How ‘Glass’ Ending Sets up a Shyamalan Movie Universe

Glass has finally arrived to provide an end to a trilogy story started way back in 2000, with M. Night Shyamalan’s genre-busting cult-classic film, Unbreakable.Thanks to a surprise twist ending to the 2016 film, Split, this third chapter explores the idea of what a larger Shyamalan cinematic universe actually looks like.

Given Shyamalan’s history as a filmmaker, it should be no surprise that Glass has a few big twists of its own – and the ending is definitely one of the biggest. Read on below to find out how Glass ends in a way that sets up a much bigger Shyamalan cinematic universe to come!

Warning: Major Spoilers Follow!

The final act of Glass sees Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) enact a bold plan to have Horde (James McAvoy) battle the heroic Overseer (Bruce Willis) outside of the mental institution where they are being held. Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson) is revealed to be an agent of a clandestine organization, whose purpose is to suppress any appearance of superhuman abilities in the world. She uses the incident outside the institution as a means to kill Horde, Overseer, and Mr. Glass – but not before acknowledging to Elijah that he can die in peace, validated that he had been right all along about his theories.

However, Dr. Staple and her cohorts turn out to have greatly underestimated the mastermind that was Mr. Glass. Elijah had used the institution’s elaborate camera system to record this superhero vs. supervillain showdown, and store the footage on a remote server. Once Elijah was dead, the footage was released to the only people he trusted with it: David Dunn’s son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), Kevin Crumb’s only surviving victim, Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), and Elijah’s mom (Charlayne Woodard). The trio then cuts the footage into a comprehensive PSA, and releases it out into the world. As the footage of Horde’s battle with Overseer becomes a viral phenomenon, the suggestion is that more superhuman individuals will now be coming forward to make themselves known.

This is where Shyamalan makes the move to great a much larger cinematic universe from the ashes of this “Eastrail 177 Trilogy.” Shyamalan has effectively created a reality that is a real-world based comic book superhero universe. Now that Glass has established that the phenomenon is much bigger (and older) than the individuals from Unbreakable and Split, Shyamalan can create any number of films that either play up a connection to this universe – or go the route of Split, with the film marketing itself as entirely different type of project, only to reveal its connection to the “Eastrail 177 Saga” as a major twist. The series’ main theme (individuals realizing they are more exceptional than they’ve been led to believe) is one that could bend to fit any number of other genres (sci-fi, horror, etc.) and narratives.

The only question is: will Glass do well enough to keep this universe alive? And even if it does – will Shyamalan be interested in doing more?

Glass is now playing in theaters.