David Dunn (character)

David Dunn
Unbreakable character
First appearance	Unbreakable (2000)
Created by	M. Night Shyamalan
Portrayed by	Bruce Willis
In-universe information
Species	Human
Gender	Male
Occupation	Security guard
Spouse	Audrey Dunn
Children	Joseph Dunn

David Dunn is a fictional character and the main protagonist in the Unbreakable film series, portrayed by American actor Bruce Willis. Dunn is a former college football prodigy and presently a security guard who discovers he has superhuman abilities. He is the protagonist in Unbreakable, a minor cameo character in Split, and will return in Glass as the main protagonist.

Character

Origins

When M. Night Shyamalan conceived the idea for Unbreakable, the outline had a comic book's traditional three-part structure (the superhero's "birth", his struggles against general evil-doers, and the hero's ultimate battle against the "archenemy"). However, he found the origin story most interesting, and chose to write Unbreakable as one.

Casting

Willis became attached while shooting The Sixth Sense, also directed by Shyamalan.

Description

David Dunn was a football prodigy sought out by professional teams. After a car accident involving himself and his college sweetheart and future wife, Audrey, David claims he's injured allowing him a graceful exit from playing and saving his relationship. Later in life he finds himself in a dying marriage much to the distress of his and Audrey's son Joseph while working as security guard at a football stadium. As he returns home from a job interview in New York City, David's train crashes and kills the other 131 passengers while he is the only survivor, sustaining no injuries to the shock of his doctor and the delight of Elijah Price. Making contact with Dunn, Price, who has a brittle bone disease, explains his theory that Dunn is essentially his 'counterpart', serving as the unbreakable man to Price's extremely fragile state. Testing himself, Dunn realizes that he is actually far stronger physically than he believed, and it is actually impossible for him to be physically injured (although his extreme density means that he would be vulnerable to drowning), as well as being able to sense those who would commit evil when he is in a crowd.

Elijah Price's theory is that modern-day comic books are an echo of ancient myths such as Egyptian hieroglyphics, stories about demi-gods with superhuman powers, and that there was a kernel of truth behind them. These ancient myths described people with abilities beyond human biological norms - albeit, physically plausible super-powers. The myths got distorted over the eons and particularly by modern comic books, to the point where superheroes have scientifically impossible abilities such as shooting lasers out of their eyes or flight.

Dunn's powers are therefore rooted in his biology simply being enhanced from a baseline human, and include:

• Super-Durability - David Dunn is "unbreakable", able to survive a massive train wreck without a single scratch. This is his primary power.
  • This also extends to Dunn's immune system, which is far stronger than a normal human's. He has never been sick in his entire life (except for one major exception).
• Super-Strength - Dunn is much stronger than even he was consciously aware of at first. Testing his strength using a bench-press, Dunn discovered that - while he had to exert himself - there was no functional limit to his strength if he ignored the pain.
• Security Instinct - Through touch contact with another person, Dunn can sense negative things they have done. This is depicted as a flash of images in the films, though Dunn says he experiences it as more of a feeling or suspicion than conscious imagery. The intensity of this instinct varies: petty theft or assault gives a mild signal, while murder gives a very strong response. Dunn also has an instinctive desire to protect other people i.e. of all things, taking a job as a security guard at a stadium.

Elijah also discerned that other tropes about super-heroes must be rooted in myths that have some kernel of truth to them, including the trope that every super-hero has a weakness, i.e. how Superman is vulnerable to Kryptonite. Dunn's "kryptonite" is simply water: when he tries to swim he drowns (possibly due to greater density), and if he drinks too fast it is much easier for him to choke. Elijah shares this weakness to water. Dunn originally ruled out the observation that he had never been sick by pointing out that in high school he once got a case of pneumonia so bad he had to be hospitalized. Elijah, however, realized this was an exception, as Dunn got pneumonia specifically from a time he nearly drowned in the school's pool.

Films

Unbreakable

Main article: Unbreakable (film)

Unbreakable was first released in November 2000. In the film, Dunn is a security guard who discovers he has supernatural abilities, with superhuman levels of strength, stamina, and invulnerability, as well as an extrasensory ability to see the crimes people have committed by touching them. Throughout the film, he is encouraged by Elijah Price, also known as "Mr. Glass" (Samuel L. Jackson) to become a superhero. Price, whose bones break easily because of a disease, develops a theory that if there is an extreme fragility there must be an "unbreakable" human in existence. As various people bump into him, he senses the crimes they perpetrated, such as theft and rape, and finds one he can act on: a sadistic janitor who invaded a family home, killed the parents and is holding the children captive. David follows the janitor to the victims' house and frees the children, but the janitor ambushes him and pushes him off a balcony into a swimming pool. David nearly drowns (since he cannot swim), but the children rescue him. He then attacks the janitor from behind and strangles him to death while once more remaining uninjured. At the end of the film, through his abilities, Dunn senses that Elijah orchestrated the train crash he had been in previously and countless other disasters that have resulted in massive losses of life, in an attempt to find David. His justification for this seemingly is claiming the purpose of his life and condition was to be David's archenemy. Dunn turns Price in to authorities, and Price is arrested for murder and terrorism and later committed to an institution for the criminally insane.

Split

Main article: Split (2016 American film)

In a final reveal in the 2016 film Split, Dunn appears in a cameo role, revealing that the film takes place in the same universe as Unbreakable.

While sitting in a diner, Dunn and several other patrons listen to the media coverage of the crimes committed by Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man who has been nicknamed "The Horde". The patron sitting next to Dunn notes the resemblance between "The Horde" and a wheelchair-bound criminal who was arrested 15 years prior. When she struggles to remember the man's name, Dunn tells her it was "Mr. Glass".

Glass

Main article: Glass (2019 film)

Shyamalan expressed hope for a third installment following Split, saying, "I hope [a third Unbreakable film happens]. The answer is yes. I'm just such a wimp sometimes. I don't know what's going to happen when I go off in my room, a week after this film opens, to write the script. But I'm going to start writing. [I have] a really robust outline, which is pretty intricate. But now the standards for my outlines are higher. I need to know I've won already. I'm almost there but I'm not quite there." In April 2017, Shyamalan announced that the film will be titled Glass, with Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Anya Taylor-Joy, and James McAvoy reprising their respective roles in the series.

Reception

Willis received critical praise for his performance as Dunn in Unbreakable. Critic Roger Ebert believed that Willis' "subtle acting" was positively different from the actor's usual work in "brainless action movies". Quentin Tarantino, who directed Willis in Pulp Fiction, has also praised his performance in Unbreakable, saying he considers it his best work.

External links

• David Dunn on IMDb