Blaine: “Unbreakable” was about a horrible train crash that killed the lives of everyone onboard, except for one, David Dunn. David managed to survive without a single scratch on him. A comic book expert, Elijah Price, tells David he is probably a superhero. David doesn’t believe Elijah at first, but he does notice things about himself that are not normal. Like every time he touches someone he can see their evil deeds. David then decides to listen to Elijah and put his powers to good use by helping people. David becomes a hero by saving the lives of two kids from a killer. But “Unbreakable” doesn’t end with a happy ending. David discovers that Elijah was responsible for that train crash he survived. Elijah wanted to live life like a comic book where he’s the villain and David is the superhero and his plan worked out perfect. Elijah even gave a name for himself, Mr. Glass, because he has very weak bones that can brake easily. Now on to “Split”. “Split” was about three teenage girls who are abducted by a man named Kevin, who has twenty three different personalities living inside him. The worst personality living within Kevin is a demon. Two of the girls are killed by the demon and one, Casey Cooke, manages to survive. Casey fires a shotgun at Kevin, but he is strong enough to take a bullet. Kevin's demon decides not to kill Casey after seeing the scars on her body. Kevin learns that Casey is no different from him. Kevin disappears. Kevin is now known as the Horde after word gets out about who he is and what he did. “Unbreakable” and “Split” were there own stand alone movie and M. Night Shyamalan has merged them together for his own comic book trilogy. “Glass” is the third installment.
Plot(Spoiler Alert)
Kevin Wendell, also known as the Horde, continues to kidnap teenage girls. David Dunn is tracking Kevin down. David manages to find Kevin and free the four cheerleaders he has held captive. The two of them fight and Kevin is amazed to face someone who is equally matched. Both Kevin and David get caught by the police and are brought to the same mental hospital where Elijah Price has been kept for almost two decades. The person in charge of the hospital, Dr. Ellie Staple is studying Kevin, David and Elijah and trying to convince them that they are nothing like the characters you see in a comic book.
Blaine: M. Night Shyamalan has a lot of ideas going on in his head and that’s one of the things a filmmaker is all about. The idea for “Unbreakable” came to M. Night while he was making his first feature, “The Sixth Sense”. “Unbreakable” was M. Night’s second feature and was released in 2000. “Unbreakable” was confusing to a lot of people. They thought it was going to be a scary movie and a sequel to “The Sixth Sense”. The whole point of “Unbreakable" was maybe the superheroes you see in comic books were based on real people with special abilities. People didn’t realize that until later. It’s more popular today than it was back then. M. Night studied multiple personality disorder back in college and it gave him the idea for “Split”. “Split” is more of a thriller than a comic book movie. M. Night thought about adding Kevin, the man with twenty three different personalities living inside him, into “Unbreakable”. David would be recovering from the train crash and learning things about himself, while three girls are kidnaped by Kevin. David would keep doubting he is a superhero, while the girls are in danger. David would bump into Kevin and sense the three girls who are in danger. Kevin’s beast and David fight each other and David saves the girls. M. Night then decided to divide that into two movies because the audience was going to want to get to know Kevin the most. Seventeen years later, M. Night finally made “Split”, which I call his masterpiece.
For years, people would ask M. Night Shyamalan if he was ever going to make a sequel to “Unbreakable” and that question was answered at the end of “Split”. The ending to “Split” shows Bruce Willis’ character, David Dunn, making a cameo. He’s at a restaurant and there’s a waitress mentioning Mr. Glass. The theme music from “Unbreakable” plays in the background during that scene. That was M. Night’s way of showing the audience that a sequel was going to be made. “Unbreakable” was distributed by Touchstone Pictures, which is owned by Disney, so they owned the rights to the movie and “Split” was distributed by Universal Pictures. So when M. Night decided to put an Easter egg at the end of “Split”, he had to ask Disney’s permission to put David Dunn in there. Lucky thing for M. Night they were ok with it.
Bruce Willis was a big believer in M. Night Shyamalan when he was just getting started in the film business and M. Night Shyamalan thought that he and Bruce Willis made a great team after doing “The Sixth Sense” together. While “Unbreakable” was on M. Night’s mind, he thought Bruce should play David. So he wrote the part for Bruce. David’s powers are super strength, sensing people’s evil deeds whenever he touches them and he has a steel body, but that doesn’t mean he’s 100% indestructible. Every superhero has to have a weakness and David’s is water. When he was a child he nearly died from drowning. David wears a rain poncho, which is known to be his superhero outfit. I think the reason is because David hates the water and the ponchos protects you from getting wet, at least in the rain. The shadow of the hood covers David’s identity. Samuel L. Jackson couldn’t understand why it took so long for the sequel to “Unbreakable” to be made. M. Night informed Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, before they started shooting “Unbreakable”, that he had planned to make a trilogy. Samuel wanted to know where the script was, but it didn’t exist yet. When M. Night finished putting “Split” together he told Samuel to watch it. After it was over, M. Night informed Samuel that “Split” is a part two to “Unbreakable” and that it was going to continue with “Glass”, the sequel Samuel had long awaited for. Elijah, a.k.a Mr. Glass, acts like he’s been lobotomized, but what he’s really doing is paying close attention to everything around him while thinking up a plan. Elijah may have a weak body, but he’s very smart and always has a plan. That’s what Samuel loves about the character. He thinks of everything. Elijah’s plan is to expose David, Kevin and himself to the world so that they know people who are superhuman exist.
