**This is intended as a deep dive look at the themes and stories of M. Night Shyamalan’s “Eastrail 177” trilogy. Spoilers are revealed for all three films, so tread carefully if you have not seen “Unbreakable,” “Split” and “Glass.”
The prospect of a trilogy of films starting with M. Night Shyamalan’s “Unbreakable” had been on the table since before “Signs” came out in 2002, and we would occasionally get teases of information about it from the writer-director over the years. Little did we suspect that, in 2017, we would get the second film in it with “Split”, which revealed itself being within the same universe as “Unbreakable” with David Dunn (Bruce Willis’s character) watching the news about Kevin, James McAvoy’s character, and his unique abilities. This past week, Shyamalan concluded the trilogy with “Glass”, while also leaving room for more of the story to tell. This is going to be debated about by film fans for years.
Every time I have revisited “Unbreakable” over the years, I become further convinced that it is M. Night Shyamalan’s best film, even more so than “The Sixth Sense.” The low audience reaction it was greeted with in 2000, where he was the hot wunderkind after “The Sixth Sense,” would likely be very different now after almost two decades of ever-evolving superhero cinema. I truly think it would be as embraced by modern audiences as “Logan” was in 2017 in how it looks at the archetypes of superhero movies and comic books, and challenges our perceptions. It’s not just the storytelling savvy Shyamalan shows, however; the story of Dunn’s understanding of himself after he is left unhurt by a train derailment, the only survivor, is something anyone who has survived deep trauma can identify with. It’s a common idea within “The Sixth Sense” and “Signs,” as well, but with “Split” and “Glass,” it becomes the overarching idea within Shyamalan’s superhero universe, and as someone who has survived personal trauma myself, it’s inspiring to see the way he empowers his characters, and his audience.
Kevin, the McAvoy character in “Split,” suffers from dissociative identity disorder, a real disorder that Shyamalan uses to his own devices while deftly walking the tightrope of not falling into the stigma of “mentally ill = violent” that some people criticized him for when “Split” was released. Kevin’s disorder came about with personal trauma, as well- this time, at the hands of his dominating mother, with a heightening when his father left, and died when he was a boy. We find out in the third act of “Glass” that his father, in fact, died in the same train wreck that Dunn survived, which was, as the end of “Unbreakable” revealed, the work of Elijah Price, the Samuel L. Jackson character whose disability (brittle bones), left him fragile, and resulted in nearly 100 broken bones over his life. As a child, his mother (Charlayne Woodard) got him into comic books, which was his alternate to playing outside. As he grew older, he would not only appreciate the artwork, which would lead him to create his occupation, Limited Edition, but he would retreat inward as he looked at the stories unfold, and see himself within the pages as someone with extraordinary abilities, leading him to wonder whether there were others like him. This is why he turned to terrorism, and was responsible for the Eastrail 177 wreck, but he just went looking for someone who was the opposite of him; he didn’t think his work would unlock anything in someone who wasn’t a part of his actions directly.
When “Glass” begins, Elijah is still in a mental hospital, and has been playing comatose with the staff for a while. Meanwhile, David has started a home security store with his son, Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), during the day, while also shadowing as the man the press has called “The Overseer” at night, going out and trying to protect the innocent from those whom would harm them. That was a life he kept a secret, and shielded his son from, but now that his wife (played by Robin Wright in “Unbreakable”) has passed away, they have gone into the superhero business together, now with a specific target in Kevin, who has now left a trail of two more sets of girls killed after the events of “Split,” which introduced us not only to some of the 23 known personalities to his doctor, but “The Beast,” an animalistic personality that can change the shape of Kevin’s body, and is seen by the dominant personalities in Kevin (Patricia, Dennis and Hedwig) as a savior whom will not only protect Kevin from harm, but also purify those touched by pain and trauma in their lives. That’s why Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy’s character from “Split”) was spared by “The Beast”- she had experienced her own trauma with her being sexually abused as a girl by her uncle, who would later take care for her when her father died.
Trauma touches every major character in this trilogy, and that, in and of itself, makes it a very different beast from any other superhero franchise out there. In a way, however, it’s reductive to call it a “superhero” franchise, though, even though Dunn, Kevin and Elijah all exhibit specific traits we’ve seen in Marvel and DC films over the years. What Shyamalan is doing is bringing superhero archetypes into a real world landscape. His fundamental question is, “What would superheroes be like in the world we live in? How would their ‘powers’ be interpreted? How would they reveal themselves?” This is not only the operating idea of the entire trilogy, but also a primary thesis in its final chapter, “Glass.”
The trailers for “Glass” have focused on Dunn, Kevin and Elijah all in the same mental hospital, being treated by Dr. Ellie Staple, played by Sarah Paulson. How all three find themselves in custody, I will let the film reveal to you. The best parts of “Glass” involve Dr. Staple and her interactions with not just Dunn, Elijah and Kevin, but also Joseph, Elijah’s mother, and Casey (whose connection with Kevin, and some of his different personas, is one of the most compelling story threads in the trilogy). In those interactions, Dr. Staple is using psychological logic to poke holes in each character’s assertions that they are “superheroes” or gifted, in their own way, and her logic revolves around the traumas each have suffered over their lifetimes. As someone who has been in therapy since 2008, and who had a near-death experience in 2007, her logic is sound, and presents an interesting dilemma for the characters, “If their abilities are just a reaction to trauma their mind is playing on them, what does that make them?” This is a fundamental question every person has asked themselves in times of personal emotional crisis, as well as the basis for several classic superhero movies; what makes Shyamalan’s approach to it here unique is how it is the most important part of the film, and not just a launching pad for CGI-infused action scenes. That alone, regardless of how each chapter of this trilogy, is reason enough for its existence for me.
Of course, the trailers do point towards action in the third act of “Glass,” which brings me to the way Shyamalan brings his story to a close. At first, it looks like he is going to set up a reveal for these superhero characters to the world as a whole with a big showdown in the middle of Philadelphia, but that is the furthest thing from his mind, because he has a bigger reveal to make involving Dr. Staple. If you think about her character, her methods (which basically involve torturing Dunn and Kevin to get her desired behaviors), and what takes place in the hospital after her arrival after the film, it really should not have been much of a surprise to see how it all unfolds. While I like the audacity of the choices, I’m not actually sure I’m a fan of the choices themselves. Shyamalan seems to be setting up more with the characters remaining at the end, and a larger world than we expected, but it feels like he allowed his vision to morph out of control after years lying dormant. That’s part of why I likened this to “The Matrix” trilogy when I first discussed it on a Tumblr post (linked to in the RSS Feed on the right)- the first film feels fully formed and executed, with subsequent follow-ups that seem to bite off more than they can chew. That said, I think Shyamalan’s trilogy is the richer, long-term experience for moviegoers, and part of that is because of his underlying ideas of self-discovery after trauma, and a recognizable world where good vs. evil exists on a sliding scale that can lead people in one direction or another, depending on what they find out about themselves, or need to find out about themselves. His storytelling isn’t without flaws, but his story is something you will find it difficult to forget after you experience it in its entirety.
Viva La Resistance!
Brian Skutle
www.sonic-cinema.com
