tvtropes.org

The Sixth Sense

  • ️Tue Feb 14 2012

The Sixth Sense (Film)

Cole: They don't see each other. They only see what they want to see. They don't know they're dead.
Malcolm: How often do you see them?
Cole: All the time.

The Sixth Sense is a 1999 horror/thriller written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, starring Haley Joel Osment and Bruce Willis.

Successful child psychologist 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.

The film got six Academy Award nominations for Best Picture, Best Director and Best Original Screenplay for Shyamalan, Best Supporting Actor for Osment, Best Supporting Actress for Toni Collette (as Cole's mother), and Best Film Editing, but won none of them.

Warning: Spoilers below!

"I see dead tropes...":

  • Afterlife Angst: Malcolm Crowe examines himself, finally notices his forgotten gunshot wound, and slumps against the wall, visibly shaken by the conclusion he's drawn from this and other clues. He didn't survive getting shot in the gut at the beginning of the movie after all. He was a ghost the whole time he was talking to Cole Sear.
  • Agonizing Stomach Wound: Malcolm Crowe is shot by an ex-patient in the stomach, and is in agonizing pain, but manages to survive. During the Once More, with Clarity segment, his wife, Anna, can tell by the wound that he won't survive, and he wears his shirt with a permanent bloodstain as a ghost.
  • Answer Cut: Used when Cole says to Malcolm, "I see dead people", it not only cuts to Malcolm, who is dead, but slowly zooms in on him. At first, the filmmakers didn't even want to include this shot, fearing it might give away the ending.
  • Arranged Friendship: Cole is forced to hang out with a classmate named Tommy, despite Tommy being a bully and a jerk. When Dr. Malcolm Crowe asks Cole about his friendship with Tommy, Cole responds by explaining that Tommy hates him and that his mother set it up. Despite this, Cole clarifies that he does not hate Tommy back, just dislikes being around him.
  • Ascended Fridge Horror: Malcolm nearly falls over when he realizes he's been dead for a year and didn't survive his gunshot wound. Then he remembers his frosty encounters with Anna and realizes she could never see him, and she was mourning all along.
  • Bathos: The scene where Cole confesses to his mother that he can see dead people. Particularly the part where he says "Grandma says hi" and we get a brilliantly hilarious Double Take from Toni Collette. And yet it doesn't ruin the part where Cole gives her a message from Grandma which makes the scene a Heartwarming Moment.
  • Bavarian Fire Drill: Cole didn't know Kyra personally, so he wasn't invited to her funeral. He dresses up in a suit, walks in, and no one takes notice of him going to Kyra's room. Malcolm also follows, but no one could see him even if they were looking for him.
  • Bedtime Brainwashing: 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. Considering that he's dead, it's the only way he can talk to her by himself.
  • Berserk Button: Cole doesn't like people staring at him, and his teacher doesn't like to be reminded he stuttered his entire childhood. Though he probably didn't like the thought that the only way the boy could have known that is if he really was psychic.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The voice on the tape of Vincent's session is speaking Spanish. The person is saying, "Please, I don't want to die, Lord; save me, save me."
  • Birthday Party Goes Wrong: The birthday boy bemoans the fact that his parents forced him to invite the weird kid Cole to his party. When Cole hears a deceased person's voice from upstairs, the boys lock him in the attic. It ruins the party for everyone else and Cole has to be taken to the doctor.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Kyra's mother. She poisoned her daughter with floor cleaner apparently out of Münchausen Syndrome 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 soup right in the girl's bedroom. Worse yet, the other attendees at Kyra's funeral mention her sister is coming down with the same symptoms — her mother's poisoning her, too.
  • Bittersweet Ending: More on the sweet side than bitter. 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, he's revealed to be Dead All Along. However, he finds solace in knowing that he's done with his Unfinished Business and manages to tell his wife that he loves her before passing on.
  • Blame the Paramour: Malcolm is infuriated when he spies on his wife and sees her with another man, and insults the man under his breath. She's not actually cheating on him, though. He was Dead All Along.
  • Blanket Fort: A creepy scene involved Cole meeting the puking ghost girl Kyra in a blanket fort he built in his room.
  • Blessed with Suck: Cole and Vincent's abilities are nothing but trouble for them.
  • Book Ends: 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 anymore, 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.
  • Boom, Headshot!: One of the ghosts Cole sees is a little boy who offers to show him where his dad keeps his gun… and then turns around to reveal a gaping bloody hole in the back of his head.
