M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Glass’: Monsters, Martyrdom, and the Triumph of the Supernatural

When I was a much younger moviegoer, one of my cinematic coming-of-age moments was seeing Signs, the alien invasion thriller directed by M. Night Shyamalan. I was twelve years old, and at that point in my life it was easily the most frightening film I’d ever experienced. Especially on a big screen in the company of my friends, the experience was terrifying but also hugely entertaining, owing largely to the well-written, likeable characters and the film’s underlying theme of faith enduring through unforeseen crises. As a bonus, it introduced me to Mel Gibson, who went on shortly thereafter to direct The Passion of the Christ, a movie that remains the most powerful example of Christian cinema filmed in my lifetime. It also introduced me to the work of director M. Night Shyamalan, whose name thereafter I immediately associated not only with his famous twist endings, but also with his emphasis on the mysterious and supernatural as themes of storytelling.

Shyamalan has had ups and downs as a filmmaker over the years, but I’ve always carried a sense of gratitude to him for the experience he gave me with Signs.  It was with great pleasure, then, that I recently accompanied a group of friends to view his latest work: Glass, the long-awaited conclusion to his decades-in-the-making and wholly unexpected movie trilogy that began with the brooding superhero film Unbreakable (2000) and continued with the psychological thriller/monster movie Split (2016), both of which are required viewing beforehand.

*Warning: Spoilers for Glass.

As everyone reading this already knows, the American film market is saturated (some would argue oversaturated) with superhero movies. Popular characters from the Marvel and DC comic universes like the The Avengers, Wonder Woman, and even previously less-marketable characters like Aquaman and Iron Man have become such enormous box office juggernauts that the only film franchise that comes anywhere close in popularity and profitability is the Star Wars franchise. Add to this the fact that comic book characters also feature prominently on both cable television with TV series like Arrow and Supergirl, and streaming services with DC’s Titans and the recently-cancelled Daredevil series, and it quickly becomes clear that superheroes are not merely popular in American pop culture, but ubiquitous.

Now, into this crowded marketplace comes M. Night Shyamalan’s Glass, which is being sold as an entry in this familiar genre – a genre full of capes, costumes, iron suits and magic hammers – yet tells a story that in many ways seems antithetical to its tropes.

Right off the bat we’re introduced to David Dunne (Bruce Willis), the heroic figure from Unbreakable who possesses super-strength, invulnerability, and a preternatural ability to know what evil acts a person has committed just by touching them. Since coming into his own as a hero years ago, David has been patrolling the streets of Philadelphia dealing justice to criminals with the help of his son, whose tech savvy allows him to fill an Oracle-like support role for his superpowered father. On one of these nocturnal patrols, David encounters The Beast, a superhuman serial killer who is one of 24 unique personalities inhabiting the body of a man named Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), who has been kidnapping and devouring young women. The Beast possesses the same strength and invulnerability as David, but he is also extremely agile, and has the assistance of several other personalities that collectively are referred to as The Horde: A cult that believes The Beast is the next stage in human evolution.

David and The Beast begin to fight, and to the surprise of both characters, it quickly becomes apparent that they are an even match.  The fight is interrupted, however, when a SWAT team arrives on the scene and takes both superhumans into custody. The SWAT team is commanded by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist who runs an asylum, and who describes her specialty as treating disturbed individuals who believe that they are superheroes. Among her other patients is a man named Elijah (Samuel L. Jackson), who previously uncovered David’s powers during the events of Unbreakable by perpetrating several acts of terrorism, and whose rare medical condition that renders his bones extremely fragile has earned him the nickname “Mr. Glass.”

At this point the film takes a turn from the familiar action-focused set pieces of the superhero genre, favoring a slower-burning that will already be familiar to fans of Unbreakable. Dr. Staple proceeds to systematically sow doubt among each of the three central characters – David Dunne, Kevin/The Horde/ The Beast, and Elijah – regarding not just their own abilities, but even going so far as to challenge their confidence in the very existence of superpowers.

In response to each character’s beliefs, she puts forward a set of hypotheses to suggest reasonable scientific explanations in place of their seemingly supernatural powers. While David and The Horde are initially resistant, over time these meticulous and reasonable assaults on their worldviews begin to take a toll. If superpowers exist, David wonders, then why should there be so few of them? The Beast similarly laments that his Horde is losing faith in him, and with that loss of support his own strength is waning. The Beast is pained because the loss of this strength will imperil his self-proclaimed status as a champion for “the broken”, those in society who have suffered and been purified by tragic circumstances.

The one character who holds fast to his beliefs is Elijah, who has feigned a catatonic state while secretly developing an elaborate escape plan for himself and his fellow patients. Taking advantage of the carelessness of his captors, he executes a prison break with the help of The Beast, whom he has promised a rematch with David. Such a fight will also serve the secondary purpose of announcing the existence of superpowers to the wider world, putting an end to Dr. Staple’s skepticism. Elijah sabotages the security systems to allow David to escape, and demands that he face The Beast or risk allowing his acts of terror to continue.

After a series of violent confrontations with guards and other hospital staff, the three characters finally find themselves outside the hospital, and the promised showdown between David and The Beast ensues. Also present at the scene to observe this battle are Elijah’s elderly mother, David’s son Joseph, and Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy), a young woman who previously survived an attempt on her life by The Beast. Not everything goes according to Elijah’s plan, however. The Beast learns that his father was killed in a train accident caused by one of Elijah’s acts of terrorism, and mortally injures the fragile mastermind in retaliation. Resuming their brawl, David and The Beast fight tooth and nail (literally) until they are once again interrupted by Dr. Staples’ SWAT team.

