. You can support the project by visiting crowdfundr.com/paragonscomic.
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Transcript
Introduction to 'Paragons of Earth'
00:00:00
Speaker
Hey guys, before we get into the episode, I wanted to tell you a little bit about Paragons of Earth, the exciting new superhero comic I'm working on with Thomas DJ and Eric Johns. For this comic, we've unearthed a number of obscure and forgotten Golden Age superheroes, plucked them from the depths of the public domain, and completely redesigned and reinvented them for the modern day. It's an exciting cast of characters, and we're throwing them up against the threat of a Lovecraftian apocalypse.
00:00:24
Speaker
It's got action, it's got drama, it's got alternate dimensions and alien worlds, and it's even got a giant shark and Hawaiian shirt. What else could you want? But in order to make this comic a reality, we need your help. The comic is crowdfunding now, and you can help support it by going to crowdfunder.com slash paragonscomic.
00:00:42
Speaker
That's Crowdfunder Without the E dot com slash Paragons Comic. You'll be able to find that link in the show notes, so please double check if you didn't quite get it. Please help make this comic a reality. We are counting on
Personal Stories and Health Challenges
00:00:54
Speaker
your support. And now, on with the show.
00:01:11
Speaker
How certain are you that you've never taken ill? 75%. Well, that's not certain at all, is it? It's hole number one. I'm going to be extremely skeptical about all this. About all what? I'm assuming you've never been injured. Would I be wrong in that assumption? Dad's been injured. Is the child correct?
00:01:41
Speaker
Yes, sir. In college, I was in a car accident. Was it serious? He couldn't play football anymore. That's hole number two. That's a big one. Mr. Price, can we talk about the note that you left on my car?
Comics as Cultural History
00:02:03
Speaker
I've studied the form of comics intimately. I spent a third of my life in a hospital bed with nothing else to do but read.
00:02:12
Speaker
I believe comics are our last link to an ancient way of passing on history. The Egyptians drew on walls. Countries all over the world still pass on knowledge through pictorial forms. I believe comics are a form of history that someone, somewhere, felt or experienced. Then, of course, those experiences and that history got chewed up in the commercial machine, got jazzed up, made titillating cartoon for the sale rat.
00:02:40
Speaker
This city has seen its share of disasters. I watched the aftermath of that plane crash. I watched the carnage of the hotel fire. I watched the news waiting to hear a very specific combination of words, but they never came. Then one day I saw a news story about a train accident, and I heard them. There is a sole survivor, and he is miraculously unarmed.
00:03:11
Speaker
I have something called osteogenesis imperfecta. It's a genetic disorder. I don't make a particular protein very well, and it makes my bones very low in density, very easy to break. I've had 54 breaks in my life, and I have the tamest version of this disorder, type one. There are type two, type three, type four. Type fours don't last very long. So that's how it popped into my head.
00:03:42
Speaker
If there is someone like me in the world, and I'm at one end of the spectrum, couldn't there be someone else the opposite of me at the other end? Someone who doesn't get sick, who doesn't get hurt like the rest of us? And he probably doesn't even know it. The kind of person these stories are about. A person put here to protect the rest of us, to guard us.
00:04:16
Speaker
Welcome to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast.
Bruce's Journey as an ADHD Coach
00:04:18
Speaker
I'm your host, Perry Constantine, and welcome to a new guest today, and that is Bruce Alexander. Bruce, how are you doing today? I'm doing so well, Perry. Sorry, my camera just decided to fall down. I'm doing very well besides that. Well, luckily, it's audio only, so only I can see it, so we don't have to worry about anyone else. But anyway, why don't you tell people a little bit about yourself?
00:04:44
Speaker
Sure. So I go by Coach Bruce. I am a life coach who specializes specifically in helping ADHD men who struggle to show up as themselves in this life. The reason why I focus on that so specifically is because I am an ADHD man who struggled really, really hard with showing up as myself in the life that I was living.
00:05:09
Speaker
um I was a firefighter for almost 10 years uh like career firefighter it's a very serious job it's one that um people generally take very seriously and I did as well I love the job I love helping people but the the culture is a very masculine toxic culture that I was uh I did not fit very well in and unfortunately due to that I kept trying to
00:05:38
Speaker
Modify who I was who I was showing up as every day to try to make myself somebody that these people would like right I Don't know if this will surprise you it did me it did not work I was I was you know Confounded by the fact that I was trying so hard to make these guys like me and it was not working and
00:06:01
Speaker
Well, the reason is that when you create this avatar of yourself based off of assumptions, I was assuming all these things that these people were thinking about me, and every assumption that I made created a modification of me as a person that became harder and harder to keep up with.
00:06:26
Speaker
It became harder and harder to actually know what this version of myself would do as opposed to this other version of myself as opposed to this other version of myself. Whenever you're creating several different versions of yourself to show up in any given situation or talk to any different person, it's like trying to keep up with the web of lies. Eventually you're going to get caught in it. That's what happened to me is I came to a head where I was
00:06:54
Speaker
I'm not saying that this is completely my fault. The culture was toxic. It was a place that was very difficult to work for. And if you have any sort of different thinking process in this field, it's going to be a struggle for you. But had I known what I know now, I would have known that there are ways to try to mitigate that some by
00:07:17
Speaker
learning how to, for one, define your core values and beliefs and live in a way that honors them at all times. I didn't have that. I didn't have any kind of playbook. I didn't have any kind of blueprint. I didn't have anything to fall back on whenever I started to get stressed or whenever I was tried or whenever I felt scared or whenever I was anxious. I had nothing.
00:07:40
Speaker
And what happened was i just started to inhale mary's and guessing and you know it's like if i do this maybe that'll work right. You know more than not it didn't actually just come out of the problem to where it was this the self-feeding cycle of if i make this adjustment.
00:07:58
Speaker
they'll it'll help but it actually and you know in reality it didn't help it hurt and it forced me to make another decision like that down the road and keep building up and building up until it was at a point where i no longer recognize the person who was walking out in the world who claimed to be me right that wasn't that wasn't bruce anymore that was this made-up character
00:08:23
Speaker
who had no foundation, who had no guiding light, who had no rule book. And whenever I started to do things that didn't actually align with my values at all, like not even close, I started to, you know, I was unfaithful to my wife at one point. I started to like, you know, be a 40 person and not a good father and lots of good, like lots of these different things because I didn't have any foundation. Right.
00:08:53
Speaker
my wife noticed. Once again, not surprisingly, she's not a dumb woman. She'd noticed before, but like this time it became to a point where I was behaving so differently than who I'd claimed to be that she said, you need to figure it out. Are you going to be figuring it out by yourself?
00:09:09
Speaker
And her laying it out in that way, we've had lots of fights in the past and it was like, we should just get divorced. That stuff gets thrown around. This was serious. She was stone cold calm. She was worried about me. She said, you need to figure this out or you're gonna be by yourself. Everything that I knew and loved was my family, my kids, my wife. It was gonna be all gone.
00:09:35
Speaker
And so I did the work. This time, it was enough. It was rock bottom. I was terrified. I was going to lose everything. And I was positive about it. If I didn't change, I was positive. Not if I didn't change, if I didn't get back to who I actually was, I was going to lose everything. And so I did the work. I started to really do deep self-work and dig into my history and my trauma and figure out what was going on with me.
00:10:05
Speaker
to where I was acting so mismatched with what I actually believed in. And in that work, I found purpose. I found that there is something inside of me that went through all of this stuff so I could be called to help people who are going through this stuff.
00:10:27
Speaker
Like I didn't go through all this for no reason. I mean, it made me a stronger man, a better person, but there's more than that. There are people who are struggling with exactly what I'm struggling with right now for the exact same reasons. And I can tell them exactly how to get like step by step, how to get there, and I can be there to support them and help them through that.
00:10:46
Speaker
If I can just find them and they'll let me like that's, you know, that's the whole thing is you have to find the people who need your help and they have to also accept you to help them. And that's what I'm being called to do right now. So right now I'm, I'm gonna push my wife and I had a conversation yesterday morning. So you caught me at a
00:11:02
Speaker
an exciting time you can call it because an obstacle is nothing but an opportunity. My wife told me that we have like I've been like away from the fire department for every year now and I've been working on building my own business. We are at a point to where the savings are dried up. I've got 30 days to make this business sustainable or I've got to go find a job. That's you know 30 days period if that's it.
00:11:26
Speaker
Um, so I am currently journaling these 30 days like on like I'm doing lives every night going live at uh Sorry at 6 p.m central every central time america every night to
00:11:41
Speaker
to chronicle this experience of boom or bust. If nothing else, I'm gonna pour as much value into the community that I can find and give them everything that I've learned so far, free of charge, because I know that I was built to share these things with my people and help them get out of the situations that they're in and to engage in life more fully and to find radical self-acceptance and to live the life that they were meant to leave and find purpose and all the things I've found.
00:12:09
Speaker
I am positive that's what I'm supposed to be doing right now. I just hope that it's not only for 29 more days. I hope it's for the rest of my life.
Resources and Support for ADHD
00:12:18
Speaker
I hope that I can make it sustainable so I can do it forever. But it might just be I was meant to do it for a season and then it's time to go back to work. But I'm going to pour everything I've got into it for the next 29 days.
