Glass

***Glass*** is a 2019 American psychological superhero thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan, who also produced with Jason Blum, Marc Bienstock, and Ashwin Rajan. "Glass" was co-produced by John Rusk, who was also the 1st assistant director on this film as well as on many other Shyamalan's films. The film is a crossover and sequel to Shyamalan's previous films *Unbreakable* (2000) and *Split* (2016) and the third and final installment in the *Unbreakable* trilogy a.k.a. *Eastrail 177 Trilogy*. Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Spencer Treat Clark, and Charlayne Woodard reprise their *Unbreakable* roles, while James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy return as their *Split* characters, with Sarah Paulson, Adam David Thompson, and Luke Kirby joining the cast.

Despite interest in a sequel, Touchstone Pictures opted not to finance one. Shyamalan set out to write *Split* using a character he had written for *Unbreakable* but pulled from its script due to balance issues. Shyamalan realized the opportunity he had to create a trilogy of works, and used the ending of *Split* to establish the film as within the *Unbreakable* narrative. This included securing the rights to use both Willis' and Jackson's *Unbreakable* characters from Walt Disney Studios, with the promise of including Disney within the production and distribution of this third film alongside Universal Pictures. *Split* was a financial and critical success, and by April 2017, Shyamalan announced that he started the production process for *Glass*.

The film had its world premiere at Alamo Drafthouse Cinema on January 12, 2019, and was released in the United States on January 18, 2019, by Universal Pictures. *Glass* received mixed reviews from critics, who found the film "disappointing" and "underwhelming" due to the final act and the story but praised the performances of the cast. Nevertheless, the film was a financial success, grossing $247 million worldwide against a $20 million production budget.

## Plot

David Dunn, a superhuman who survived the Eastrail 177 train wreck 19 years earlier, now operates as a disguised vigilante dubbed the "Overseer" alongside his son Joseph. Three weeks after the "Horde" incident, the Dunns track down Kevin Wendell Crumb, the "Horde", at an abandoned factory where he holds four cheerleaders hostage. David engages Kevin in a brief battle until armed forces led by Dr. Ellie Staple intervene and imprison them at the Raven Hill Memorial Mental Institute. Also being kept there is David's "destined" foe and global terrorist Elijah Price, a.k.a. Mr. Glass, who is kept under sedation and is considered completely harmless.

David and Kevin are placed in separate rooms that contain unique security measures based on their weaknesses of water and light flashes respectively. Staple explains that she believes they suffer from delusions of grandeur and do not have superpowers. Elijah's mother Mrs. Price, Joseph Dunn, and Casey Cooke, a victim who survived Kevin/the Horde's captivity, try and fail to convince Staple superhumans are real. As part of her final evaluation, Staple brings the three men to a room where she challenges them with explanations of why their seemingly superhuman abilities are not extraordinary. David and several of Kevin's personalities become confused and distraught while Elijah remains catatonic. That night, Elijah escapes his cell to conduct research on Kevin before visiting him and telling him he feigned his sedated state and plans to escape the institute but requires one of Kevin's personalities—the Beast—to help him. Staple discovers Elijah's escape plan and proceeds to do a prefrontal lobotomy to silence him.

Upon returning to his cell, Elijah reveals he sabotaged the surgical laser and kills his caretaker Daryl before freeing Kevin. Elijah then manipulates David into fighting the Beast by revealing his plan to destroy a chemical lab inside a new skyscraper, the Osaka Tower in Philadelphia that would kill thousands. David breaks free from his cell and pursues The Beast. Mrs. Price, Joseph, and Casey arrive just as the trio escapes. David and the Beast fight for a while before Elijah reveals to The Beast David's weakness for water, after that Joseph reveals that Kevin's father died in the train wreck caused by Elijah Price nineteen years earlier. Despite thanking him for his creation, the Beast mortally wounds Elijah out of revenge and throws David into a water storage tank that drenches the area when he gets out. Casey manages to bring Kevin's dormant original personality out, inadvertently allowing the police to fatally shoot him. Staple's men drown David in a flooded pothole while Staple reveals that she is part of a clandestine organization that has been suppressing the existence of superhumans for millennia to keep people from knowing about them and killing those with superhuman abilities as they see them as a threat to the balance of the world order.

In the aftermath, Staple deletes the footage from the institution and quits in order to cover her tracks. However, when she overhears a group of comic nerds discussing the tropes of a 'super genius', she realizes Elijah had secretly live-streamed the events to a private website. As she screams in frustration, Mrs. Price, Joseph, and Casey all receive a copy of the footage and upload it to the public, exposing the existence of superhumans to the world.

