Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan’s movies are known for having wild twists, usually putting the entire project on its head during the third act. Shyamalan’s twists began with The Sixth Sense, which revealed that Bruce Willis‘ protagonist Malcolm was actually a ghost throughout the entirety of the film. This is one of the biggest movie twists of all time, with Haley Joel Osment getting real about how they kept it under wraps. And It doesn’t exactly sound like Marvel.
The Sixth Sense (which is streaming with a Max subscription) became a huge hit upon its release, partly thanks to how effective that Bruce Willis twist was. It’s remained part of the pop culture lexicon in the years that have passed, and it turns out that avoiding spoilers wasn’t exactly Marvel security level. While speaking with IndieWire, Osment opened up about how the twist was handled, saying:
I really don’t remember there ever being a meeting or a talking-to or a press strategy powwow about keeping that secret. A lot of that was the era that we lived in. There wasn’t spoiler culture, at least as much as there is now, back in the late 1990s. And the internet wasn’t as omnipresent, and people couldn’t be taking photos of things that maybe they shouldn’t be taking photos of on-set without having to go get the film developed after.
Well, that certainly isn’t how things are handled nowadays. The Sixth Sense hit theaters back in 1999, when we were still in the earlier stage of internet use. And as such, Shyamalan and company weren’t especially careful to guard the big twist of the beloved horror movie. Luckily it all worked out in the end.
Osment’s comments stand in stark juxtaposition with how major film projects have to be handled nowadays. It’s become very common for movies to be kept under lock and key, including missing scripts and closed sets. And even still, movies like Deadpool 3 had leaks simply because it filmed outside and drones were around to capture what was happening.
Of course, M. Night Shyamalan has had to adopt the modern way of guarding spoilers in more recent years. The contents of his new movie Trap were a mystery prior to its release, and the internet was definitely trying to get the twist of his crossover movie Glass.
For many, The Sixth Sense is the movie that made them fall in love with Shyamalan’s vision as a director, and his twists would continue in titles like Signs, The Village and more. And his latest movie Trap was a fun summer horror movie.
Trap is still in theaters now. While we wait for what’s coming next from the filmmaker, check the 2025 movie release dates.