The Sixth Sense (ONLY IF YOU'VE SEEN IT!!!!!!)

[Joey P]

First off, I want to say that it was a great movie and probably the only one that I've been tempted to go and see again right away (although I haven't).

Now I have some questions, I imagine more questions and answers will pop up as this thread continues.

1. Why didn't the room get cold when the boy was talking to the doctor?

2. Why was the boy (Cole) wearing his fathers glasses at the beginning? I highly doubt that it was "for no reason." Also he never wore them at any other time.

3. There was another one but I can't remember it right now.

[Nickrz]

MPSIMS incoming!

[Misha77]

I thought that the room got cold only when the dead were angry. As for the glasses, I have no idea. But in the beginning, did the boy run because B. Willis was dead? And if so, then how did Willis get his case? It was on paper. Was this Willis' case before he got shot?

[dawnbird]

The boy was wearinng glasses to disguise himself, to fool the ghosts. I guess he stopped because it wasn't working.

Doc was probably going to work because he didn't know he was dead. I bet his replacement got the case, and the file just disappeared off the desk one day.

[Joey P]

One of the things that kidna clears everything up (kinda think it might have partially been a cop out to make it easier on the writers) was that the dead people "only see what they want to see." But it was still a great movie that I can't wait to see again. Anybody know of any websites that will help with these kinda questions?

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Formerly known as Nec3f on the AOL SDMB

[Fatal Image]

If you have Sixth Sense questions, I highly suggest you check out the rec.arts.movies.current-films newsgroup, and/or do a Deja(news) search for "sixth sense". There have been numerous threads on this movie, answering in great detail all the questions you guys have asked, and many other questions I never would've thought of :)

[Tony]

There are alot of moments in the story that seem insignificant but after viewing the end all tie together. For example, when the Doc and Cole's mom are "talking" before the boy steps into the room. It wasn't Bruce Willis who put on those wedding tapes, wishing for happier times in his broken marriage, but his wife who was looking back to the time when the guy was still alive. When he screams at the guy who was fooling around with his wife but who only drives away, apparently ignoring him. Of course, we realize the man wasn't doing anything wrong, since the woman was a widow and not married.

[Sycorax]

I have to see it again - I missed a lot! I don't recall the glasses or rooms getting cold. There was another thread about this movie and someone mentioned Cole in the dumbwaiter with a dead person at the birthday party. I remember the birthday party and the two bullies pushing Cole into what I thought was a closet -don't recall a body. But all-in-all I enjoyed it immensely.

[Capt. Spaulding]

Don't get me wrong...I still think it was a very good movie - slowly paced, well shot, smartly written - but as for the "surprise twist" ending I didn't think it was surprising at all. I figured it out about 1/3 of the way through. I'm not saying I'm super smart, or anything, it was just obvious to me that the only person Malcom interacted with was the boy - ergo, he died from the gunshot wound.

[Capt. Spaulding]

Anyway, I forgot to ask: did anybody else out there figure it out before it was fully revealed?

[Capt. Spaulding]

Oh, yeah...one more thing:

IIRC, the movie takes place in the fall and at one point Cole & Malcolm are walking down the street when a brightly uniformed little league team walks in front of them.

My question is: was this a living team still in their uniforms for the play-offs or were they a team that had been killed in a bus accident or something?

[nhaerens]

I didn't figure out Willis was dead; so I was pleasantly surprised. One thing I didn't understand. I assumed that in order to meet the boy in those sessions, Willis must've met his mother. It would seem abnormal to meet a kid without meeting first his parents or some other authority figure... That may have been a bit far-fetched. But the neat idea was that Willis helped the kid but that the kid helped him too....
I really enjoyed the movie. In its genre, one of the better ones.

[corvidae]

Good movie! There were a few things I missed, too.

So, if it only gets cold when the dead are angry, why was it cold when the doctor was finally saying goodbye to his wife?

All the other dead people running around looked pretty nasty- and had signs of how they died on them- how come the doctor didn't have any mark on him until the end?

Did the kid know the doctor was dead? I never quite figured that part out.

