M. Night Shyamalan completed the Unbreakable trilogy with his crossover comic book thriller Glass, which connected the characters and events of Unbreakable to Split in a few unexpected ways. Split was a stealth sequel to Unbreakable. It wasn’t advertised as a follow-up to Unbreakable, but the movie’s twist ending revealed that the entire story had taken place in the same universe as Unbreakable. As the patrons of a diner discussed “The Beast” and his similarities to Mr. Glass, the camera panned over to reveal Bruce Willis reprising his role as superhuman David Dunn.
Shyamalan followed up this reveal with Glass, which was advertised as a sequel to both Unbreakable and Split. Glass brings the characters of Unbreakable and the characters of Split together for an action-packed crossover storyline. After Unbreakable told a superhero’s origin story and Split told a supervillain’s origin story, Glass brought that hero and that villain to the same location for an epic showdown. From another victim added to the Eastrail 177 disaster to the character that Shyamalan plays across all three movies, there are some surprising connections in the Unbreakable trilogy.
Related
Unbreakable Trilogy: A Complete Timeline Of Events
With interconnected flashbacks and twist reveals from Unbreakable, Split, and Glass, the Eastrail 177 Trilogy timeline is pretty complicated.
10
David Dunn, Mr. Glass & The Beast All End Up In The Same Psychiatric Hospital In Glass
The most obvious connection is that Glass brings Unbreakable and Split’s characters together
The most obvious way that Glass connects to Unbreakable and Split is that it brings the main characters from both movies together. The hero and villain of Unbreakable, David Dunn and Elijah Price, and the many personalities of Split’s Kevin Wendell Crumb are all brought to a psychiatric hospital called Raven Hill Memorial. They’re overseen by a psychiatrist named Dr. Ellie Staple, who claims that their superpowers are the result of a shared delusion.
Bringing the three major superhuman characters of the Unbreakable trilogy into one location establishes Glass as the finale of that story early on. It gives David and Elijah a chance to get to know Kevin. It also calls into question whether or not the characters actually have superpowers in a classic Shyamalan twist. Of course, that turns out to be a trick in another Shyamalan twist.
9
Glass Reveals Kevin Crumb’s Father Was Killed In The Eastrail 177 Train Crash
As it turns out, Mr. Glass created two superhumans with that train crash
The inciting incident of Unbreakable is the Eastrail 177 train crash. The crash is so devastating that there are only two survivors: one with horrific injuries that they’re not expected to survive, and David, who doesn’t have a scratch. This miraculous survival leads David down a rabbit hole to discover that he has superhuman strength and endurance. The twist ending of Unbreakable reveals that Elijah orchestrated the crash (and several other disasters) in an attempt to create a real-life superhero.
One of the biggest twists in Glass reveals that he actually created two superhumans that day. As it turns out, Kevin’s father was killed in the train crash. This left Kevin to be raised by his abusive mother, whose horrible treatment of him led to the creation of his alternate personalities – including the big bad, The Beast. Kevin is actually thankful to Elijah for making this happen.
8
The Beast Has Scars From His Gunshot Wounds In Split
Casey shot him with a shotgun in Split
While it has plenty of connections to Unbreakable, Glass is also a direct sequel to Split. It brings back Casey Cooke, the sole survivor of The Beast’s rampage in Split and the only person capable of bringing Kevin’s true identity to the forefront. Towards the end of Split, when Casey was desperately trying to escape from The Beast’s clutches, she shot him with a shotgun. In Glass, when The Beast finally emerges, he reveals a pair of scars on his torso where Casey shot him in Split.
This twist reveals that, while The Beast is stronger, faster, and more terrifying than the average person, he’s still vulnerable to injuries. The gunshot wounds scarred, but they never fully healed. This creates a hopeful feeling that The Beast can be defeated after all, despite his apparent invincibility.
7
Unbreakable, Split & Glass Are All Grounded Superhero Movies
Every movie in the Unbreakable trilogy shares the same grounded tone
When Unbreakable was first released, long before Christopher Nolan’s Dark Knight trilogy, it was hailed as the first ever realistic superhero movie. Shyamalan didn’t set out to make a comic book movie; he set out to make a movie about comic books that deconstructed the mythology. It imagines a superhero story taking place in the real world: what if a regular blue-collar joe suddenly realized he had the strength and durability of Superman?
This grounded tone carried over into Split, which imagines a supervillain movie as a nail-biting psychological thriller, and Glass, which imagines a crossover event in this realistic comic book universe. Glass carried the stylistic torch from Unbreakable and Split in its telling of a real-world superhero narrative. It doesn’t culminate in a big Marvel-style battle; it culminates in a bleak, brutal fight to the death.