  • Brick Joke: Dramatic version. During one of Malcolm's first visits to Cole's house, Cole tells his mom a false story about how he had a good day at school that culminated in all his classmates picking him up and carrying him around on their shoulders. During Malcolm's last visit to Cole, at the end of the film, Cole's classmates actually do pick him up and carry him around on their shoulders (as part of the school play, but still, that he got that part in the play is a sign of how much his interactions with them have improved).
  • Color Motif: Shyamalan deliberately used the color red to depict when the world of the living and the world of the dead would cross over. If red was in a scene where that was not the case, he would change it.
    • The door to the church where Cole and Malcolm first interact is red, and the statue Cole takes from the church has a red robe.
    • The doorknob to Malcolm's basement is red.
    • Cole's school uniform jacket is reddish (maroon); he is often approached by the dead people while at school and/or wearing his uniform.
    • Anna wears a red dress at the restaurant where Malcolm is "late" for their anniversary.
    • When Malcolm is watching Anna in the shower and notices her prescription in the cabinet, it is in a reddish-brown container.
    • Lynn Sear's nail polish is red when she is pointing out the white spots (ghosts) on all the pictures of Cole in the hallway.
    • Cole's "free association" writing is in red ink; the writing presumably records things he has heard from the dead.
    • At the birthday party, all the visible balloons are pastel-colored, except for the red balloon that floats up the stairway and leads Cole to the small closet.
    • Cole is wearing a red sweater when he is attacked by the spirit in the closet.
    • Cole's blanket at the hospital is reddish (pink) when he confesses to Malcolm that he sees dead people.
    • The birthday gift Anna gives to Sean is in a red box, and she is wearing red when the two of them embrace and Malcolm breaks the shop door.
    • When Malcolm listens to a taped session with Vincent, as he turns up the cassette recorder volume, the control numbers go from white to red.
    • Kyra Collins appears in Cole's fort, and the blanket covering it is red.
    • The box containing Kyra's VHS tape is trimmed in red and has a red-lined interior.
    • The outfit worn by Mrs. Collins at Kyra's wake is bright red, and she is the only person wearing a bright color.
    • In the video, the soup Mrs. Collins brings to Kyra is tomato soup, and the bottle of pine cleaner Mrs. Collins adds to the soup has a red cap on it.
    • The bicyclist Cole sees next to the car is wearing a red helmet.
    • The blanket that Anna Crowe covers herself with while watching the wedding video is red.
  • Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: Red appears often in the film to show the importance of things: the red doors of the church, the ruby knob of the basement door, a red outfit...
  • Creator Cameo: M. Night Shyamalan plays a doctor who wrongly believes that Lynn is abusing her son.
  • Creepy Child: Cole, early in the movie.
  • Cute Ghost Girl: Kyra, the poisoning victim.
  • Cut Himself Shaving: Subverted. Poor Cole has ghosts repeatedly assaulting him. People assume his mother is injuring him, and she can't figure out what's happening to him.
  • Dead All Along: The famous twist ending. Malcolm finds out at the end of the movie that he didn't survive the shooting when his former patient broke into his home.
  • Dead Sparks: Malcolm and his wife. Literally. Every scene where she's seemingly pulling an "ignoring you" scheme is just that she literally doesn't know he's there, being a ghost and all.
  • Death of a Child:
    • Among the dead people seen is a preteen girl poisoned to death by her mother.
    • Cole encounters a ghost of a pre-teen boy who had shown his friend his father's gun and accidentally shot himself, and we see the wound in the back of his head.
  • Denied Food as Punishment: Cole is sent away from the table after barely touching his dinner. He would not confess to his mother that he took her brooch. He was telling the truth though, it was a ghost that kept stealing it.
  • Determinator: Despite her grisly death and throwing up at first, Kyra is determined to talk to Cole and ask for his help. It's because she wanted to give her father the videotape that showed her mother poisoning her lunch, and a puppet to her little sister.
  • Died in Your Arms Tonight: Malcolm died with only Anna available.
  • Disappeared Dad: Cole's father is never seen or mentioned.
  • Don't Look At Me: Cole Sear keeps telling people, "Don't look at me like that!"
  • Driven to Suicide:
    • Malcolm's former patient is a deeply troubled young man who shoots himself.
    • A ghost that Cole meets with slits on her arms.
