“It was a very dangerous way to make a movie”: M. Night Shyamalan Could Have Ruined His Whole Career if His Wild Experiment in a $248 Million Film Backfired
- M. Night Shyamalan took an incredible risk with his 2001 movie Unbreakable which took a whopping $248.1 million to make.
- He uses only long shots and 400 cuts throughout the entire movie.
- Split is a stealth sequel to Unbreakable whereas Glass capped the entire storyline.
Seldom do we come across a few visionary filmmakers who completely abandon the usual and go for the extraordinary. M. Night Shyamalan is one such director who does not conform to the routine filmmaking process. He chooses to use unique and innovative strategies, whether it’s in storytelling or in the way he presents the narrative.
Shyamalan’s latest venture Trap did not do as expected at the box office but that doesn’t mean all of his projects are tough to interpret. His dedicated fandom enjoys how he breaks down the narrative and showcases stories on a massive level. One such experiment he did was back in 2001 with the movie Unbreakable.
M. Night Shyamalan’s Experiment with Unbreakable
While some shots in the dark hit just the right spot, there’s a huge possibility that it might fail and backfire beyond control. M. Night Shyamalan took such a risk with his 2001 movie Unbreakable which took a whopping $248.1 million to make. Based on accumulated comic book stories and materials, the story follows a security guard who apparently gets powers after being involved in an accident.
While speaking to Cinemablend about Trap, Shyamalan further delved into his filmmaking process and how he chose a way to make his work stand out. For Unbreakable, he did something truly maverick as he recalls,
Unbreakable was really kind of me pushing my value system of Cinema as far as I could go like almost just focusing solely on my relationship to cinema and it just happened to be about comic book so we did you know every shot was a winner, there was no coverage it was very dangerous way to make a movie because there’s only 400 cuts in the movie roughly. It was so that was my kind of going hey I love Cinema and so I want to push push push you know and so that was a wonderful feeling.
Shyamalan rightly claims that great cinema is always born out of pushing one’s limits. The cliches and ever-done tropes have bored the masses to death. It’s time for the industry to move ahead and adopt some pathbreaking techniques to deliver great stories. If Shyamalan could have done it back in 2001, then modern technology can surely help today’s filmmakers in achieving limitless success.
Is Unbreakable linked to Split?
Who knew Shyamalan had his own multiverse of madness going on? The far-sighted director has three connected movies set in the same universe, all about powers and mental disorders that twist the way the protagonists view the world. Split is a stealth sequel to Unbreakable as revealed in its surprising ending. Moreover, another movie followed in 2019 titled Glass capped the entire storyline.
All three movies are set in the same world starring Bruce Willis, James McAvoy, and Samuel L. Jackson. Even though some people deemed the ending a bit underwhelming, it was truly extraordinary to see Shyamalan create entire universes of stories that enthrall the masses endlessly. His vision for a well-rounded story never fails to shine through his works.
Unbreakable is streaming on Disney+.
