M. Night Shyamalan Breaks Down His Most Iconic Films
Trap director M. Night Shyamalan joins GQ as he revisits some of the most iconic films in his career so far: from the Unbreakable trilogy, starring Samuel L. Jackson (Elijah Price), Bruce Willis (David Dunn) and James McAvoy (Kevin Wendell Crumb) to the 1999 psychological thriller The Sixth Sense.“You got something, kid” recalls Shyamalan when recollecting a conversation with Bruce Willis on the set of The Sixth Sense. Watch the full episode of GQ’s Iconic Films as M. Night Shyamalan breaks down his most iconic movies.
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00:00They were too scared to say the words comic book. No one will go see a movie
00:05About a comic book. That was literally like, you know, you can't do it anybody. I'm like, I love it
00:11And maybe there's other people that would as well
00:18The sixth sense
00:23The tiny hairs on your arm, you know when they stand up
00:31I just have
00:33There's this moment that I remember distinctly was the Friday of the first week of shooting we were doing kind of the wedding scene and
00:41Bruce is the last shot of the day and he does a take and it was really good
00:48he goes, I think we got it and he looks at me and I had a thought and
00:54that's where you
00:57Decide that, you know, it's so weird, right?
00:59it's feel scary to think that small little moment like that decides your your life and
01:04and I and I went looked at him and I walked forward and I whispered in his ear and I could feel the tension coming
01:10off of him like he was like ready to strike and I was like I
01:13Want you to do one more and I want you to do this and I whispered my thoughts
01:18I pull away from him and he kind of looks at me with ice, you know, and I go roll sound
01:23Let's go and I did that and then he did the performance that's in in the movie and he walks off and then like five minutes
01:30later
01:31They go Bruce wants to see you in his trailer and I'm like
01:35And I walked there was a little ways from the sand I walked down the sidewalk in Philly and I get to his trailer
01:40And I knock on the door. He opens the door and in classic superstar mode. He has no shirt on with a towel over his thing
01:47He's standing up. There's really like it's like a movie. He's on the stairs and I'm at the bottom on the thing and he goes
01:53Well, you just did I won't I've only felt this one time before and it was with Quentin on Pulp Fiction
01:58He goes you're you're you got something kid. You really got something and that was it
02:03That's all I want to tell you and he closed the door and I literally I think I've never skipped before but I skipped down the sidewalk
02:10Plot should come out of character
02:13At least I think that a guy who's treating a boy who thinks he sees ghosts what could happen from that?
02:19You know, how does he you know?
02:21How could this be surprising because the movie was very linear for me and I was like this isn't
02:25It doesn't have this extra gear this movie, you know as I was writing and I was like, it's good
02:30It just doesn't have this extra gear and I was like, well, what could happen?
02:33This guy is treating someone that believes they see ghosts. What could happen? What could happen, you know?
02:38And then, you know, I sat up and I was like, oh
02:41You know, it's a deeper version of the conversation about
02:45Life after death and I kept thinking how can you go deeper into this subject and it kind of evolved outward and flower at that
02:52Moment, so it was a it was a very organic moment of just writing
02:57I
03:11Went Haley walked in and he started to read for me
03:15I'm like, well, I don't even want to make the movie if it isn't this kid
03:19I was absolutely certain when I met him
03:21I do have that as a person kind of like, you know, I'm like that's my house
03:26that's where I'm gonna when I see something, you know, the house I live in now wasn't for sale and I was like
03:30I'm going to live here or you know, that's gonna be my wife that when I met her I knew immediately, you know
03:36And I'm that person that there's a commitment. I feel a peace in there about it. That was the first of
03:43The kind of miracles for me that have happened and I do think of them as luck, you know that when an actor walks in
03:50That's perfect
03:57I see dead people
04:02Haley was so committed in
04:04Emotionally, I know he was 10, but he was like full full into it the way he said it kind of
04:10Imbued the words with a gravitas and a reality that shook everybody
04:15so it was really Haley's performance filling those words and kind of the signature hopefully of