6
Glass Reveals There’s A Secret Society Suppressing Superheroes
Dr. Staple’s secret society has been around since long before Unbreakable
When it becomes clear that Dr. Staple isn’t really a psychiatrist and the central trio’s superpowers aren’t just the result of a shared delusion, she finally reveals what she’s really up to. As it turns out, Dr. Staple is a part of a secret society that’s been around for the past 10,000 years. Dubbed the Black Clover Organization, this secret society has one purpose: keeping real-life superheroes under wraps.
This secret society has been keeping an eye on David and Elijah since the events of Unbreakable. Their existence reveals that David is far from the first real-world superhero; he’s just the first one who managed to evade their clutches and enjoy a prosperous career as a vigilante. Mr. Glass’ triumph over the organization will eventually lead to what they were hoping to avoid: a world full of superhumans.
5
Casey Wears The Same Coat In Glass That She Had In Split
Casey was given the coat when she was saved at the end of Split
This is a small connection that’s easy to miss, but there’s an interesting link between the costume choices in Split and the wardrobe of Glass. In Split, Kevin kept Casey and her friends trapped under the zoo. At the end of the movie, Casey was finally discovered by a zookeeper, who came in to rescue her. Before they left, since her own clothes had been torn in her fight with The Beast, the zookeeper offered to give her his coat.
Glass reveals that Casey never gave the coat back to the zookeeper, because she still has it. Casey can be seen wearing this coat as she leaves the psychiatric hospital following her meeting with Dr. Staple. Since she was given the coat after being saved in Split, it’s possible that this coat now provides her with a feeling of safety and security.
4
The Beast Uses David’s Water Weakness Against Him
Unbreakable established that water is David’s Kryptonite
In Unbreakable, it was established that water is David’s Kryptonite. In the climactic fight, he has to overcome this weakness when he’s tossed into a swimming pool by a sadistic villain. This isn’t the only time that Shyamalan has used water as a character’s weakness. In his alien invasion movie Signs, the aliens’ weakness is water (which has called into question why they would choose to invade a planet that’s mostly covered in water).
In Glass, The Beast uses David’s water weakness against him. During their fight, The Beast throws David into a water storage tank. He manages to break through the side of the tank, but his survival is short-lived. In the film’s grisly climax, David is drowned in a flooded pothole by a S.W.A.T. officer. It was heartbreaking but fitting for David to be killed by water.
3
Mrs. Price, Joseph & Casey All Team Up At The End Of Glass
The ending of Glass ties up all three movies’ loose ends
Initially, Glass seems to be heading to a bleak ending as Dr. Staple erases the incriminating CCTV footage and prepares to move on to the next case of a real-life superhero. However, when she overhears some comic book fans discussing the trope of the ingenious supervillain whose master plans are always one step ahead of everyone else, she realizes Elijah must’ve had a master plan of his own. Then, it’s revealed that the footage was sent to Casey, David’s son Joseph, and Elijah’s mother Mrs. Price before Dr. Staple deleted it.
Casey, Joseph, and Mrs. Price release the footage to the public. This finally exposes the existence of superheroes and ends the Black Clover Organization’s reign. This decidedly definitive ending to the Unbreakable trilogy manages to tie up the loose ends from all three movies.
2
Glass Turns The Beast Into David’s New Arch-Nemesis
Unbreakable was the hero’s origin story and Split was the villain’s origin story
Unbreakable established a classic hero-villain dynamic between David and Elijah. Like all the best hero-villain pairings, the villain is the polar opposite of the hero. While David can withstand any injuries, Elijah’s bones break at the slightest bump. This was an interesting dynamic, but it didn’t exactly promise an exciting showdown. In Glass, David gets a new villain who’s more of a physical match for the indestructible superhero.
While Elijah remains the mastermind of the whole trilogy, The Beast becomes David’s new arch-nemesis. Like David, he has superhuman strength and can withstand almost any amount of pain and injury. He’s a much tougher adversary for David to defeat than Elijah was. If Unbreakable was the hero’s origin story and Split was the villain’s origin story, then Glass is the story of the hero and villain’s fateful clash.
1
M. Night Shyamalan Plays The Same Character In All 3 Movies
Shyamalan’s character goes from dealing drugs to renting apartments
Much like Alfred Hitchcock and Quentin Tarantino, Shyamalan tends to make cameo appearances in his own movies. He played a drug dealer that David bumps into at the stadium in Unbreakable and he played Dr. Karen Fletcher’s landlord in Split. When the worlds of these two movies collided in Glass, Shyamalan revealed that these two characters – and the one he plays in Glass – are all the same person.
In Glass, Shyamalan’s cameoing character goes to David’s electronics store and talks about how he’s a former drug dealer who “turned himself around.” This scene confirms that the drug dealer from Unbreakable became reformed and rehabilitated and became the landlord in Split. This is one of the most convoluted connections between Glass and the rest of the Unbreakable trilogy, but it’s a fun nod to Shyamalan’s history of cameos in his movies.