00:12:30
Speaker
Anyways, so you can follow along that journey. You can you can go to Facebook, Instagram or Twitter. I'm sorry, Facebook, Instagram or Twitch and YouTube. I'm going to be streaming live on all those every night at 6 p.m. Central. And you can at authentic Bruce is my Twitch, my I'm sorry, my Twitch, my YouTube and
00:12:58
Speaker
And then my ad-authentic identity management is my Facebook. And I'm also doing an Instagram ad-authentic identity management, but that's like, I can't actually stream like this to the Instagram platform because it doesn't work that way. So it's like a side stream that I'm still doing.
00:13:16
Speaker
I'm trying to get out there everywhere. If you are an ADHD man or you know an ADHD man, tell them that Coach Bruce is looking for them and I want to help you for free. I am going to give you as much value as I can in these next 29 days and you don't have to buy a single thing for me. I want to help. I want to help people.
00:13:39
Speaker
I want to get out there as somebody who has got the information to get you from point A to point B without having to swim through the sea of despair I did. I want to build a bridge for those people so they can just walk over and do it much faster without near as much pain because I already did it for them.
00:13:56
Speaker
So that is that you can do that. You can also check out my website, www.authenticidentiemanagement.com, where you can learn more about me, Coach Bruce. You can also get my three free resources there, which is a five step blueprint for ADHD unmasking, a seven step ebook about how you are ruining your life by pretending.
00:14:19
Speaker
And then I've also got an authentic assessment that will let you know what our compatibility is to work together as coach and coachy. So those are all available on my website. And I would love for people to go in there and check those free resources out because I honestly feel like they are valuable, they are helpful if you take the information and if you implement it.
00:14:40
Speaker
Like, it's not a magic pill. You're not just gonna swallow it and things are gonna get better. You have to do the work. But if you actually take those steps that I'm giving you and you do the work, you're going to see an immediate difference. An immediate difference in the way that you interact with your life. On my livestream tonight, my client called in. His name is Drew. He's also one of my best friends. And we've been doing, we're going into our fourth week of coaching this week. And he said that he is already seeing
00:15:09
Speaker
the transformation in the way that his mind works from working with me. And that was the best thing I could possibly hear. If you'd have said, like, I'm fixed already, then I would have said, oh, we need to have a lot more work to do because we're not here to fix anybody. Like, we are looking for self-acceptance, embracing ourselves where we are, saying, like, I'm this. I'm an alcoholic. I drink too much.
00:15:37
Speaker
mean to my kids, whatever. Whatever all the things that you're doing are, we're about saying that's where you're at right now and that's okay. Let's work together to grow and get better. You deserve a better future than to continue in those same patterns. Nobody deserves to hate themselves every morning when they wake up.
00:15:58
Speaker
So, I want to help people fight through that and find radical self-acceptance. And so, those free resources on the website also, I have a podcast as well, is Authentic Identity Management. And on that podcast, I have people on, you know, similar to you, and we talk about their journeys towards authenticity.
00:16:20
Speaker
Some people are like I've had people who are CEOs and people who are my most recent guest whose episode drops on Thursday. She is a play educator who works in a nature reserve and she is like probably the the biggest quote-unquote hippie I know but she is one of the best people I've ever met in my entire life and her story is so very interesting
00:16:45
Speaker
And her approach to life is so different than mine, but it's so enlightening to hear those kinds of stories of people who are doing it their own way. They're being true to themselves, and they are finding massive success and luck. So that's what my show is about. And I love doing those interviews. It's really fun. It's really enlightening. And unfortunately, it's not a viable business model at this moment. So I've got to find my tribe so I can
00:17:12
Speaker
you know, start speaking to the people who need to hear me. So, you know, they can find value in what I'm doing and eventually they will value me enough to, you know, to invest in me.
00:17:24
Speaker
All right, well, so we'll have links to all that stuff in the show notes so people can go check those out.
Discussion on 'Unbreakable' Marketing and Impact
00:17:31
Speaker
But next question I want to ask you is, you know, we are a superhero film podcast. So we talk about superheroes and what is kind of your history with superheroes? I would say I've got a pretty storied history with superheroes. I've been a fan of comic books for as long as I can remember.
00:17:51
Speaker
Um, man, me and my brother used to walk to the comic book store, um, and the comic book store where we buy either cards or comics. And we did that from the time I was.
00:18:03
Speaker
probably I can think of being eight years old and walking to the you know the comic book store and even before that my my dad used to take us so like I've probably been reading comic books since I was like six or seven years old and I've always had a enormous love for the comic book culture and for superheroes
00:18:24
Speaker
I'm not one of those people who are like, I've always pulled for the villain. I'm not that guy. I love a good superhero. I'm a total sap, but I also like a little bit of an antihero as well. My name is Bruce Wayne, so Batman has always been pretty high up on my list. Big fan of him.
00:18:44
Speaker
I wouldn't say that Batman's my favorite. I kind of jump around with a few. Wolverine has always been really high up there for me. When I was really young, Puck from Alpha Flight, who actually kind of reminds me of you, which is funny, was one of my favorite superheroes for a long time. And I've always liked the Incredible Hulk as well. So I've always liked people.
00:19:10
Speaker
who were, I guess, a little bit anti-social. I think that's a common thread between all of those. They're intelligent in their own way. They do things their own way. They don't need people to survive. Logan will go on his own for years, decades at a time if he wants to, and he's perfectly okay with that. That's just how he gets down. That's kind of how I was for a lot of my life, and so I always kind of connected with that.
00:19:40
Speaker
As far as the movie culture, as soon as they started making superhero movies that I was old enough to see them, we were seeing them. My dad was always big on taking us to the movies, so we always went and saw whatever the new... I remember seeing the... Oh my gosh.
00:20:02
Speaker
Michael Keaton, Batman. I was way too young to be watching that, but I still loved it. I've just been a big fan of superheroes for as long as I can think of. Okay, awesome, very cool. And so you said you had gotten started into comics. So if you remember, what comic characters were kind of like the first ones that you became really interested in?
00:20:30
Speaker
first ones. I think the X-Men were probably the first strong
00:20:41
Speaker
character set that I you know before I was like kind of jumping around and just like reading that right get my hands on but I read that X-Men were kind of They kind of really stuck out for me. I actually had this really old like 1970 something X-Men where you know, it's like the Beast and like this blue and yellow costume with his like, you know regular human toes that were just massive and
00:21:06
Speaker
And I was like, that was like, Oh, this is so cool. And the X-Men were probably the strongest for a while. And then like, I got into Superman a little bit later, whenever, like, after the death of Superman, like, that was like a formative time in my
00:21:22
Speaker
My comic book culture cuz he was reborn and they had the four different covers of the right of call and man of steel and i was like i gotta have all these i need to i need to get into all of this i thought i was so cool they remade a character that had been around since the beginning of comic books and.
00:21:41
Speaker
they just completely re-envisioned it. And I didn't stay up with it too long, but I always liked the re-envisioning of characters, like the 2099 series, like Spider-Man 2099, X-Men 2099, the Hulk, I loved those. I went deep and I had the first five or six of several of those different 2099 series somewhere in an unknown location.
00:22:08
Speaker
My wife doesn't think they're important, so she keeps just putting them wherever. And yeah, I just always like the re-envisioning of superheroes. Same goes with movies when they remade Batman and Christopher Nolan did that. That was my favorite take. To me, it blew all the other ones out of the water, even the comic book ones. And I really enjoyed several Batman comics, but to me, Christopher Nolan's Batman was like, it was it.
00:22:36
Speaker
And now, as much as I throw hissy fits about them recasting Batman and redoing it, I watch it every time and I'm just, I'm floored by the remake. I'm just like, they did it again and it's still interesting.
00:22:53
Speaker
You know, even though I was like, Ben, I feel like how dare you? Damn, he was good. Robert Pattinson, what are you thinking? Damn, he was good. Like, you know, I had they obviously know what they're doing with Batman. Now, everything else I can't say that they do, but with Batman, they they know how how to cast him and how to build that character. And I think that's partly a testament to how how flushed out he is and all the different comic book versions that there's so much there's so much to work from there.
00:23:20
Speaker
Right. Okay, very cool. Now, today we are talking about a different kind of superhero movie, and that is Unbreakable, which a 2000 film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. And this was like his big follow-up to The Sixth Sense after he hit it really big with that. And one of the interesting things about this and something Shyamalan talked about, because I don't know if you remember what
00:23:50
Speaker
like when the trailers for this were still coming out. But I do remember seeing like trailers for it and stuff like that and thinking that, oh, it's just another like psychological thriller he's doing. So yeah, maybe I'll get around to seeing it someday. And then afterwards, I heard a lot of people on like message boards and things like that saying like, wow, this is like the best superhero film ever made. I'm like, wait, wait, it's a superhero film? I had no idea about any of that. And then so that's what first got me interested in it. So like right off the bat, the marketing
00:24:19
Speaker
They marketed this in the complete wrong way because the the studio wanted to bank on the six cents success They wanted to promote the fact that this is Shyamalan's next psychological thriller and Shyamalan he's like I didn't want to advertise it like that. I wanted to advertise it as a superhero movie, but the studio really yeah Yeah, he wanted to advertise this as a superhero movie But the studio is like no no no we have to we have to advertise it as a psychological thriller because that's what you're popular about now
00:24:49
Speaker
See that's funny because I actually thought that was part of the draw to it was that it was you weren't expecting it to be like I rewatched with my kids this week and I didn't tell them it was a superhero movie. They were like well what is it about? And I was like it's about a guy who is like living a very regular life and isn't really happy with it and then something amazing happens to him.
