10 Movies That Gave Just The Right Amount Of Backstory

Two years before Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man released, we had Unbreakable, a slower, more subtle attempt at a superhero film which is the polar opposite of modern day comic book movies. It’s a small tale, focusing on David Dunn and Mr Glass.

M. Night Shyamalan's trick with Unbreakable was that, even until the very end, you’re not quite sure what you’re dealing with. Do these people actually have powers or have we simply been watching deluded characters in an otherwise realistic environment.

Ultimately, the world isn’t in danger and there’s no immediate threat. Instead, it focuses on identity. From comic books, we know what a superhero is but does their origin always have to be so spectacular? Shymalan’s answer was no and the workings for his answer were slowly shown to us throughout Unbreakable.

Whether you’re for or against it, we later saw Unbreakable's backstory expand through the connected films Split and Glass.