David Dunn

*This is for the character in general.*

*For the version of David Dunn that appears in Shattered, click here.*

The Float

**David Dunn** is a superhero and the main character in the film Unbreakable, and will play a central role in the unreleased fanfiction "Shattered".

David Dunn is played in Unbreakable by Bruce Willis.

## History

### Early Life

David Dunn was born in Philadelphia in 1960. Little is known about his past except that he nearly died by drowning in a pool at his elementary school. Since the incident, safety precautions around the school's pool area have been more strict, and Dunn's story has become an urban legend among students. As a result of the trauma he endured, Dunn developed a phobia of water.

As a student at Philadelphia University, Dunn was a star athlete and aspiring professional football player. However, what could have become a promising career was derailed after a near fatal car accident involving his girlfriend and future wife, Audrey. Although he was uninjured in the crash, he used it as an opportunity to feign a career-ending injury so that he could have an excuse to give up football and remain with Audrey, who despised the sport. Audrey and Dunn eventually married and had a son named Joseph.

After years of marriage, Dunn's relationship with his wife has strained to the point where they are planning for divorce, and Dunn has decided to seek employment in New York City after having worked as a security guard at the stadium where he used to play.

### The Accident

On a ride back home to Philadelphia, David is a passenger on a train that crashes, resulting in the deaths of 131 passengers. Not only is he the sole survivor, but he emerged from the accident completely unscathed. He reunites with Audrey and Joseph as they wait among other families of victims at the hospital. He later attends a mourning service for the deceased passengers. After theservice, Dunn finds a card on the windshield of his car with the words "Limited Edition" engraved on the front. Hand-written in black marker on the inside of the card is the question "How many days have you been sick?". David asks both his employer and Audrey the very same question, yet neither can recall him ever being sick.

Dunn takes his son Joseph to the Limited Edition comic book art museum, where he meets the man responsible for the card: Elijah Price. Elijah explains that he has a disease known as Osteogenesis Imperfecta Type 1; which results in frail bones that are easily breakable. He tells Dunn that he had theorized that if there was someone like him in the world then there must be someone who is the opposite of him, someone who is unbreakable. He goes on to explain that he had been paying attention to the city's recent disasters--a plane crash and a hotel fire--waiting to hear a particular combination of words. He tells Dunn that he's finally heard them regarding the train crash--"There is a sole survivor and he is miraculaously unharmed" and that he believes that he has found the man he was looking for. This interests David at first until Price mentions that he believes Dunn to be a modern day superhero, someone that comics based themselves on. This throws Dunn off and he accuses Price of being a scam artist. He then leaves with Joseph to go home. At home, Audrey tells David that she believes it is a miracle that he survived that train and wishes they could start over again, even going as far as asking him out on a date.

One day at work, Dunn gets a call that someone is trying to get in the stadium on a bogus ticket. He goes to see the person who reveals himself to be Elijah, who finds it strange that a person that doesn't think he is a superhero, takes a job that requires him to protect people. Dunn gets him a seat at the game and along the way, he gets a vision of a man with a camouflage jacket was carrying a silver gun with a black grip. Although David's vision was accurate (later confirmed by Elijah.) it doesn't help shake his skepticism. David returns home from work to workout with Joseph helping him with the weights. It is there, where they discovered David has limitless strength. Dunn later tries to test Price's theory, when he gets a vision that one of the customers is selling drugs. After searching the man finding nothing, he begins to doubt himself. Dunn then gets a call from Joseph's school, that he got hurt in a fight defending a girl. While in the office the principal remembers Dunn from back when she was a school nurse. She reminds him of the time he almost died in the swimming pool, which answers Elijah's sick question.

Back at home, Audrey tells David that Elijah has been stalking her telling her his theory. Before he can react, Joseph enters the room with his gun intending to shoot David to prove he is a superhero. David manages to convince him not to, by threatening to leave and go to New York. Dunn confronts Elijah over this and tells him he has been sick from drowning. Before leaving David warns him to stay away from his family. After a date with Audrey he gets a message from Price stating that every hero has a weakness, and David's is water. David later goes to the train yard to see the remains of his train in the accident. He looks and sees a big hole where his window seat used to be. Dunn later remembers the car accident where he was able to rip the door off to save Audrey whilst he was unharmed from it. Dunn later calls Elijah asking for advice. Price tells him to go to where people are and that the rest is up to him..