04:22Three decades of saying that's my value system, which we're making genre movies
04:26Which you can dismiss but we're gonna do them with absolute truth at the highest level of execution
04:32And that's when people say well, what's your brand or do you make horror movies? Not really, you know, you know, you do twist
04:38I mean, yes. Yes. I do sometimes but really it's genre at the highest highest quality
04:43I want you to you can dismiss them because of its genre and you know, they're not as important as the other genres
04:50but I'm gonna challenge you because we're gonna take the cinema and do it at like the highest highest level and that big that that
04:56Really espoused that for me. So, you know gratefulness to to Haley
05:02Signs
05:04We're going to board up every window in this house
05:13Because they seem to have trouble with pantry doors I
05:16Have these, you know notebooks full of different like premises or ideas and
05:21There were two of them that I had that weren't related
05:23One was kind of the an alien invasion from one family's perspective and then I'm totally unrelated thing
05:31I put down a family finds a crop circle in their backyard and I was like, okay
05:34Well, let's put those together and but when I'm thinking about it again, that's a while ago
05:39But I think more Night of the Living Dead and the birds were really the inspirations for science
05:45Said they would probably invade
05:48They would use ground tactics
05:51hand-to-hand combat
05:52They wouldn't use our technology or fight an airborne battle
05:56Because they know eventually we would use nuclear weapons and the planet would be useless to them
06:00The movie industry was still geared towards it hadn't become where it is. Now. It's still geared towards big
06:07buoyant original movies where everybody was and you know a part of it and and and the audience was up for
06:14New ideas every weekend and that was not an anomalous thing and it wasn't seen as
06:19That much of a risk. It was that's what the industry was. So me writing a spec screenplay and saying hey
06:27Do you want to be in it? It was pretty quick actually, you know
06:30I both me asking Mel and him saying yes the next day and then Joaquin I I went actually and handed him a script
06:37Right here in New York about his arc and then I drove home and by the time I drove home
06:41He said yes, and we became so close all of us at that time. It was such a
06:46Wonderful experience what you're about to see may disturb you
06:53It was a way kind of preceding found footage movies
06:57It was like a little found footage moment very similar to that comes with found footage
07:02That's the premise that makes it so scary that oh wait, it's real, you know
07:05but the comedy in that moment that walk was
07:08So funny and Vamonos kids Vamonos, you know, like he's talking to the camera he's losing his mind
07:13He's in this closet and he backs up into the clothes. I was just in Brazil and they were all talking about
07:18Why did you pick Brazil? Why did you pick that?
07:20It was again my feeling of like kind of bringing in international culture a little bit being an immigrant
07:28Unbreakable did not know your place in this world
07:33To not know why you're here
07:36That's
07:38It's just an awful feeling
07:40What was the thought process behind the follow-up to six cents?
07:42Were you trying to reinvent yourself or change people's perception of you as a filmmaker?
07:46None of that
07:47I they're never gonna let me make another movie once this is released one six cents released
07:51You better get them to say yes to another movie as fast as you can
07:54that was literally because that was my experience that
07:57The first movie didn't do well and in three years late took me three years to get to make another movie
08:02I made that movie that didn't do well took three years to make another movie, you know
08:05And so I'm like, oh as fast as it can go before this movie tanks
08:10and I still have that to this day that feeling like they're never gonna let me make another movie and
08:14So just as fast as you can't make another movie
08:17it's kind I don't know if that's an immigrant mentality or what what it what it is, but I had that then and
08:23And again there it was hey, I love comic books. I know this is a very niche market
08:29But I love it. And and I think what wouldn't it be cool to make a grounded version of that?
08:37How much is it dad
08:41About 350 pounds
08:44It seemed like the studios trying to market it as something else
08:47Did you have an issue with that or that's just not up to you?
