Glass Director M. Night Shyamalan Defends Film’s Ending

A key component to many superhero stories is that, no matter how invulnerable an otherworldly character might appear, many of them have a specific weakness, which is exactly what led to Bruce Willis‘ David Dunn getting killed in the finale of M. Night Shyamalan‘s Glass, with the filmmaker recently detailing was meant to echo the Greek myth of Achilles. It was established in Unbreakable that the only thing that could thwart Dunn was water, which Shyamalan would go on to confirm nearly two decades after his debut, yet his super strength resulted in some fans being disappointed with this demise.

“Well, in the end, that the simplest thing can take the strongest person down,” Shyamalan explained to Uproxx. “That it’s like more of Achilles’ heel that, in the mythos of it, you don’t need an army to take down the strongest man if you know their weakness.”

To say that Shyamalan’s career has been a rollercoaster would be a bit of an understatement, as his various projects over the years have earned immense acclaim and harsh criticisms.

The filmmaker’s breakout film was 1999’s The Sixth Sense, which earned multiple Academy Awards nominations. His follow-up film, Unbreakable, largely appeared as a horror movie, only for the ending to reveal that it was essentially an origin story for a superhero. Later in his career, films like The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth with financial and critical disappointments, with his reputation falling severely.

In 2015, Shyamalan delivered audiences The Visit, a creepy horror picture that resembled the effectiveness of stories from earlier in his career. In 2017, the filmmaker unveiled Split, which was a terrifying enough thriller in its own right, which included a brief appearance in its final moments of Willis’ Dunn from Unbreakable, shocking fans with the reveal that it was secretly a sequel to the earlier effort.

The acclaim the filmmaker was earning resembled that of his earlier films, setting expectations high for Glass, which featured not only Willis’ return, but also Samuel L. Jackson’s and James McAvoy’s. The film was a moderate financial success, given that it was the culmination of the series, but its reviews were relatively poor, as Rotten Tomatoes calculates only 37% positive reviews.

M. Night Shyamalan’s TV series Servant is now available on Apple TV+.

What did you think of that film’s ending? Let us know in the comments below or contact Patrick Cavanaugh directly on Twitter to talk all things horror and Star Wars.