  • Electromagnetic Ghosts: Malcolm discovers that the ghosts actually exist when he can hear them on a tape recorder.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: When he was a boy, Cole's teacher was teased and called Stuttering Stanley because of his Speech Impediment. Cole learns this from ghosts at school and blurts it out in class one day.
  • Evil-Detecting Dog: The family dog runs away right before the kid who shot himself appears to Cole.
  • Expanded Universe: A series of three books, written for young readers, was released in 2000 chronicling the adventures of Cole Sear following the film.
  • Fade to White: How Malcolm exits the film.
  • Flashback-Montage Realization: Malcolm remembers Cole's statements about dead people not knowing they are dead, and he also remembers previous events, most notably when he was shot at the beginning of the movie, now with the insight that he was really dead/dying in those situations.
  • Forced to Watch: Literally at Kyra's funeral. Her father, Mr. Collins, starts crying angrily when he sees video evidence that her mother poisoned her, and he's mad at her and himself for not having realized it.
  • Foreshadowing: After watching this film the first time through without spoilers, it is almost impossible to watch it again without seeing obvious foreshadowing. It's worth pointing out that during The Reveal, the film actually does replays several scenes that were acting as foreshadowing for the benefit of the viewer.
    • If you pay close attention, Malcolm is always wearing something he was wearing the day he was shot.
    • When Malcolm visits Cole in the hospital, Cole looks directly at Malcolm's wound. This is doubly important as this is what he does immediately before saying the signature line.
    • The color red pops up whenever there is something supernatural going on — people wear red, objects in the environment are red, and several of the ghosts wear something red. This not only allows viewers to anticipate the appearances of ghosts before they happen by noticing the scene has a lot of red things in it, but hints to The Reveal about Malcolm — his wife frequently wears red and the doorknob to his office is red. At Kyra's funeral, Kyra's mother wears a bright red dress and matching lipstick, which is an entirely inappropriate color for a funeral. Because she's a narcissist who poisoned her kids.
    • Pay attention to people's behavior whenever Malcolm is around. 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 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: 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.
    • The door to Malcolm's basement, where he stores his tapes and other information from his cases, is repeatedly locked whenever he tries to open it. He always has to fumble around for the key, but we never actually see him find it and open the door. When he finally starts to realize what's going on, he looks at the door and sees it's not merely locked, but it has a desk with books on top blocking it shut.
    • Cole states that it gets colder when a ghost is angry. Malcolm is calm during most of his scenes with Cole — and when he does lose his temper, Cole's breath suddenly becomes visible.
  • Forgotten Anniversary: Malcolm shows up late to an anniversary dinner with his wife at a fancy restaurant; she barely acknowledges him before leaving. Subverted as she doesn't acknowledge him only because he's dead.
  • Frightening Foreign Language: When Malcom listens to the tape recorded of his talk with Vincent, a man is heard saying "Please, I don't want to die, Lord; save me, save me" in Spanish. This turns out to be the voice of one of the dead people Vincent had heard. This also plays in the credits.
  • Ghastly Ghost: The apparitions are frightening to see, and though not all of them mean harm, many of them died in violent and tragic circumstances and haven't got over it, making them restless and angry. One example is the shrieking spirit of the battered housewife who appears to Cole in the kitchen.
  • Ghost Amnesia: An important plot point is that there are ghosts who don't even know they're dead. The protagonist turns out to be one of them.
  • Ghostly Chill: The presence of ghosts cause rooms to get colder and anybody nearby to shiver, like any time Malcolm is around.
  • Ghostly Goals: Cole eventually figures out that most of the ghosts he interacts with want the living to do something for them. Kyra, for example, wants her mother's crimes to be exposed and her sister saved. Most ghosts aren't even aware they're dead, though, so they can't voice their wishes in any coherent way. Malcolm's is helping Cole the way he failed to help Vincent.
  • Go into the Light: At the end of the movie, the screen fades to white around Malcolm after he realizes that he is dead and has said goodbye to his wife.
  • Happier Home Movie: Malcolm and Anna's wedding.
  • Hate Sink: Kyra's mother, who repeatedly poisoned her with floor cleaner to gain sympathy, and is implied to be doing the same thing with her younger sister.
  • The Hero Dies: Malcolm himself at the end is revealed to be Dead All Along. The film concludes with Malcolm saying goodbye to his wife and moving on to the afterlife after he finally comes to terms with his fate.
  • I Am Not Leonard Nimoy: Many people tend to refer to Cole by his actor, Haley Joel Osment.
