What Happened To Kevin Wendell Crumb’s Father Changes Split & The Unbreakable Trilogy

Glass is the closing chapter in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable trilogy, and the reveal of what happened to Kevin Wendell Crumb’s (James McAvoy) father completely changed the entire trilogy. In 2000, Shyamalan brought the superhero thriller Unbreakable, which gave a more subtle but dark twist to the superhero genre, standing out from other movies in the genre thanks to its more realistic tone, its story, and characters. Sixteen years after Unbreakable’s release, Shyamalan surprised the audience with a “secret” sequel in Split.

Split focused on new characters that had no connection to Unbreakable’s main character, David Dunn (Bruce Willis), and it wasn’t until the very end of the movie that it was revealed to be set in the same universe thanks to Willis’ surprise cameo. The trilogy came to an end three years after Split’s release with Glass, which brought together the main characters of Unbreakable and Split along with the people closest to them. Glass brought some shocking reveals that further linked the three movies, including what truly happened to Kevin Wendell Crumb’s father.

Glass Reveals That Elijah Was Responsible For The Death Of Kevin Wendell Crumb’s Father

Kevin Wendell Crumb’s Father Didn’t Abandon Him, As He Had Thought

Split focused on Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man diagnosed with dissociative identity disorder, who kidnapped three teenage girls, one of them Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), and imprisoned them in an isolated underground facility at the Philadelphia Zoo. To survive, Casey befriended Kevin’s “Hedwig” identity and empathized with Kevin as they were both victims of abuse by a parent figure. Kevin returned in Glass after being caught by the police following the kidnapping of a group of cheerleaders, and he was taken to Raven Hill Memorial along with David Dunn.

To Dunn’s surprise, Elijah Price a.k.a. Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) was also locked up there, though he was heavily sedated – or that’s what he wanted everyone to believe. One night, Elijah escaped his room and found Kevin’s files, through which he learned a shocking truth about Kevin’s father. Up to that point, Kevin believed that his father had simply abandoned him, leaving him alone with his abusive mother. David’s son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), also learned the truth about Kevin’s father and revealed it to him during Glass’ climactic third-act fight between Kevin, David, and Elijah.

Kevin’s father, Clarence Wendell Crumb, was a passenger on the Eastrail 177 train, the same train David Dunn boarded one day and which derailed, killing all passengers except David. In Unbreakable, it was revealed that Elijah was responsible for the train crash as he was looking for his hero counterpart, and he found it in David. Elijah didn’t know about the Crumb family back then, but he ended up being responsible for the death of Kevin’s father and thus all the problems he went through after that.

How Clarence Wendell Crumb’s Death Altered Kevin’s Life Seen In Split

Kevin Wasn’t The Same After His Father’s “Disappearance”

As mentioned above, Kevin believed that his father had simply abandoned him one day, leaving him to be raised by his abusive mother. The abuse Kevin went through since he was a child was such that he developed DID as a way to protect himself, with some of his identities, mostly The Beast, claiming to be there to protect Kevin and keep him away from “the light”. Clarence Wendell Crumb was a victim of Elijah’s truly evil plans that were for both his amusement and to feed his obsession with superheroes and villains, as he was looking for the “unbreakable” hero to his “fragile” villain.

Had Clarence Wendell Crumb not boarded the train, he would have most likely continued to be an active part of Kevin’s life and thus Kevin’s future would have been completely different, but he would still have had a lot of trauma from how abusive his mother was. It’s unclear if young Kevin was aware of the train crash or if he blocked it from his memory as a trauma response, but learning the truth was a turning point for him and his alliance with Elijah in Glass.

Glass Confirms Elijah Created The Unbreakable Trilogy’s Superhero & Supervillain

Elijah Was The Evil Mastermind Behind The Characters Of The Unbreakable Trilogy

The hero of the Unbreakable trilogy is, undoubtedly, David Dunn, and the villain was Kevin/The Beast and other identities, like Dennis, but after Glass, Elijah positioned himself as the mastermind behind both. David Dunn was born with superhuman strength and a perception of evil in people by simply touching them, but it was thanks to the train crash that Elijah found David and turned him into a superhero. Before Glass, Kevin was believed to have no links to Elijah and Dunn, but after it, he became a creation of Elijah, even if an accidental one.

The events of the Unbreakable trilogy, then, are all thanks to Elijah and his obsession with real-life superheroes and villains, and it’s also thanks to him that their existence was made public. Another twist in Glass was Elijah filming the final encounter between Kevin/The Beast, David Dunn, and himself and sending it to a private website and to his mother, Casey, and Joseph, who then made the videos public. Elijah Price caused a lot of suffering in the Unbreakable trilogy, making him its biggest villain.

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  Unbreakable

  PG-13

  M. Night Shyamalan presents Unbreakable, a superhero thriller that sees Bruce Willis star as David Dunn, a man who survives a train derailment completely unscathed. Now discovering that he has superpowers, he is invited to meet a man who may know more about his unique condition working at a comic book shop. What begins as a discovery of who he is and why he has these powers turns into David assuming the role of a reluctant hero in an ordinary world.

  Director

  M. Night Shyamalan

  Release Date

  
  November 22, 2000
  

  Cast

  Charlayne Woodard
  , Bruce Willis
  , Spencer Treat Clark
  , Samuel L. Jackson
  , Robin Wright

  Runtime

  106 minutes

• 

  Split

  PG-13

  M. Night Shyamalan’s Split follows Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder, who kidnaps three teenage girls and imprisons them in an underground facility. When Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) realizes that she can play Crumb’s personalities against one another, she begins to form a plan for escape before she is sacrificed to a creature he refers to as “the Beast”. 

  Director

  M. Night Shyamalan

  Release Date

  
  September 26, 2016
  

  Cast

  Kim Director
  , Betty Buckley
  , Haley Lu Richardson
  , Brad William Henke
  , Anya Taylor-Joy
  , James McAvoy
  , Jessica Sula

  Runtime

  1h 57m

• 

  Glass

  PG-13

   The third installment in M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable trilogy, Glass follows security guard David Dunn (Bruce Willis), a man with an uncanny ability to resist physical harm. Dunn tracks Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with multiple identities who kidnaps and tortures young women, but they are both captured and imprisoned along with Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson).

  Director

  M. Night Shyamalan

  Release Date

  
  January 16, 2019
  

  Cast

  Luke Kirby
  , Bruce Willis
  , James McAvoy
  , Samuel L. Jackson
  , Anya Taylor-Joy
  , Charlayne Woodard
  , Sarah Paulson
  , Spencer Treat Clark

  Runtime

  129 minutes