The Sixth Sense

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

For the ability sometimes referred to as "sixth sense", see Extra-sensory perception. For other uses, see Sixth sense.

The Sixth Sense
U.S. film poster
Directed by	M. Night Shyamalan
Produced by	Kathleen Kennedy Frank Marshall Barry Mendel
Written by	M. Night Shyamalan
Starring	Bruce Willis Haley Joel Osment Toni Collette Olivia Williams
Cinematography	Tak Fujimoto
Editing by	Andrew Mondshein
Distributed by	Buena Vista Pictures
Release date(s)	August 6, 1999
Running time	107 min.
Language	English
Budget	$55,000,000
Gross revenue	$672,806,292
Allmovie profile
IMDb profile

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 Academy Award-nominated psychological horror film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan that tells the story of Cole Sear, a troubled, isolated boy (Haley Joel Osment) who claims to be able to see and talk to the dead (with the famous line, "I see dead people"), and an equally troubled child psychologist (Bruce Willis) who tries to help him. The film established Shyamalan as a writer and director, and introduced the cinema public to his signatures: his appearance in cameo roles and his affinity for twist endings.

1 Plot synopsis
2 Cast
3 Production
4 Reception
5 In popular culture
6 References
7 External links

[edit] Plot synopsis

As the film opens, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, 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 - a disturbed, nearly naked man named Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg) appears in the doorway of their bathroom brandishing a gun saying, "I don't want to be afraid anymore." Vincent is upset that Crowe did not help him, and Crowe recognizes Vincent as a former patient whom he once treated as a child for his hallucinations. He condemns Malcolm for his inability to help him and shoots him in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Malcolm's wife by his side.

The next fall Malcolm is shown working with another frightened boy, nine-year old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a condition similar to Vincent's. 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 apparently begins to neglect his wife, with whom his relationship is falling apart.

Malcolm earns Cole's trust and Cole ultimately eventually confides in him that he can "see dead people." Though Malcolm is skeptical at first, he eventually comes to believe that Cole is telling the truth and that Vincent may have had the same ability as Cole. He realizes this one night as he is listening to one of his old tapes, recorded while he was treating Vincent, and hears the pleading voices of dead people in the background. He suggests to Cole that he try to find a purpose for his gift by communicating with the ghosts, perhaps to aid them in their unfinished business on Earth. Cole at first does not want to heed this advice, as the ghosts terrify him, but he soon decides to try it.

Cole finally talks to one of the ghosts, a girl who appears in his bedroom very sick. He finds out where the girl — Kyra Collins (Mischa Barton) — lived and goes to her house during her funeral reception. Kyra's ghost appears and shows Cole the location of a box, which is opened to reveal a videotape. When Cole gives it to Kyra's father, the tape reveals that while Kyra was bedridden with illness, her mother was poisoning her food, and this in fact was what led to Kyra's death (this behavior has been suggested as Munchausen syndrome by proxy or factitious disorder- a form of child abuse).^[1] Now believing in his ability to use his gift to positive effect, Cole confesses his secret to his mother, Lynn (Toni Collette). Although his mother at first does not believe him, Cole soon tells Lynn that her own mother (Cole's grandmother) once went to see her perform in a dance recital one night when she was a child, and that Lynn was not aware of this because her mother stayed in the back of the audience where she could not be seen. He also tells her the answer to a question she asked when alone at her mother's grave. Lynn tearfully accepts this as the truth.

His faith in himself now restored as a result of his success with Cole, Malcolm returns to his home, where he finds his wife asleep on the couch with the couple's wedding video on in the background, not for the first time. As she sleeps Anna's hand releases Malcolm's wedding ring, revealing the twist ending of the film: Malcolm himself is unwittingly one of Cole's ghosts, having been killed by his ex-patient in the opening scene. Due to Cole's efforts, Malcolm's unfinished business—rectifying his failure to understand Vincent—is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice about talking to his wife while she's asleep so that she'll have to listen, Malcolm speaks to her and releases her to move on with her life, and frees himself to leave behind the world of the living.

[edit] Cast

Bruce Willis as Dr. Malcolm Crowe
Haley Joel Osment as Cole Sear
Toni Collette as Lynn Sear
Olivia Williams as Anna Crowe
Donnie Wahlberg as Vincent Grey
Glenn Fitzgerald as Sean
Mischa Barton as Kyra Collins
M. Night Shyamalan as Dr. Hill

[edit] Production

M. Night Shyamalan said that the "The Tale of the Dream Girl" episode of Nickelodeon's television series Are You Afraid of the Dark? directed by David Winning was an inspiration for the film.^[2]

According to the book DisneyWar, Disney's David Vogel read Shyamalan's speculative script and instantly loved it. Without obtaining approval from his boss, Vogel bought the rights to the script, despite the high price of US$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. Disney, apparently in a show of little confidence in the film, sold the distribution rights to Spyglass Entertainment, and kept only a 12.5% distribution fee for itself.

The left-handed Bruce Willis learned to write with his right hand for the film, to hide from the audience that Crowe was no longer wearing his wedding ring.^[3] All of the clothes Malcolm wears during the movie are items he wore or touched the evening before his death, which included his overcoat, his blue sweater and the different layers of his suit. Though the filmmakers were careful about clues of Malcolm's true state, the camera zooms slowly towards Crowe's face when Cole says he "sees dead people." In a special feature the filmmakers mention they initially feared this shot would be a giveaway, but decided to leave it in.^{[citation needed]}

The color red is intentionally absent from most of the film, but is used prominently (and only) in a few isolated shots where the dead are present: the color of the balloon and Cole's sweater at the birthday party, the tent in which he first encounters Kyra, the numbers on Crowe's tape player, the doorknob to the locked basement closet, and the grieving mother's dress.^{[citation needed]}

When Donnie Wahlberg was cast as Vincent Grey, he was much larger and more muscular than Shyamalan had originally intended (the character was supposed to have been living on the streets for a period of time), Wahlberg promised to lose weight to look more like what Shyamalan had planned. By the time they were ready to film Wahlberg had lost so much weight that Shyamalan did not recognize him when he walked past him in the hallway.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Reception

The film had a production budget of approximately $40 million (plus $25 million for prints and advertising). It grossed $26.6 million in its opening weekend and spent five weeks as the #1 movie at the U.S. box office.^[4] It earned $293,506,292 in the United States and a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, ranking it 27th on the list of box-office money earners in the U.S. as of March 2008.^[5] In the United Kingdom, it was given at first a limited release at 9 screens, and entered at #8 before climbing up to #1 the following week with 430 theatres playing the film.^[6]^[7]

The film was nominated for six Academy Awards: Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay (M. Night Shyamalan), Best Actor in a Supporting Role (Haley Joel Osment), Best Actress in a Supporting Role (Toni Collette, who played Osment's mother), and Best Editing (Andrew Mondshein).

By vote of the members of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America, The Sixth Sense was awarded the Nebula Award for Best Script in 1999.

This film was #71 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments.

It was recently named the 89th Best Film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2007.

[edit] In popular culture

The line from the movie "I see dead people" became a popular catchphrase after the film's release, reaching #44 on AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies Quote List. The movie also captured the 60th place in AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, honoring America's most heart pounding movies of all-time.