None of Glass’ Many Twists Actually Make Sense

There is little rhyme or reason to the twists in the climax of Glass. The fact that an M. Night Shyamalan film should contain a twist ending is hardly a revelation or a spoiler, given that most of his movies to date have featured an 11th-hour surprise that changed the meaning of the movie. Unfortunately, with three twists in Glass, it seems that Shyamalan has finally run out of tricks.

Shyamalan first found fame in 1999 with his third film The Sixth Sense. It was a critical and commercial success, earning six Oscar nominations (including Best Picture, Best Original Screenplay, and Best Director), as well as making Shyamalan an international sensation overnight. The Sixth Sense became particularly famous for its twist ending, which has gone on to become one of the most famous in film history. Shyamalan enjoyed similar success with his following films, such as Signs, most of which also employed twist endings to increasingly diminished effect.

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

Sadly, Glass seems to have proved the critics, many of whom concluded Shyamalan was a one-trick pony, correct, which is clear by Glass‘ brutal reviews. The film seems to be trying to build on the success of Shyamalan’s last film, Split, and cash in on the popularity of superhero movies that has swelled up in the two decades since Unbreakable. The end result is that there were three twists in Glass‘ ending, but none of them are surprising or well-executed.

• This Page: Glass’ Train Crash Twist
• Next Page: Glass’ Clover Group & Ending Viral Video

Glass’ Train Twist Is A Fan Theory

The first twist in Glass comes near the end of the climactic battle between The Beast (James McAvoy) and David Dunn (Bruce Willis). After engineering their escape from the psychiatric hospital where they are being observed by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson) informs David of his intention to let The Beast loose at the grand opening ceremony of a new skyscraper, as well as his plan to blow it up. This spurs David to escape from his own cell, using his super-strength to breakdown a reinforced steel door and give chase to the two supervillains, fighting The Beast on the hospital lawn as Mr. Glass watches.

At one point, as The Beast is moving in to continue the battle, David’s son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), runs up and tells The Beast that Mr. Glass is responsible for creating him. It turns out that the father of Kevin W. Crumb – the young man who developed The Beast along with several other distinct dissociative/split identities after years of abuse at the hands of his mother – was killed by the same train crash that Mr. Glass engineered in the hopes of finding a super-strong and invulnerable person like David. Without his father around to protect a young Kevin Crumb, there was nobody to stop The Beast and his Horde from being born. This knowledge leads to The Beast turning against Mr. Glass and inflicting the injuries that ultimately kill the mastermind villain.

Related: Glass Returning Cast & New Character Guide

This might be a stunning twist worthy of a super-villain team-up from the comics, except for one small problem: the twist only confirms a fan theory that has existed online for years. Most of Shyamalan’s movies are set in Philadelphia, and it was established in Split that Kevin Crumb’s father died in a train crash when he was a child. When it was confirmed that both Split and Unbreakable were set in the same universe, it was a simple matter for fans to count the years between the train crash and the events of Split to guess that both train crashes were one and the same. Besides, everyone knows comic books thrive on this kind of coincidence.

Page 2 of 2: Glass’ Clover Group & Ending Viral Video

About The Author

Matt Morrison
(1835 Articles Published)

Matt Morrison has been writing about comics since before the word
“blogging” was coined. He got his start writing for the
legendary DC Comics digital fanzine Fanzing,
before receiving his own column, The Mount. Since then he has gone on
to write for over a dozen websites, including 411
Mania, Comics
Nexus and The Cult of Nobody. He holds both an MS in Information
Science from the University of North Texas and a BFA from the
University of Texas at Arlington. Known as a font of comic book
history trivia, he has delivered lectures on the history of American
Comic Books, Japanese Manga, Doctor Who, and Cosplay at over a dozen conventions
and served as an Expert In-Residence for a course on Graphic Novels
for Librarians at the University of North Texas. In addition to his
work for Screen Rant, Matt is currently the Editor In Chief of
Kabooooom.com and writes reviews for No
Flying, No Tights – a graphic literature and anime review site
aimed at teachers and librarians. He also maintains a personal blog –
My Geeky Geeky Ways –
which hosts his extensive episode guide for the television series
making up The Arrowverse as well as his
comedic Let’s Play videos. What little spare time he has is
devoted towards acting, role-playing, movie-riffing and sarcasm. You
can follow his adventures on Twitter, @GeekyGeekyWays.

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