The Sixth Sense / YMMV

And You Thought It Would Fail: Disney was so reluctant to finance this film (despite the presence of Bruce Willis), that they sold a good chunk of their rights to a newly-formed independent production company called Spyglass in order to lower the risk. Little did they know...
Common Knowledge: A large amount of people assume that the parent who poisoned and eventually killed Kyra was her stepmother - presumably due to the influence of the Wicked Stepmother trope. The film never says this; she resembles her daughter and is merely called "Kyra's Mother" in the script, indicating she is her biological mother.
Franchise Original Sin: The well-done plot twist in this film degraded into a plethora of ass pulls in Shyamalan's films. Only Unbreakable, and possibly Split are considered to have done the last-minute twist as well.
He Really Can Act:
- Bruce Willis is generally known for action movies, thrillers, and before those two, comedy. This film let him show off his character stunts and give a genuinely heartfelt performance, effectively showing Malcolm's isolation from his wife and guilt over Vincent and making Malcolm and Cole's relationship poignant and the twist that Malcolm is really a ghost both shocking and touching as he gets to say goodbye to his wife and move on.
- Yes, that's Donnie Wahlberg as an unrecognizable, chillingly unhinged mental patient in the opening scene.
It Was His Sled: Cole sees dead people and Malcolm Crowe is a ghost. It's hard to remember that the former was even supposed to be a twist. The trailer even spoiled it for everyone.
Memetic Mutation: "I see dead people" is almost a Stock Parody now, with a nervous individual tightening the grip on their blanket and whispering out any number of variations: "I see white people" "I see dumb people" etc. It even named a trope.
- "Bruce Willis was really a ghost" may rival "It was a sled" and "Darth Vader is Luke's father" in terms of twists that everyone already knows.
Moment of Awesome:
- Malcolm, by virtual Achievements in Ignorance, manages to help Cole face his fears of ghosts. He logically points out that these ghosts shouldn't want to hurt Cole en masse, and he must be seeing them for a reason; he and Cole realize that Cole is meant to help them with any Unfinished Business.
- Kyra overcoming her vomiting to explain to Cole that she wants his help. Cole has mentioned that most ghosts don't realize they're dead and tend to hurt him; she was the second that was able to communicate. More so when we realize she wanted to deliver evidence to her dad that her mother was poisoning her, and was threatening to do the same to her little sister.
- Cole's goodbye to Malcolm and giving him advice on talking to his wife, knowing that when Malcolm learns he's dead, Cole will never see him again. The kid has come to like his therapist, and doesn't want him to leave. He still did the right thing.
Moral Event Horizon: Kyra's mother poisoned her own daughter over an extended period of time just to get attention for herself, and was well on her way to doing this with Kyra's younger sister, too. What's even worse is that this is a real mental disorder.
Narm: As mentioned under "Memetic Mutation" above, Cole's famous line of "I see dead people" can come across as this after so many numerous parodies and jokes.
Nausea Fuel: Kyra's ghost's first appearance is a Vomit Indiscretion Shot. Nothing else need be said.
Older Than They Think: Shyamalan himself said/admitted the film was inspired by an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark?
- Film Scholars will often note that the movie takes inspiration from Jacob's Ladder. Most notably a character (Cole/Jacob) suffering a severe disassociation from reality, being subjected to horrifying, otherworldly visions, Malcolm/Jacob being unable to come to terms with their own demise, and the Dead All Along twist.
Once Original, Now Overdone: Believe it or not, before "the Shyamalan twist" became a requisite part of M. Night Shyamalan's movies (and before they became rather infamous for not making any sense), this movie's Twist Ending was genuinely unexpected, and even Shyamalan's detractors are generally willing to admit that he pulled it off quite well. Some would even argue that it led the directors of similar psychological thrillers to copy Shyamalan by shoehorning twist endings into their movies at the expense of plot and character development, further diluting this movie's impact.
One-Scene Wonder: Donnie Wahlberg as Vincent in the opening scene.
Retroactive Recognition: Misha Barton from The O.C. as the ghost of the girl who was poisoned by her mother.
- Sora sees dead people!
Tough Act to Follow: None of Shyamalan's subsequent works have measured up to this film, except arguably Unbreakable and Split.
Values Dissonance:
- While it made for a dramatic moment in the movie, in this day and age, a teacher angrily shouting "shut up, you freak!" to a student would quickly be out of a job, with or without Bad Mood as an Excuse.
- In general, Cole's treatment by adults would not fly today. It's one thing to think a kid's weird, but to openly call him a freak or stand by while he's obviously having some kind of violent episode inside of a cupboard (in a house you own by the way) would earn you a few dirty looks.
The Woobie: Cole, Vincent, Kyra, Kyra's little sister, and their father.
- Cole's mom. Especially when you rewatch it.
- It's safe to assume ALL the spirits (with the exception of the spirit in the attic) are this: All the spirits Cole sees are nothing but victims who died horribly and are just seeing someone to give them closure. The problem is the fact they're going to a kid, a kid who barely is understanding the world and doesn't know what to do.

YMMV / The Sixth Sense

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