00:25:08
Speaker
And they're like that's not you're not telling us anything I was like, that's what I got whenever they market it and that's what you get to know too Like that's all I'm giving you and they were like whatever and then they enjoyed the movie. They loved it Yeah, and so I think it was they know that kind of like setting that low bar and then especially back then superhero movies were something that there were oh Yeah, there was a lot that came with that and it was like, you know
00:25:32
Speaker
wasn't a great time to be a superhero movie because it was like either you know boom or bust like either is this like massive success or was a huge like money-wasting flop right
00:25:42
Speaker
So I thought that he did on purpose. No, no, no. But I think what you just said there kind of highlights the studio's anxiety about doing it that way because they, yeah, the biggest, yeah, you had something like Blade, but Blade wasn't advertised as a superhero movie. It was advertised as like this martial arts vampire film. So nobody who, unless you were a comics fan, nobody going into Blade knew that Blade was a superhero. And I think,
00:26:11
Speaker
They had kind of a X-Men just came out like the summer before this. So it wasn't an X-Men was probably like the first superhero movie that was actually, you know, a superhero movie that really kind of hit it big in the in the modern age. Everyone talks about Blade, but that was an advertised as a superhero film. And that was kind of and so when the time
00:26:33
Speaker
they would have still had the thinking like, okay, maybe X-Men is just a fluke. We can't jump on the superhero train yet. Let's just advertise this as a psychological throw. I think that's exactly what they were thinking when Shyamalan said he wanted to advertise it as a superhero movie. It's funny that you mentioned Blade. Blade was one of those movies for me that was like a game changer. I thought it was so freaking cool. I knew, I knew like, you know, I've been to the comic book culture. I knew that he was a comic book character. Right. And are you okay?
00:27:04
Speaker
Yeah, so yeah, it was this game changing movie. It's like I knew it was a like I'd read about Blade. I thought he was cool. But seeing Wesley Snipes, who at the time was he was a megastar. He was he was like, he couldn't miss. And so I'd watched at that point, I think he released Pastor 57. And it wasn't one of the subway. It was like,
00:27:28
Speaker
I don't know that there's also, I don't know that one, but I do know there's also Demolition Man with, he did with Salome. Demolition Man, which is a low key banger. I've watched Demolition Man no less than 30 times in my life. And as much as it doesn't hold up culturally, it actually makes it funnier, which is great because there's no...
00:27:49
Speaker
Yeah, I don't think it has this comedy component. Yeah. Perfect. I don't think they're really intending it to kind of be remembered as like a comedy, but it is more of a look at as a comedy these days.
00:27:59
Speaker
I mean, what's lucky is Rob Schneider's in it, so it actually makes sense. It's like, well, there's this big comedian in it. And Wesley Snipes has done this funny movie, like White Men Can't Jump and another couple of other funny movies. So it's, you know, he's not not known for that. So it doesn't even seem like it was just like hugely inappropriate movie when it was made that, you know, it actually just seems like it was supposed to be funny.
00:28:20
Speaker
Yeah. So, yeah, having him do this superhero movie was kind of like setting the stage for all the things that are happening now. Oh, yeah. You've got these massive stars, you know, waiting for that Marvel call. And if he hadn't done that, I don't know that it would have been the way that it if the temperature would have been as warm as it is for those people to do it now. Yeah.
00:28:46
Speaker
No, yeah, I think this was a big shift in what people thought about with superhero movies, right? Because up until this, the image that most people would have in their head, at least the freshest image, would be like the Joel Schumacher Batman films, which can be fun in their own way, but that's not what you'd call a serious superhero movie. Which one was Joel Schumacher's last? He didn't do
00:29:13
Speaker
Do you, Batman and Robin? Yeah, yeah, he did Batman Forever and Batman and Robin. God, that's terrible. I will say, Batman and Robin holds up better if you look at it as a 90s take on Batman 66. Okay, and I will also say that Batman and Robin was, it was better whenever it came out than Batman Forever. Batman Forever was just never really good. Yeah, I still can't- And Robin was like, it was good at the time.
00:29:41
Speaker
Yeah, I still can't cop to Batman. I can find things to like about Batman and Robin, but Batman Forever, I maintain now, is the worst of that original series. Yes, I agree. And so when this came out, nobody really knew what it was at the time because of that poor marketing campaign. So it wasn't very successful at the time. And at first, a lot of people were like, oh, it's not like the Sixth Sense. It's not that good. And then over time, I think people have started to
00:30:11
Speaker
Develop new opinions about this movie as they kind of as the public becomes more familiar with superheroes I'm sure that you're pretty familiar with in night Shyamalan as a whole like
00:30:23
Speaker
Like it's both a gift and a curse to be an M. Night Shyamalan movie because it's automatically held to this like extremely high critically
Casting and Storytelling in 'Unbreakable'
00:30:33
Speaker
acclaimed standard whilst also it's being expected to be like the thing that he did that hit recently before it. You know, the next thing after science was supposed to be like science too and it wasn't. I think was the village after science? I believe so.
00:30:50
Speaker
So the village and signs were not the same. They both were kind of both spooky, but that's the only comparison that there was. They were not even close. But I think once you just trust that M. Night Shyamalan is gonna deliver a good movie, that if you don't expect what it is, that's whenever you get gold. Because the dude is one of the most original thinkers in Hollywood who is constantly trying to do something
00:31:19
Speaker
different than what's out there. Lady in the Water was one of my favorite movies for a long time. That's what it's called, right? Yeah, Lady in the Water, yeah. Okay. I haven't seen it in a long time, but whenever it came out, I watched it like 50 times. It had a great cast. He's been really good at making sure that the cast of characters supports the script. I really feel like he hit his stride with that.
00:31:47
Speaker
with Unbreakable. Like, I think that, you know, I'd like the sixth sense, like, Hey, Joe Osman's a little kid, but he did a great job. Bruce Willis, same. And I feel like, you know, he
00:31:58
Speaker
I don't know if they were perfect for the characters that they played, but they did a really good job. In Unbreakable, I feel like he cast everybody. I know that he didn't do the casting, but I'm sure that he wrote the characters and made sure that people who could play them were in the exact perfect roles. Nobody else could have been Mr. Glass the way Samuel L. Jackson was. And then also doing it for 20 years.
00:32:25
Speaker
Yeah, so you are obviously a much bigger Shyamalan fan than I am. My whole thing about him is, I think Unbreakable is definitely my favorite movie of his. And I haven't seen a lot of his more recent stuff. I never saw From Lady in the Water on until about, on I haven't really seen any of his stuff, except for Glass and Split. Other than that, I haven't seen any of the other stuff he's done in the past.
00:32:53
Speaker
Ooh, almost 20 years, actually. Yeah, last one I saw is the village, almost 20 years it's been.
00:32:58
Speaker
Wow. So I mean, I don't know that I can speak to everything. So I'm not really good with time. So I'm having trouble remembering what was after Lady in the Water. So there was Lady in the Water, then the Happening, the Last Airbender, After Earth, the Visit, Split, Glass, Old, and then Knock at the Cabin, which I don't think has come out yet. I think it's coming out later this month, maybe.
00:33:26
Speaker
So old, I've seen all of those except for old and knock at the cabin because I kind of stopped watching terrifying movies whenever I turned, I think whenever I hit about 27 or so, I was just like, why am I doing this to myself? So we only watch scary movies in October in my house now, you know, for the Halloween stuff for us here in America. But I'd seen all the other ones and
00:33:50
Speaker
You know, the same thing holds true is that he's going to deliver something different than what is out there. It's going to be different than what's expected. It's going to have a strong cast of characters. And sometimes you have to suspend disbelief, like with the happening. You have to you have to be willing to like just buy into the premise of the movie. And then once you can do that, then it's a great movie. But if you if you stay a skeptic, then that movie is not going to be enjoyable for you because there's going to be this one big piece of the premise that if you don't accept it,
00:34:19
Speaker
then it's just like you're not actually able to enjoy the movie. That's just what I've noticed and I've always been good at just buying it and also separating myself from my first reaction and going back and watching it again with his movie specifically because I trusted he was going for something and if I didn't get it, I assumed that I was trying to make the
00:34:41
Speaker
The thing that I thought was going to happen be the thing he was going for i'm like damn it So let me watch it again and see what see what it was actually about Usually it's i've been happy with it. Um, I i've only watched uh glass once and that's that was an accident the last airbender was It was unfortunate because the last airbender is one of my favorite all-time cartoon series and so
00:35:07
Speaker
It wasn't bad, it just wasn't the Avatar cartoon. It was too close, but not close enough. I wish he'd gone a more M. Night Shyamalan type path and done something different with it, or waited five years for the CGI to catch up and be able to do some really amazing things. It's pretty good, but it's just not there yet. There's supposed to be a new Netflix version coming out.