How lame was it when the doctor was listening to the old tapes and heard the dead guy?

[Sealemon88]

I've seen it twice, and I used to read the posts in Yahoo's User Reviews board until I got tired of the trolls that live there.

My theory on the whole temperature thing was that ghosts are made of energy, held together through will power...when strong emotion is felt (Cole can be forgiven for only assuming anger would do it), then the ghost draws heat energy from the surrounding area, dropping the temp.

Did Cole know about Malcome being dead? I don't really know if he did at the beginning, but I think he almost certainly did by the end.

Oh, and some posts in Yahoo made the point about the proliferance(sp?) about the color red as a visual clue of the supernatural; The red ballon, the red doorknob to the basement, the red door to the church, the outer walls of the school, Cole's tent, and the dress Malcome's wife was wearing at the resturant. She was also wearing a red nightshirt when she was in bed asleep and Malcome sat on the foot of the bed and watched her

A question I REALLY wanna know is....was the doorknob to the basement red when Malcome's wife used it in the beginning of the movie? I have a foggy recollection that it was clear, but I don't really wanna spend more cash just to find out. Can anybody help me on this one?

Thanks for reading this. :)



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You say "cheesy" like that's a BAD thing.

[popokis5]

Regarding how the doctor got the boys case. I don't believe it was the little boys case. I got the impression it was the kid (I use the term loosly) who shot him's case.

[Kat]

I don't think so, I'm fairly sure the paperwork had Cole's name on it.

I guessed that Malcolm died right after he was shot but dismissed it as too obvious. Watching the scene with Cole walking in on Malcolm and his mother, I was pretty sure I was right, though. And the restaurant scene clinched it. My sister who I saw the movie with didn't figure it out, though.

[RFlowers]

Just before the doctor met Cole, he was comparing to files: one for Cole and one for the other kid (Vincent? is that it?).



My wife figured out the ending before seeing the movie. Well, she knew from the previews that the kid saw dead people. And every review she read prattled on about the "surprise ending!" She is very good about guessing the ending in movies, who the murderer is, etc. When she told me that she thought she knew what the surprise was, I guessed at it too. When he was shot, that was it. All through the movie, I kept hoping for a double-cross; you know, the surprise is something else. Oh well.

I hope this thread isn't too dead--I have a couple of questions of my own. :)

I saw the movie last night--and wow! It was a very well-done movie. I came in knowing the plot and the twist at the end, which made things very interesting--I could watch the subtle hints as they occurred in the film. (Didn't spoil it at all for me knowing, either.)

My question isn't about him, though--I'd like to know if anyone could tell what Cara's mom was poisoning her with. Obviously we could tell that dark bottle of lethal stuff wasn't good, but I couldn't tell what it was. Anyone able to read the lable on it?

Meanwhile, I do think that Cole knew Malcolm was a ghost. He ran from him at first, and then at the end, he suggested he talked to his wife while she slept--he just seemed to know what to do. Plus, some of the looks Cole gave Malcolm at the beginning were rather frightened. The difference, I believe, is Malcolm was very gentle in how he spoke to him--didn't yell or do anything freaky like the others--he just wanted to talk to him, and did.

The "death wounds" on Malcolm weren't visible until the end, I believe, because of the "they only see what they want to see" reasoning.

The room got cold when Malcolm realized he was dead because he was freaking out. Not angry, per se, but definitely stressing out. His wife's breath stopped showing as he started to relax and accept.

Cole's name was on the paperwork Malcolm was reading in the beginning, written at the top and circled. The other boy's name was Vincent.

Anyway--any ideas on what Cara was killed with?

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"Me fail English? That's unpossible!"

"English? Who needs that? I'm never going to England."

[Rilchiam]

My question isn't about him, though--I'd like to know if anyone could tell what Cara's mom was poisoning her with. Obviously we could tell that dark bottle of lethal stuff wasn't good, but I couldn't tell what it was. Anyone able to read the lable on it?

It was some kind of household cleaning product, but I think the label was purposely obscured, and if seen, wouldn't be that of an existing product. I can't think of any company that would want that kind of product placement!