  • I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: One of the ghosts is a young boy who accidentally shot himself in the head with his dad's gun.
  • I See Dead People: Trope named for the line by Cole.
  • Jacob Marley Apparel: All the ghosts wear clothes they were wearing when they died. Malcolm isn't the exception; throughout the movie he is wearing items that he had with him that night. We never see the gunshot wound because he is wearing his jacket over his shirt or the camera angles just don't reveal it when he has it off.
  • Jump Scare: As is to be expected in a ghost story. Most notable are Kyra's first appearance, suddenly popping up in Cole's tent, and what immediately follows the line "I'll show you where my dad keeps his gun!"
  • Kids Are Cruel: Thanks to Cole being a Creepy Child, his peers bully and hate him. This turns around at the end, as seen in the play the class puts on: Cole plays the stable boy who becomes king and the leader of the bullies plays the village idiot. Mr. Cunningham was the one who gave Cole the part in the play, the last part was just probably unintentional. So, for all we know, Cole's still ostracized, but he's more confident about himself that slowly, but surely, his peers will accept him more.
  • Last Note Nightmare: The movie has some of the more relaxing musical cues that appear played over the end credits. However, the credits end with a reprise of the film's opening theme... And as the credits finish rolling, the Spanish ghost voice from the tape earlier in the film frightenedly yells "¡No me quiero morir!" ("I don't want to die!") one more time.
  • Locked into Strangeness: Cole and Vincent both have white patches in their hair. M. Night Shyamalan has said that this is a consequence of the supernatural ability they share.
  • The Lost Lenore: A rare male example of the trope in that Anna isn't surly and depressed because Malcolm has neglected her, but because she's grieving his death.
  • Lost Wedding Ring: Which its owner is the last person to find out about.
  • Magnetic Medium: Cole Sear is frequently harassed by the spirits of the dead, whom only he can see and hear (and get mauled by, occasionally). Since he's only about ten years old, he is understandably freaked out by this.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: Justified; when Malcolm is dying, he tells Anna he's fine and doesn't feel any pain. It was his body giving out to blood loss and shock.
  • Maligned Mixed Marriage: Among the ghosts Cole sees are a family of three hanging from a ceiling: a Black father, a White mother, and a biracial child. Since the family are dressed in old-fashioned clothing, it's easy to guess that they were killed for racist reasons.
  • Mama Bear: Lynn has no idea what's wrong with her son, just that something is seriously off with him. And yet, during a nightmare, she begs Cole to tell her if someone is hurting him so she can kick their asses. Lynn also calls up the mother of one of the boys from the party and tells her to keep her son away from Cole.
  • Mandatory Twist Ending:
    • Practically spawned the twist ending for the new millennium. Also a strange variant of The Ending Changes Everything: everything we saw previously is true, but much of it means something completely different from what it seemed to mean.
    • Lampshaded when Malcolm is telling a bedtime story and Cole suggests he add a twist because every good story has one.
  • Manly Tears: Malcolm sheds them when he realizes he's dead and says goodbye to his wife for the last time. "You were never second."
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!": The people watching Kyra's last videotape, including her father, have this reaction when they see the evidence that her mother was poisoning her. They look at Mr. Collins, who confronts his wife.
  • Meaningful Name:
  • Medicate the Medium: Naturally, nobody believes Cole can see strange things and assume his injuries are a result of child abuse. He gets evaluated by several doctors.
  • Mood Whiplash: Kyra's funeral is quite a ride. Her father is grieving as Cole comes up to him and gives him a videotape. Cole says that Kyra wanted him to watch it. The video starts with Kyra doing a silly puppet show, and Mr. Collins smiles sadly because he has one last recorded memory of her being a quirky kid. Then Kyra hides the camera, and her mother comes in, clearly putting floor cleaner into the little girl's soup. Kyra's dad is now sad and horrified.
  • Mortal Wound Reveal: The Reveal tells us what happened with Malcolm: his wife tried to staunch the blood from his gunshot wound with her bare hands on thinking it's coming from his stomach. Then she sees the blood pooling from his back and uncovers a bigger wound. Anna starts sobbing helplessly, knowing she can't save him in time for an ambulance to come.
  • Multitasked Conversation: A notable aversion. The fact that Coel Sear doesn't talk to Malcolm when anyone else is around is a major clue to the twist ending of the story.