James McAvoy has done a great job with the work he has done through his career as an actor, but I don’t think there has ever been or will ever be a better character for him to play than Kevin because James plays twenty three characters that live inside one body and each one of them has a different personality. James McAvoy really becomes someone else. James McAvoy only played seven or eight of those personalities in “Split” and five of them were more main characters. M. Night wanted to show more of those personalities in “Glass” and James McAvoy has outdone himself by playing twenty of them. James got to do six characters in just four minutes as he was shooting a scene. He was fast. Kevin’s a nice guy, but the other personalities inside him take control of his body. There are ways to stop Kevin from attacking. Saying his full name and flashing lights at him. Every time a light flashes a different personality comes up. Kevin kidnaps girls who are the popular type because he was picked on by girls like that in his youth. Kevin’s demon munched on the bodies of the two girls as he was killing them in “Split”. In “Split” you wanted the three girls to get away from Kevin and you were scared he might get them before they have a chance to escape. In “Glass” you’re rooting for Kevin and Elijah to succeed on what they are planning to do.
“Glass” has a few main characters who were in “Unbreakable” and “Split” played by the same actors. There’s David's son, Joseph. Joseph wanted to believe David was a superhero after Elijah said he could be one. David made his boy proud by putting his powers to good use and he never stopped. Now Joseph is an adult and is the man behind the computer helping David find perpetrators. David and Joseph have become closer than ever over the years and are a team. Elijah's mother, Mrs. Price, has always been on his side. She has supported him, protected him, everything a loving mother would do for her boy. Mrs. Price is not fond of Elijah killing the lives of more than fifty people, but at the same time she is not ashamed of him because she understands Elijah did it just to prove something, that superheroes exist. David proved that Elijah was right by surviving a train crash that would have destroyed him.
Casey was a loner in “Split”. Casey’s uncle, who was the only family she had, ruined her life by sexually abusing her since childhood. It damaged Casey and she didn’t tell anyone what he does to her. Casey hated her life and regrets not ever standing up for herself. Casey then found herself in a new nightmare when Kevin kidnapped her along with those two other girls. Casey had to face the Horde and she used a shotgun on him, but it’s not easy to take down the Horde. Kevin’s this indestructible monster when he is the demon. It’s like Kevin's skin becomes armor when he goes into beast mode. Kevin could have killed Casey, but he realized she has something in common with him. They both have been abused by a family member. For Kevin it is his mother. Casey survived the Horde, but there was still one problem and that was her uncle. Anya Taylor-Joy was excited to be playing Casey again and showing how her story continues, but it was not what she was expecting. Anya asked M. Night Shyamalan why Casey would all of sudden be normal three weeks after seeing things that were disturbing and almost being murdered. Plus her uncle was abusive on her. Anya thought Casey would struggle for the rest of her life. Casey does show something when she is informed Kevin has been caught. Casey can hardly believe it and she breaks down in tears. Casey feared Kevin, but if it wasn’t for him she wouldn’t have gotten the guts to confess that her uncle is a sexual pervert. Casey is not the same person she was in “Split”. She’s not afraid to visit Kevin and try and help him get out of the hospital. Casey is the closest thing to a friend Kevin has ever had and same goes for her.
Sarah Paulson is the newest member of the ensemble. M. Night Shyamalan felt lucky to have Sarah Paulson be involved with “Glass” and I can’t blame him. Sarah Paulson is a gifted and hard working actress. Sarah pushes herself to do the best she can with her performance for each character she plays and makes it different from the last. To have Sarah Paulson be apart of this ensemble made “Glass” more exciting to see. Sarah Paulson wanted to be apart of one of M. Night’s mysteries. Sarah loves how you don’t know what to expect in a movie done by M. Night and she has a point. Every M. Night Shyamalan film I’ve seen always leaves the question to what’s going to happen. There are scenes that make you go “Wow! I didn’t know that was going to happen” and you don’t know if the ending is going to be happy or dramatic or unsolved. “Glass” definitely has that. Sarah Paulson plays Dr. Ellie Staple, the psychiatrist. Dr. Staple is someone who challenges people and she is challenging David and Kevin by asking them if they believe they are super. Elijah on the other hand, he’s smarter than Dr. Staple and he never stops believing in superheroes. And David, Kevin and Elijah each have someone outside the hospital defending them by doing their research to prove this is not a fantasy. Sarah Paulson was amazed with James McAvoy’s performance while they were shooting the scene where he switches to a different personality one at a time in four minutes and M. Night told her to use that reaction in that scene. The hospital they shot at was abandoned and it was cold while shooting there.
This is a huge spoiler. Dr. Ellie Staple is apart of some sort of group that is trying to keep everything average and make sure they live in a world without superheroes and villains. That group, they’re the real bad guys of “Glass”. They kill David and Kevin. Elijah dies after Kevin smacks him in the chest real hard. Dr. Ellie Staple acted like she was living in reality trying to convince everyone that superheroes don’t exist when really she knows the truth that they do exist. Her and that group make sure the truth doesn’t get out there, but again Elijah is smarter than Dr. Staple. In the end he wins. Elijah manages to get the footage he needs to prove superheroes exist and the footage is sent to the only three people who can reveal it to the world, his mother, Joseph and Casey. The good guys always win. Every movie M. Night Shyamalan makes is special to him because it’s his creation. There is no one who is excited on set as much as M. Night is. A lot of the stuff M. Night does is original. He was in tears when “Glass” wrapped shooting because it was something he had been working on for eighteen years and now he has finally brought it to life.
“Glass” is the conclusion to this trilogy M. Night Shyamalan has created and my rating on it is five out of five stars
