Unbreakable is one of my very favorite movies, and I would submit it as one of the best superhero films ever made. It’s not built like any other superhero movie - there’s only one part that could be considered an action scene, but it’s awkward and realistically anticlimactic. The main character doesn’t jump over any buildings and he doesn’t shoot anybody with laser blasts from his eyes.
The movie is actually about how every little boy thinks his father is a superhero, until they reach an age where they find out that he isn’t. The son in Unbreakable is a rare kid whose dad might be what his son thinks he is.
I love Unbreakable, and this scene, actually deleted from the final cut, is one of the primary reasons why. In this scene, Bruce Willis’s character doesn’t quite believe that he’s capable of anything super at all, but his son’s persistent, heart-breaking faith in his father’s destiny is starting to get to him.
In an earlier scene, he and his son are lifting weights in the basement when Bruce’s character indulges his kid’s insistence that he might be able to lift a lot more than just the regular weights. David Dunn’s occupation, security guard at a college stadium, gives him a unique opportunity to test himself even more.