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Remember, I'm pulling for you; we're all in this together.
---Red Green

[Rhythmdvl]

Finally got a chance to see the movie this weekend… fantastic! I really feel sorry for those who ‘guessed’ the ending. I used to have that problem too, but learned to stay away from any description of a movie before I saw it. Doesn’t help with every movie, but having no idea there was a ‘surprise’ ending to this film let there be one.

I am reviving this thread because I have a couple questions about the movie. When they were in the school and the kid saw the hanging people, why didn’t it get freezing in the school? I understand that under the movie’s premise it only got cold when the ghosts were feeling overly emotional. So, did that mean the hanging ghosts had so much time on their hands hanging there that they were able to come to an inner peace? I would think that they would rank among the most irritated of people. Or maybe I missed something.

Second, how did he (the boy) know that his teacher was called Stuttering John (or something like that)? It seemed to come to him out of the Ether. Was there any explanation for this?

Thanks for listening,

Rhythmdvl


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Once in a while you can get shown the light
in the strangest of places
if you look at it right…

[evilbeth]

Unless I am mistaken, the bottle of cleaner that Cara's mom used had the word "Pine" on it implying a Pine-Sol-type cleaner.

Good question on the Stuttering John thing. Maybe he got fed up with the teasing one day and killed the kid who was doing it and he told Cole...hey, it's a thought!

When we rented it the tape said that it had a special bonus feature at the end showing "rules" and "clues." But we forgot about it and turned it off during the credits and returned it. Maybe someone could rent it and watch that part and report back? (I, as always, have late fees at every video rental place on earth so I won't be doing it!

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"You don't have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die." --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

[Rhythmdvl]

EB I can’t remember anything from the ‘Rules and Clues’ that has not been posted in this thread. The color red, Bruce’s non-interaction with the rest of the cast, a bit of explanation on the breath. Again, can’t remember much that was not posted here. Interesting shots of the director / producer / etc. taking pride in how they kept the continuity of the film together.

If the teacher did kill the kid, wouldn’t Cole have known about that too? Seems like it would be a bit more important to bring up in class, no?

[Nu Vo Da Da]

The "death wounds" on Malcolm weren't visible until the end, I believe, because of the "they only see what they want to see" reasoning.

I always thought the reason that he didn't see the wounds was because, for the most part, they were in his back. (if you remember from the shooting scene-the bullet hole in front was quite small, the exist wound was large however) In several scenes-while walking around and such-he seems to hold his hand over where the bullet wound was, as if it was bothering him as well.

Also, as to the reason why we never saw the wound, his back is never really shown until the last scene. He is shot from a side perspective, and a frontal one, but never in a way that will let you see his back. That combined with the fact that he's wearing a long coat in most of the scenes would disguise the wound.

In other words, I believe that they were visible(though we never saw them) and that he never saw them because of the "seeing what you want to see" bit.

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Profanity is the crutch of the inarticulate mother-fucker.

[Boris B]

I'm with rhythmdvl ... I avoid any description of the movie beforehand. Anything beyond "psychological drama" could easily have spoiled this one. I did hear an audio clip of it on National Public Radio, but all it revealed was Cole saying, "I see dead people" and the Dr. talking to him a little.

One of the things I enjoyed about The Crying Game was not knowing there was a "big surprise" in it at all. I got lucky there. I just saw High Fidelity. I enjoyed it. I was expecting a cyberpunk thriller for some reason....

[Demo]

Just saw the movie this weekend as well and it was awesome. I, like Rythmdvl, try to stay away from any description of these types of movies and even consciously try not to figure it out and just concentrate on the movie, so it wasn't spoiled.

Good point about the Stuttering thing. My only guess was that the spirits who had been hanging in the school had seen him and relayed this to the boy.

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Just make yourself comfy while I shoot nuclear particles into your heart.
(Courtesy of Wally)

[Raza]

When we rented it the tape said that it had a special bonus feature at the end showing "rules" and "clues." But we forgot about it and turned it off during the credits and returned it. Maybe someone could rent it and watch that part and report back?