08:50Well, the irony is you know
08:52It is with all things if you deny what it is because you're afraid of it being different
08:57You're stealing all of its strength
08:59That's a great example
09:01Like they were like we had one of the biggest movies of all time and the same two people were making another movie
09:05Let's make it look like that movie as opposed to what it was, which was the beginning of an entire genre
09:12But they didn't real didn't realize it because they were too scared to say the words comic book
09:17I mean that was literally the thing that was like no one will go see a movie
09:22About a comic book that was literally like, you know, you can't do it. And I'm like, I love it
09:28And maybe you know, there's other people that would think of this as myth as well and enjoy it
09:34And so it did this in my mind. It was a movie that was hey
09:38The guy is in a crash an accident where everyone dies except him and he doesn't have a scratch on him
09:44And then someone says I know why that happened. You're a real-life superhero
09:47That's the movie but that was never said and never sold then other people were coming and going that wasn't scary
09:54And it was like, you know, I didn't who said it was gonna be that who said it was, you know
09:59Scary and so a really interesting lesson about if I'm gonna be the purveyor of original stories for my life. I have to get
10:07Partners that understand that we're gonna reinvent every single time and we should celebrate that
10:15Split
10:17The
10:30Original outline for unbreakable had split in it. So it was a very long
10:35Movie about him realizing who he was and then this other guy that he meets
10:42As as the antagonist which is, you know the horde and and then they and they fight but it was way too big and sprawling
10:50so I kind of pulled that character out and did that the the basically the first act as unbreakable and I was
10:57bummed at
10:59the the crowd reaction to
11:03Unbreakable and so I was kind of hurt by it
11:06Which was stupid if I could go back and I wish I could have whispered to him, you know
11:10Keep going, you know, you're on to something there
11:12But it took me however many years to return back to to that world
11:17And then I went I wonder if I can make a sequel which I distaste I have distaste for because it's too safe
11:25What if I can make a sequel?
11:27But I don't tell anybody it's a sequel. So that's like backwards, right? You're basically
11:33Taking everything the reason you would do it to have the financial safety net and the connection on it, but never telling them that
11:39And I was like, I wonder if I could do it
11:40So I secretly went to Disney and said could I have the rights to the David Dunn character just for a little cameo?
11:48This is like a little Easter egg thing
11:50They said yes, and I didn't even tell Universal so in the script that I showed them and sold them
11:55I didn't have the ending on it
11:56And so for me with Universal was fun to kind of I remember that day the screening room happened
12:02We screen a movie of split for them and the lights went out. They watched the movie and the ending of split happened
12:08It's a funny name, too
12:11What was it?
12:13Mr. Glass
12:17The lights come on and they're like
12:20How are we releasing a movie with a character from another studio and I was like, it's all good here it is
12:27And they're like, oh my god, and so I was like, but don't tell anybody
12:31We took a big risk showing that movie four months early to a film festival
12:35Because I wanted to have that underground underground buzz about it and it was just it was this magical thing
12:41you know taking all these huge risks and
12:43Breaking form and getting partners that believe in that and the audiences to support these kind of big swings. It's just a
12:51Been so so so lucky
12:53Dr. Fletcher
12:55It's battery
12:57It doesn't seem like Barry
13:00Barry is an extroverted leader. Yes. I am. It was just the perfect guy again
13:05You know the perfect human being walked into my life and I emailed with him and I said I'm gonna send you the script
13:10And he goes which part of my playing what's the character's name? And I was like just read the script
13:16All of them
13:17He was really interested in this subject and had studied deeply about this subject because he was gonna make a movie a long time
13:24Ago about the same subject so I found like the one actor was already versed in this
13:28And so we just were off to the races and we just started talking about each character
13:32And and James is a world-class stage actor
13:36so this this idea of being a
13:38Performative character keeps popping and there's a performance from each character for these girls
13:43When we would shoot like the I go check the gate
13:45I go cut and then everyone would applause
13:47From like the other actors and the crew members because what we were watching was so so special in my opinion
13:52You know, that was the performance of the year
13:56Glass I
13:59Understand that the three of you think you are superhuman that you don't think you are normal
14:06You've convinced yourselves you have extraordinary gifts like something out of a comic book
14:12This was kind of the first pure sequel
14:14But again, it was a very unusual because I'm making a sequel to two different movies from two different generations
14:19That really don't know each other, you know split was just discovered by a whole bunch of younger people
14:25You know, I had a new audience now with the visit and split
14:28so those two movies that created a whole nother generation for me that I that I adored and now I'm kind of bringing that the
14:34Old generation back together again with this and we even the score
14:37We were using some score from unbreakable and the score from from split and we were combining the two so a really interesting challenge
14:49The
14:54Village
15:00There's a painter named Andrew Wyatt who I love
15:03Deeply his paintings and so they inspired that inspired the village and there was a property
15:09That I used to drive by to go to my office and it was a very famous
15:14Estate Foxcatcher estate actually made a movie about it
15:17One of the richest families in the country lived and they just created their own community and whatever happened in there
15:22There was a mental institution in there
15:24They just took care of the Pete their family members that were not okay in there and God knows what else happened there
15:29And so you drive by and it's rusted and covered in ivy. So it's very provocative
15:33I mean I used to drive by and drive by it now
15:36It's a development with McMansions. So but it was very scary at one time
15:40And so I was like, huh, I wonder if we had all the money in the world. What would you do with that?
