“Glass” is the sequel to “Unbreakable” and “Split,” reuniting Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), David Dunn (Bruce Willis), and Kevin Crumb (James McAvoy). They all end up in the hospital, and Mr. Glass tries to escape his imprisonment to tell the world that superheroes do exist.
Dr. Ally Staple (Sarah Paulson) persuades the central characters that there are no superhumans, and they have only convinced themselves that they exist. As it turns out later, she is held in an organization that has been “destroying” people with superpowers for thousands of years because that is how humanity will continue to live in peace. Despite her best efforts, Mr. Glass and the Beast manage to escape, and with that, Dunn breaks out, breaking down the iron door.
The final battle took place outside the hospital entrance, recorded by the many video cameras that have been set up around the area. Mr. Glass sends the footage to the families of the dead heroes, including Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy). They upload the video to the Internet, after which all of humanity sees the superhumans.
GLASS CREATES THE BEAST
Train wrecks have always been important to the franchise. The starting point for “Unbreakable” is the Eastrail 177 train wreck, orchestrated by Elijah Price in an attempt to find the superhuman that is David Dunn. Then, in “Split,” it is gradually revealed that Kevin Wendell Crumb’s father died in the train wreck, an event that left him with an abusive mother and led directly to a split personality.
The first of the big plot twists of “Glass” is that it was the same train: Clarence Wendell Crumb was only a few rows behind David Dunn. This means that Mr. Glass accidentally created not only the Overseer but also the Horde. Clarence’s death was a happy accident, not a planned tragedy. The Horde, of course, perceives it somewhat differently.
PURPOSE OF THE ORGANIZATION
If you think that the Clover Society is, by default, a superhero killer, that’s not entirely true. Ultimately, they care about appeasing the superhero presence, which can be done much more easily, simply through persuasion.
One of the central ideas of “Glass,” the basis of which lies in “Split,” is the combination of superpowers and mental illness. In the previous film, it was seen as a disease born of hardship, as a way to raise a person, but here it’s the opposite, suggesting that the idea itself is a delusion. In the famous Pink Room, Staple tells us how everything earlier in the franchise can be explained in perfectly rational ways: David’s mind-reading is just a gut feeling; the Beast is just a man who withstood bullets and bent the centuries-old bars that were already aged. Throughout the middle section, the movie develops this theory, only to have it shattered into pieces in the finale.
This interrogation was the actual plan of the Clover organization. They try to convince David, Kevin, and Elijah that they have no powers. The organization knows that in the real world, the barrier of belief in such unbelievable powers is high–it took David an entire movie to admit that he is unbeatable.
They only turn to guns and violence when that hypothesis is rejected. At the end of “Glass,” all three characters accept their powers and receive support from loved ones who fully believe in them. At this point, the organization is forced to take drastic measures.
GLASS’S PLAN
The finale reveals that Mr. Glass was behind it all. His plan was never contained in a terrorist attack on Philadelphia’s new tallest building. Instead, the entire battle was a suicide mission, a literal show for the cameras, and the ultimate step in his quest to expose superheroes to the outside world.
Awakening after years of medication, Elijah began to take advantage of the unfavorable circumstances he was in and manipulated them to his advantage. He replaced his medicines with aspirin, dismantled the lobotomy machine, approached the Horde, and implemented an escape plan. Then, taking advantage of the hundreds of cameras spread around the area, he demonstrated the power of the superhumans. After his death, he sent the videos to Mrs. Price, Casey, and Joseph, who together agreed to show the footage to the world.
The whole story perfectly completes the Mr. Glass story arc. In “Unbreakable,” he committed three acts of terrorism in an attempt to find a superhero and bring them to the world’s attention. He succeeded in the first one with David Dunn but was imprisoned before he could reveal it. In “Glass,” he puts his plan into action, even though it costs him his life.
