WARNING: The following is going to load up on spoilers for Glass. So if you didn't make it over to the theaters this weekend to see it, bail out now.
M. Night Shyamalan concluded a trilogy over the weekend, one that he began back in 2000 with the somber and moody (but masterful) Unbreakable. The story continued in Split, with a surprise Bruce Willis cameo. And Glass brings Samuel L. Jackson's manipulative Elijah into the story once again for a confrontation between David Dunn (Willis) and The Beast (James McAvoy). Usually, it take months or even years for a filmmaker to discuss their intentions with an audience. Not Shyamalan. He talked about his ending already, explaining:
I always thought it was a little bit of like an opera, even when I was starting on Unbreakable. I thought this was a very operatic end to it all [with] people screaming and all of these kinds of implications. It was about implications more than anything. I'm a big fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest as you can probably tell. The format of that movie just blew me away when I saw it. The idea that the journey of the main character gets fulfilled by another character is a very powerful idea.
I have to be honest. I'm not sure what M. Night Shyamalan is talking about here with EW. Opera? Implications? OK, I guess I understand that. By the end of Glass, Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson) has manipulated Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), who herself was working for a covert organization meant to stop Supers. He managed to release the footage of David and The Beast fighting, so the world will now know what Elijah has believed his whole life -- that normal people are surrounded by gifted people blessed with unusual powers.
But who is the "Main" character in Glass that M. Night Shyamalan is discussing? I suppose it's Elijah. The movie's named after him, anyway. So if his ultimate journey is to expose the world to people like David and Kevin Wendell Crumb (McAvoy), then he fulfilled it through the actions of Ellie Staple. That's what Night means, right?
I still, personally, found the ending of Glass to be wildly underwhelming. The introduction of the secret society raised far more questions than the movie had answers to, and the cliffhanger ending was unsatisfactory. Yes, Elijah managed to get the footage released -- with the help from Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy), Joseph Dunn (Spencer Treat Clarke) and Mrs. Price (Charlayne Woodard). But what will it matter? Will the people believe? Or will they shrug it off? Elijah's mission might be for naught.
No matter your take on Glass, it sounds like the movie will inspire conversation for weeks to come. People are ripping the movie, which has then spawned a new cult of defenders. The movie did very well at the box office, and could continue, with no real competition for weeks. Have you seen it yet? What did you think of Elijah's master plan?