  • Münchausen Syndrome: Munchausen by Proxy. We learn that a mother sickened her daughter with floor cleaner in order to get sympathy from family and friends.
  • Murder-Suicide: Vincent tries this on Malcolm and himself in the opening. He shoots Malcolm because 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.
  • My Greatest Second Chance: The film opens with one of Malcolm's patients, a boy named Vincent, breaking into the doctor's home and attempting Murder-Suicide (only partly 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. Turns out that Vincent did murder Malcolm, and Malcolm is trying to help Cole because it's part of his Ghostly Goals.
  • Naked Nutter: In the opening scene, Cole finds a lunatic dressed only in underwear in his bathroom.
  • Near-Death Clairvoyance: There's a child who can see all sorts of Dead Men Walking. Including the protagonist, who is totally unaware he's dead.
  • Nothing Is Scarier: A full example when the bullies make Cole peek into a closet, where he's tormented by a ghost, the only one the audience hears but never sees.
  • Not Using the "Z" Word: The movie avoids using the words "medium" and "psychic" although clearly the young Cole could be described as either. However, the ghosts of the film are called ghosts several times.
  • Novelization: By Peter Lerangis.
  • Offing the Offspring: Kyra's mom kills her by regularly poisoning her lunch for two years. And after Kyra dies, the mom starts to poison Kyra's younger sister too. Kyra gets justice by giving filmed proof of the clandestine act to Cole, who gives it to Kyra's dad, who watches the video along with the guests at Kyra's wake.
  • Offscreen Reality Warp: There is a scene where Cole's mom turns to perform some brief task, and returns to find every single cabinet door open around Cole. Cole himself has not moved, but is visibly freaked out by the event. The cabinet doors and cupboard doors were opened by the ghosts, not Cole. In both cases, the scene is done as one Long Take, to make it extra freaky to the viewers as well.
  • Oh, Crap!:
    • The look on Kyra's mother's face when everyone finds out what she did to her own daughter. And at the daughter's wake, no less!
    • Malcolm has this reaction when he realizes he died a year ago, and that he's been walking around as a ghost.
  • Once More, with Clarity: There's a montage of flashbacks after Malcolm learns that he's been Dead All Along that puts the entire movie into a new perspective. Particularly heart-rending is a scene that switches from a woman callously refusing to forgive her husband for being late — refusing even to respond to anything he says, and snatching the bill just as he's trying to grab it — to a bereaved widow holding the anniversary dinner for her late husband, not realizing he's actually at the table with her. The audience is not aware that the male lead is dead, so the restaurant scene goes like this: Man shows up a little late for his wife's anniversary dinner, but no matter how hard he tries to reconcile, she won't even talk to him; then she grabs the check before he can touch it, throws him a chilly "Happy Anniversary," and stalks out. But once you know that he's dead, it's: She's keeping his anniversary dinner X years after he died!! Her entire character (in other scenes as well, such as where it appears she's ready to cheat on him) changes based on that info.
  • One Side of the Story: The audience is not aware that the main character is dead, so the restaurant scene goes like this: Man shows up a little late for his anniversary dinner with his wife, but no matter how hard he tries to reconcile, she won't even talk to him; she grabs the bill before he can touch it, throws him a chilly "Happy Anniversary," and stalks out. But once you know that he's dead, it's: She's keeping his anniversary dinner X years after he died! Her entire character (in other scenes as well, such as where it appears she's ready to cheat on him) changes based on that info.
  • Otherworldly Communication Failure: Cole is at first terrified of the ghosts that he encounters and the latest one, a little girl, has him particularly spooked. However, after calming down he tries to communicate with her and learns that she just wants his help in showing her family that her mother, suffering from Munchausen By Proxy, killed her.
  • Papa Wolf: Mr. Collins confronts the person responsible for his daughter's death: his wife. He has a teary Death Glare.
  • Poltergeist: Cole Sear is often the target of poltergeist-like activity from the ghosts who are trying to get his attention.
  • Prematurely Grey-Haired: Cole is shown to have patches of white/grey hair that are meant to be the result of living in a constant state of fear and stress.
  • Promise Me You Won't X: Cole and his mother are having a conversation about a pendant of her mother's. Cole's mother is sure Cole's taking the pendant. She tells him, "I promise I won't get mad," and she asks him if he took the pendant. He tells her no — as he tells her every time. And naturally, she gets angry with him.
