The Sixth Sense/WMG
Crowe isn't really dead.
His wife really is just mad at him, but the discovery that Cole really could see the dead made him think he was, putting him under a great deal of stress, and triggering a super power (either invisibility or teleportation).
- Try it this way: Crowe did get shot, but he survived. It's not like he got shot in the heart, there's a chance he could have lived. So now it's next year, and his career is ruined because word gets out about his former patient going psychotic. He's obsessed with redeeming himself, and he secretly "helps" Cole despite his license being revoked. His wife hates him for ignoring her in favor of Cole (forgetting his anniversary etc.) All the original interpretations of her scenes were correct. He so much wants to help Cole and to believe his wife loves him, but the only way to do so is to buy into Cole's hallucinations, even though they are only hallucinations. Soon he starts hallucinating too, at first "hearing" the ghost on the tape (a conveinent explanation that relieves him of guilt for failing with the other boy, and shows him how to redeem himself with Cole) and then at the end believing himself to be dead. When his wife says "Why did you leave me?" she's referring to him abandoning her in favor of his crazy belief in ghosts and obsessing over Cole. She's watching their wedding video to remember happier times. He can't face that, just like he can't face failure with the other boy or Cole, so the rest of the scene is his hallucination. She has his wedding ring because he forgot it, being selfish and obsessed, and she's throwing it on the floor in disgust.
- It's worth noting that Crowe got shot in the stomach, which is a death sentence. The acid gets out and starts eating away at the surrounding tissue.
The movie is really a horror/mystery remake of either North or Drop Dead Fred
Let's think about this;
1. In North, Elijah Wood has an imaginary friend played by Bruce Willis that no one else can see and that tries to get him to work out his own demons.
2. With Drop Dead Fred, it's the same story, but without the Willis connection and more of a horror movie style]] to it to begin with.
All M. Night really had to do was swap out the imaginary friend angle with the twist everyone already knows and you get the same basic logic... and a much better movie.
- In any case, Bruce Willis's character(s) in North was NOT invisible to everyone but North. For instance, in Texas the other workers at the ranch introduce him and speak of him, saying things like, "He's killed for less than that."
- It's actually a remake of a story from Are You Afraid of the Dark? no...seriously
The Poisoned Girl also saw dead people.
She goes to Cole to enlist his help in telling her dad how she died. The only explanation I can think of for her awareness was that she saw ghosts while she was alive, and that grants you awareness as a ghost. It also provides a motive for why her mother killed her: Stepford Smiler Mommy couldn't stand having a little girl who was so... different.
The Suicidal Wife was just insane.
Her husband was a pretty okay guy, but she had emotional problems and was paranoid, suspecting him of cheating. She slit her wrists out of anger and jealousy, and the bruise on her face is from hitting herself on a hard surface after she collapsed from bloodloss.
The movie takes place in the same universe as Gunnerkrigg Court.
Cole is a medium or guide in training.
It's all a Dying Dream or some sort of Purgatory for Crowe.
Cole doesn't exist (or, at least not the way Crowe perceives him). The whole thing was something Crowe needed to do to redeem himself, sort of like how he, as a ghost has to pass on. Perhaps his original patient did not really see ghosts and was just hopelessly mentally ill, but Crowe could not reconcile that and his mind or agents of the afterlife created this scenario for him.
Cole's grandmother died in a horrible way.
Fridge Horror of the worst class, you know. All the other ghosts Cole sees had unpleasant and violent deaths (hanging, poisoning, shooting by accident, car crashes), so why does he see his grandmother? Well, because she was murdered or something like that.
The dead spirits specifically targeted and haunted Vincent.
They taunted and teased him and drove him crazy specifically to kill Crowe. It was all a gambit to get a psychologist onto the other side because the living psychologists weren't helping the people with the ability to help the dead move on. They were driving people with the gift away from helping the dead move on through medication and/or ignoring the gift.
Vincent is Cole's Father.
Sear was Cole's Mother's Surname, otherwise he would have been known as Cole Grey. Both had the ability to see ghosts, the only difference being that Cole didn't express his. The relationship was probably a moment of peace for Vincent, because it kept his mind off not only his problems, but somewhat helped him cope Crowe's refusal to help him further. Vincent expressed his sometime after Cole was born. The result caused Lynn to be disturbed and divorced Vincent. Rather than tell Cole what really happened, the story of him running off with a Toll Booth Lady, was fabricated by Lynn, so to not cause any more trauma to Cole. The evidence to support this is the Following:
- Both had similar backgrounds.
- They never want to be alone.
- It's kind of odd that they both see the same psychiatrist.