Unbreakable (2000)

Samuel L. Jackson: Elijah Price

Photos 

Quotes 

• Elijah Price : Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you're here. That's - that's just an awful feeling.

• Elijah Price : It has begun. Tell me something, David. When you woke up this morning... Was it still there? The sadness?

  David Dunn : No.

  Elijah Price : I think this is where we shake hands.

  [handshake] 

  Elijah Price : [flashback occurs upon shaking]  I worked in that building 25 years, I know all its secrets.

  David Dunn : Secrets?

  Elijah Price : Like, if there ever was a fire on floors 1, 2 or 3, everyone in that hotel would be burned alive.

  [after flashbacks end] 

  Elijah Price : You know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you're here... That's... That's just an awful feeling.

  David Dunn : What have you done...?

  Elijah Price : I almost gave up hope. There were so many times I questioned myself...

  David Dunn : You killed all those people...

  Elijah Price : But I found you. So many sacrifices, just to find you.

  David Dunn : Jesus Christ...

  Elijah Price : Now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I'm not a mistake! It all makes sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero. And most times they're friends, like you and me! I should've known way back when... You know why, David? Because of the kids. They called me Mr. Glass.

• Elijah Price : Why is it, do you think, that of all the professions in the world you chose protection?

  David Dunn : You are a very strange man.

  Elijah Price : You could have been a tax accountant. You could have owned your own gym. You could have opened a chain of restaurants. You could've done one of ten thousand things, but in the end, you chose to protect people. *You* made that decision, and I find that very, very interesting. Now all I need is your credit card number.

  [beat] 

  Elijah Price : That last part was a joke.

• Elijah Price : [message on David's answering machine]  David, it's Elijah. It was so obvious. It was this one issue that brought it back for me: Century Comics 117. That's where this group, the Coalition of Evil, tried to ascertain the weakness of every superhero because they all have one, just like you. Your bones don't break, mine do. That's clear. Your cells react to bacteria and viruses differently than mine. You don't get sick, I do. That's also clear. But for some reason, you and I react the exact same way to water. We swallow it too fast, we choke. We get some in our lungs, we drown. However unreal it may seem, we are connected, you and I. We're on the same curve, just on opposite ends. The point of all this is now we know something we didn't. You have a weakness: water. It's like your kryptonite. You hearing me, David?

• Elijah Price : A 737 crashes on takeoff. 172 die, no survivors. A hotel fire downtown. 211 die, no survivors. An Eastrail train derails 7 1/2 miles outside the city. 131 die... one survivor. He is unharmed. I've spoken with your husband about his survival. I suggested a rather unbelievable possibility. Since then, I've come to believe that possibility - however unbelievable - is now more a probability.

  Audrey Dunn : And what was it you suggested?

  Elijah Price : These are mediocre times, Mrs. Dunn. People are starting to lose hope. It's hard for many to believe there are extraordinary things inside themselves as well as others. I hope you can keep an open mind.

• David Dunn : You killed all those people.

  Elijah Price : But I found you. So many sacrifices just to find you.

• Elijah Price : [answering his phone]  Hello?

  David Dunn : I wasn't injured in that car accident.

  Elijah Price : David.

  David Dunn : I've never been injured, Elijah. What am I supposed to do?

  Elijah Price : Go to where people are. You won't have to look very long. It's all right to be afraid, David... because this part won't be like a comic book. Real life doesn't fit into little boxes that were drawn for it.

• David Dunn : [talking to Elijah on phone]  I've never been sick, I've never been injured... what do I do now?

  Elijah Price : Go to a place where people are... you won't have to wait very long.

• Elijah Price : This is an art gallery, my friend, and this is a piece of art.

• Elijah Price : [from deleted scene]  Can I tell you a secret? I'm going to be very, very sad if this doesn't work out the way I think.

• Elijah Price : I've studied the form of comics intimately. I've spent a third of my life in a hospital bed... with nothing else to do but read. I believe comics are our last link... to an ancient way of passing on history. The Egyptians drew on walls. Countries all over the world still pass on knowledge through pictorial forms. I believe comics are a form of history... that someone somewhere felt or experienced. Then of course those experiences and that history... got chewed up in the commercial machine, got jazzed up... made titillating, cartooned for the sale rack. This city has seen its share of disasters. I watched the aftermath of that plane crash. I watched the carnage of the hotel fire. I watched the news waiting to hear a very specific combination of words... but they never came. Then one day I saw a news story about a train accident... and I heard them. "There is a sole survivor... and he is miraculously unharmed." I have something called Osteogenesis Imperfecta. It's a genetic disorder. I don't make a particular protein very well and it makes my bones very low in density... very easy to break. I've had 54 breaks in my life... and I have the tamest version of this disorder, type one. There are type two, type three, type four. Type fours don't last very long. So that's how it popped into my head. If there is someone like me in the world... and I'm at one end of the spectrum... couldn't there be someone else... the opposite of me at the other end? Someone who doesn't get sick, who doesn't get hurt like the rest of us? And he probably doesn't even know it. The kind of person these stories are about. A person put here to protect the rest of us. To guard us.

