UNBREAKABLE
Touchstone Pictures
PG-13

The battle between good and evil
Here’s a film telling the classic story of good versus evil, making use of a classic youth pastime, comic books, in a way which is intriguing and surprising. From Touchstone Pictures’ synopsis:  

Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson star in a mind-shattering, suspense-filled thriller that stays with you long after the end of this riveting supernatural film. After David Dunn (Willis) emerges from a horrific train crash as the sole survivor—and without a single scratch on him—he meets a mysterious stranger (Jackson). He is an unsettling stranger who believes comic book heroes walk the earth. A haunting stranger whose obsession with David will change David's life forever.

Unbreakable is obviously a good versus evil movie, but in many ways it is also a movie about finding one’s identity. In this study guide, we will look at the questions of identity.  However, in the wake of September 11, as you are looking at identity issues you might also consider issues of good versus evil in the world, especially how we judge the actions of others without fully understanding their perspective.

Discussion questions
Starting with Elijah Price’s speech at the end of the film: “The scariest thing is to not know your place in the world; to not know why you’re here.”

• What is the scariest thing to you? Spiders, heights, not knowing how you fit into the world, etc.? Do we each have an identity of our own, or are we only who we are in relation to other people (family, friends, people we’re around when we do the things we do)? Do we need someone else to tell us who we are?

On the train, David Dunn is having a hard time knowing who he is. (We learn later that he’s coming back from a job interview for which he would move to New York; he takes off his ring when the agent sits down; he pauses to consider the question, “Are you alone?”)

• Even when he’s trying to remember if he’s ever been sick in his life, David Dunn is searching for his own identity. How do people discover their identity? How have you discovered your identity?

After the car wreck, David Dunn gave up playing football. In college, he was known as a great player, someone who could do amazing things with his body. After the wreck, his identity became a former great, a husband, a father, and a security guard.

• As our life situations change, how much does our identity change? Was David Dunn the same person before and after the car wreck? What about after Elijah helps him discover his true identity? Do you think your identity might change over time? In what ways?  (Leader: You might want to offer appropriate parts of your own life story to help young people understand the question)

In the scene from when he was a teenager, Elijah Price was determined not to go outside. He said he didn’t want to break any more of his bones. His mother’s response was that he could fall between his chair and the television. “If that’s what God has planned for you, that’s what’s going to happen.”