00:35:35
Speaker
Any day now. Oh, really? It's supposed to be live action. Oh, yeah. Yeah. The new avatar. Yes. Yes. That's true. Yeah. Yeah. That one seems to be I've only seen a little bit of the of the animated show, but I know I've got I've got friends who are big fans of it and they're really looking forward to that. How are you not like how they have your friends allowed this?
00:35:54
Speaker
Well, I just missed the boat on it because that came out, I think, around the time I was moving to Japan. So I wasn't able to keep up with a lot of TV shows that I wasn't already familiar with to begin with.
00:36:07
Speaker
Well, here's the thing. I rewatched it about six, eight months ago and it holds up. It's still good. It's on Netflix and it's, you know, a great binge watching show. And then once you finish that, you can hit up the Legend of Katara. I'm gonna say it wrong again. Legend of Korra. Yeah, the Legend of Korra. I always want to say Katara because that's her grandma. But the Legend of Korra, and that's another great show. Very different, but it's also similar in all the good ways.
00:36:35
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. But as far as Shyamalan's films go, one of the things I like about this one compared to a lot of his other movies that I've seen is the twist here. Because the whole thing about him is his twist endings that he likes to throw in. But I think what works about Unbreakable, for me, for example, with The Sixth Sense, my feeling on that is that once I know the twist, when I go back and rewatch The Sixth Sense, I'm not that interested in it. The twist was really kind of like,
00:37:04
Speaker
the big thing that had me going with that movie. But whereas Unbreakable, I think it's a much stronger story. So even once you know the twist is coming, the story is still satisfying, even with that knowledge. So watching this on the second or third viewing, I actually enjoy it more as opposed to the first viewing, which most of his films, I'll enjoy it the first time, usually because of the twist. But here it was more about the characters and the twist was
00:37:33
Speaker
felt more organic to this. And I think that also is kind of attributed to the same thing I said about M. Night Shyamalan films is that his blessing is also his curse and that in the sixth sense the twist was so good and it was so surprising that it dwarfed the quality of the rest of the movie. Yes.
00:37:53
Speaker
So once you were just knocked off your feet by that twist, there's no way you could go back to the beginning of the movie because it doesn't measure up. And because it was, dude, I remember just being gobsmacked whenever that twist happened. I was like, holy crap. And so in this twist, I don't feel like it's nearly as big. It's more of a subtle twist. And there's a couple of twists also.
00:38:20
Speaker
So what is what is your view on spoilers in the show? We're just gonna just yeah Yeah, this is this movie is 23 years old. I don't think we're gonna be Surprising anybody like if anybody was waiting 22 23 years to see this movie I don't think they're that much invested in whether or not it gets spoiled
00:38:40
Speaker
That's a good point. Um, so like, you know, I feel like there was the initial twist of like, Oh wait, he never actually has been injured. And, uh, he's, you know, this dude is actually a superhero, like cool. But then the final twist that, uh, everything that had proven that he was a superhero was created by Elijah try becoming a super villain, trying to find his antithesis. Yeah. That was like a really great twist, but it was,
00:39:12
Speaker
foreseeable Had you thought about it? Like so it wasn't like I never could have figured that I was like damn I should have figured that out. Mm-hmm But you know, he did a good job of like, you know kind of playing it to where it's like you just didn't think about it So I think that's like the the twist like the twist extremity to Rest of the watchable movie is like a ratio. It's like as soon as that twist gets way up here It makes the rest of the movie just kind of like garbage compared to it. This one was like a nice
00:39:33
Speaker
It was pretty...
00:39:41
Speaker
you know a couple of nice subtle twists that were pretty you know pretty good and then it makes the rest of the movie good still and also like you know Bruce Willis is he's uh he's meant to be a superhero and the fact that this is the best vert like the closest we get to him being like a full-out superhero is it's kind of it's kind of a little bit of a travesty because you know he could have been
00:40:04
Speaker
you know i don't know like i can't say that he would actually been thor but he could have been some huge superhero by his presence like the way that he you know he was actually like the the first real action hero that like i know well you know and die hard and
00:40:22
Speaker
There's another one called hostage if you've ever seen never seen that one, that's a really good movie Which Bruce Willis is? Superhero esque in the way that he does things like he's basically the Punisher. He's just They just don't call him a superhero Punisher is well, then some people call him a superhero Some people just say that he just exists in the superhero universe, right? Yeah, so
00:40:46
Speaker
I do appreciate that he was able to get this and do such a great job with it, but I also think that he could have been many other kinds of superheroes, but he was probably too short and too bald.
80s Action Films and Superhero Themes
00:40:59
Speaker
Yeah, I think you could actually make an argument for a lot of those 80s action movies. You could make an argument that they are superhero movies of a kind. I mean, there's some that definitely crossed that line, like Robocop, I think would definitely qualify as more of a superhero film.
00:41:16
Speaker
Other ones like you've got these characters who are superhuman esque, they're usually have these really great physiques. And, you know, they're able to survive all these, you know, impossible situations. So yeah, there's a definite argument to be made that a lot of those, you know, high octane action thrillers are more like superhero movies.
00:41:36
Speaker
And what I like about this is how it, and you know, we talk a lot about, there's a lot of talk about, you know, making superheroes realistic, make them fit into a real world type setting. And, you know, different attempts like it, like you mentioned the Nolan Batman films, those were an attempt to kind of have Batman in the real world. The Matt Reeves films too, also it's more of like this attempt to have like this grounded version of Batman.
00:42:00
Speaker
And one of the things my late co-hosts would say about the Nolan films is that in trying to make a realistic Batman movie, they just proved that Batman doesn't make sense in the real world. And I think you look at those movies, and they are good. I enjoy them a lot, but it never makes me feel like this could happen in the real world. But something like this, it's
00:42:22
Speaker
it's so grounded in reality and it's the the things he's able to that both him and and glass are able to do it's like it's just short of like the it falls right below that line of suspension of disbelief it doesn't cross over to it because you know for example when you're in um
00:42:44
Speaker
If you're in a Marvel movie, for example, you know that your suspension of disbelief meter is very high for that. You have no expectation that this could ever work in the real world. But something like, you know, the Dark Knight or the Batman, it goes just past that line. It's like, oh, it's so close to reality, but it still doesn't feel like this could be real. This, though, it feels like it could be real, like these, you know, 1000%. Yeah.
00:43:12
Speaker
What Mr. Glass says is like, you know, it's it's as simple as instinct. Like, you know, something that we've, you know, him being able to bump into somebody and see what's in them. It's like it's just a hyper
00:43:26
Speaker
like a hyperdeveloped instinct. And I was like, Oh, and his strength is just like a hyperdeveloped strength is not he's like, honestly, what he was benching, I push up more than that. I mean, I haven't been working out for the last couple months, but I was, you know, he topped out at 325 or 350.
00:43:43
Speaker
I was pushing out, you know, almost 400 pounds whenever I was lifting a lot. So that's not like it's not that much. But for somebody who's never really exercised or never really worked out in the bodybuilders, it's pretty amazing. So imagine if he was training to be strong.
00:44:00
Speaker
Imagine the possibility that exists within that man if he were to actually be working to make himself a superhero. That seems so realistic. Just untapped potential because for one, he didn't know. And for two, he lied to himself so well, which is funny. That's part of the reason why I chose the movie.
00:44:21
Speaker
is because it kind of parallels the life that people lead that I'm trying to coach against, is that he was asleep to his real purpose because he'd been lying to himself about what really happened in that car wreck. He wanted to get away from the life he was leading, so he just lied to himself.
00:44:39
Speaker
Yeah. And that's what I did before I started to live my authentic life. And I was like, dude, this movie has a lot of parallels. And then once somebody came along and woke him up to it, all of a sudden all this strength that was going untapped became unleashed.
00:44:55
Speaker
And I think also so cool. Yeah, it could also, you know, similar to that.
Finding Purpose in 'Unbreakable'
00:44:59
Speaker
What I was thinking when you were talking about that too, is it could also work as like a metaphor for, you know, dealing with a midlife crisis. Because he's got this situation where, you know, he's on the verge of a divorce, he he's thinking about, you know, changing careers, finding something, he his life is not fulfilling, basically. And he's trying and he is going through that kind of midlife crisis, I think, like when he's on the train,
00:45:21
Speaker
at the beginning of the movie and he's flirting with that passenger. When he takes that ring off his finger. He takes the ring off right at the start, yeah. That to me was the exact thing that I'm talking about. I was like, oh, what is... Dude, he's just completely forsaking everything. He's literally taking his vow off of his finger and putting it in his pocket so he can pretend like he's somebody else. Right, yeah.
00:45:47
Speaker
But yeah, and that goes to like, goes to what you were saying, also goes to this idea of him having like this midlife crisis, right? He's trying to chase younger women, he's trying to chase better opportunities. And, you know, he doesn't feel connected to his family really at all. And then as he goes through this movie, as he discovers what his real purpose is, right, going through the, you know, trying to handle the crisis in a healthy way, in a productive way,
00:46:14
Speaker
and try and change his purpose in life. And then by the end of the movie, we see that that has definitely paid off for him, right? Him and his wife seem to be reconciling now. He's got a better relationship with his son. He feels like he matters now, whereas before I think he kind of felt like he was just going through the motions a lot.
