History Film / Glass2019

-->-- '''Elijah Price / Mr. Glass'''

* BittersweetEnding: On one hand, [[spoiler:Mr. Glass, the Overseer, and the Horde are dead at the hands of an AncientConspiracy that's dedicated to keeping superheroes and supervillains from the public eye]]. Elijah's mom has lost her son, Casey lost her love, and Joseph is now an orphan due to losing his mom and now his father. On the other hand, [[spoiler:the AncientConspiracy failed, as Mr. Glass was able to leak a video of the fight between all three of them to the public with the help of Joseph, Casey, and his mother, thereby ruining the Conspiracy's 10,000-year plan in a single bound and ushering in an era of true blue heroes and villains.]]

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The name ''Glass'' is both the supervillainous identity of Elijah Price ("First name: Mister. Last name: Glass.") and thematically similar to the names of the previous films, ''Unbreakable'' and ''Split'', which are related to the theme of "broken" people.

** In a DeletedScene taken from ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' and used for this movie during Mr. Glass' [[spoiler:self-sabotaged laser surgery]], Elijah tried a carnival ride as a child. Because of his brittle bone disease, he decides to put a big stuffed teddy and lion on each side of his seat, to cushion him. However, as the ride gets faster, the stuffed animals fall off and he is flung onto his left shoulder, breaking that first. More collisions occur afterwards, breaking more of his bones. They actually tell us [[spoiler:how Mr. Glass dies. Firstly, Joseph informs the Beast that Kevin's father died in the same Eastrail 177 train disaster that Mr. Glass orchestrated to find super-powered beings. Like the stuffed lion lost in that carnival ride, Mr. Glass loses the Beast's trust in him in one fell swoop. As retaliation, the Beast crushes Mr. Glass' left shoulder with his hand, referencing the first aforementioned carnival ride injury. And then, to continue his fight with the Overseer, the Beast shoves Mr. Glass back hard, rupturing Mr. Glass' organs. Finally, Mr. Glass tries to get off his wheelchair, but falls and breaks more bones in the process, sealing his fate]].

* JuxtaposedReflectionPoster: The teaser poster shows the three main characters of the trilogy: Dunn, Price, and Crumb, seated on chairs from the neck down. Their reflections show their "true selves", the Overseer, Glass, and the Beast, standing up and looking intimidating.

* PlayingGertrude: Once again, Charlayne Woodard as Mr. Glass' mother. Woodard is five years younger than Samuel L. Jackson. This is because most of her scenes in ''Unbreakable'' were flashbacks to Mr. Glass' youth, and only had one scene in the present day.

* XanatosGambit: [[spoiler:Mr. Glass's stated plan was to cause an explosion at the opening ceremony of a high rise tower to attract attention and let the Overseer and the Horde fight in public. He seemingly didn't account for the extra cameras around the hospital to catch the breakout. He, the Horde, and the Overseer aren't able to make it past the front lawn and are killed by Dr. Staple's henchmen to make sure no one learns the truth of what they are able to do, with her erasing all camera footage of the event. She then realizes that Mr. Glass set her up to '''think''' that she foiled his plans, and realizes he never intended to reach the tower, and instead the footage from ''her own'' extra security cameras was secretly streamed to a private server, which is then leaked to the press by Joseph, Casey, and Ms. Price.]]
* YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: Mr. Glass to the Overseer, [[HeroicBSOD when he was doubting his powers and his sanity]], convinces him of this in his own twisted way to get him moving and his self-confidence back. [[spoiler:At the end, he also gives humanity at large this by showing them their potential for superpowers.]]

* YourMindMakesItReal: A bit of a unique example. [[spoiler:The primary reason Supers aren't known all over the world is because people believe it's impossible. It's that mindset that the AncientConspiracy has been keeping intact over the years. Of course, that's not enough to keep ''everyone'' in line. For that, they have Dr. Staple to convince them.]]

The Overseer (David Dunn) tries to stay one step ahead of the law while delivering vigilante justice on the streets of Philadelphia. His special abilities soon put him on a collision course with the Beast – a psychotic madman who has superhuman strength and 23 distinct personalities. Their encounter leads them to Mr. Glass, a criminal mastermind who holds critical secrets for both men.

