A tragedy narrowly averted.
As a Moments subpage, all spoilers are unmarked as per policy. You Have Been Warned.
- The opening scene. A doctor arrives at a department store dressing room where Elijah's mother has just given birth to him. He is shocked and horrified when he inspects the endlessly crying baby, then instructs her colleagues to apprise the ambulance of complications. He can barely get the words out of his mouth when he tells the teary and mortified woman that her son's arms and legs were broken while inside her uterus.
- The memorial service. The pastor's recitation of the names and professions of the train crash victims do a lot to defy A Million Is a Statistic, and drives home how much Survivor Guilt David must be feeling, as all of the deceased people named - a leukemia researcher, a teacher, a community-center worker, a father of six - sound like they'd be more deserving to be the Sole Survivor than him.
- After Elijah's disastrous attempt to pursue the man wearing camouflage outside the stadium, the bitterness in his eyes at the hospital afterwards speaks volumes; you can tell he truly wishes to do right and be like the heroes in his beloved comics, but due to his condition he is destined only ever to be the villain to David's hero.
- The gun scene. Joseph finds David's pistol and tries to shoot him, in the hopes of convincing David and Audrey that the former is indestructible. Both of them are doing everything they can to stop Joseph from doing something he'll regret, which is heart-pounding in itself. But what happens afterwards is worse: after David successfully and narrowly gets the gun back, the three can only slump onto the floor in utter sadness, which is pictured.
- After David defeats the Orange-Suit man, he goes to the mother of the house that was hijacked, with her still bound to a heater. When he unties her, her arms slump and her body falls to the floor, dead. Although we don't see David's face, his posture is bittersweet, since he just stopped a house invader and serial killer, but couldn't save the whole family.
- At the end, when David learns that Elijah was responsible for the disasters he's been mentioning throughout the film and as he tries to justify his actions."You know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world. To not know why you're here. That's... that's just an awful feeling. I almost gave up hope...there so many times I questioned myself...but I found you. So many sacrifices...just to find you. Now that we know who you are, I know who I am. I'm not a mistake!"
- Samuel L. Jackson's acting in that scene is extremely effective. Just the way he sounds like he's about to cry throughout the whole scene is sure to get the tear-ducts flowing.
"It all makes sense! In a comic, you know how you can tell who the Arch-Villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero! And most times, they're friends, like you and me! I shoulda known way back when, you know why, David? Because of the kids! They called me Mr. Glass."- Think of that scene from David's perspective too. He walked away from a potentially huge football career because he felt it was his duty to help people, and now he must live with the guilt that hundreds of innocent people died horribly because of him, even if he didn't know it.David: (Voice cracking) What have you done?
- Many of the deleted scenes are this some that stand out include.
- A scene depicting David suffering Survivor Guilt in the shower and crying. Bruce Willis' performance really shows how much emotional toll David is going through, and the reason Shyamalan took it out was because it was too powerful and a little too soon into the story.
- David going to a priest after the church scene and tries to ask him if there's some divine meaning for his survival. However the priest who has gone through Trauma Conga Line throughout his life and who has finally lost his faith after revealing his nephew was one the victims of the train crash that David survived, brutally tells David that he was just lucky and there is no divine reason for his survival.
- Making it worse all the events that he lists that he lost family members and friends in were all orchestrated by Elijah.Priest: My twelve-year-old nephew's neck was broken in (beat) four places. What's your point, David? That you were chosen? ...I don't think so.
- Making it worse all the events that he lists that he lost family members and friends in were all orchestrated by Elijah.