  • Pstandard Psychic Pstance: Invoked by Malcolm when he does a "mind reading" game to break the ice with Cole; he ostentatiously raises his hands and presses his fingers to his temples before making his first pronouncement.
  • Psychic Powers: Cole's most prevalent ability is Mediumship.
  • Returning the Wedding Ring: Malcolm's wife drops a wedding ring and lets it roll across the floor to signify the end of their marriage. The ring is his, and of course the fact he's dead was the real reason the marriage ended.
  • Reverse Relationship Reveal: Malcolm is a child psychologist and Cole is a child who can see dead people. Malcolm suggests to Cole that he is supposed to help the dead people find their path to the afterlife and let go of their earthly concerns. It turns out that Malcolm is dead and Cole is helping him find his path to the afterlife.
  • The Reveal: Malcolm is dead. His wife isn't cheating on him, she's trying to move on, and she doesn't respond to what he says to her because she doesn't know he's even there.
  • Rewatch Bonus: Several scenes take a whole different meaning upon rewatch, and knowing The Reveal. Particularly a lot of the interactions between Cole and Malcom.
  • Right for the Wrong Reasons: Cole's mother, seeing the bruises and scratches on her son, assumes he was bullied by a classmate. The injuries were actually caused by a ghost, but the classmate was indirectly responsible as he was bullying Cole and trapped him in the cupboard with said ghost.
  • Rule of Symbolism: The color red. Pay close attention to any scene with red in it. It means something important. That Kyra's mother is dressed in red, as if she's going to a dinner party or get-together instead of a funeral, should alert the viewer to the fact that she is an Attention Whore who deliberately kept her daughter sick and ended up killing her.
  • Sanctuary of Solitude: Cole is sitting in a church by himself when Malcolm goes to talk to him.
  • Sassy Black Woman: Anna's friend on hers and Malcolm's wedding video. It's a bit jarring.
  • Scare Chord: Subtler than in some movies but definitely there.
  • School Play: Brief scene at Cole's school. Also a trick some bullies play on him.
  • Seeking Sanctuary: Malcolm follows Cole to a church. He explains the concept of sanctuary to the boy as a way of breaking the ice.
  • Self-Harm: One of the ghosts is an abused wife who slit her wrists because of what her husband did to her; whether she intended for the cuts to be fatal is unknown.
  • Sexless Marriage: Malcolm and Anna's marriage gets progressively more distant and strained. If you've seen the movie, you know why.
  • Something Only They Would Say: This is how Cole demonstrates his medium powers to his mother, by repeating several things that only his grandmother's ghost would know about.
  • So Unfunny, It's Funny: Halfway through the film, Malcolm tries to get Cole to ease up by performing a magic trick where he claims to move a coin from his hand to his shirt pocket, etc. Problem is, he never takes the coin out of either spot, he just taps the spot and claims the coin moved there. It actually works and convinces Cole that he has nothing to fear from Malcolm. Later Cole is seen doing the same trick to another kid, who just dismisses it as "stupid."
  • Spirit Advisor: Malcolm just doesn't know it yet, and then Cole learns to become an adviser for spirits to help them move on.
  • Spooky Photographs: Cole's mom notices that several photos of her son feature strange blooms of light, obviously ghosts.
  • Steven Ulysses Perhero: Cole Sear. As in Seer.
  • The Stinger: After the credits, the panicked Spanish-speaking ghost from Malcolm's tape is heard saying "No me quiero morir" ("I don't want to die") one more time. Doubles as a Last Note Nightmare.
  • Stood Up: Malcolm's anniversary with his wife. Turns out that it's because she's having dinner alone and Malcolm is a ghost.
  • Supernatural Light: Odd lights shine in the background of photos of Cole, who looks terrified in each one. It's subtle foreshadowing that ghosts have always been coming to Cole.
  • Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Double-subverted. Despite being shot, Malcolm seems to be fine when we check in with him again a year later. But of course, the famous twist turns out to be that he was Dead All Along.
  • Sympathetic Adulterer: Malcolm's wife seems to be cheating on him, which pisses him off. Yet, they seem to be fighting for most of the movie, and Malcolm's temper has run thin. Subverted as he is dead and she is just extremely depressed and looking for solace. Malcolm has a Jerkass Realization on his face when he realizes.
  • Take That!: "Silence, Village Idiot!"
  • Talking in Your Sleep: The only way Malcolm can get his wife to talk to him. Somehow, Cole knew this would work for Malcolm when nothing else would.
