He then records himself waking up the Beast in the tunnels beneath the hospital and eventually orchestrates a fight between the Beast and David. Elijah hacked the hospital’s security system so that video footage from the grounds would automatically be emailed to his mother (Charlayne Woodard) as proof. If David doesn’t agree, Elijah says he will blow up the building.īut it turns out that Elijah never planned for David and the Beast to make it to there. He recognizes an opportunity to prove himself right when he learns that Kevin, who has Dissociative Identity Disorder, can summon a villainous identity called “the Beast.” He invites David to fight the Beast atop the tallest tower in Philadelphia so that the world can witness their strength. Since the events of Unbreakable, Elijah has been obsessed with the idea that comic books are a historical record of real superheroes. Jackson), devises a plan to escape the psychiatric ward where he, Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) and David Dunn (Bruce Willis) are being kept. The German philosopher and Shyamalan both assert that this type of super-powered man represents humanity’s future.īut before we mine Glass’ finale for meaning, let’s quickly review what happened at the end of film: Elijah, a.k.a. It’s not a particularly original idea: The backstories of his superhero and two supervillains are essentially a dramatization of the famous Nietzsche quote, “What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.” In Glass, he plays with yet another Nietzschean idea: The “ubermensch.” Often translated as super man, the ubermensch became the precursor for comic book superheroes. In Unbreakable and Split, Shyamalan asserted that those who experience trauma can grow into superior beings. It’s a limp ending, as critics have noted, but it’s chock full of symbolism.
(Yes, plenty of people die.) But in Glass, Shyamalan seems less concerned with surprising the audience than hammering home the philosophical ideas he introduced in the films’ two predecessors. Anyone who saw Unbreakable and Split probably predicted a grim finish to the triology. Despite the director’s reputation, the last act of Glass, the third and final entry in Shyamalan’s low-key superhero franchise, isn’t particularly surprising.
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