** Not counting flashbacks, the entire trilogy began when David Dunn was taking a train back to Philadelphia, with the resulting crash secretly awakening a superhero [[spoiler:and a supervillain]]. This film ends with [[spoiler:Casey, Joseph, and Ms. Price sitting in the Philadelphia train station and being responsible for superheroes being known to the general public. As this happens, the sound of a train stopping can be heard, symbolising a chapter closing on the Overseer, the Horde, and Mr. Glass, and a new one opening for those who are inspired by their actions]].

** Joseph's arc in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' ended with David subtly telling Joseph that he has embraced being a superhero, and shushes Joseph to prevent him from telling anybody else about his first superhero foray. His arc in this movie concludes with him [[spoiler:broadcasting sent videos depicting the battle between the Overseer and the Horde to the general public]]. To hammer the point home, there is a flashback of the aforementioned ''Unbreakable'' moment, just seconds before [[spoiler:Joseph does the deed]].

* TheDreaded: David Dunn has made a name for himself as the Overseer; in the BatmanColdOpen, he breaks into the home of some violent thugs and one mentions in terror "It's you!"

** Dr. Staple leads the police to the Overseer and the Horde, has them stunned unconscious and dragged off to an insane asylum under her care with absolutely no trial or lawyers or any due process, and not even the Overseer's son (who, granted, might be worried about being labeled an accomplice) seeks any legal recourse other than going to the doctor and pleading her to let his dad go. [[spoiler:Granted, the existence of the Shamrock conspiracy might help explain this, as any judges or lawyers might be in on it, but given that "David Dunn" is a local hero even outside his secret identity and nobody seems to even think about the plainly criminal lengths Dr. Staple went to capture and detain him, it still fits this trope.]]

* MissionControl: In the time since we last saw him, David Dunn started up a business selling and advising on security systems with his son Joseph. Joseph has a computer station in the back where he looks up and tracks potential targets for the Overseer to look into, and the Overseer's poncho has a microphone letting him communicate with Joseph in real time.

** Joseph and Mr. Glass both have this expression when they find out that [[spoiler:Kevin's dad died in the same train accident that David Dunn was in]], at separate occasions. For the latter, he even drops the documents that he was reading.

* PoliceBrutality: Cops in the employ of the AncientConspiracy murder [[spoiler:David and Kevin]] under a guise of taking down dangerous threats (when both were actually no longer threats when this happened).

* {{Reconstruction}}: ''Unbreakable'' was a deconstruction of the comic book genre, holding it to a real world setting and with real world consequences. As "David Dunn", the Overseer was strong but didn't know how strong because [[StrongAsTheyNeedToBe he never pushed beyond what regular humans do]], and his TouchTelepathy was dismissed for just good intuition. ''Split'' approached the premise from a different angle (that of a {{Supervillain}}), but this film revisits the comic book trappings and embraces them while still holding it to real world consequences. The first fight between the Overseer and the Beast shows them performing superhuman feats, but plays out more like an intense MMA fight than [[HeroInsurance a destructive battle]]. Mr. Glass more fully embraces being a DiabolicalMastermind, deceiving and misdirecting the people around him while using his immense intellect to cause havoc.

** In conjunction with the WhamLine example above, [[spoiler:after we see Kevin's father sitting on the left of a train, a [[TheOner oner]] shifts the focus to one particular passenger sitting rows ahead on the right: [[Film/{{Unbreakable}} David Dunn, 19 years ago]]. [[ArcWelding This reveals that both David Dunn and Kevin's father were on Eastrail 177, which derailed and killed everyone but David Dunn]]]].

David Dunn tries to stay one step ahead of the law while delivering vigilante justice on the streets of Philadelphia. His special abilities soon put him on a collision course with the Beast – a psychotic madman who has superhuman strength and 23 distinct personalities. Their encounter leads them to Mr. Glass, a criminal mastermind who holds critical secrets for both men.

* PlausibleDeniability: One key facet of the setting is that the actual superpowers of the Overseer, Mr. Glass, and the Horde, can be explained away as CharlesAtlasSuperpower, HyperAwareness, or otherwise some form of mundane answer. Dr. Staple is able to make both the Horde briefly doubt themselves, while Mr. Glass later asserts that you can always just "explain away" their gifts, but that doesn't mean it isn't true. [[spoiler:Dr. Staple turns out to belong to an AncientConspiracy whose goal is to eliminate the truth of superhumans from the public, as them having super-powers is "not fair on the rest of us."]]

