The Sixth Sense (1999) ✦ Member of the Month: Full-Length Watchalong Reaction
Added 2024-08-26 22:00:05 +0000 UTCHi everyone! I'm sorry this is being shared much later than I had communicated. I am SO RELIEVED that the busy of this month is now behind me and I can settle back into a routine for a long while. 😊 Especially since my reaction plans for the last 4 months of the year are kinda packed!
This movie was our August 2024 Member of the Month Winner's pick - thank you Grayson! I knew I would get to this movie eventually but it wasn't planned at all, so thank you for making me watch it earlier!
As always, I can't wait for your comments and thoughts! Thanks for tuning in everyone! ❤️ [Direct link here.]
✦ KL
Comments
I had just started my sophomore year of high school when my mom and I went to go see this. She came because I needed a ride. She would usually drop me off and I would use a payphone to call to be picked up but this time she wanted to watch it because she thought it might be scary for me. I was 15, moms am I right, haha. She didn't like going to the movies because she was a smoker and would walk outside and smoke a cigarette and then come back in and ask me questions on what she missed. She saw the major stuff. At the end when the boy and his mom were in the car and he tells her about Grandma, I teared up but when I looked at my mom she was crying. Her and her mother had similar problems where they didn't get along when my mother was a kid. My mom saw me with tears in my eyes and hugged me. We then both started crying. We almost missed the big reveal at the end. My mother passed away 5 years ago and this movie and the cinema experience I will always remember.
Carl Johnson
2024-08-30 05:34:44 +0000 UTCI always heard about the twist through pop culture so I never got to experience it blind. At least I got to see you experience it.
Christopher simeon
2024-08-28 10:06:27 +0000 UTCThat thumbnail…clearly someone snapped a candid pic as an ice cream truck drove by. I loved the moment Mischa Barton showed up. Dead, dripping poison vomit from her mouth and scaring poor little Cole but your reaction is simply, “Oh, Hi Mischa.” I remember all the buzz in 1999 when this came out. I eventually saw it in theaters, I went alone one evening. And when that twist was revealed I had no one to discuss it with! I still carry the scar from that one. I’m so glad it wasn’t spoiled for you. If Unbreakable had hit YouTube before you watched this, you may not have made it. I know a lot of people talk about the twist. The twist no one saw coming that M. Night Shyamalan in many ways has tried to replicate since. But I consider this film to be near flawless. Yes, he paced it and filmed it and we didn’t know Malcolm was dead. But even without the twist Cole’s story is compelling. I liked that once Cole reveals his secret to Malcolm we start seeing things from Cole’s perspective, the dead everywhere. And they all seem to be aware of him, constantly meeting his eyes. Just tense. Quick story. My youngest works proctoring various exams. Professional licenses, MCATs, LSATs, etc. The testing space has white noise going constantly and video/audio recording. A couple of weeks ago she was in the test space and clearly heard a man’s voice say “hi.” She looked around and saw no one and nothing. She then played back the video recording of the moment and the disembodied voice was caught in the audio. Her coworker confirmed she heard the same thing. She used her phone to record the clip and played it for me. You clearly hear a man say, “hi.” Who was it? What does it mean? What is she going to do with recording? I don’t know. It’s interesting and unexplainable. And yes, she believes in ghosts. A little more now than she already did.
Bryan Dempsey
2024-08-28 03:19:48 +0000 UTC3 things. 1. Watching this knowing the twist, I kept thinking "she's going to get it right away. It's so obvious". Which is dumb, because I didn't get it right away the first time I watched it. The truth is, anyone who got the twist the first time is either lying or a genius, because it is so well done. 2. I entirely agree that the twist is not the best thing about this picture. In fact, I would say it's kinda the mediocre aspect about it—if a twist is what makes your movie, I'm probably not interested—which is why "spoilers" mean nothing to me. If a whole film can be spoilt by a single plot point, then I'm not sure about the quality of the rest of the movie. 3. The car scene is excellent. Made me cry like a little girl with a grazed knee (call back to Kevin Smith, there).
Sam
2024-08-27 23:16:39 +0000 UTCUgh this movie is so freaking good! Can’t remember the last time I watched it from beginning to end all the way through. It’s such a classic and so hard to find anyone who doesn’t know the twist ending. Great reaction!
HugoBoss435
2024-08-27 20:20:58 +0000 UTCWhen I first watched this in the early 2000s I unfortunately "spoiled the ending" for myself by figuring it out too soon. I think I had seen the scene where Cole says "I see dead people" somewhere before I started watching, and using that context plus the restaurant scene, I noticed Malcolm never moves the chair even though it's at an awkward angle to the table, and then obviously no one interacts with him. It was still a great first movie watching experience, and it's so good on rewatch as well! Props to the brilliant writing. If you go into it blind it really toes the line of showing you the truth without you noticing it. I'm sure they had a bunch of test-screenings after which they moved some scenes or added some subtle distractions to keep most people from figuring it out too soon.
Onno Smits
2024-08-27 19:13:44 +0000 UTCI love this thumbnail ❤️
Future_Boy85
2024-08-27 04:56:39 +0000 UTCGreat reaction. One of the things that makes this twist so great is that all the clues were there and almost seem obvious on a re-watch. But almost everyone (me included) did not see it coming and was blown away at the end. I think it is a sign of the great writing but also great performances. Viewers are so invested in the characters and their journeys that they are not trying to solve the puzzle of the story. The other point that sticks out to me when watching again is that Bruce Willis was haunting his wife. Her always being cold, on anti-depressants, re-watching the wedding video over and over again, him breaking windows when she tries to get close to someone else. The depression is probably natural with a sudden death of a loved one, but it seemed his presence made matters worse for her and he freed her at the end. I think that is an interesting perspective on a ghost story.