15:57You know, I came more from the independent and the movement that inspired me, you know
16:02Spike Lee and his movies and you know and all these kind of independent filmmakers from the East Coast
16:07It was very natural and there was other filmmakers that had done all three even Woody Allen all of those people
16:11It was just like a language you do all three right direct and act in your movies in the beginning the first film
16:16You know, I was the lead in the first film. I was 21 years old shot it in India
16:20Was it you know all about Indians and all of that stuff and that was the first movie, you know
16:25As I became known a little bit it started to affect the storytelling because people would be like, oh man
16:29and it would state you would ruin the kind of
16:33Suspension of disbelief if you did it in the wrong way, so that became a like how do you do this in a way that is
16:40Gentle or fun in a way that makes sense
16:43And so now it's kind of I try to you know, find funny funny moments some funny ways to incorporate myself
16:50The visit
16:52this is the movie that I that changed everything because I was like I
16:56I
16:57Don't fit into this industry. That was where I realized and I'm like, I don't want to do this anymore
17:04and it's not working for me, so
17:07I'm just gonna go make a movie. I'm not gonna ask permission. I'm not gonna go by any rules
17:13I'm just gonna make something and have an incredible fun time if we're gonna go down. Let's go down and
17:18Have fun. We're gonna go for it. And so I said I'm gonna make a basically like a
17:24Teenage horror movie and make it as funny as possible about these two kids is kind of basically a modern
17:32Hansel and Gretel
17:42We're doing the handheld fun footage thing, but I designed every shot so I get to do what I do
17:47Which is really storyboard out, but it they're all oners in that movie. So it's really interesting
17:54You know push exercise of precision to make it look like it's not precision you pick up the camera
18:00It goes like that hold there till the thing you catch in the mirror you come over here over there
18:04You catch that that pan has to be that fast and then you come back slow to her to your sister
18:09You know like and we choreographed so I would I basically found a house
18:13Rented it for a year and said how much would it cost to rent this this house for a year?
18:17it was on the market and they said you can have it and we put furniture in it and that was it and
18:22I just could go there and just map out every single shot like this and I just sat there by myself in the house and
18:29Figured out each movement and that became the visit. I
18:34Remember how close we came
18:36To it all falling apart because you know, I went out mortgage the house took no money
18:41You know all that stuff and it was gonna go south and we I was scared and I showed the movie really quickly like I
18:47Cut together as fast as I could and I showed it to a bunch of buyers and you know
18:51All the studios everybody passed except Universal that said we would we wouldn't mind seeing it when it's done
18:58And really it was some dark times, you know
19:00I'm kind of going with I'm gonna become this cautionary tale and I sat down my little girl my youngest and she had a puzzle
19:07And I said, let's just do a puzzle
19:09So we sat down and we did this
19:101,000 piece puzzle me and her and she said this is too hard and I said well
19:14Let's just find one piece and we spent 30 minutes and found one piece that will fit into another piece
19:18And I was like, let's just find another piece and we did that and then I was like, huh? I
19:24Have faith that there's a there's a picture here. And I said, well, let me just
19:28Approach life like that. And then so the next morning I was like, let's just make one moment better and visit
19:34So I sat in any room and I just made one moment better made one line better when one one cut better one sounded bit
19:39Better and I did that every day and we did that every day one more piece one more piece one more piece
19:44And then I forgot all about
19:47The mortgage on the house and the stakes and everything and I just got addicted to one more piece one more idea one more
19:52piece one more idea and
19:54I fell in love with that process and the movie finished and I went to Universal
19:58Hey, I want to show it to you
19:59But I'm gonna only show it to you in front of an audience
20:00then they came out watched it with a movie theater, which was an audience audience went crazy and
20:06Luckily, they bought it and then we released it. It grossed 25 million dollars on its opening day
20:11The movie cost five million dollars. We it was in profit by 7 p.m
20:15On the first day and off to the races and here we are and so it's like but it's that close, you know that close
20:24Trap
20:27Hey, why don't we go inside for a second then we can go back in why what's going on dad?
