Tuesday, April 24, 2012

U is for Unbreakable

Okay, so here’s the thing. I like comic books. But more importantly, I’m fascinated by the relationship between superheroes and their nemeses. It’s basically the natural progression of all literature, which is itself no stranger heroes and villains. Beowulf and Grendel. Van Helsing and Count Dracula. Peter Pan and Captain Hook. Like comic books, these classical stories highlight the correlation between good and evil.

But what if there was no evil? Would we have need for heroes, if they had no one to vanquish?

This question lies at the heart of one of M. Night Shyamalan’s lesser known films, Unbreakable. When David Dunn miraculously walks away the lone survivor of a train crash, Elijah Price – a comic book enthusiast with a rare brittle bone disease – seeks him out, claiming that superheroes are real . . . and David’s one of them. With Elijah as a mentor, David learns to use his incredible strength and previously undeveloped psychic abilities to stop criminals.

Spoilers: However, at the end of the movie Elijah reveals that he was the mastermind behind several acts of terror, including David’s train crash. You see, Elijah believed that where he was fragile, his exact opposite existed somewhere. And so he caused accident after accident, sacrificing hundreds in order to find one person who was unbreakable. Which he did; and in finding David, he discovered a hero.

I think it’s clear that Elijah didn’t start out evil. But he did unspeakable acts of evil in his quest to find – or create – a real life superhero, becoming his villainous counterpart in the process. He tells David, “now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I’m not a mistake. It all makes sense. In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch villain is going to be? He’s the exact opposite of the hero.” This quote – this belief, demonstrates just how closely linked heroes and villains really are. One defines the other. It wasn’t just Elijah that needed David in order to understand his place in the world. David needed Elijah as well. Heroes and villains are dependent upon one another for their purpose in life, their very existence.

DreamWork’s 2010 animated feature, Megamind, shares a similar theme. At a loss after the death or his archenemy Metro Man, supervillain Megamind decides to create a hero to battle against. It’s clear that both he and Elijah, aka. Mr, Glass, believe that their lives have no meaning without an adversary. And it makes me wonder, would we have need of superheroes without villains? Does good have context without evil?
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This post is part of the Blogging A through Z Challenge 2012. My theme is (in case you didn’t already guess) science fiction. Stay tuned for the rest of the alphabet, and if you’d like to check in on the rest of the participants, simply click here.

30 comments:

  1. Really liked Unbreakable. It was a happy surprise to discover it as one of your A-Z posts! Such a great spin on the superhero theme. Curses, we're almost to Z... are they doing this contest next year?

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  2. I loved Unbreakable. Great movie.
    I think it's ingrained in our culture to be dualistic about good & evil, but I don't think there must be evil for there to be good. There is both, since there is both in all people, but if we could control ourselves? We could have a world of only good. But a story needs conflict, so there must be both. As a species, we seem to want both as well, so it's doubtful we'll ever be without both.

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  3. Wow. I guess like minds DO think alike:

    http://michaelabayomi.blogspot.com/2012/04/unbreakable-movie-review.html

    Great post by the way. I also enjoyed watching Megamind. :D

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  4. I enjoyed Unbreakable quite a bit, after I first saw it I think I described it to a friend of mine as 'the most fun I've ever had being bored.' I feel like that was about the most clever description I could give it. But over time the movie stayed with me and I went from merely liking it to loving it.

    MegaMind is one of my favorites too.

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  5. I remember see Unbreakable in theaters and I enjoyed the flick. I do agree with you that Elijah did start not out evil. With him trying to find his counterpart it just wound up that way. They hero does need the villain and viceversa.

    Great Post.

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  6. I really liked Unbreakable. And my kids really liked Megamind.

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  7. Adore that movie! That Bruce Willis is a real honey and a great actor!

    And Samuel - well he's just a incredible actor!

    http://bettyalark.blogspot.com

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  8. I can remember when I was young (and still do) wondering why they had to stress a person out so badly in shows or movies by putting the "bad scenes" in. I just wanted to watch an ooey gooey happy movie. No stress. Now that I write I understand, now, that you have to have that kind of stuff to keep things exciting. So I guess I will have to live with it:)

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  9. I never saw Unbreakable but I loved Megamind.

    And as for the good vs. evil thing, I don't think one exists without the other.

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  10. Oooh, Unbreakable! Good one. I'm fascinated too with the hero & nemesis connection. Great post.

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  11. I'm almost ashamed to admit how much I like Unbreakable. Because although I disliked M. Night a lot already for The Village and The Happening, he really stoked my ire when he whitewashed, and altogether ruined, Avatar: The Last Airbender.

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  12. I understand what you mean about the relationship between hero and nemesis being so important. I know of Unbreakable but I'm not sure I've seen it - now I'll have to. Thanks!

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  13. I almost loved Unbreakable. My issue with it is that I saw the end coming. After having actually been caught off guard with Sixth Sense, I was disappointed to have figured out Unbreakable before the twist came. The acting was great, though. I should watch that one again.

    I LOVE Megamind. It should have won best animated last year. So much better than Rango.

    Frank Miller (and others) have dealt with that question frequently in Batman except from the other side. If Batman didn't exist, would there be so many villains in Gotham. Does his existence demand them?