00:46:32
Speaker
And as Mr. Glass said, he's like, when you wake up, do you feel a pit in your stomach? Like, do you feel sadness? And he was like, yeah. And then after he started to, or after he stepped into his purpose, he said, do you still feel it? And he said, no. And that to me is what it's all about, is when you start living your purpose and you start accepting what you're meant to do in this life, you stop feeling so apathetic to the world. You start feeling like there's something that you're supposed to wake up and do.
00:47:02
Speaker
And that's, you know, that's an exciting feeling. So like I was like, Oh yeah, like gave for him. And no, one thing I didn't like is that they were going to keep it a secret from his mom. Like tell him, like tell her like she's, you know, somebody that close to you deserves to know this incredible power that you have. Like that's kind of unfair to them to keep it a secret. No. Yeah. I guess it's, you know, I guess they're trying to, um, at least in this first movie, uh, you know, try and just kind of like establish a basic kind of, you know, the superhero parallels type of thing.
00:47:32
Speaker
using those archetypes of how over the love interest cannot know my secret identity and all that kind of stuff.
00:47:38
Speaker
Whereas you might have- Which is so dumb, because it actually makes them more at risk. You think that not knowing that somebody's gonna come for you if they find out who I am, makes you more safe? Absolutely not. They should at least have an idea like, hey, make sure you keep the doors locked because somebody might come for you if I let them get away. Well, I think that's why a lot of, you might notice a lot more modern adaptations are quickly undoing with that plot idea pretty early on.
00:48:07
Speaker
the recent Superman, my adventures in Superman, the recent animated series, right? That one, it has Jimmy and Lois find out Clark is Superman, you know, within a few episodes. And then it so it's it creates a whole new dynamic for their relationship. Same thing with, you know, again, another Superman example, but Superman and Lois, right? Everybody in his life knows that he's Superman, all the people he's close to, they know his secret. And it's created
00:48:32
Speaker
interesting story potentials, because we've already seen the Superman tries to keep his identity secret from Lois Lane story 1000 times. So seeing it where Lois is in on it, and they're married, and they have a family, it creates a whole new set of relationships and interactions to go along with that.
00:48:49
Speaker
And yeah, I think if this movie had continued on, because obviously this wasn't very successful when it came out and it's become more well regarded over time, but when it came out, it wasn't successful. So the chance of expanding on any of this stuff in a direct sequel to Unbreakable,
00:49:08
Speaker
wasn't really there. So we didn't have that opportunity. And then, and then we jump into straight with, you know, split ended up being such success, and then they're able to come back and bring the bring all three of them back together. Did you do any research to, to find out if he originally had written those things to happen, as part of the overall story, but it just didn't get kind of fruition, because the first one was so unsuccessful.
00:49:33
Speaker
Yeah, I don't know if he had ever had plans to do anything further. But I feel like if he had, then I think we could have seen him play around with some of these expectations, like with the with the with the relationship with his wife and all that. So we might have seen something come in and in later movies if he had gotten to make those later movies. I don't know if he had ever planned to make any other ones. I think it would be interesting to know what his original idea was. But
00:49:59
Speaker
But it wasn't really until Split that we really got this kind of like this, not a sequel, but kind of like a side call, I guess you'd say, where it's, it's a pretty good name for it. And then because Split was so successful, he was finally able to do more of a proper superhero movie with Glass, which I don't know about you, but I was very disappointed in. I didn't really enjoy Glass as much as I hoped to.
00:50:28
Speaker
I don't think I enjoyed it as much as I had hoped. I didn't enjoy it nearly as much as I've been breakable, but I didn't have high expectations for it because it was 20 years after the story was cold in my mind.
00:50:44
Speaker
And I didn't rewatch it. Usually I'd go back and rewatch the first two movies before watching a third like that, but this was at the fire station and it was just like, hey, we're watching a glass. And I was like, oh man, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. But they were watching it and I didn't want to get left out. And so I watched it and I didn't have the connection with the characters that I would have had if I had rewatched the original first.
00:51:07
Speaker
You know, the split hadn't been too long before, but it was still, you know, I could have deserved to rewatch because I like to be able to like I know the writer is going to be fresh with the connections that he's trying to make. And I want to I want to be in that mindset to see them if they did a good job bringing them. But I wasn't I wasn't in a good mindset to make that judgment. So it's like I didn't I didn't blame the movie. I was just like, for me, it was like it wasn't a good setup for me to go see the movie in the best place.
00:51:36
Speaker
Yeah, I was pretty excited for Glass. I was in the pretty good space to see it, but it just did not deliver. And I'm not even sure what I was expecting, but I was expecting something that was at least on par with Unbreakable and Split. And it just wasn't even on par with it. So that's mostly what it was. Do you think Split was on par with Unbreakable?
00:52:04
Speaker
Very close. I still prefer Unbreakable, but Split is very close to it. It's very good. I thought Split was good. I think it's very good too, but as far as superhero movies go, or I guess in that case it would be super villain movies.
00:52:21
Speaker
it just like it didn't it didn't hit all the you know all the all the notes for me like you know it was like a concert that was just like missing an instrument or two and i don't really know what it was maybe it was missing that uh that's that's super strong like uh the protagonist like i can't like i can't even remember who played opposite uh the you know the
00:52:42
Speaker
the main character like i don't remember who it was like so that to me it kind of says uh maybe that maybe that was what was missing so i i like a strong protagonist i like to know yeah you know who's gonna who's gonna come fight this guy yeah um so i think uh in terms of as a superhero movie i think unbreakable is definitely a much stronger one obviously split it you know
00:53:07
Speaker
It wasn't really marketed as being a superhero movie and it's not really until you're watching the movie that you get towards the end and you see David Dunn appear, then everything starts to fit together then. But yeah, as far as just like this being a superhero movie, split doesn't fall as much in that category as Unbreakable does.
00:53:32
Speaker
And so I looked it up real quick, and yeah, whenever M. Night Shyamalan originally wrote Unbreakable, it was supposed to be part of a trilogy. So it was supposed to be this bigger thing. And I wish Hollywood would have been able to see the potential there to do it as he had wanted to, because I would have liked to have seen them closer together. I think they did a good job of making it seem like the appropriate amount of time passed in the movie. I don't feel like that was an actual hindrance.
00:54:01
Speaker
But I feel like you would have, M. Night Shyamalan had to work harder to write better movies in a time when the CGI couldn't do so much of the work for you. I feel like the last movie was kind of CGI heavy and it didn't feel like part of the same trilogy. And that's what I remember feeling like my biggest disconnect was like, this doesn't feel in really any way like split or unbreakable. And that to me was like,
00:54:30
Speaker
Oh, this doesn't feel like a trilogy. Like I feel like Split was like if Unbreakable was on this side, Split was on the other side of the coin, but they like they bounce each other out pretty well. You know, there was the same kind of like level of darkness in them and this kind of grittiness. And like I felt like that that agreed and accompanied with each other. And then Glass just kind of came in and was just like,
00:54:55
Speaker
Ah, I'm a crazy cousin who doesn't really belong a part of this family. That's kind of what it felt like to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, it was it was a disappointment. Now with going back to Unbreakable, though, one of the things that as much as I enjoy this movie, one of the things that always makes me stumble a little bit is the origin of Elijah's whole theory, like,
00:55:18
Speaker
It definitely feels like he's reaching here with his theory of like, because I was born with brittle bones, I thought that there must be someone on the opposite side of the spectrum, someone who doesn't get hurt. I mean, I thought that theory is kind of half-baked and I would have liked a little bit more of explanation as to
Elijah's Theory and Its Implications
00:55:38
Speaker
how this theory of his developed because the way it's presented in the movie just doesn't really make sense. It always kind of pulls me out of the film. How about you? What do you feel about that? I agree that it's half baked. I actually think it's completely half baked. But I think that it's perfect because as Robin Wright Penn's character says, Bruce Willis's wife, is that when people
00:56:00
Speaker
are that damaged when they spend that much time alone in hospital beds, their brain starts to rot to a certain degree. We had nothing but time to think and to imagine and to dream and to get into this mental loop of, I can't be alive for this and nothing else.
00:56:23
Speaker
like so he had to tell himself a story and the story that he told himself was the one of the thing that he loves the most he loves comics and so if you're stuck in bed and can't go anywhere and can't do anything wouldn't you want to tie yourself into the thing that you love the most like make yourself you know if you are just trying to think of any other kind of uh
00:56:45
Speaker
like good, like analogy. If you, if you love history, like if you are a major history buff and you have nothing but time to imagine, wouldn't you like to imagine one of your ancestors as the, you know, as one of the founding fathers? Like you don't, like you've never researched genealogy. You don't know that you're not like, why not tell yourself that story to keep your mind excited and involved?
