Character Analysis Of M Night Shyamalan's Film Unbreakable

Batman once said-“It’s not who you are underneath, it’s what you do that defines you”. Superheroes aren’t judged by who they are on the inside, but are defined by their actions and their impact on the world. It is what they do to help others, that makes them heroes and admirable people. David Dunn, the hero and main character of M Night Shyamalan’s film Unbreakable embodies this quote; it becomes evident as his character progresses along the film. His personality and life, which was very much like an everyman’s, may have been the basis of his identity, but ultimately his actions were what proved him to be a hero. Therefore, it is clear that Batman’s quote applies not only to his own world, but in other contexts too.

It is true that who you are underneath does not define who you are. David is nothing like a hero at the start of the movie. The viewer however, knows that he has superhuman abilities. Even that is not obvious at first due to his questionable actions and a personality which is uncharacteristic of a heroes’. But we can see that he has been constructed as a special person.

In the scene right after the train wreck the composer uses diagetic sound and dialogue to enhance his ‘abnormality’. The composer deliberately overlaps the audio of the dialogue in which the doctor tells David that “In a few minutes you are about to be the only survivor of the train wreck,” over the scene where everyone stares at him. Just as he gets close to the exit, the heart monitor of the