I saw it last week on DVD (the only way to go), and watched the interviews, the deleted scenes with director commentary, and the Rules and Clues.

One of the (writers?) was describing one scene, and he was certain it would give away the twist to everyone. He was very surprised that no one picked up on it. It was:

When Cole was in the hospital and revealed his secret to Malcolm, he was saying (paraphrasing from memory): "I see dead people...they don't know they're dead....they don't see other dead people.." etc. The whole time, the camera is focused on Malcolm. The writer was certain that people would get the significance, but I sure didn't.

The deleted scenes (based on my M&Ms-induced foggy memory):

1) an extended ending; the director said this was the cut he hated to make the most, but felt it was redundant: there was an additional minute or so after Malcolm said goodbye where the camera pans to the video playing on the TV, with Malcolm (at the reception) saying how much he loved his wife.

2) about a 2 minute scene with Malcolm watching Cole play with his soldiers outside (just before meeting the little leaguers); Cole had names for all the soldiers, and when Malcolm asked Cole about two who were "dead" (under a little blanket), Cole gave involved stories about how they died and who they left behind. The scene showed a little boy who had way too much knowledge about "pretend" soldiers. The director felt the message of the scene would be lost on the viewers.

3 and 4) While Malcolm and Cole were walking, Cole says he has to go do something and breaks off; Malcolm follows and observes. Cole meets an old man (they've met before; the old man is confused, dazed, troubled, and looking for his wife, who is dead), and is invited inside. There, Cole (acting on instructions from the old man's dead wife) finds his wife's old diaries, and gives them to the man. A later scene (only about 15 seconds) shows Malcolm happening by the old man's place, and seeing the man at peace and being sociable.

Director's commentary and material of this sort definitely make getting a DVD worthwhile. For those with the sound system to support it, there's nothing short of a $7 ticket that's like it.

[Jeannie]

The deleted scenes you mention are in an online script I read of the film. They cut out very little. We watched it last night (we had seen it last summer in the theatre). I was just as mesmorized with the film, but for different reasons this time around. I watched closely for holes and saw none. I think someone mentioned Anna's breath at the end. At first, we can see her breath because Malcolm is upset. As he realizes his situation and comes to terms with it, she warms up. It makes sense to me. I love that movie so much.

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I never hate myself in the morning. I sleep till noon.
--Sig line courtesy of Wally :)

[Milossarian]

This movie was awesome.

There are some spots that could be seen as plot holes, but if you look at it a certain way, it isn't such a problem.

(Cole comes home and Malcolm and Cole's mother are sitting in the room together. It looks as though they've been talking, but clearly they couldn't have. Wouldn't Malcolm have noticed something screwy, as they sat there? Also, the couple of scenes with Malcolm and his wife were plausible, but how could he have not noticed day after day, hour after hour, that she didn't see him?)

The way I justify this is, you know how things can be screwy and incongruous sometimes in your dreams, yet you go along as though everything makes perfect sense? That's what it was like for Malcolm. Looking at it in this way, the jumps from scene to scene weren't like other movies, where passage of time is implied. This was literally how Malcolm's perception of the world jumped.

Anyway, that line of thinking helped make it work for me even better.

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"We are here for this -- to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out." Primo Levi

[Anti Pro]

I rented it this weekend, and it was terrific!! I didn't catch the 'red' items, but it's an interesting idea.

I should've gotten the clue when Cole finally tells Malcolm that 'he sees dead people all of the time' when Cole is in the hospital, but I didn't.

I also assumed that Cole knew the teacher's nickname the same way he knew all the rest of the history of the school, it had to do with someone dead telling him.

But, I did get the feeling that it was Malcolm's case, and that he just hadn't followed up on it yet. Though, a case could be made that it wasn't, in watching the movie the second time around, it was the look on Cole's face, when he says,' I'm going to be seeing you again, aren't I?' I don't think you'd say that if you really had already met someone.