00:57:11
Speaker
And then when you are telling yourself that story for so long, you're going to start to ingest a little bit more and more of each time. And I feel like that was like really well thought out, like that they were doing that on purpose. Like he didn't have that much to go on, but he's kind of crazy. So that's all he needed. Yeah, I could see that. My whole issue with that is the movie basically says that he was right. It is kind of is my whole thing about that. And so like the whole
00:57:39
Speaker
which is why it would have been interesting if there was like some scene at the end or something where you find out that if you had like a, I mean, granted probably be a bit of a cliche to say it was all a dream, but that would, that would make more sense in terms of the idea of, otherwise it almost feels like he's, that Elijah's madness and he and these leaps to these conclusions are almost justified.
00:58:03
Speaker
I think to me it's more like a broke clock is still right twice a day. His mind is totally addled and he's making these crazy assumptions, but he's the only person who's crazy enough to go out and test them by blowing up a train. And so maybe if there was somebody who was more sane, was able to do the research in a more reasonable way,
00:58:28
Speaker
but they wouldn't have they wouldn't accept the belief that it even exists to do the research so it took somebody this crazy to do the thing you know it's like this this loop where it took somebody this crazy to believe something this crazy to do something this crazy and i think that's to me like that's the part they leaned into is that
00:58:46
Speaker
he has to be crazy or else there's no excuse for him doing the thing. You can't like him at all as a character and you can't bring him back in a sequel because he's a literal monster. He's not a monster. They're able to excuse his things because he's just crazy. So you still kind of like him. You're still kind of rooting for him. You're like,
00:59:09
Speaker
You know, I hope you know whenever I rewatch is like I know he's the bad guy But I hope he doesn't fall down the stairs again. No, here comes a stair scene Oh God, he's still gonna like it's still gonna happen. You still feel bad for him because he's such a damaged person Mm-hmm that you can't just you know You can't look at him like a terrorist Yeah He's not some he's not some person who was like, you know strapping a bomb into their chest and just running into a place and hurting a bunch of people he's he's got a belief that is completely
00:59:41
Speaker
completely entrenched in his brain that nobody can convince him of anything else, especially now that he's proven it to be correct. But even before that, he was going to believe that until like, I mean, I guess he said I almost gave up, but that was after 30 years of, you know, believing it and blowing stuff up for 10 years. And so, I mean, he was pretty he's pretty committed.
01:00:03
Speaker
Now what did you think of joseph david's son cuz i think his this is one of the things that that's i don't like this character in the movie like and that's just me personally i yeah i'm not a fan of like these these child sidekicks in movies who drive most the i've always hated that kind of trope it was.
01:00:21
Speaker
It was bearable in sixth sense in large part because of Haley Joel Osment. But in general, I always kind of roll my eyes when we see these kinds of focus on, on like some kid character who, who seemingly his, you know, his innocent belief is stronger is makes him the smartest one in the movie type of thing like that kind of care archetype always has never been a fan of mine. So
01:00:41
Speaker
I can agree with him coming off as the smartest character in the movie. I don't think that he did, but I think that he definitely came off as much smarter than he was because he just believed. But I also think there's a lot of strength in that and just the childhood ability to just believe, and that if more of us as adults just believed, more amazing things would happen for us. But we don't. We've skepticism, we analyze,
01:01:11
Speaker
you know way opinions and blah blah blah all this thinking and we don't ever just believe like imagine if you just believed you could do whatever you dreamed of like just imagine what that looks like imagine if you just had it and unlike there's no proof of it whatsoever there's nothing to back it up but you just believed anyways that you were whatever you dreamed up what could you accomplish
01:01:37
Speaker
And his belief and his father that way, being a father now watching it, like made me emotional. I was like, like, whoo, like that's, you know, his whenever they're, you know, when they're sitting there lifting weights and he adds weight instead of taking it off, his his reckless belief and his dad that he is he is literally the strongest man in the world is is inspiring.
01:02:04
Speaker
But it is reckless. It's reckless. It's absolutely reckless. I wouldn't suggest it for anybody, but look what happened whenever you just believe.
01:02:13
Speaker
So, you know, that that's my that's my look on it is that I wish that there was more just believing in this world. I'm not that person. Like I'm I'm a super skeptic, but I love to. I love to think about people who are. I love to know that there are people out there who exist who just believe in things and just have faith and just go on faith and believe and just do it. Like that's like just knowing that person exists makes me want to believe in myself more to try other things to try to be greater than I am, because, you know,
01:02:43
Speaker
If I can just believe if I can just have an you know, an eighth of that belief and myself then like I could accomplish so much more I mean, I think there's there's a definite spectrum because you do have people who I mean like the the QAnon folks believe despite all evidence to the contrary and that's not exactly a healthy thing too so I think there's a there's a definite spectrum on belief there and I think when you're
01:03:08
Speaker
And I think one of the issues too for me is just kind of like, and I guess that in a way this could be viewed as him like going through this midlife crisis, but the kind of gaslighting David does with Joseph when like, you know, Joseph pulls the gun out on him and he is completely irrational in all this and
01:03:30
Speaker
And David keeps on doing the thing that's driven Joseph to this point. Anyway, he keeps lying to him about it. And I'm just like, this is...
01:03:40
Speaker
And I don't know, I had some issues with that part of it, too. Like, just like the way he did it. I had issues with that part as well. I was like, why? I guess I'm sitting here watching this with my kids, and they're like, why are you? They're yelling at the TV. Where are you yelling or lying at him? And I'm like, yeah, let's just double down on it and be mean to the kid who was obviously traumatized. Like, this kid, he is out of his mind. So you're going to yell at him and tell him that you're going to leave him?
01:04:07
Speaker
Then this is this is um, you know getting kind of getting a little bit off subject but like I was raised in any way that the way that I was I Was kept in line was through guilt fear and shame like that is that's the way that my family worked is like if you do something wrong We're gonna make you feel bad. We're gonna you know, give you we're gonna spank you we're gonna you know We're gonna make you right regret the thing that you did like that's how I was raised and so
01:04:36
Speaker
I rebelled against that very strongly now because i've had my own kids i know what that guilt fear and shame did to me i know the places it drove me to and it's not good like i try to raise my kids out of love and understanding like i try to put those things first and whenever i see that happen i'm just like.
01:04:56
Speaker
This is a movie, but this happens so often. How often do you hear somebody yelling at their kid in the grocery store? In Japan, it's probably very different. But here, if you don't put that down, I'll give you something to cry about. Fear me. I'm your parent. You need to fear me. And I'm like, they need to trust you. They should trust you. And that's like, I mean, to me, it's like one of the tragic things of
01:05:22
Speaker
of growing up in America is that fear is prioritized over trust in our parenting system. It's like, I'm your dad. You need to fear me. Whenever I first had a kid, I initially thought it was my job to be fear. But as my heart was breaking, as I was trying to scare my daughter and my oldest into doing something,
01:05:45
Speaker
It was like, this doesn't feel right. Like I don't think this is what I'm supposed to do. Yeah. And so I didn't do it. Like I listened to my heart and I was like, I'm not going to I'm not going to do that. Like I'm not saying I never yell, never raise my voice. I definitely do. But it's it's my goal not to. It's my goal to try to get understanding and consensus on things and try to work together to accomplish things. But it's it's just it's so normalized to just
01:06:11
Speaker
you know, browbeat people and the fear. So then putting it in the movie, it made sense. Like it was just a, it was a mirror of what American parenting was. It was just like, it kind of hurts to watch. So what are some other things that stand out for you in this movie?
01:06:27
Speaker
Like I like the scene that you're talking about as much as I hate the way he addresses it the way like once again that Reckless belief in his father is actually one of my favorite parts of the movie. It's just that he is like I just I know it I know it like and that feeling of
01:06:48
Speaker
feeling like you're crazy because you know something is so true that you cannot deny it, yet the world is telling you to deny it, that is a feeling that I'm familiar with. And it's a feeling that is like, I like whenever movies play into emotions that I understand and that I've been through, but I haven't seen put on screen that often. I'm like, ooh, that pulls up my heartstrings. So that part is really powerful.
The Protagonist's Struggles and Friendships
01:07:18
Speaker
The the final battle scene with the you know, I guess they're really the first battle scene The only battle scene is pretty intense. Like I think his
01:07:32
Speaker
I think that whenever I watched it the first time, the first couple times or whatever, I thought that his weakness being water, I thought that was, I was like, this is shit. This is stupid. But being an older person now, having a different outlook on the world, I think it's perfect. I think that it's...
01:07:49
Speaker
it can get inside you and it can attack the things that even if you've got invulnerable skin and you've got muscles that are impenetrable, if it can get inside your mouth, it can end you. So it made sense to me that that thing was the weakness. I was like, okay, you know what? I didn't love it before, but now actually I think it's because now I know that he could still be invulnerable. He could still be impenetrable. He could be damn near invincible, but
01:08:18
Speaker
If water gets in his mouth or up his nose, he's going to die. There was. I mean, he would. Yeah. To take this into back to a comic book, Rome, there is that there was a Wolverine series that came out a few years ago. I think Jason Aaron wrote it. I think it might have been Wolverine Weapon X. But but what happened, one of the things that happened in the story is there's this scene where Logan has to go.
01:08:41
Speaker
You know swimming to some location or something and the narration talks about how his greatest fear is water because you know he's you know he can heal from anything you can take a lot of punishment you know his body can. Expell poison it can heal cuts it can it can heal burns all that kind of stuff but.
