Unbreakable Is Like The Matrix Without The Far-fetchedness

Rating: 9/10 (4 April 2006)

In a few ways this movie is reminiscent of The Matrix. Where David (Bruce Willis) discovers his "potential" through Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), similar to Neo and Morpheus. It likens us to the possibility that a "sane man in an insane world" could be an "insane man in a sane world" and vice versa.
The story is about David, an ex-football star turned security guard with a wife and son who makes regular pay and wakes up every morning with an empty feeling. Elijah acknowledges this empty feeling to David as a sadness and then proceeds to tell him, "...maybe its because you are not doing what you are supposed to be doing." David feels burdened by Elijah's theories as evident in not only his skepticism, but as well, his downright defensiveness. Gradually, he begins to accept them however.
By the time David comes to his realization, he rekindles the broken contact between him and Elijah, and, as you might guess, comes to understand what he must do. The movie now takes a turn in a very different direction, when David, as a regular man with a genetic edge discovered only by Elijah, must now conquer his doubts and fears over Elijah's theories and any concern he might have over whether or not his actions undermine his sanity, to enter what the audience has all been waiting for to see, superhero territory. Remember, this is the same guy who eats french toast for breakfast with a glass of Tropicana.
The movie basically centers around Elijah's theory, which is about the closest link between the superhero world of comic books and ours. We see the burdens David faces when he has to reconcile everything he knows about his basis in real life with that of Batman, Superman, Spiderman and other gods from the pages of panel-by-panel mythology. It makes us wonder about the possibility and explores the brightest and darkest aspects of the human psyche. This "crossing over" aspect I found very reminiscent of The Matrix but without the farfetchedness. Which is what drives this movie much more closer to home than The Matrix could ever be.
The movie ends on a note that leaves us to imagine the future to come. We are forced to question what we believe to be good and evil.