Joe
2024-08-27 03:23:32 +0000 UTCYou hit the nail on the head. One of the reasons The Sixth Sense works so well is because the movie is, in theory, emotionally and dramatically over after the scene in the car between Cole and his mother. As you said, it's so powerful and so well-acted by both parties, and as far as the viewer is concerned, basically everything is resolved: Cole has not only figured out how to deal with his secret but also confessed it to his mother, and their relationship is strengthened by the conversation. The scene before it between Cole and Dr. Crowe makes it seem as if Dr. Crowe has achieved closure as well by helping Cole, and he also has Cole's advice on how to speak to his wife. In theory, the audience might want to have an additional scene between Malcolm and his wife, but it *could* end there without leaving anything too obvious dangling. Thus, the twist serves as a bonus emotional payoff after the audience has already had a big one, and is more satisfying as a result. One of the biggest hints that Malcolm is dead that an eagle-eyed viewer might pick up on the first viewing is that while it is cleverly assembled in various combinations to give it a feel of variety, Malcolm always wears the same clothes he had the night he died: his overcoat, a suit with a vest, a blue shirt, and an old sweater. He is also never seen driving a car, and he never opens or closes any doors (he does interact with the basement door -- but the scene always cuts before he actually opens it). Producer Frank Marshall thought the audience was going to put it together when the camera is on Malcolm's face when Cole says "They don't know they're dead," but test audiences never noticed. It is a cliche among South Asian families that lawyer and doctor are the two most desired professions by parents, so Shyamalan casting himself as a doctor in the movie was sort of a joke/apology to his parents for not becoming one himself, especially because many members of his family are doctors. One of the craziest things to me is that Toni Collette was probably only 26 years old when she shot this (at most, 27). Her performance in that car scene and also when Cole comes to her and asks to sleep in her bed, among other moments, are just so powerful. Another wild related story is that Bruce Willis was 20 days into shooting a film called The Broadway Brawler when he decided he was unhappy with the way things were going and fired a bunch of the crew, including the director, causing the film to be shut down, after which it was never completed. As a way of making it up to Disney, he agreed to do three films for them at a reduced pay rate instead of go through litigation. The first one was a massive success and one of his most famous films, and this was the second, which was even bigger and more famous, so the collapse of Brawler turned out to be one of the most successful disasters in motion picture history. The punchline to that story is that Disney didn't actually get to reap much of the benefit from The Sixth Sense. The president of Disney, David Vogel, read the script and loved it. He also knew that New Line would buy it if he didn't act, so without permission from CEO Michael Eisner, he paid almost $3m for the script and guaranteed Shyamalan the chance to direct. When Eisner found out, he was so livid, he eventually forced Vogel out of the company. Upon his departure, when the film was two weeks into production, Vogel left a message on Eisner's answering machine: "I've left you with one of Disney's biggest pictures: The Sixth Sense." Eisner reportedly laughed at it, but Vogel, who then quit the business, was correct: the movie became Disney's most successful live-action film in history, scored six Oscar nominations, and then also became their most successful home video release as well. However, karma came back to bite them: one of the other executives sold the profits back to the production company Spyglass before the movie opened, probably as another way of sticking it to Vogel. Whoops!
Tyler Foster
2024-08-27 03:19:41 +0000 UTCThe Shyamalan Train continues. All aboard! 🚂 (After watching...) It's been a while since I've seen this in its entirety, and wow it's just as good as I remember. There are so many pivotal moments where the movie could've easily lost the viewer if Haley Joel Osment hadn't delivered an absolutely *perfect* performance, and wow did he knock it out of the park in every single scene. Toni Collette also does such an incredible job here; you absolutely believe this is a mother who cares dearly for her son and is doing her very best to keep it together through difficult times. One of (if not THE) all-time greatest cinematic twists ever, and it's still blowing minds to this day. I'm so happy you got to experience this film. Thank you for continuing to give MNS a chance, despite decades of badmouthing from the haters.
Nestor Custodio
2024-08-27 00:17:11 +0000 UTCI remember seeing this in the theater (because I'm fucking old), and my friend and I hanging around during the credits to discuss the movie--as we always did. Only this time we were talking really loudly, and excitedly, because we were so amazed by the movie we had just seen. And as we got up to leave we realized that an elderly couple behind us had also stayed...they were listening to our discussion, it turns, out, because they didn't understand the movie's ending, and found our talk helpful. They actually thanked us as we both headed out to the main lobby. Now, for me, I have a hard time watching this movie without someone else; because I realize my favorite thing about it (and there are a lot of things--this movie is fucking spectacular all around) is watching other people react to it...whether someone physically there with me, or watching them on a reaction channel; and, not just the ending, but all the little moments and clues leading up to the end, to see how they put it together. Part of it is vicarious experience, but most of it is just the cool look on their faces when whatever dawns on them dawns on them. So this is going to be good shit.
Steve Mercier
2024-08-26 22:59:06 +0000 UTCI remember the first and only time I watched this film, shortly after it came out to rent. My close friends had rented it and we huddled around the telly. At about 10ish minutes in, I blurted out to the room, totally as a joke. "I bet..." (insert spoiler). But not actually believing they'd have done something that obvious. I wasn't popular at the end. 🫤
Death Lego
2024-08-26 22:34:23 +0000 UTCOh this is one of my favorites. Haley Joel Osment got robbed from winning the Oscar for best supporting actor by Michael Caine!!
Ray H
2024-08-26 22:10:57 +0000 UTC