• Elijah Price : They called me Mr. Glass!

• Elijah Price : Are you ready for the truth?

• Epilogue : David Dunn led authorities to Limited Edition where evidence of three acts of terrorism was found.

  Elijah Price : [hushed melancholy]  They called me Mr Glass.

  Epilogue : Elijah Price is now in an institution for the criminally insane.

• David Dunn : Okay, I got you a seat in the yellow section. It's in the nosebleeds, but at least you won't get spit on.

  Elijah Price : How'd you know the guy you bumped was carrying a weapon?

  David Dunn : I don't know. Maybe it was the camouflage Army jacket he was wearing. Those guys like to carry hunting knives and stuff for show.

  Elijah Price : You thought he was carrying a knife?

  David Dunn : I thought he was carrying something, yeah.

  Elijah Price : But not a knife.

  David Dunn : ...I got a picture of a... silver gun with a black grip... tucked in his pants. You know, like on TV?

  Elijah Price : You have good instincts for things like that?

  David Dunn : Like what?

  Elijah Price : Knowing when people have done something wrong?

  David Dunn : Yeah.

  Elijah Price : Have you ever tried to develop it?

  David Dunn : I don't know what you're asking me.

  Elijah Price : Your skill.

  David Dunn : Look, I gotta be down on the sidelines during the game. You can get to your seat right down...

  Elijah Price : Characters in comics are often attributed special powers: invisibility, X-ray vision, things of that sort.

  David Dunn : Okay. I don't wanna play this game anymore.

  Elijah Price : It's an exaggeration of the truth. Maybe it's based on something as simple as instinct.

  David Dunn : But he might not have been carrying anything.

  Elijah Price : But he might have been carrying a silver gun with a black grip tucked in his pants.

• Elijah Price : I followed the guy in the camouflage jacket. He had a silver gun with a black grip tucked in the back of his pants. Were you really injured in that car crash in college? Because I believe you faked it. I believe you took the opportunity to end your football career, no questions asked. And I think you did it, of all things, for a woman. I guess that makes sense. Football's what... just ten years? But love? Mmm. Now that's forever. And that little bit of sadness in the mornings you spoke of? I think I know what that is. Perhaps you're not doing what you're supposed to be doing.

  David Dunn : Most guns have a black or silver handle. I had a 50/50 shot of getting it right.

  Elijah Price : That's not what I witnessed.

  David Dunn : Stop. Stop messing with my life, Elijah. My son almost shot me last night because he wanted to prove you were right.

  Elijah Price : I never said you couldn't be killed. I never said that.

  David Dunn : My wife was right.

  Elijah Price : There have been three major disasters and you were the only one unharmed.

  David Dunn : I have been sick. When I was a kid, I spent a week in the hospital getting better from pneumonia. I almost drowned. Two skinny little kids were fooling around in a pool dunking me and I swallowed some water. They didn't know it and it almost killed me. Heroes don't get killed like that. Normal people do, right? I don't need to see you anymore, okay? Please stay away from my family.

• Elijah Price : This is from Fritz Campion's own library. This is before the first issue of the comic book hit the stands in 1968. It's a classic depiction of good versus evil. Notice the square jaw of Slayer, common in most comic heroes. And the slightly disproportionate size of Jaguaro's head to his body. This again is common, but only in villains. The thing to notice about this piece... the thing that makes it very, very special... is its realistic depiction of its figures. When the characters reached the magazine, they were exaggerated... as always happens. This is vintage.

  Young Father : Well, wrap it up.

  Elijah Price : You've made a considerably wise decision.

  Young Father : My kid's gonna go beserk.

  Elijah Price : [confused]  Once again, please?

  Young Father : My son, Jeb. It's a gift for him.

  Elijah Price : How old is "Jeb"?

  Young Father : He's four.

  Elijah Price : [frowning]  No. No, no, no, no, no. You need to go. Now.

  Young Father : What'd -- What'd I say?

  Elijah Price : Do you see any Teletubbies in here? Do you see a slender plastic tag clipped to my shirt with my name printed on it? Do you see a little Asian child with a blank expression on his face sitting outside on a mechanical helicopter that shakes when you put quarters in it? No? Well, that's what you see at a toy store. And you must think you're in a toy store, because you're here shopping for an infant named Jeb. Now, one of us has made a gross error... and wasted the other person's valuable time. This is an art gallery, my friend... and this is a piece of art.