I can't believe that kid didn't get an Oscar, he was absolutely incredible.
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Judy

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"Um, according to who? Nothing more than a high brow troll, though occasionally the bi polar personality swung in a constructive direction on innocuous topics." Omniscient

[timmar68]

One thing that bugged me when I saw the movie...what were the dead people on the tape saying? I didn't catch that.

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MaryAnn
I'm into superstition, black cats, and voodoo dolls (<---written in case Ricky reads this board)

I just saw the movie about two weeks ago, and loved it. I never guessed the ending, and my jaw dropped when I realized it at the end. I don't feel bad, because many critics (including Roger Ebert) could not figure it out either.

BTW, Cole's teacher's name is Stuttering Stanley. I only remember because Cole yells it at the top of his lungs, "Suttering Stanley! Stuttering Stanley!"

And yes, Haley Joel Osment did an outstanding job.

Adam

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"Life is hard...but God is good"

The dead man on the tape was speaking Spanish. I'm pretty sure he was saying "Ya quiero morir," which means, "I want to die already." Like, enough is enough. Malcolm (Willis) mentions this in the movie.

[Lawmill]

He says, "No quiero morir." I don't want to die. Malcolm tells this to Cole in the church scene where Cole is on the upper balcnoy and Malcolm is down below.

[Catrandom]

I think Cole knows all along that Malcolm is dead -- that's why he says "You can't help me" and he's so frightened when the doctor comes to his house -- he's scared it's going to be another angry ghost that will hurt him. But after time goes on, it's just as logical that Cole believes that a ghost is the only one who can help him deal with ghosts -- then he says, "You're the only one who can help me."

Catrandom, who was happy to be completely stunned by the ending :)

[evilbeth]

Well, I had left the t.v. on while cleaning a couple days before the Oscars when a guy, giving his picks for awards, says "Sixth Sense is great. The kid sees dead people and Bruce Willis dies--oh, come on! If you haven't seen the movie by now you don't deserve to be suprised!"

So, I knew ahead of time but I completely forgot once I got wrapped up in the story. Of course, about 10-15 minutes 'til the end, my husband says, "Isn't there a plot twist or something?" I could have killed him!

We rented it on video only because the video store was out of the DVD. However, we do intend to buy it on DVD in the next few weeks.

BTW, I didn't really think that Stuttering Stanley killed anyone, I was just being silly.

My husband explained the parts of the movie that were a little weird (like Malcolm sitting and apparently talking with Cole's mom) by saying that maybe all we see of Malcolm's life is all he sees also. Meaning: The reason he feels like he's been ignoring his wife and not spending time with her is that he hasn't. Since he is dead, it is like he only "exists" when he is with Cole or doing something relating to him (listening to the tape) He doesn't wake up in bed every morning, eat breakfast and go out. He just floats from moment to moment. That's how he was sitting in Cole's living room. He "arrived" just before Cole came home so Cole's mom never knew anything--she was just sitting there waiting for him to come home.

Or maybe not. But that does explain some things.

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"You don't have insurance? Well, just have a seat and someone will be with you after you die." --Yes, another quality sig custom created by Wally!

[foolsguinea]

I had heard somewhere in the press that Bruce Willis's character died in the course of the movie. I didn't expect it to be at the beginning. But when I saw him gutshot, it got me thinking. I sat and watched that movie looking for the scene that would indicate that he was alive: At no point did we see anyone respond to his presence but the kid, Cole. The scene where we see Cole's mother and the doctor sitting as if they were just talking is a red herring--an illusion. That one threw me, but I was able to go back in my mind and see that they never spoke in that scene.
The scene dead-in-the-middle of the movie where the kid explains that the dead "don't know they're dead" did seem to me the director (the writer?) telling the audience what was going on with the doctor.
I watched the second half with the assumption that Willis's character was dead. The movie is fascinating when you get that he's dead, he doesn't know, and he thinks the kid is crazy; and even as you watch him come to see that the kid's visions are real, you see that he acts like a ghost himself.
Wild stuff.

