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The Sixth Sense

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For other uses, see Sixth sense (disambiguation).
The Sixth Sense
File:The sixth sense.jpg
U.S. film poster
Directed byM. Night Shyamalan
Written byM. Night Shyamalan
Produced byKathleen Kennedy
Frank Marshall
Barry Mendel
StarringBruce Willis
Haley Joel Osment
Toni Collette
Olivia Williams
CinematographyTak Fujimoto
Edited byAndrew Mondshein
Music byJames Newton Howard
Production
companies
Distributed byHollywood Pictures
Release date
August 2, 1999 (1999-08-02)
Running time
107 minutes
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Budget$40 million[1]
Box office$672,806,292[1]

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 American psychological horror film, written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It tells the story of Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), a troubled, isolated boy who is able to see and talk to the dead, 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, most notably his affinity for twist endings. The film was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Plot

As the film opens, Dr. Malcolm Crowe (Bruce Willis) a prominent child psychologist, returns home one night with his wife, Anna Crowe (Olivia Williams), from an event in which he was honored for his efforts with children. His wife tells him that everything in the world is second to his profession including her. The two discover they are not alone—Vincent Grey (Donnie Wahlberg), a former patient of Crowe's, appears in the doorway of their bathroom brandishing a gun saying, "I don't want to be afraid no more." Grey accuses Crowe of failing him, and Crowe recognizes Vincent as a former patient whom he once treated as a child for hallucinations. Grey shoots Crowe in the stomach, and seconds later turns the gun on himself. The scene fades away with Crowe's wife by his side.

The next fall, Crowe is shown working with another boy, nine year-old Cole Sear (Haley Joel Osment), with a condition similar to Vincent's. Crowe 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.

Crowe earns Cole's trust and Cole eventually confides in him that he "sees dead people that walk around like regular people." Though Crowe at first thinks Cole is delusional, 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, because the ghosts terrify him, but he soon decides to try it. The reasons ghosts terrify him so much is they appear as creepy figures that want to hurt Cole, one is an overworked wife who slit her wrists, another that tries to hurt Cole is only heard as a voice who starts calmly pleading to Cole to let him out of the dark cupboard because he's suffocating, then yells at Cole that he didn't steal "the Master's horse" and threatens to attack Cole if he doesn't obey. The final ghost to contact Cole before he meets his ghost he communicates with appears very briefly, a boy a bit older than him asks Cole to come into the room, to find the boy's father's gun, the boy turns around to show that his brains are blown out the back of his head, suggesting he accidentally shot himself.

Cole finally talks to one of the ghosts, a very sick girl who appears in his bedroom. 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 gives Cole a box, which is opened to reveal a videotape. When Cole gives it to Kyra's father, it shows Kyra's mother putting some type of household cleaner in Kyra's food (the continual illness may point to a slow poisoning in a case of Munchausen syndrome by proxy[2]). It is implied that this action will save the life of Kyra's younger sister, as funeral guests remark that she is starting to get sick, too.

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. Cole also counsels Crowe on his marriage, suggesting he try talking to his wife while she is asleep.

Crowe 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 (which he suddenly discovers he has not been wearing), revealing the twist ending of the film: Crowe himself was unknowingly dead from the opening gunshot wound. Due to Cole's efforts, Crowe's unfinished business – rectifying his failure to understand Vincent – is finally complete. Recalling Cole's advice, Crowe speaks to his sleeping wife and fulfills the second reason he returned, saying she was "never second," and that he loves her. Releasing her to move on with her own life, he is free to leave behind the world of the living. The film ends on a short clip of their wedding tape that fades in from white.

Cast

M. Night Shyamalan cameos as Dr. Hill.

Production

All of the clothes Malcolm wears during the film 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 his face when Cole says "I see dead people." In a special feature the filmmakers mention they initially feared this shot would be a giveaway, but decided to leave it in.[3]

Reception

The film received very positive reviews from critics, with an 85% 'Certified Fresh' rating on Rotten Tomatoes.[4]

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 film at the U.S. box office.[1] It earned $293,506,292 in the United States and a worldwide gross of $672,806,292, ranking it 35th on the list of box-office money earners in the U.S. as of April 2010.[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), 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. The film was #71 on Bravo's 100 Scariest Movie Moments, for the scene where Cole encounters a female ghost in his tent. It was also recently named the 89th Best Film of all time by the American Film Institute in 2007.

The line "I see dead people" from the film became a popular catchphrase after its release, reaching #44 on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Movie Quotes. The Sixth Sense also captured 60th place on AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills, honoring America's most "heart pounding movies". It also appears on AFI's 100 Years…100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition), a list of America's 100 greatest films of all time.

References

  1. ^ a b c The Sixth Sense at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ MLM Marcos, Munchausen Syndrome by Proxy, in the cinema,page 12
  3. ^ Producer Frank Marshall, "Rules and Clues" bonus featurette on the DVD.
  4. ^ The Sixth Sense at Rotten Tomatoes
  5. ^ "The Sixth Sense – Box Office Data". Retrieved 2008-03-09.
  6. ^ "United Kingdom Box Office Returns for the weekend starting 5 November 1999". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
  7. ^ "United Kingdom Box Office Returns for the weekend starting 12 November 1999". Internet Movie Database. Retrieved 2008-01-27.
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