History Film / TheSixthSense

Successful child psychiatrist Malcolm Crowe (Willis) is shot and injured in his home by a disturbed former patient of his, who commits suicide immediately following the shooting. Months later, a still-shaken Malcolm comes across the case of ten-year-old Cole Sear (Osment), who is exhibiting exactly the same symptoms of his former patient: frequent panic attacks, social withdrawal, and unexplained injuries. Seeing a chance to redeem himself by helping Cole, Malcolm takes a special interest in Cole and begins counseling him. Learning the secret behind Cole's condition, however, only makes things stranger than Malcolm could have imagined.

* UndeadChild: The ghost of Kyra, the poisoned girl.

* TheVoiceless: Kyra's ghost never speaks on screen, although Cole's actions after each of her appearances indicate that she spoke to him between scenes. (The living Kyra doesn't speak on the video her father watches, either, except from offscreen while doing a silly voice for her puppets.) There's probably a metaphor there about Cole being the only one who could hear her asking for help.

-->"[[TheStinger No me queiro morir...]]"

* BitchInSheepsClothing: [[spoiler:Kyra's mother. She poisoned her daughter with floor cleaner apparently out of MunchausenSyndrome by Proxy, and for all the audience knows had zero regrets for eventually giving her a fatal dose. The more horrible part is that Kyra's father had to see a video showing her mother mixing in the poison with her drinks right in the girl's bedroom.]]

* DeadSparks: Malcolm and his wife. [[spoiler:Literally. Every scene where she’s seemingly pulling an "ignoring you" scheme is just that she literally doesn't knows he's there, being a ghost and all.]]

** In the scene in the restaurant, it appears as if [[spoiler:his wife is looking in his direction when he's speaking, and when she finally says "Happy Anniversary," it looks like she's addressing those words to him. One possible interpretation is that she senses his presence but doesn't consciously realize what it is.]] The choreography adds even more subtlety to the scene: [[spoiler:It’s a single shot take that begins behind Anna when Malcolm shows up, who’s looking to the side until he starts talking, at which point she looks in his direction. As the shot zooms in on Malcolm, it looks as if she’s indeed looking and listening to him before it’s completely focused on him for a bit. When it gets back to her, she looks in his direction only once before never looking at him again for the rest of the scene. Malcolm doesn't adjust his chair at all like most people do when sitting down at a table, he simply sits down in it and leans forward. Shyamalan was very careful to make sure that Malcolm doesn't interact with his environment in a way that would catch a living person's notice.]]

** In the scene in the restaurant, it appears as if [[spoiler:his wife is looking in his direction when he's speaking, and when she finally says "Happy Anniversary," it looks like she's addressing those words to him. One possible interpretation is that she senses his presence but doesn't consciously realize what it is.]] The choreography adds even more subtlety to the scene: [[spoiler:It is a single shot take that begins behind Anna when Malcolm shows up, who is looking to the side until he starts talking, at which point she looks in his direction. As the shot zooms in on Malcolm, it looks as if she is indeed looking and listening to him before it is completely focused on him for a bit. When it gets back to her, she looks in his direction only once before never looking at him again for the rest of the scene. Malcolm doesn't adjust his chair at all like most people do when sitting down at a table, he simply sits down in it and leans forward. Shyamalan was very careful to make sure that Malcolm doesn't interact with his environment in a way that would catch a living person's notice.]]

* DeadSparks: Malcolm and his wife. [[spoiler:Literally. Every scene where she is seemingly pulling an "ignoring you" scheme is just that she literally doesn't knows he's there, being a ghost and all.]]

* BedtimeBrainwashing: The protagonist does this to his wife in the end to ask her for forgiveness and reassure her that he still loves her and she can let go. [[spoiler: Considering that he's dead, it's the only way he can talk to her by himself.]]

** Pay attention to people's behavior whenever Malcolm is around.[[spoiler: They shiver and put on jackets, and none of them ever talk to Malcolm or acknowledge his presence -- the few times they seem to, it's deliberate misdirection and a second look will show they weren't actually acknowledging him.]]
** In the scene in the restaurant, it appears as if [[spoiler:his wife is looking in his direction when he's speaking, and when she finally says "Happy Anniversary," it looks like she's addressing those words to him. One possible interpretation is that she senses his presence but doesn't consciously realize what it is.]] The choreography adds even more subtlety to the scene: [[spoiler: It is a single shot take that begins behind Anna when Malcolm shows up, who is looking to the side until he starts talking, at which point she looks in his direction. As the shot zooms in on Malcolm, it looks as if she is indeed looking and listening to him before it is completely focused on him for a bit. When it gets back to her, she looks in his direction only once before never looking at him again for the rest of the scene. Malcolm doesn't adjust his chair at all like most people do when sitting down at a table, he simply sits down in it and leans forward. Shyamalan was very careful to make sure that Malcolm doesn't interact with his environment in a way that would catch a living person's notice.]]