### The Man in the Orange Jumpsuit

David goes to the subway station where he reaches out making sure everyone touches him. He sees visions of a woman in red stealing, a man in yellow assaulting an interracial couple, and a college student in green about to commit sexual assault on a passed-out girl. David, shell-shocked at the amount of people guilty of heinous acts, stands there trying to choose a target until a janitor in an orange jumpsuit brushes past him, who David sees invading a family's house and killing the father, after asking if he could come in and remarking he "liked their house." Dunn follows the man to the house using his rain poncho to hide in the rain. While sneaking in he notices the father dead at the top of the basement stairs and two children tied up in a bedroom closet. Dunn unties the kids and goes to the master bedroom where he sees the mother tied to a radiator. He looks around the room for the janitor who sneaks up behind him and knocks him out of the window. David lands on the cover over the pool and, being sucked in, nearly drowns. He grasps a pole that pulls him out of the pool. He climbs out and, finding that the kids saved his life, slowly stands up, showing his unbroken self to the kids. Dunn goes back and, while the janitor stands there drinking and watching the tortured mother, sneaks up and grabs in a choke hold. The janitor starts coughing and choking from the strangling, and David hangs on for the women's life as the janitor elbows and throws David against the wall repeatedly attempting to throw him off. Eventually, David's strength and invulnerability prevails and the janitor slowly sinks to his knees, either dead or unconscious. When he unties the mother she slumps to the floor, dead. Dunn wakes the next day not feeling sad anymore.

### The Handshake

The morning after at breakfast, he secretly shows Joseph a newspaper of his night out, silently advising him never to tell Audrey. Dunn later goes to Limited Edition during their exhibition, where he meets Elijah who congratulates him on his first night. Elijah then shakes his hand, giving David a vision of him being the cause of each of the aforementioned disasters, including the train wreck. There are several plans for explosives and other evidence of terrorism displayed around his room. It is implied that Elijah caused these accidents with the intention of finding his unbreakable counterpart, and that he has succeeded in finding Dunn. Elijah explains that he is the villain in David's story, and that he himself has a newfound sense of purpose as a result of finding his place in the world. Elijah remarks that he should've known his role in the superhero story the whole time, as kids had given him his villain name since he was a child, "Mr. Glass." David alerts the authorities of Elijah's crimes, and he is sent to an institution for the criminally insane.

### Duty Calls....

Fifteen years later, while having breakfast in a small diner, David hears news of the atrocities committed by a Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with 24 distinct personalities including a nearly superhuman murderer named The Beast. The media dubs Kevin "The Horde," and advises that he is at large. Whether David is already in pursuit of Kevin is unknown, but his reaction suggests that his duties are far from over.

## Personality

David is a fairly stoic and serious-minded man.  He also loves his family very much, not wanting his strange powers to interfere with their lives.  David also has a strong sense of responsibility, causing him to decide to use his powers to help people, despite his desire to keep to himself.

## Physical Appearance

Dunn is an average looking man with an athletic build and a bald head. He always wears green colored clothing, with the exception of a red hat he wears when he is at work. His costume at night consists of a long green rain poncho, resembling a cape, with a hood to cover his face and the word "SECURITY" printed on the back in yellow lettering.

## Powers

* **Invulnerability** - Due to a dense bone structure and seemingly impenetrable skin, David Dunn is invulnerable to any physical harm. The limits to these powers is unknown. Although he can be knocked unconscious, it is proven he is able to withstand blunt force trauma from both the train and car accident without a broken bone or even a scratch. He's also durable enough to survive an encounter with the Beast.

* **Super Strength** - He is capable of great feats of strength, including lifting an extremely significant amount of weight and ripping off a car door. His strength is more of an act of conscious will than actual physical strength; the more David believes in his strength, the stronger he becomes. He is able to rip a car door open easily and lifting 400 lbs after lifting 200 and 300 lbs of weights. As long as he can ignore the pain of dealing with increased weight, functionally he has no upper weight limit.

* **Extra-Sensory Perception** - When he physically touches people, he is able to see what nefarious acts they have committed. It is implied that most of what he sees is in the past, although he is also able to sense possible future danger.

### Possible Powers

* **Super Speed** - It is also implied that Dunn may possess above average speed due to his reputation as a football player.

## Skills and Abilities

David Dunn is a professional security guard, meaning that he has some training in self-defense and dealing with potentially dangerous situations.  In addition, he was also a star athlete in school and a talented football player.

## Weaknesses

Due to his dense bones, David is unable to float in water and will easily drown in it. He also has a phobia of water from a near-drowning incident in his youth, and this is considered by Elijah to be his one weakness.