Here the film makes a final, decisive break from the conventions of the superhero genre. Initially overpowered by the two superhumans, the officers slowly gain the upper hand through sheer numbers and underhanded tactics until, at last, both of the superhumans are killed, and each in a manner that at first seems wholly unheroic and dramatically unsatisfying. David perishes by being drowned in a pool of water (his only weakness) by a nameless henchman. The Beast, who would otherwise have remained bulletproof and super-strong, is killed when Casey Cooke calls forth his original personality, Kevin Wendell Crumb. Without the protection of The Beast’s invulnerability, Kevin receives a fatal gunshot wound from a sniper, and dies in Casey’s arms shortly thereafter.

In one of Shyamalan’s signature twists, Dr. Staple is revealed to have been aware of the existence of superhumans all along, and moreover, she is a member of a secretive cult that works to suppress knowledge of superpowers lest they become known to the public. Superpowers in this cinematic universe are in fact accessible to those who are willing to endure suffering and personal tragedy, and in the view of this cult, the only way to keep them from proliferating among humanity is to discourage any belief in superpowers in the first place. Having failed to convince David, The Beast/The Horde/Kevin, or Elijah from their beliefs, Dr. Staple is confident that the secret is safe with their deaths.

But, in one final twist, Dr. Staple realizes all too late that Elijah has manipulated her by recording the entire battle between the two superhumans and their murderers, and has forwarded this recording to his mother, Joseph Dunne, and Casey Cooke. In the film’s final shot, the three of them are seated at a train station as they wait for the world to catch up to the extraordinary footage that they have each leaked online. Dr. Staple screams in despair, her cover-up and apparent victory having been totally undone by Elijah’s plan.

Based on the middling reactions among many critics and audience members, there seems to be general consternation at the fact that Glass doesn’t conclude in the manner we have come to expect from superhero franchises. The final showdown, as it were, between the hero and the antagonists ought to end in a more direct triumph for our heroes, not with the protagonist drowning in a shallow pool of water or gunned down at the hands of a nameless conspirator.  After all of the wonders we have witnessed these characters perform, it’s understandable to feel let down at the sight of them suffering ignominious deaths. So why, in a trilogy over a decade in the making, did Shyamalan execute such a counterintuitive finale?

Let me offer one explanation: It’s because this franchise has never been about superheroes or comic books.

When pondering the ministry of Christ, modern Christians understandably tend to focus on our Lord’s parables, his sermons, and even, perhaps, the political motives of the Pharisees and Romans whose conspiracies finally brought about his crucifixion. These are all important, to be sure, but it is also all too easy for us moderns to overlook the impact of Christ’s miracles. Yes, Christ caused a political ruckus by his preaching. But he also drew the attention of the crowds by restoring sight to the blind, healing paralytics, feeding thousands by the multiplication of bread and loaves, and cleansing lepers of their afflictions. How often have we with our “enlightened” materialism lost sight of the crucial significance that Christ was, in fact, a wonderworker?

Now, consider the final shot of Glass. Who is seated at the train station, waiting for the wider world to discover the truth about superheroes? There are three: Elijah’s ever-faithful mother, David’s beloved son Joseph, and Casey Cooke, a woman whose acceptance of a superpowered being’s philosophy of triumph through suffering has allowed her to escape from a life of abuse and misfortune. Can there be any doubt about M. Night Shyamalan’s intentions here? Strange as it may seem to see David Dunne, Kevin Wendell Crumb/The Beast/The Horde, and the villainous Mr. Glass as stand-ins for Christ, are these characters at the train station not almost certainly representations of some of the people we find in scripture at the foot of the cross – the Blessed Mother, the Beloved Disciple, and various women – as our Lord commits His spirit into the hands of the Father?

Mr. Glass’s being named Elijah, then, is no accident. Rather, he is something like a prophet, one whose single-minded focus on the divine and its implications compels him to ceaselessly announce this profound mystery to the world. Given this dynamic, Dr. Staple can be seen as a stand-in for the demonic, and her fellow shadowy conspirators as the legions of Hell who together oppose the divine and who would see humanity forever separated from the supernatural life. Dr. Staple’s favorite tactic of discouraging belief by enthroning material scientism (as opposed to true science, which can neither confirm nor deny the reality of the divine) to discourage belief in the supernatural perfectly reflects the radical materialism that is perpetuated in Western society today.

Recall also that superpowers in this trilogy are accessible only through suffering, through an encounter with tragedy. By responding to it in their particular way, David Dunne and Kevin Wendell Crumb reached heights that ordinary humans could only dream of. Thanks to Elijah’s machinations and the fervency of is faith, all of mankind will soon have the same opportunity, if only they choose to believe. They must, in short, be willing to take up their cross.

Lest I be accused of heaping unnecessary praise upon this film, a few caveats are in order. Firstly, while the movie’s themes are religious to the extent that they are described above, prospective audience members should take caution if they are averse to film violence. Glass is only rated PG-13, but a few scenes are still fairly gruesome. Secondly, while the parallel of superpowers and divinity as proposed here is interesting, the symbolism only goes so far.  Those who buy a ticket expecting an overtly religious film will likely be disappointed. On the other hand, if you can appreciate Shyamalan’s penchant for the supernatural and the unexpected, give this film a chance. You might be pleasantly surprised.

I’ll close with these words from St. Josemaria Escriva:

“Yes, this is still the age of miracles. We too would work them if we had faith!”

Glass is rated PG-13 for violence including some bloody images, thematic elements, and language.