01:08:58
Speaker
his healing factor can't breathe for him. So if water gets in his lungs, there's nothing that his healing factor can do. Like with poison, his body could spit the poison out. But with water, it wouldn't be able to react to it. And also the fact that he's got this metal skeleton means that he's much heavier. So he would sink in water, too. So it's very easy. And when I first saw that, I'm just like, wait. He's afraid of water. Then I thought about it, and I kept reading on it. I'm like, oh, wait. Yeah, that actually makes a lot of sense.
01:09:26
Speaker
And I thought a similar thing when I rewatched this movie too, because I think you're right. I think the first time I spot the whole idea of him having water is his weakness.
01:09:42
Speaker
In retrospect, it makes more sense because he is this big guy, this tough guy. He can withstand all this punishment, and it takes something soft to be able to withstand him, right? Instead of the whole idea of, instead of fighting fire, you fight it with water. So here, it's something that is much more seemingly harmless. That's the big risk to him.
01:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, and usually, I'm kind of with the mentality that superheroes don't kill. Like, if at all avoidable, they don't kill. And it seemed like he was going for the kill. Like, initially, I was like, he's just trying to pass by him. But the way he ended that choke suggested that he was trying to kill him. And I think the guy died. Like, he died, right? I don't remember. I'm pretty sure he is.
01:10:38
Speaker
like it was it so to me like that that was kind of a a little bit of a Like there was a couple of like knocks on him as a superhero for me It was like that was a little bit of a problem for me is like superheroes don't kill people and then secondly is that his
01:10:58
Speaker
choices to as like he had to literally sit there and let several criminals go to get to this criminal like how do you do like how what kind of superhero lets a rapist go and let's uh um well like
01:11:17
Speaker
was like a kidnap of people who had done bad things like I know like I thought about it and you know in retrospect it was like he has to get somebody who he thinks is going to commit another crime like a similar crime soon so he can follow them and prevent it versus like being the police and trying to arrest somebody who's done a crime that he can't prove necessarily so like I guess it made sense in that but
01:11:42
Speaker
what kind of a superhero could stand there and let those kinds of terrible people just walk free like that didn't make that part didn't make sense to me. No, I thought that was fine because I thought that made sense given and and I think the purpose of that scene is to show just what a monumental task this is and just how much how much someone like him is needed because I mean, if you're
01:12:06
Speaker
Because he's basically a nurse in an emergency ward. He's got to do triage to figure out what is the greatest threat, what deserves the priority. So I don't think it's that he's letting them go and that he's fine with them getting away. I think it's just he needs to make that decision of what is his priority. And that's the dilemma Superman faces, characters like Superman face all the time.
01:12:29
Speaker
He can hear all this stuff happening, but he has to only focus in on what he can prioritize. What is the biggest threat at the moment? So I really think that's what the movie was trying to show with that scene. I guess my problem is, in the Superman example, he can hear all the things that are happening right now at the same time. So it's not like he has to like, this person goes, this person goes, couple minutes go by. Okay, this person's the one.
01:12:56
Speaker
He can, you know, it's an immediate decision. Like right now all these things are happening. I'm going to this one versus I touch this person. They did a bad thing. They can go. I touch this person. They did a bad thing. They can go. It's not bad enough. Like who is he to decide what's bad enough? Like without like it doesn't seem like it really disturbs him. Like I think it's just not overwhelming. I think it's just not that he should chase down everyone.
01:13:20
Speaker
I think it's just that it is overwhelming. And then so when he focuses in on what is the greatest threat, he just has to make that his priority. So I give a lot of leeway in that. I think what that intent was is more to show that just how much work there is for someone like him to do and how much that the city needs someone like him because there are all these people out there. But he's still only one man. He still has to make those decisions.
01:13:48
Speaker
I'm not saying that's a knock on him as a vigilante, but as a superhero, I think being willing to let that kind of crime go on without like, you know, some serious like
01:14:06
Speaker
struggle like I feel like there should have been like a damn like you know at least like a move towards something like like maybe I should go out but there was nothing is just like nope you're good you're good like and I understand that he had to choose the greatest threat but I would have been disturbed letting some of those people go and like that to me that's like that's the superhero thing is like the the anguish of not being able to save everybody
01:14:28
Speaker
It didn't seem like that was there for him. He was like, I got one, did my job. And that's a good point. Yeah, that's a good point. No, that's a good point. I think you've got a point there. It would have been nice if there's a scene or something of him maybe going back there, trying to find some trace or something, or if he's reading an article about it. Maybe it's this article about the family being saved, and right below it is about this article about one of the people he let it get away. And so if there's some sort of connection like that, I agree. I think that would have been much better.
01:14:57
Speaker
The killing part doesn't bother me too much because of what a grounded situation this is and what kind of, you know, the limits that he has to deal with and the fact that it's his first time out. I can justify that. I mean, if it's someone like Superman, then I don't, I'm not as justified with it. If it's someone like Batman who explicitly takes a vow not to kill, then I'm not really okay with that. But, you know, for example, if we see like,
01:15:26
Speaker
You see Iron Man or Captain America kill someone in the middle of a heated battle.
01:15:31
Speaker
I'm more okay with that. That doesn't bother me because those two characters, there are limits to how much Cap can do. He's going to try not to kill if he can. But at the end of the day, there might be situations where he doesn't have the luxury that someone like Superman has of having all that power. That's kind of difficult for me to gauge because in Marvel movies, nobody ever specifically dies in the movies, but nobody is ever obviously alive either. They pretty obviously kill millions of people in these battles.
01:16:01
Speaker
So many people go down, but it's like never like making a decision to end somebody's life. I don't think that Captain America has done that outside of when he was in the war. And even in the war, it never shows him like killing somebody until, you know, we're talking about Winter Soldier and the Winter Soldier, he kills somebody. Not the Winter Soldier, I'm sorry, the stand-in for Captain America, the U.S. agent. Oh, and Falcon Winter Soldier, yeah.
01:16:27
Speaker
Yeah, he straight up kills him. I like that dude. He kills him. He's a killer. Well, that's what I mean. Like, no, that's what I mean. And like, there are there are definite scenes where where Cap kills people in those movies. Like he there's the the the mercenary who's on the helicopter in the first Avengers, you know.
01:16:44
Speaker
Cap shoots him and then you know kicks him off the helicarriers and you know he falls out in the so yeah there but the times when someone like cap kills in those movies. Are very incidental compared to the john walker situation where that's a deliberate murder like he didn't have to yeah that's that so like.
01:17:03
Speaker
someone like Capra Ironman, they're not gonna worry too much about if they killed someone in the heat of battle like that. So there are heroes where there are these lines and for the kind of hero that David is in the world he's existing in, I think the fact that he kills the guy is completely acceptable.
01:17:22
Speaker
I guess at the end of the day, it drags it more back into reality, kind of like you said. I'm taking that as a knock when it being a superhero movie is that that pulls it back closer to reality because I feel like in a superhero movie situation, he would have found a way to get it done without killing him.
01:17:44
Speaker
Because that's what superheroes do. They figure out how to not kill people unless they absolutely have to. And in that situation, he didn't have to. And there was something to tie the guy up right on the wall where the lady was tied up so he could have tied him up. It wouldn't have been, you know, two seconds. So.
01:18:02
Speaker
the but like we talked about like having that that grounded in reality grittiness that you know it does make it a lot more feasible of it being real because also you know if the guy stays alive he's he's going to talk about this super strength person that you know he has a six foot seven
01:18:23
Speaker
400-pound monster was taken down by a guy who's 5'10 and 195 pounds. Like, that doesn't make sense. It's going to start to raise questions. And in that situation, people are going to start getting curious about who this was. So he had it done.
01:18:43
Speaker
Uh, let's talk a little bit about the, and I think it was probably the last thing and then we'll wrap things up. But, um, what, what was, what did you think about the relationship between Elijah and David did? Like, like at the end when, you know, Elijah says, you know, they, you know, usually the hero and the villain are friends like you and me. And so I was thinking, what is your take? Do you think that David considers him a friend up until that moment? Or is he just kind of humoring this guy for the most part?
01:19:09
Speaker
I would say up until that point, he was humoring him, but he was actually warming up to being his friend. He's like, this guy was, you know, he seemed totally crazy, but it turned out he was right. And he, you know, he unlocked this huge thing for me. So he was really thankful to him because now he's got a whole new outlook on life. But then, um,
01:19:36
Speaker
Then thinking about it, he was starting to just soften to the guy. Go away, ghost. Go. Sorry, my dog is doing the thing I told you to do. He started to soften to him, and I think that had that situation not happened, they were going to be in each of those lives. I think that they were going to start regularly
01:19:59
Speaker
he was going to be the guy who was going to help him bring that strength to the next level. Like that's what it was. That's what he's kind of thinking is like, he's got all these ideas about, you know, what a superhero supposed to be like. And I don't have this knowledge he does. Like I'll go to him and, you know, he'll kind of be the Alfred to my Batman or, you know, whatever. And then he drops that bomb on him and he
01:20:21
Speaker
Yeah, so he never got to cross over in that friend space, but also that further proves the point of the lunacy that existed in Elijah's mind is that he was considering this man that he had
01:20:37
Speaker
just destroyed thousands of people to get to as his friend knowing all of that yeah like he's like i know that i like i blew the train that you were on up i know that and you're my friend like that's crazy you don't blow anybody's train up ever but then especially somebody who was on the train you don't call him your friend like this is now that works yeah i thought that's my thought
01:21:01
Speaker
Yeah, my whole my whole take on it is that I think that David's just kind of humoring him. And then by that, by the end, when he goes to see him in that last scene, I think he I think you're right, he's on the verge of becoming his friend, but I don't think they're there yet. And so when when Elijah, you know, says, Oh, sometimes they're friends, like you and me, the way I always interpret that is that Elijah is so broken, he's been so alone for so long that he doesn't even know what a real friendship is like. Yeah.