  • Tampering with Food and Drink: One of the dead people Cole sees was a small girl poisoned by her mother putting cleaning fluid in her soup.
  • Televisually Transmitted Disease: The movie includes suspicion of Münchausen Syndrome by proxy. Possibly, either the doctor or the writer have been watching too much TV (or both since they are the same guy).
  • There Are No Therapists: A very interesting aversion. From the standpoint of every other character, Cole does not have a therapist. But he does. Stands out the most notably when the doctor is having Cole checked to see if he is being abused, and Malcolm is just sitting there — when a real therapist would surely be adding his two cents.
  • Token Good Teammate: Subverted with Malcolm. Cole thinks he's the only one that hasn't tried to hurt him. He and Malcolm eventually figure out that ghosts don't want to hurt Cole, but are trying to reach out for his help and react defensively because they don't see him. Malcolm happened to be the only one who was a child psychologist.
  • Tomato in the Mirror: Malcolm only figures out that he's been Dead All Along in the last five minutes or so of the film.
  • Trailers Always Spoil: The fact that Cole can see ghosts isn't revealed until the halfway point of the movie, but everyone already knew thanks to the trailer. This was most likely forced on the producers since it's the main theme of the film, so not mentioning this in any trailer would just make it seem like an ordinary drama about a child psychologist trying to help a troubled youth, which would be false marketing instead.
  • Trauma Swing: The surviving daughter of the Munchausen's-Syndrome-by-Proxy mother is shown on a swing during the funeral.
  • Trick Dialogue: Used several times as part of the big twist. For instance, the anniversary dinner scene, where it appears that Anna is giving Malcolm the cold shoulder while he attempts to apologise for arriving late, but it turns out after the twist that she simply wasn't aware of his presence.
  • Trust Password: Lynn Sear accepts that Cole is telling her the truth — he really can see and talk to dead people — after this exchange:

    Cole: [My grandmother] wanted me to tell you...
    Lynn: Cole, please stop...
    Cole: She wanted me to tell you she saw you dance. She said, when you were little, you and her had a fight, right before your dance recital. You thought she didn't come see you dance. She did. She hid in the back so you wouldn't see. She said you were like an angel. She said you came to the place where they buried her. Asked her a question. She said the answer is: "Every day." What did you ask?
    Lynn: Do... do I make her proud?

  • Trying Not to Cry: In the ending, Cole has tears in his eyes as he is giving Malcolm advice about how to talk to his wife. He knows that, once Malcolm realizes that he's dead, Malcolm will move on and Cole will never see him again.
  • Undead Child: The ghost of Kyra, the poisoned girl. There is also the ghost of a teenage boy who seemingly shot himself (because half of his head is missing) and a boy ghost who hangs from the ceiling.
  • Unfinished Business: Most ghosts have it. Malcolm has two pieces of it: first, to be sure Anna knows how he felt about her; second, to help Cole, a child troubled with exactly the problem that he failed to handle well when another child had it.
  • Unseen No More: Cole, the Trope Namer for I See Dead People, discusses his ability to see ghosts, but it isn't until halfway through the film we get to see the ghosts. That is, unless you count Malcolm, who was a ghost the whole time.
  • The Voiceless: Kyra's ghost never speaks on screen,note  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: she's also heard saying "I'm feeling much better now" to her mom.) There's probably a metaphor there about Cole being the only one who could hear her asking for help.
  • Vomit Indiscretion Shot: Kyra's first appearance to Cole. Turns into a Vomit Discretion Shot in the following scene where her puking in front of Cole is censored by a Reaction Shot of him watching in disgust.
  • Weirdness Censor: A variant: it applies to the ghosts. "They see what they want to see," doing the same things they did in life. And their inability to see each other is another hint to the twist.
  • Wham Line:
    • "They don't know that they're dead."
    • "Why did you have to leave?"
    • "...Standing next to my window."
  • Wham Shot:
    • In Kyra's video, the camera catches her mother pouring floor cleaner into her soup. It confirms she was being poisoned.
    • Malcolm sees his wedding ring roll from under the couch where his wife is sleeping. Then he stares at his hand and realizes it's bare. He would never take off his wedding ring — unless he died, which he has.
  • Would Hurt a Child: Kyra's mother is revealed to have been secretly poisoning her over a long time merely to gain sympathy and attention from others. The fact that she's shown wearing bright red at the funeral service while everyone else is in proper mourning black further proves how little she cares about anyone but herself.