* ObfuscatingInsanity: [[spoiler:Mr. Glass pretends to be drugged out and catatonic. In reality, he's anything but, and has been playing the asylum staff for years.]]

* NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: [[spoiler:The poor Overseer gets smacked with this throughout the movie. In going after the Horde and saving the girls he had abducted, he ends up getting taken to a psychiatric hospital. Then, when he breaks out to stop Mr. Glass and the Horde from destroying Osaka Tower, he ends up being cold-bloodedly murdered by fake SWAT members]].

* MyDeathIsJustTheBeginning: [[spoiler:Mr. Glass]] pulls one of hell of a [[XanatosGambit Xanatos]]/ThanatosGambit at the end of the film wherein [[spoiler:regardless of whether or not his plan to blow up the Osaka Tower comes to fruition, he still exposes the world to supermen and women at the end, thanks to all of the security cameras he has set up, and completely tanks the AncientConspiracy that has been trying to hide them all these years]].

* MassSuperEmpoweringEvent: Blink it and you'll miss it, but [[spoiler:a news report right near the end discussing the leaked video of The Overseer observes there has been a mass break-out of inmates from Raven Hill, raising the implication some of them were supers awakened by witnessing the battle between the Overseer and the Horde]].

* TheLostLenore: Audrey Dunn died five years prior due to cancer. The Overseer imagines still seeing her sometimes; we see a glimpse of him seeming about to tell her about his superheroics, but don't know if this is a {{Flashback}} or an ImagineSpot.

* LegacyLaunch: During the climax, Ms. Price observes how the story is deviating from the formula established by "[[CrisisCrossover limited editions]]", and Mr. Glass can only smile and respond "Oh, Mama... this is not a limited edition. This was an origin story the whole time." [[spoiler:We are later shown that what he means is effectively a in-universe LegacyLaunch: The Overseer, The Horde, and Mr. Glass all die, but their deaths act as a cataclysm/origin story for the (implicit) rise of several other supers carrying their legacy.]]

* ContrivedCoincidence: The train crash that revealed the Overseer to Mr. Glass in the first place also, seemingly by accident, created the Horde, by killing Kevin's father and leaving him in the care of his abusive mother. Him developing superpowers and becoming the Horde and the Beast as a result was never supposed to be part of the original plan for Mr. Glass.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Dr. Staple, in an attempt to convince The Overseer, The Horde, and Mr. Glass that they couldn't possibly have superpowers, asks them why there's only three of them in the whole world. This is devastating enough that even the Overseer and the Horde start to doubt their powers. [[spoiler:The answer: because the AncientConspiracy kills them all.]]

** When Joseph is musing on the lie that the Overseer's powers are a self-inflicted delusion, he ruefully looks at a weightlifter in his school, referencing the Overseer's increasingly heavy bench pressing in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''.

** When Joseph is processing the possibility that the Overseer's powers are a self-inflicted delusion, he ruefully looks at a weightlifter in his school, referencing the Overseer's increasingly heavy bench pressing in ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}''.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: Dr. Staple, in an attempt to convince the Overseer, the Horder, and Mr. Glass that they couldn't possibly have superpowers, asks them why there's only three of them in the whole world. This is devastating enough that even the Overseer and the Horde start to doubt their powers. [[spoiler:The answer: because the AncientConspiracy kills them all.]]

* BadassBeard: The Overseer now has one.

* DoubleMeaningTitle: The name ''Glass'' is both the supervillainous identity of Elijah Price ("First name: Mister. Second name: Glass.") and thematically similar to the names of the previous films, ''Unbreakable'' and ''Split'', which are related to the theme of "broken" people.

* IHaveManyNames: News and social media nicknames for the Overseer's superheroic identity are mentioned. For a time they called him the Green Guardian, before landing on the Overseer. One that was proposed but didn't get traction, to his relief, was "[[EmbarrassingNickname the Tip-Toe-er]]" (presumably due to how quietly he walks).