20:39You know
20:40I do believe in in a process the process of these movies from the visit all the way through
20:46Servant, there's no fluff. We're all here. There's no way to protect yourself
20:51We'll all get paid if we're successful if we're not we don't get paid and I don't think you should it should be the other
20:56Way, that's just my my mom for love. It drives me
20:59It drives me when I do it like that and who's like-minded who wants to come do that and I wrote this role for a dad
21:07You know, but he has to be charming and amazing. It's a superstar role
21:11but who you know, is there a superstar that would come and
21:15Risk everything and let go of everything and make movies the way I make movies
21:19Josh came and walked in and we started talking about everything about the fact that we live away from Hollywood
21:25That we're dads of three girls and how he's has all these attributes, but he doesn't want and you know
21:31he would throw them all away for risk-taking and
21:35And danger is what really drives him and I was like, let's go brother. This is you found the right home
21:41It was just perfect union and I can't imagine anybody else playing the role of Cooper except Josh Hartnett
21:47I
21:52Celica is a musician we spent our life following her around and she's touring and we get to see my friends and musicians and that
21:58World is there and I said to Celica
22:00Why don't we do something really different? Why don't we make a movie where you write an album? That's a
22:07Diegetic music by that. I don't mean it's a kind of a you to song over a getting dressed montage
22:12It's it the characters are watching these songs and we do an entire album that way
22:17so it's a musical experience and we make a thriller and so we both loved this because I felt like sleek is
22:25one of the few people that could accomplish what I'm asking and and we both sat and then I thought of the idea of
22:32It being contained in an arena and I said well, let's just so the characters go to a concert
22:37Okay, what happens what happens what happens and then I remembered this kind of old event from the 80s where the FBI and the police
22:45made a sting operation for all of these criminals and it really happened and it was
22:50Hilarious and weird and it worked and I was like, well, maybe they're they're catching someone here
22:55And then I thought of this idea of a trap
22:57our relationship when they were younger was one of kind of mentor or father who has
23:02Very very specific set of ideals about what art means and how to approach art and dead serious in our house about art
23:09You know about books paintings poetry, you name it
23:13Obviously movies, you know, it's not a joke in our house. It's serious
23:17It paid for every brick of our house. You can't corrupt it. And so we had that relationship
23:22That wasn't that's not way it is right now
23:24The way it is right now is these individuals are adults and and silica is a world-class musician
23:32My relationship with her is an equal where she teaches me as much as as much as I'm offering to her in the acting part
23:39Of the movie. She is so pure. She's like a child and I'd love directing children for this reason
23:45There's no filter, you know, you just create the presence and say don't don't think don't don't try to
23:52Have anything happen just listen
23:55And so teaching her the acting part while she was kind of teaching all of us the music part writing
24:0014 songs and performing them and all of that stuff
24:03It was such a unique
24:05Moment because I feel like I was with many artists that were inspired and and all the crew members were at the top of their
24:12Game Josh at the top of his game sleek at the top of her game even Ari the little girl and Allison
24:18You know Allison pill the performances the cinematography the music also what I'm trying to do as the leader of these movies
24:25Is awaken their agency awaken that kind of thing that's extraordinary in them and they will remind me in that myself
24:33And I always tell the the actors if we could duplicate what we're gonna do then it wasn't the right thing
24:39It should be one time only that we could have done this. This was just a beautiful experience with silica and everybody