10 Superhero Movies That Broke All The Rules

Like most of M. Night Shyamalan’s movies, Unbreakable is a tricky proposition. It starts off shrouded in gloom, with Bruce Willis as David Dunn, a security guard who once dreamed of bigger things.

After he survives a catastrophic train crash, though, it seems he may be destined for greatness after all - Dunn is, as the title suggests, unbreakable. From there, Dunn embarks on a series of superheroic deeds at the behest of Elijah, a mysterious comics dealer whose genre savviness prompts Dunn to solve crimes with his extrasensory powers.

Shyamalan sets us up for a superhero origin story but, as ever with that scamp, there’s a twist in the tale. This isn’t the hero’s story, it’s the villain’s. Elijah (Samuel L Jackson, rarely better) has been pulling the strings from the off in order to kickstart Dunn’s superhero career so as to give himself an arch enemy.

It’s not uncommon for the villain to steal the show through sheer force of charisma, but here it’s entirely intentional. We all think we’re the stars of our own stories - Dunn may be the title character, but he’s most certainly not at the film’s centre.