An Oral History of “Unbreakable”: M. Night Shyamalan and Samuel L. Jackson on Making the Movie

When M. Night Shyamalan unleashed ‘The Sixth Sense’ on the world, everyone wanted to know what the wunderkind was going to do next; few expected a somber superhero movie in disguise. That might explain why ‘Unbreakable’ failed to match the “I see dead people” horror classic at the box office. But in the years since its release, ‘Unbreakable’ has become something of a cult classic, ultimately spawning a quasi-sequel in “Split” and then a trilogy with Shyamalan’s newest film, ‘Glass,’ which reunites fragile villain Elijah Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) and reluctant hero David Dunn (Bruce Willis). Shyamalan and Jackson sat down with Rotten Tomatoes ahead of the release of ‘Glass’ to recall how “Unbreakable” came together – from casting Jackson and getting Elijah’s look just right (the hair was the actor’s idea) to the risk Shyamalan was taking releasing a superhero movie at a time when the genre’s reputation was in tatters (a risk that had the studio worried).