Unbreakable is a 2000 film written, produced and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson. The movie was inspired by the world of comic books and its interest in exploring mythic dimensions of the real world.

In a DVD bonus feature, Shyamalan noted that the film's script originally had a comic book's traditional three-part structure (the superhero's "birth", his or her struggles against general evil-doers, and the superhero's ultimate battle against the "arch enemy"). Finding the "birth" section more interesting than the remainder, he decided to base the entire movie around the idea.

Elijah Price (Jackson) is born with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, a rare disease in which the bones lack collagen of sufficient quality and/or quantity, and break very easily. He is even born with broken bones, as shown in the first scene of the movie, and later receives the nickname "Mr. Glass," due to his fragility. He lives his life searching for a reason for his own existence. Early on in the movie it is shown that his mother tried to encourage him to go outside by putting a gift (a comic book) on a park bench opposite their house. During the movie, he theorizes that if he is at one extreme end of the spectrum, then perhaps there is somebody at the other end, someone with far greater than usual strengths.

Security guard David Dunn (Willis) is also searching for a meaning to his life. He gives up a promising American football career to be with Audrey, the girl he loved, but after their marriage and the birth of a son Joseph, he still feels an emptiness - that something is missing. It is revealed that he and Audrey are undergoing marriage counseling sessions, as both are still troubled about their nuptials and an accident in the past. After surviving a massive train wreck that kills 131 people (unharmed and as the only survivor), he is contacted by Price, who proposes to a disbelieving Dunn that he is, in fact, a modern day "superhero" (although the word is never used through the course of the film, except when referring to actual comic-book characters). Elijah theorizes that comic book superheroes are a modern manifestation of something ancient about humanity; a pictorial history similar to Egyptian hieroglyphs, trying to record something long past. When David tries to ignore Elijah's theory, the dealer interferes with his family life by repeatedly stalking David and his wife, trying to get David to listen to him. David's son, Joseph, is convinced that what Elijah says is true, but Audrey believes that Elijah has severe mental problems, due to his being in and out of the hospital and his recent fall that left him crippled.

After much distress among his family, David finally agrees to hear him out. Elijah believes that comic book heroes are an echo, mimicking pre-historic stories of human beings who truly had greater than normal strength and abilities. The first comic book heroes were closer to reality, but over time the medium became commercialized, and artists started to insert things which were outlandish and highly fictional. Elijah believes that Dunn is supernatural: that his immunity to illness and his experience with the train crash indicates that David has the bone strength that Elijah lacks. Dunn has only been sick once in his life. He is unable to swim, however, and there are several instances where he seems to have been harmed. In elementary school, he nearly died as a result of swimming. Another incident was when he nearly lost his wife while they were in university, in which after saving her from a car wreck, David had turned down football altogether citing an injury (although it's revealed later he faked the injury). Price claims that the swimming incident is simply the exception to his powers: to balance out their increased abilities, all superheroes also possess a specific weakness. Dunn eventually begins to understand his hyper advanced instinct, which reveals to him the immoral tendencies of those around him upon any physical touch.

As Dunn begins to understand his purpose in the world, he begins to feel whole again, and is able to renew his relationship with his wife and his son. This leads to David's first 'heroic act': going out wearing his "Security" poncho at Elijah's encouragement to prove that he truly is something special. David walks through crowds in a Philadelphia train station, until his 'second sight' tells him that a janitor he has passed broke into someone's house and killed them. David follows him back to the victim's house, where he finds the dead man. Upstairs, he releases the two tied-up children, and finds the mother in a separate room, apparently unconscious. David is ambushed by the man, who throws David onto a tarp lying on top of a pool. The tarp begins to fall into the pool, exposing David to his weakness, water, and nearly killing him. At the last moment, he grabs the handle of a telescopic pool maintenance pole and is pulled up by the children he just saved. David then confronts the serial killer in the double bedroom. David tries to choke him from behind, but the man slams him backwards repeatedly into a wall. David is "unbreakable", however, and not seriously harmed. He chokes the man to death and releases the mother, only to find that she was already dead. The next morning, David shows the newspaper article of his heroic act to his son, who believed in him all along.

In the final moments of the film, David attends an exhibition at Elijah's Limited Edition art gallery. Elijah, who has seen the article, tells him that now that he (David) has understood his place in the world, "this is where we shake hands". Upon contact with Elijah however, David discovers to his horror that Price has caused several terrible disasters, including the train accident that opens the movie, in order to find someone who would miraculously survive as David did. The evidence is shown in blueprints of trains, buildings, and other areas, which showed their weakness, bomb-making kits, and other items. Price insists to Dunn that he performed these deeds, and they are justified by finding him. He then explains that he has come to realize his purpose in life by comparing his relationship with Dunn to that of an often repeated motif in superhero stories: that the hero and the villain are opposites, and often even friends at first. Before David turns his back on him, Elijah pleads with him to understand the feelings of loneliness and the supposed lack of purpose in life. Captions run, saying that after leaving, David informed the police about Elijah (whose office is littered with newspaper clippings and evidence right in the open that he was responsible for the disasters). Elijah finishes his sentence saying, "I should have known way back when [that I was a super villain], you know why David? Because of the kids...they called me Mr. Glass." The film ends with the caption that reads he was arrested and sent to an institute for the criminally insane.