* ForgottenAnniversary: Malcolm shows up late to an anniversary dinner with his wife at a fancy restaurant; she barely acknowledges him before leaving. [[spoiler:Subverted as she doesn’t acknowledge him only because he’s {{dead|AllAlong}}.]]

* OhCrap

* BittersweetEnding: More on the sweet side than bitter. [[spoiler:Cole will never be able to stop seeing the dead, but finds a way to live with it by helping ghosts with their problems and helping them pass on.]] As for Malcolm, [[spoiler:he's revealed to be DeadAllAlong. However, he finds solace in knowing that he's done with his UnfinishedBusiness and manages to tell his wife that he loves her before passing on.]]

* BookEnds: At the end of Malcolm's first meeting with Cole, Cole says, "I'm going to see you again, aren't I?", and seems unenthusiastic about the prospect. At the end of their final meeting, which is much more friendly, Cole says, "I'm not going to see you any more, am I?", and when Malcolm confirms it, suggests that they could pretend they'll be seeing each other again tomorrow so it won't seem so final.

* TrickDialogue: Used several times as part of the big twist.

* AdultFear:
** The anguish that Cole's mother, Lynn, goes through. Her child becomes more withdrawn, won't talk to her anymore, and inexplicably has bruises and marks show up on his skin. He even needs to be hospitalized at one point due to a severe panic attack that comes about for no apparent reason. Worse yet, she doesn't know whether it's someone they know who's abusing him, or if it's all in his head and he's doing it to ''himself''. Or even worse, her son might be a budding psychopath. Cole's drawings, his detailed descriptions of violent events, and his 'free writing' would be enough to spook any mother. While the audience knows that Cole [[spoiler:is interacting with ghosts]], she doesn’t.
** The scene where she's accused of abusing her son. She obviously managed to convince the social worker than she's not harming Cole, but it must be indescribably hard to fear having your only child taken from you under false pretenses.
** Then there's Kyra's [[spoiler:mother poisoning her]] and her father's horrified reaction to seeing the video of it. It's also implied that the cycle would have repeated itself with [[spoiler:Kyra's younger sibling, who a funeral guest mentions is beginning to fall ill]].
** TheReveal: [[spoiler:Malcolm died in front of Anna, who was futilely trying to treat the gunshot wound herself because there was no time to call for an ambulance. Anna could only hold her husband in his last moments as he tried reassuring her he felt no pain. Since then, she's spent the whole year grieving him and failing to move on from the love of her life.]]

%%* SpookyPhotographs

* BittersweetEnding: More on the sweet side than bitter. [[spoiler:Cole will never be able to stop seeing the dead, but finds a way to live with it by helping ghosts with their problems and helping them pass on.]] As for Malcolm, [[spoiler:he's revealed to be DeadAllAlong. However, he finds solace is knowing that he's done with his UnfinishedBusiness and manages to tell his wife that he loves her before passing on.]]

** The anguish that Cole's mother, Lynn, goes through. Her child becomes more withdrawn, won't talk to her anymore, and inexplicably has bruises and marks show up on his skin. He even needs to be hospitalized at one point due to a severe panic attack that comes about for no apparent reason. Worse yet, she doesn't know whether it's someone they know who's abusing him, or if it's all in his head and he's doing it to ''himself''. Or even worse, her son might be a budding psychopath. Cole's drawings, his detailed descriptions of violent events, and his 'free writing' would be enough to spook any mother.
** The scene where she's accused of abusing her son. She obviously managed to convince the social worker than she's not harming Cole, but it must be indescribably hard to have your only child taken from you under false pretenses.

* PlotHole: Before Malcolm meets Cole for the first time, he's looking at his notes on Cole. The notes describe how his first meeting with him took place in a church -- which has not yet happened.

* MurderSuicide: [[spoiler:Vincent commits this on Malcolm and himself in the opening. He shoots Malcolm who was his doctor and he blames him for not helping him and then turns the gun to himself. Viewers find out only at the end of the movie that Malcolm didn't survive.]]

* MyGreatestSecondChance: The film opens with one of Malcolm's patients, a boy named Vincent, breaking into the doctor's home and attempting MurderSuicide (only partially successful, though) because Malcolm couldn't cure him. Then Malcolm discovers that Cole has a similar psychological problem going on and tries to help him. [[spoiler:Turns out that Vincent pulled said murder successfully and Malcolm tries to help Cole because it's part of his GhostlyGoals.]]

* MadeOfIron: Seems to play it straight with Malcolm Crowe -- he's shot in the stomach, which in RealLife is a death sentence -- but is seen walking around just fine the next fall. [[spoiler:Then it is subverted in the end: it turns out that he doesn't make it after all.]]

* TheLostLenore: A rare male example of the trope in that [[spoiler:Anna isn't surly and depressed because Malcolm has been neglectful. She's grieving because he's dead.]]