The Sixth Sense is a 1999 film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that tells the fictional story of a troubled, isolated boy (played by Haley Joel Osment) and a child psychologist (played by Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film is set in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
| The Sixth Sense | |
|---|---|
| File:The sixth sense.jpg US film poster | |
| Directed by | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Written by | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Produced by | Sam Mercer |
| Starring | Bruce Willis Haley Joel Osment Toni Collette Olivia Williams Donnie Wahlberg |
| Distributed by | Buena Vista International |
Release dates | August 2, 1999 |
Running time | 107 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 |
Plot
Template:Spoilers Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) is a prominent child psychologist, who in the opening scene, returns home one night with his wife from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. The two discover they are not alone, and a disturbed, nearly naked man (Donnie Wahlberg) appears in the doorway of their bathroom with a gun. He is upset that Crowe has not helped him, and Crowe realises that he is Vincent Gray, a former patient whom Crowe treated as a child for his hallucinations and delusions. He blames Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later pulls the trigger on himself.
Months later, Malcolm returns to work with another frightened boy, 9-year old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a similar condition to Vincent. Malcolm becomes dedicated to this patient, though he is haunted by doubts over his ability to help him, after his failure with Vincent. Meanwhile, he begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart. Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately confides in him that he is clairvoyant and can see dead people. Though Crowe is naturally skeptical at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth, and that Vincent may also have had the same ability as Cole. He continues to help Cole by suggesting that Cole try to find a purpose with his gift, by trying to communicate with the ghosts, perhaps to help them on their journey by aiding them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole attempts to communicate with the ghost of one girl who appears in his bedroom, and who appears to be sick. He finds out where the girl, Kyra Collins (Mischa Barton) lives, and going to her house, where a wake is being held for her, he discovers a videotape where Kyra told him to find it, and gives it to Kyra's father. Watching it, Kyra's father realizes that when she was bedridden with illness she had accidentally videorecorded her mother poisoning her food, which led to Kyra's death, an example of Munchausen syndrome by proxy. Empowered now by his ability to use his gift to positive effect, Cole confesses his ability to his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette). Athough his mother is troubled by his story, Cole tells her that her mother (Cole's grandmother) went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, though Lynn did not know this, because her grandmother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. Lynn accepts this as the truth, and her rapport with Cole is strengthened.
His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Crowe returns to his home, where he finds his wife sleeping on the couch, watching their old wedding video. A short 'conversation' with his sleeping wife follows, and it is then that the film's major plot twist is revealed: Crowe himself has in fact been dead all along, having died the night that Vincent shot him, and hence obviously why Cole could see him while his wife was seemingly distant. Template:Endspoiler
Awards
The movie was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture, Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Haley Joel Osment), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Toni Collette, who played Osment's mother) and Best Director (M. Night Shyamalan, who also wrote the story).
Production
The film, with a budget of approximately $40 million, earned $293,501,675 in the United States and a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, making it the #22 on the list of box-office money earned in the U.S. as of December 2005.
In popular culture
The line "I see dead people" became a popular catchphrase after the film's release. A parody:
- "I see dumb people." was printed on t-shirts due to the excessive use of the original line. The line was one of the caveats of the horror spoof Scary Movie.
- The line made the lore of Total Nonstop Action Wrestling when Planet Jarrett "buried" the careers of Team 3D in October 2005 (James Storm, before making a joke, said mock-frightened, "I hear dead people!").
- In the 2002 film Undercover Brother, the title character (played by Eddie Griffin) undergoes a form of brainwashing by the Brotherhood (an African-American spy group) to absorb white culture go undercover in a white-owned company. After having to watch Riverdance, Major Dad, and Murder, She Wrote, Undercover Brother finally has a "caucasian overload" and whimpers "I see white people!"
- That line had previously been invoked by Billy Crystal at the Academy Awards in the spring of 2000. In one of his sketches, the TV camera would zoom in on various celebrities in the audience, and Crystal would speak a joking line that was supposed to be what the actor was "really thinking". When the camera focused on Michael Clarke Duncan of The Green Mile, Crystal said, "I see white people!"
- In The Lion King 1½, Timon and Pumbaa visit the elephant graveyard right before Mufasa comes to fight the hyenas. While watching the fight, Timon says "I see carnivores."
- In the TV show Scrubs, the mysterious Janitor is absorbed in a DVD of the film, and neglects to clean up a spill that caused Dr Cox to fall over. Cox retaliates by taunting the janitor "Bruce Willis is a ghost. He's been dead the whole time" but the janitor later exacts his revenge by knowing the score of a basketball game Cox has videoed and is desperate to watch.
- Following the series finale of the British Sitcom One Foot in the Grave, in which the lead character Victor Meldrow died, a special short was made for a charity telethon showing Victor with his wife Margeret visiting a sick relative. After a long amusing dialogue from Victor which Margaret seems to ignore (which, in itself, isn't unusual), Victor finally realises that, like Crowe, he is a ghost whom no one can see or hear.
- It is implied that Haley Joel Osment's character knows that Bruce Willis' character is dead the whole movie.
Soundtrack
It was composed by Oscar-nominee James Newton Howard and released before the film. One of the final cues was entitled "Malcolm's Dead" giving away the spoiler ending.
Cast
- Haley Joel Osment (Cole Sear)
- Bruce Willis (Malcolm Crowe)
- Toni Collette (Lynn Sear)
- Olivia Williams (Anna Crowe)
- Glenn Fitzgerald (Sean)
- Mischa Barton (Kyra Collins)
- Donnie Wahlberg (Vincent Gray)
Trivia
- Karl Pilkington of XFM's The Ricky Gervais Show did a feature in the early years of the show where he would take the part of another character in popular movies. Karl took the place of Osment in the final car scene of the movie.
- The book DisneyWar contains an account of the business dealings behind The Sixth Sense. According to the book, David Vogel of The Walt Disney Company read Shyamalan's spec script and instantly loved it. Without obtaining approval from his boss, Vogel bought the rights to the script, despite the high price of USD$2 million and the stipulation that Shyamalan could direct the film. Disney later stripped Vogel of the title of President of Walt Disney Pictures, and Vogel left the company. Walt Disney Pictures, apparently in a show of little confidence in the film, sold the profits to Spyglass Entertainment, and kept only a 12.5 percent distribution fee for itself.
- The part of Kyra Collins, the young poisoned girl whom Cole befriends and whose mother he helps to expose as her murderer, is played by a young, pre-fame Mischa Barton.
- Shyamalan has a brief cameo in this movie, playing the part of the doctor who examined Cole after the events at the birthday party.
- The presence of a ghost, in popular myth, is often thought to lower the temperature of the surrounding area. When there is a dead person (specifically, an emotionally distraught dead person) near, Cole gets very cold and the viewer can see his breath. Another example in pop culture of this phenomenon can be found in the animated series, Danny Phantom.
External links
- M. Night Shyamalan - The Sixth Sense
- The Sixth Sense at IMDb
- The Sixth Sense at Rotten Tomatoes
- M. Night Shyamalan Fans - The Sixth Sense
- Recognition Values: Seeing The Sixth Sense Again for the First Time, essay by Laurence A. Richels, Other Voices, March 2002.