Hey, writers. First, Happy Memorial Day (Do people really say that?). Second, I looked up Memorial Day and I found this: “Memorial Day or Decoration Day is a federal holiday in the United States for remembering the people who died while serving in the country’s armed forces.”

Then I started brainstorming. Hit the jump, and let’s discuss.

So I thought to myself: Memorial Day is about remembered the soldiers that have died. Then I thought about people that have died. Then I thought about famous characters that are dead.

So I thought to myself, yes, it’s time for some Sixth Sense concepts.

Yo…so…um, today was the first time I’ve seen Sixth Sense. It came out in 1999…I’m only….a few years behind 😛

(Before you ask, yes, the fact that Bruce Willis is dead had been spoiled at least five times. No joke.)

Within, Without

So, writers, I’ve never written a story with a surprise twist of a character being dead before. But then I asked myself…what if I wanted to? That’s when I decided I needed to watch Sixth Sense.

So how does M. Night Shyamalan accomplish this? Well, I assumed (correctly) that Bruce Willis would make no physical contact with anyone. That makes sense. For the record, I was wrong because we see him with his wife and they touch each other, but then I see the death scene so I knew I was getting ahead of myself.

There are few key things that M. Night does that I think really sell the illusion of Bruce Willis being alive in this movie. I really liked what I call the “can’t grab” that they showed at the dinner scene. Bruce Willis reaches for the check, but he “can’t grab” it because his wife grabs it first. I’m sure we all experienced this before. Very well done.

Towards the beginning, there’s a part where Bruce Willis is “Monologuing” (a term I learned from Syndrome in The Incredibles). I couldn’t watch it with ‘fresh’ eyes here because I already knew he was dead and knew that the wife would not be able to respond, but still, it looked solid.

Other things include never touching another human being as well as things he can’t open (for instance the red doorknob. Honestly, that red was a bit much, but hey it worked, I definitely recognized it).

I’m keeping it real (real) short today, writers. So let’s close on a question:

Is there a character that could pass as “dead” in a Sixth Sense sort of way?

For instance, imagine Batman. He rarely touches anyone…and maybe he has to do a monologue at some point. Due to his lack of tact maybe the other party doesn’t want to respond. His standoffish nature lends well to never touching anyone. What if Batman’s just a ghost? OooOooh… 🙂

Haha.

Aloha,
Alvin

P.S. I’m going to be making some changes on this website, one of which is shortening each entry (by request, in the case of some people). What are your thoughts on this?