01:21:30
Speaker
I agree. I'd like to liken it to that to the person who like follows a woman around and never has a conversation with them. But then says, you're my girlfriend. And it's like, I've never even spoken to you. Like so to him is like he's out of touch with reality. So like both in definition, he doesn't know what a friend is because he's never really had one. But then also in this, you know, his insanity doesn't know
01:21:58
Speaker
how to determine relationships because in his head, anybody who he has a conversation with, he's brought into his friendship.
01:22:08
Speaker
But I think to me, the conversation that Bruce Willis had with Elijah's mom endeared him in a way to Elijah where he had decided they were going to be friends. He was like, you know what? I've learned enough about this guy. He's kind of an amazing person. I didn't really give him a chance at first. I'm going to give him a chance. And then it seemed like he had an obvious different energy towards him until he starts to see the signs and is just like, oh.
01:22:37
Speaker
They shake hands and is like I thought that was really powerful like What like what it what do you think if the they had ended a different way they had just like Start like just left Easter eggs like he didn't have him shake his hand They just like showed the stuff in the in the office. What like how do you think you think people would have gotten it? I
01:22:59
Speaker
I don't think so. I think you needed that revelation at the end, or even if David doesn't find out, if you see some confirmation from Glass, he goes into the room and then you see the bomb making equipment or something like that. I think you needed some sort of revelation. I think without that revelation at the end, that point is going to be so subtle that I think it'd be lost on a lot of people.
01:23:28
Speaker
I agree. Once again, I thought it was a genius twist. Even the way that he said it. I guess now is when you shake my hand.
01:23:40
Speaker
It was just in his book, in his mind, this was a comic book like this. This was a this was all scripted and it was following the archetype of the comic book like origin story. And now that we've exposed your origin, now we shake your hand because this is the next panel is you find out that I am your I am your nemesis. Yeah. And so like that, you know, once again,
01:24:06
Speaker
played up his insanity, and then the next thing they say is, he's now in an insane asylum, because he's now in an insane asylum, because David led them to his evidence. Ghost, stop. Go see somebody else, please, please.
01:24:23
Speaker
we're almost done yeah and um ultimately i think too the the way that they paint glass and not only in the fact that he is the opposite of of david in so many ways but but also just like the the the trappings he has of the the superhero mentor right he's like the he's like the learned guy he's always kind of like speaking in this authoritative voice
01:24:45
Speaker
Even, you know, going around in a wheelchair like, you know, Professor X or the chief from Doom Patrol. And even though this came before the Flash, later when you get the Flash TV show, you have Harrison Wells in the wheelchair as well. So there's this there's this definite trend of like, you know, men in wheelchairs being like the mentor figure for a superhero. And so I think Harrison Wells also turning out to be the
Unique Mentor-Villain Dynamic
01:25:08
Speaker
nemesis. Right. Yeah, I think if anything, I think maybe that was a nod to Unbreakable, both those things. That's a good point. Yeah.
01:25:15
Speaker
But yeah, and then the whole twist at the end that he's the villain. I thought all of that is really well done, and it's a nice twist on the mentor-hero-villain relationship, because typically you'd have like the mentor has been friends with the villain all along, right?
01:25:33
Speaker
You know, you've got, you know, Professor X and Magneto being the most obvious example. So that whole, that whole idea, or even like, you know, Ninja Turtles, right? Splinter and the Shredder. And so there's always this idea.
01:25:48
Speaker
Oh, yeah. Well, that's that's going with the yeah, the friend turned into the villain aspect. Yeah. But but usually when you have a mentor and a villain, the mentor and villain are connected in some way. And this. Oh, yeah. Yeah. And this this movie flips that around a little bit where the mentor and villain are the same person. So instead of, you know, Obi-Wan teaching Luke to fight Darth Vader, Obi-Wan teaches Luke to fight him would be more a more similar.
01:26:11
Speaker
When ever you mentioned kids driving the plot along, Obi-Wan, did you watch the show? Yes, yeah. That is the perfect example, to me, of a terrible version of that. I could not stand her. I love kid actors, but to me,
01:26:30
Speaker
Everything that she did felt so characterized. I never felt like I was actually... I never felt in it. I never at any point bought into that story because every time I saw that child, I was like, there's nothing intense or athletic or this is just a toddler who they're trying to make look athletic. It's like she's not running, they're walking fast.
01:26:52
Speaker
This does not actually this doesn't work. Mm hmm. Yeah. No, yeah. Random aside. No, no, that's that's that's very fair point. And yeah, generally, if it's not if it's not short round in Temple of Doom, it's I'm not I'm not down with kid actors.
Final Thoughts on 'Unbreakable' and Bruce's Projects
01:27:10
Speaker
But I think that's a good point to end on here. So Bruce, any final things you wanted to mention about Unbreakable?
01:27:20
Speaker
I think it's, you know, we talked about how it's gaining traction on the back end. It's kind of a little bit of a cult favorite. I think that it is definitely an underrated superhero movie. And that's why I suggested it because I was like, I'm sure nobody's picked this one. And I was right, because people don't even think about it. Like, it's not a conversation because there's so there's such a high saturation of, you know,
01:27:42
Speaker
Superhero movies now that something like this. That's you know a more subtle Loki look into it is overlooked whenever I think that it's actually one of the greater versions that does it so I'm glad we got to talk about it I'm glad I gave you a reason to rewatch it and to bring it to my kids because I Don't know if I would have thought about it anytime soon. So
01:28:01
Speaker
Yeah, it's a great movie. It still holds up. I think it's a good example of how you could do a low-key superhero movie without a big special effects budget. And it can be done. And it is cool to see these slightly more unconventional tales. So yeah, thanks for suggesting it. And why don't you tell people once again where they can find you. Right before I do that, have you seen Blue Beetle yet? Not yet, no.
01:28:29
Speaker
email me when you do. I want you to form your own opinions. I haven't finished it yet because I fell asleep because I watched it start at like two o'clock in the morning. But I would like to hear what somebody like yourself has to say about it. So anyways, you can find me. My name is Bruce Alexander. You can find me on Instagram and Facebook and LinkedIn at Authentic Identity Management. You can find me on YouTube and YouTube, Twitter and Twitch at authentic Bruce.
01:28:52
Speaker
You can also check out my website, www.authenticidentitymanagement.com. There you can get my free resources, my free e-book, and my five-step blueprint for ADHD unmasking. Right now, once again, this will not be out in time for my 30-day challenge of making or breaking with my business, but hey, if you are interested in my story, you can go back and watch it because it will be posted all over the place.
01:29:17
Speaker
you can message me and say, you back at work now? I'll be open with you about it. I really enjoyed the process.
Conclusion and Links to Related Content
01:29:27
Speaker
I hope that somebody who hears this either enjoys listening about Unbreakable or needs help with ADHD and showing up as themselves because either way, I'd love to talk about it and love to help people.
01:29:41
Speaker
Okay, great. Well, thanks again, and we'll have links to all that stuff in the show notes so people will be able to check it out. That does it for this episode of Superhero Cinephiles. SuperheroCinephiles.com is the website. We are SuperCinemapod on Instagram and BlueSky and threads. Technically, there's still a Superhero Cinephiles page on Twitter, but I'm not going to be posting there very much. So best way to get in touch with me is through those other things.
01:30:06
Speaker
All right, and also please remember my comic book, Paragons of Earth, is available through crowdfunder.com slash paragonscomic. That's crowdfundernoe.com slash paragonscomic. Please head over there, pick yourself up a copy, and we will talk to you next time.
01:30:26
Speaker
Thanks for listening to the Superhero Cinephiles podcast. Superhero Cinephiles is produced by me, Percival Constantine, with the support of Zencaster. The show is created by myself and the late, great Derek Ferguson, our host, Emeritus. Visit us on the web at SuperheroCinephiles.com to listen to past episodes or find out how you can be a guest yourself. Support the show by visiting our advertiser links or click the Buy Me a Coffee link on the website to make a one-time donation. You can also support us by visiting Crowdfunder.com slash ParagonsComic. That's Crowdfunder with no E,
01:30:57
Speaker
and help support my superhero comic book, Paragons of Earth. We are SuperCinemapod on both Instagram and BlueSky, so please be sure to follow us. We'd also appreciate if you could rate and review the show on Apple Podcasts and share us with your friends.
01:31:29
Speaker
Thank you for listening and as always good night. Good evening. God bless.