* LegacyLaunch: During the climax, Ms. Price observes how the story is deviating from the formula established by "[[CrisisCrossover limited editions]]", and Mr. Glass can only smile and respond "This isn't a limited edition, mama. It's an origin story". [[spoiler:We are later shown that what he means is effectively a in-universe LegacyLaunch: The Overseer, The Horde, and Mr. Glass all die, but their deaths act as a cataclysm/origin story for the (implicit) rise of several other supers carrying their legacy.]]

* NotAllowedToGrowUp: Dr. Staple brings this to Hedwig's attention, almost something of a HannibalLecture. He is supposed to be nine years old but has been as long as he has existed. She affirms that his stated age doesn't align with his life experiences. Played with later when Mr. Glass calls always being able to see the world through the eyes of a child a power in it's own right.

* {{Anticlimax}}: Seemingly an InvokedTrope. [[spoiler:Rather than any kind of standard heroic death scene, the Overseer is unceremoniously drowned in a puddle, as [[RealityEnsues superhuman ability aside, he’s still just an old man being faced with his greatest weakness]].]]

* DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler:The Overseer is unceremoniously drowned in a puddle by the AncientConspiracy.]]

* RealityEnsues:
** The fights between the Overseer and the Beast, rather than being slick and highly choreographed like in a modern superhero film, consist of the two of them using heavy punches, slams, and attempts to choke one another out. They are, after all, two [[UnskilledButStrong completely untrained people who both get by on the fact they have super strength]].
** The Overseer [[spoiler:is killed in an [[DroppedAbridgeOnHim entirely anticlimactic way]] via simple drowning, as he is still UnskilledButStrong, is still recovering from nearly drowning in the tank, and is faced with people prepared for his abilities]].
** Modern communications and recording technology makes covering things up far harder. [[spoiler:The AncientConspiracy finds its millennia-old {{masquerade}} broken through a single video leaked on the Internet.]]

** As his [[spoiler:FamousLastWords]], Mr. Glass declares "I wasn't a mistake, mama", which is a call back to one of his final lines in Film/{{Unbreakable}} ("I'm not a mistake!").

* FaceHeelTurn: In ''Split'', the Horde consisted of Dennis, Hedwig, and Patricia, who had evil intentions and helped bring out the Beast, but the other personalities were benign and would try to fight against them whenever possible. In this film, none of the personalities like being locked up and are confrontational with Dr. Staple and the orderlies. Notably, [[ValleyGirl Jade]] is shown trying to make a clever escape (flirting with Pierce and positioning him directly in front of the lights to give her a fighting chance). After meeting with Mr. Glass, Patricia says that ten of the personalities are now in agreement, which only makes the Horde more dangerous.

* BittersweetEnding: On one hand, [[spoiler:Mr. Glass, the Overseer, and the Horde are dead at the hands of an AncientConspiracy that's dedicated to keeping superheroes and supervillains from the public eye]]. Elijah's mom has lost her son and Joseph is now an orphan due to losing his mom and now his father. On the other hand, [[spoiler:the AncientConspiracy failed, as Mr. Glass was able to leak a video of the fight between all three of them to the public with the help of Joseph, Casey, and his mother, thereby ruining the Conspiracy's 10,000-year plan in a single bound and ushering in an era of true blue heroes and villains.]]

''Glass'' is a psychological superhero thriller film. It is the crossover sequel to both 2000's ''Film/{{Unbreakable}}'' and 2017's ''Film/{{Split}}'', directed and written like them by Creator/MNightShyamalan, and stars Creator/BruceWillis as David Dunn/The Overseer, Creator/SamuelLJackson as Elijah Price/Mr. Glass, Creator/JamesMcAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb/The Horde, Creator/AnyaTaylorJoy as Casey Cooke, Spencer Treat Clark as Joseph Dunn, Charlayne Woodard as Ms. Price and Creator/SarahPaulson as Dr. Ellie Staple. It was released on January 18, 2019.

* VillainousBreakdown: [[spoiler:Ellie gets a short but satisfying one when she realizes that Mr. Glass had played her. She walks into an empty hallway, pauses, then starts screaming.]]

* ActorAllusion: This is yet another M. Night film with Bruce Willis, so of course, he threw in a subtle reference to Bruce Willis in Sixth Sense (trying to talk to a vision of his dead wife), but he also added a major reference to Bruce Willis in his most famous role, John McClane in Die Hard (the villain's scheme is [[spoiler: to suggest a fake terrorist plot against a large corporation tower]]).