Glass Movie Ending & All Twists Explained

WARNING: Spoilers for Glass.

Glass‘ ending has three big twists, three major deaths, and leaves the future of M. Night Shyamalan’s Unbreakable world irreversibly changed. Here, we’ll break down what happened, what it really means, and where it could lead.

A sequel to both Unbreakable and Split, Glass picks up the stories of David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price aka Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) from the former, and Kevin Wendell Crumb aka The Horde (James McAvoy) from the latter. 20 years after surviving a train derailment that killed everybody else on board, David has become a vigilante crimefighter, using his powers of touch mind reading and superstrength to become The Overseer. He’s now hunting The Horde, which is continuing its mission to sacrifice teenage girls to violent 24th personality, The Beast. When they showdown, they’re captured and taken to the same psychiatric institution that’s held Elijah Price under heavy sedation for the past two decades.

Related: Do You Need To See Split & Unbreakable To Understand Glass?

Once there, Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) attempts to cure all three of their belief in being superheroes, but ultimately fails to hide them from the truth. Mr. Glass plots a grand way to reveal the truth to the world, recruiting The Beast to his cause and taunting David into opposing them, leading to a final showdown outside the hospital. What comes next is a slew of twists, shocking turns and more surprises than any previous single M. Night Shyamalan film. Make sense of it all in our Glass ending explainer.

• This Page: The Horde Was Created By Mr. Glass
• Page 2: What The Deaths of David, Kevin & Elijah Really Mean
• Page 3: The Clover Secret Society In Glass
• Page 4: Mr. Glass’ Masterplan & “Origin Story”

The Horde Was Created By Mr. Glass

Train crashes have always been important to the Glass series. The starting point for Unbreakable is the Eastrail 177 train crash, orchestrated by Elijah Price in a bid to find a superbeing, of which David Dunn is the only survivor. Then, in Split, it’s gradually revealed that Kevin Wendell Crumb’s father was killed in a train accident, an event that left him at the mercy of his violent mother and directly led to his various personalities.

The first of Glass‘ big ending twists is that these were the same train: Clarence Wendell Crumb was just a few rows behind David Dunn. This means that, albeit accidentally, Mr. Glass created not just The Overseer but also The Horde. As he sees it, he’s the great superpowered mastermind, crafted heroes and villains as he pleases; killing Clarence was a happy accident, not an accidental tragedy. The Horde, of course, takes it somewhat differently, revealing a self-hatred within itself that it now directs towards Elijah.

Read More: Glass Theory: James McAvoy’s Split Character Was In Unbreakable All Along

The clues for this train twist were there throughout both Split and Glass (to the point that it became a popular fan theory). It’s established in the previous movie that Kevin’s father died when he was a child, which can line up with Unbreakable‘s 2000 setting, and The Horde first transforms into The Beast after laying flowers at a Philadelphia’s 30th Street Station, the same place David was traveling to. Glass drops even more clues ahead of the ending reveal: it confirms Kevin is (somewhat unbelievably given James McAvoy is 39) 27 years old, making him six in 2000; Elijah finds a big secret in his file, one that seems to connect to him; and Joseph Dunn is further shown finding more information.

Page 2 of 4: What The Deaths of David, Kevin & Elijah Really Mean

About The Author

Alex Leadbeater
(1121 Articles Published)

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Screen Rant’s Managing Editor, Alex Leadbeater has been covering film online since 2012 and been a permanent fixture of SR since 2016. Based in London, he oversees a global news & features team based in NY, LA and beyond. You may have also seen/heard him on the Total Geekall podcast, unaffiliated YouTube channels, BBC Radio and CBC News.

Growing up in the English countryside on a mixture of Star Wars, The Simpsons and Aardman, Alex is a lifelong movie obsessive. Despite a brief jaunt in Mathematics at Durham University, film writing was always his calling. He’s covered a wide range of movies and TV shows – from digging out obscure MCU Easter eggs to diving deep into deeper meanings of arthouse fare – and has covered a litany of set visits, junkets and film festivals. He once asked Tom Cruise about his supposedly fake-butt in Valkyrie (he swore it was all real).

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