The Sixth Sense

[Andy008]

I'm not thick, but I was watching the Sixth Sense last night on DVD, first time I've seen it, and I can't for the life of me understand the twist at the end. Can someone explain it for me please?

Thanks.

[Noweia]

The kid was dead too?

[Sammy Snake]

The twist is that Bruce Willis was shot at the beginning of the film and so has been dead throughout most of it - and the boy that sees dead people has only been seing Bruce Willis becasue he is dead.

I didn't think the little boy had been dead throughout the film, just Bruce Willis?

[Dagman]

No, I don't think the boy is dead also!

[graemer]

I just got a fright because I thought I'd missed the fact the boy was dead! He wasn't. What's fun Andy is watching the film again once you know and realising all the way through that the Willis character doesn't actually communicate with the Mum or his Wife as you thought they had.

[Andy008]

Yeh, but how come Cole sees the hanged people in the school, and Willis' character doesn't?

[graemer]

Its been a while now, but I think that the Willis character doesn't see the other dead people because he's still clinging to this world? I can't remember...does he see other dead people anytime?

[andy hughes]

As has been mentioned, what you need to do is to watch the film again, noting thet Willis's character does not actually interact with anyone except the boy - especially poignant is the 'aniversary' dinner where his wife walks out. He thinks it's because he's late, she is sad because she is alone, but they never actually speak. Brilliant film. Did anyone see the premise applied to the one-off 'One Foot In The Grave' where Margaret and Victor are visiting her poorly uncle in hospital? Masterful.

[Dom Tuk]

In a pickle...you are porbably mixing it with 'The Others' in which Nicole Kidman and her children are all dead and that is revealed in the end. In the sixth sense the beauty is to see the film again with the realisation that Bruce Willis is dead and to see how he never interacts with anyone else except the boy who knew alll along that he was dead. great direction from Night shymalan who was....wait for it......Indian.......thought i would throw that goodness gracious me line in there

[Insane Wally]

What I don't get is how was Bruce Willis assigned to the boy.  How did he get the job if he can't interact with anyone?

[milly1984]

Cole was Bruce Willis' next patient as he was a Psychologist, that is why he was trying to help him. Willis is in fact dead (as one of his patients shoots him at the atart of the film), the boy is very much alive. The boy has a sixth sense and sees dead people, the dead people do not see each other. As Cole stated in the film 'they walk around like regular people...they only see what they want to see...they don't know they are dead' The reason for them not 'crossing over' so to speak is because they have unfinished business and are using the little boy for their communication with the living. For example, the little girl that gave him the video tape, she wanted her dad to watch it as her mum/step mum was keeping her from getting better and eventually killed her, the tape caught the woman putting poison in the little girls food. After this you presume the little girl can 'rest in peace'.  

[jno]

I guess the point is that instead of Malcolm solving Cole's case, Cole is solving Malcolm's. Maybe Cole doesn't even exist, it's just a dying man's dream of reliving his life and sorting it out (like Point Blank perhaps) in the seconds before death.

As for the dead people Cole sees not knowing that they're dead... well, the hanged bodies he sees must be mighty optimistic if they think they're still alive.

[Cetti]

Well Andy I'm very glad you asked this question because I watched it last week and couldn't make head or tail of any of it!

 I imagined it would be a straightforward story similar to 'The Others' but characters kept appearing and I thought 'Who the hell are they?' In fact I completely lost interest and gave up - but thanks to milly and Dom Tuk I'll watch it again and this time concentrate. :-)

[Casey]

jno of course Cole exists! The film is called Sixth Sense, Cole has a sixth sense and is able to see and communicate with dead people, milly has summed the film up pretty accurately!

[Casey]

Oh btw, of course Cole knows that they are dead!! Which is why he says his famous line........."I see dead people!"

[jno]

Cole certainly 'exists' in the sense that he's played by an actor and we see him on screen. What I meant was that you can also understand the film as a story conjured up by Malcolm's imagination - like The Usual Suspects', where nothing we're shown 'happened' outside Verbal Kint's brain - perhaps to try to make sense of his life, his marriage, his job and his failure to cure Vincent (the one who shoots him).

[Casey]

I understood perfectly what you mean jno, but that is not how this film goes! Cole does help Malcolm you are absolutely right, but it is not through his imagination. In the actual film (which is what I meant in the first place) Cole does exist.

[Casey]

People are trying to analyse this film and read into it way too much! 2 main points of the whole film - Twist was that Malcolm is dead, but you are not supposed to realise it until the very end of the film. Cole has always been able to see dead people throughout his whole life.