    Personally, I think evil does just find at existing all on its own. Even in Unbreakable, Elijah had been committing unspeakable acts for years before he found his hero.

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    1. Yeah, I think that’s why a lot of people didn’t like it. The Sixth Sense didn’t surprise me really, so I wasn’t disappointed in that way, and just get caught up in the story – the way I enjoy :) But I do LOVE Megamind. It got robbed in my opinion. Rango didn’t hold a candle.

      As for Elijah, I think a lot of the evil he committed was in the name of finding his hero nemesis, which makes me believe that heroes and villains (and, in a way good and evil) do really go hand in hand. It’s not that they don’t exist without one another; it’s that we don’t recognize them without their opposing force. At least, that’s my take on it.

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  14. I haven't seen either of these, but that's an interesting point--I think the existence of evil does affect the existence of superheroes.


    The Golden Eagle
    The Eagle's Aerial Perspective

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  15. I think the hero/nemesis relationship is best summed up by Dr Doofenshmirtz and Perry (from Phineas and Ferb) - every time Doofenshmirtz gets close to being able to fully do away with Perry, he buckles. Now, okay, it's a kids cartoon, but I still think there's something in it!

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  16. Unbreakable isn't a film I'd watch over and over, but it was really good and missed by a lot of people.

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  17. I think Unbreakable presents something more akin to Achilles and Hector in The Iliad, insofar as you could certainly consider Achilles pretty awful for his indiscriminate murder on the battlefield, but then, you could judge Hector the same way. Both of them were merely doing what they were supposed to. The way Elijah sees it, he's doing the world a bigger favor by making David Dunn aware of what he is than letting the poor guy continue to believe he's just another schmuck. He's not a good guy, really, but it's not like he's going to go around setting deathtraps for the fun of it. Achilles and Hector are heroes as defined by their circumstances. In a roundabout way, Elijah can be viewed in the same way. He stormed the gates of Troy in order to set Helen free, so to speak, because it was the right thing to do.

    Anyway, what I'm really trying to say is, conflict is more interesting when the opposing sides are more ambiguously defined than "good" and "evil." And that's the kind of world we live in. That's what Megamind was saying, too.

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    1. I very much agree. Black and white characters that are wholly good, or wholly evil rarely reach past superficial. You comment makes me think of I am Legend (the book, not the movie). If you haven't read it already, I'd really recommend it. It does very interesting things with the idea of who is the real evil - the real monster.

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  18. I found UNBREAKABLE much more interesting than THE SIXTH SENSE. There was rumor that he was going to make a sequel, but that never happened, obviously. I liked it a lot.

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    1. Me too. I think it had more depth to it. And I read somewhere that the idea for a sequel wasn’t totally off the table…

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  19. I've never seen unbreakable - but it sounds like I would enjoy it. I love the ways heroes and villains are connected too - great post!

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  20. Yes! I had seen Unbreakable before, and was thinking about it the other day but couldn't remember the title, thanks for helping me remember! It was particularly the relationship between the villain and the hero, as opposed to the hero and the villain, that got to me. So many heroes seem to do alright without an adversary, once the world is saved. It really seems more like it's the villains who need the conflict. Metroman was perfectly fine not fighting anyone.

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  21. Haven't seen this one, sounds intriguing.

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  22. Interesting question. I'm not sure of the answer but I think it's part of what makes life interesting, the contrasts: love/hate hope/despair good/bad.

    Loved Unbreakable. Everyone was so good in that movie.

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  23. I enjoyed Unbreakable.

    The idea has been used in comics, too -- more than once, Batman has been blamed for the rise of supervillains in Gotham. If he weren't there, they say, they wouldn't rise up to try to foil him.

    Erin

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  24. Does evil have context w/o good? I believe good existed first...but if we are to choose good and know what we're choosing, we've got to know its opposite.
    Plus, mixing some evil/tension in a story makes it SO much better. Otherwise we're just sitting around watching the grass grow.

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  25. I really need to get around to watching Unbreakable.

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  26. Jade Oak Marsh – They are, and I will be participating. Too many movies and books I didn’t get too this go round.

    Michael – we seem to overlap quite a bit…

    Rusty – It’s a slower sort of movie, but one with really wonderful themes, which adds to its lasting power. As is Megamind, in a more, hmm, comedic way.

    Geeky Daddy – it’s a very symbiotic relationship.

    Betty – Bruce Willis might just be my favorite actor, after Michael Biehn.

    Deana – I’m much the same way. I have to force myself to add in conflict sometimes.

    MJ – me neither.

    Matthew – Yeah, Avatar sucked. But Unbreakable redeems Shyamalan in my eyes.

    Annalisa – Hey, a lot can be said of cartoons. Like fairy tales and fables, they’re often morals disguised as good fiction.

    Alex – Sadly. I think more people should give it a chance.

    Erin – I always thought that particular Batman storyline was REALLY fascinating.

    Melodie – No, that really wouldn’t make for a good story, would it?

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  27. "Unbreakable" is my favourite M. Night Shyamalan film! I love it so much. It was also my "U" movie.

    Loving all the sci-fi!

    Hapy last few days of A to Z'ing!

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