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Party per bend sinister wavy bendy sinister wavy vert & or, & sable, in fess point a demi-pellet ensorcelled rayonny or inverted & bendwise sinister issuant from the party, in sinister base a roundel bendy sinister wavy vert & or.
Or something...
Oh, just go here. (http://foolsguinea.intercosmos.com/cogniz.html)

[Milossarian]

The bait-and-switch of the plot is brilliant by the screenwriters. When I saw it initially in the theater, I guessed that the big secret of the plot was going to be that Cole was the reincarnation of the guy who shot Willis at the beginning and then killed himself. I think that's what they wanted you to believe.

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"We are here for this -- to make mistakes and to correct ourselves, to withstand the blows and to hand them out." Primo Levi

[Nixon]

Excellent entertainment - with a lot of spooky details. For example, Cole's mother notices glints of light in every single photograph of Cole - even as a baby. Where these dead people?

Someone mentioned the surprise in the Crying Game. I went to that film with another couple. My friend's wife left to go the bathroom and missed the "surprise". When she got back, she asked whether she had missed anything. The whole section broke out laughing.

[chillas]

Originally posted by Milossarian:
The way I justify this is, you know how things can be screwy and incongruous sometimes in your dreams, yet you go along as though everything makes perfect sense? That's what it was like for Malcolm. Looking at it in this way, the jumps from scene to scene weren't like other movies, where passage of time is implied. This was literally how Malcolm's perception of the world jumped.


This was how I thought about it, too.

When I saw the movie, all I knew about it was the catchphrase, "I see dead people." But that was enough of a clue for me to figure out the ending about 30 minutes in. I would have liked to have been surprised at the end, but it was still a fascinating movie. All the clues are there, and if you don't figure it out, it's worth going back and watching again to see what you didn't catch the first time.

Someone suggested that the boy is the reincarnationg of the man who kills Malcolm then himself (Vincent), but that isn't possible, since the movie picks up the following fall (after Malcolm dies), meaning Cole was born well before the incident.

On the DVD (I took a gamble and bought it 'cold', without having seen the movie prior), in the bonus materials, M. Night Shyamalan (writer and director) mentions that the second night of the movie did more than the first, and the second weekend was only about a 2% drop off from the first weekend. I guess this is unheard of. Strong word of mouth business. I'm impressed.

(drifting slightly OT here)
Also, Haley Joel Osment was great. He auditioned for Anakin in Star Wars, but wasn't even called back. Too bad. Of course, considering that Star Wars was digitized and F/X'd and edited to death, it really isn't too late to make a casting change. <grin>

[PunditLisa]

I saw it on Friday. It was great. One comment, though. Malcolm arrived late at the restaurant on what would have been his anniversary. How did he know she was going to be there if they never spoke?

BTW, I agree that Osmond was excellent. Much better than the child that played Anakin on PM.

[Ruffian]

PunditLisa--my assumption is it was tradition for them to go to that restaurant on their anniversary. As far as time goes, perhaps they had a "usual" time.

Or, and this is the more complicated explanation, perhaps Malcolm assumed he was late. My understanding of his existence was that he didn't live in the normal constraints of time as we know it. If he doesn't notice not having a conversation with his wife in months, or that the basement is locked, then he probably doesn't notice that they hadn't planned their anniversary. He probably remembered, arrived, and assumed--since she was there before him--that he was late.

Or something like that.

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Teaching: The ultimate birth control method.

Laura's Stuff and Things (http://members.aol.com/lrconaway)

[Anti Pro]

<<<<<<<<I think Cole knows all along that Malcolm is dead -- that's why he says "You can't help me" and he's so frightened when the doctor comes to his house -- he's scared it's going to be another angry ghost that will hurt him. But after time goes on, it's just as logical that Cole believes that a ghost is the only one who can help him deal with ghosts -- then he says, "You're the only one who can help me.">>>>>>>>>>>

That was great, Cat!! I wondered about Cole's switched thinking, and your explanation fits .
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Judy

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"Muck should replace 'suck'. For 'muck' is yucky, while 'suck' feels very lucky. So, don't stay stuck on suck, switch to MUCK, today."