## Cast

* James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Horde: A 27-year-old former Philadelphia Zoo employee with 23 different personalities whose body chemistry changes with each personality, culminating in a 24th personality known as "The Beast": a savage superhuman cannibal whose abilities include wall-crawling and enhanced strength, speed, durability, and agility.
	+ Owen Vitullo portrays an 8-year-old Kevin.
* Bruce Willis as David Dunn / The Overseer: A superhuman vigilante with enhanced strength and durability, as well as the ability to see the crimes people have committed by touching them. In the film, Dunn goes by a new alias, "The Overseer".
	+ Colin Becker portrays a 10-year-old David.
* Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price / Mr. Glass: An intelligent wheel-chair bound mass murderer and comic book theorist with Type I osteogenesis imperfecta, who was institutionalized after David Dunn discovered his crimes.
	+ William Turner portrays a young Elijah
	+ Johnny Hiram Jamison plays a 13-year-old Elijah via photographs.
* Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellie Staple: A psychiatrist specializing in delusions of grandeur who treats patients convinced they are superhuman beings and attempts to prove Dunn, Price and Crumb are not superhumans by any means she finds.
* Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke: A 17-year-old girl with a history of abuse who was kidnapped by one of Kevin's identities as a potential sacrifice to "The Beast" but managed to survive; she is the only person capable of bringing forth Kevin's original personality.
* Spencer Treat Clark as Joseph Dunn: David's son who has believed in his father's abilities since he was a child and sees him as a real-life superhero.
* Charlayne Woodard as Mrs. Price: Elijah's mother, who took great care of her son, and always told him he was special no matter what others said.
* Luke Kirby as Pierce: One of Elijah's caretakers at the facility.
* Adam David Thompson as Daryl: An employee at the psych ward.

M. Night Shyamalan reprises his cameo role of Jai, the security guard from Dr. Fletcher's apartment building in *Split*, who recognizes and questions David Dunn if he worked at the football stadium, indicating that Jai is also the same stadium drug dealer from *Unbreakable* that David confronted. Additionally, Shannon Destiny Ryan, Diana Silvers, Nina Wisner, and Kyli Zion portrayed the cheerleaders at the start of the film whom one of Kevin's personalities kidnapped. Rosemary Howard and Bryan McElroy portray Kevin's parents, Penelope and Clarence, Howard reprising her role from *Split*.

## Production

### Development

After *Unbreakable*'s release in 2000, rumors of possible sequels began circulating in different interviews and in film fansites. In 2000, Bruce Willis was quoted as hoping for an *Unbreakable* trilogy. In December 2000, M. Night Shyamalan denied rumors he had written *Unbreakable* as the first installment of a trilogy. In August 2001, he stated that because of successful DVD sales, he had approached Touchstone Pictures about an *Unbreakable* sequel, an idea Shyamalan said the studio originally declined because of the film's disappointing box office performance.

In September 2008, Shyamalan and Samuel L. Jackson's stated discussions about making a sequel had been largely abandoned in light of the disappointing box office returns. Jackson indicated he was still interested in a sequel, but Shyamalan remained noncommittal. In February 2010, Willis said that Shyamalan was "still thinking about doing the fight movie between me and Sam" and stated that as long as Jackson was able to participate, he would be "up for it".

Shyamalan continued to work on other films, releasing *Split* in 2017. Kevin Wendell Crumb, played by James McAvoy, is a man suffering from dissociative identity disorder, that affects his body chemistry to such an extent that he adopts the mannerisms of each separate persona. One of these personalities is "The Beast", which drives Crumb's body into a feral superhuman state, guided by the desire to consume those who have not had a traumatic situation in their lives – those it does not consider "broken". Crumb had initially been written into the script for *Unbreakable*, but Shyamalan felt there were balancing issues with his inclusion and removed him from the story. *Split* was effectively rewritten from some of the scenes he had planned for Crumb and expanded out into a standalone picture.

The final scene for *Split* includes the appearance of David Dunn, played by Willis. Shyamalan included Dunn there to connect *Split* to *Unbreakable*, by showing Dunn learning about the escape of "The Beast" and thereby realizing that other superhumans exist, as predicted by Mr. Glass (Jackson). In 2017, Shyamalan stated although he hoped a third *Unbreakable* film would be made and already had an outline prepared, "I don't know what's going to happen when I go off in my room, a week after this film opens, to write the script."

*Unbreakable* had been produced for and owned by Touchstone Pictures, a label of Walt Disney Studios, while *Split* was produced through Universal Pictures. Shyamalan obtained permission from Disney to reuse the character of Dunn. He met with Walt Disney Studios president Sean Bailey and came to a gentlemen's agreement whereby Bailey agreed to allow the use of the character in the film without a fee, and Shyamalan promised that Disney would be involved in a sequel, if developed.

*Split* was met with critical and financial success and, in February 2017, Shyamalan affirmed his next film would be the third work in the trilogy. Shyamalan finished the script by April 2017, announcing that it would be called *Glass* and have a target release date of January 18, 2019. Universal was selected to distribute the film in the United States, while Disney distributes the film internationally through its Buena Vista International label.