5 Fan Theories About M. Night Shyamalan's 'Glass'

We’re all kinds of excited and intrigued to see how Glass, M. Night Shyamalan’s final installment in his trilogy of films commenting on the superhero genre will turn out. What started in 2000 with Unbreakable and continued in 2016’s Split will be brought to a close with Glass this week. Aiming to tie up the three complex stories of two supervillains, Elijah Price (a.k.a. “Mr. Glass”) and Kevin Wendell Crumb (a.k.a. “The Beast”), and one superhero, David Dunn, Glass finds all three coming together, teaming up and fighting with each other in various fantastic ways, leading the mere mortals who try to cage them, quell them or simply understand them to get caught in their crossfire.

Considering this is a Shyamalan film, it’s natural to expect lots of twists and turns as the story plays out. This is especially true considering this is the first film that has brought all three of these superpowered characters together; it would be silly to think this movie wouldn’t have twists given how fantastic the premise of the film really is.

With all this in mind, let’s consider some of the fan theories about Glass and whether or not they might be proven true.

1. Elijah Created Kevin As A Villain In ‘Unbreakable,’ Not ‘Split’

What if Kevin and David’s lives have been entwined for longer than we might have ever imagined? What if the reason they have become a supervillain and superhero, respectively, is thanks to Elijah, a.k.a. Mr. Glass?

A fan theory published over at Birth.Movies.Death. back in 2017 posits that the Eastrail train crash seen at the beginning of Unbreakable, where 131 passengers were killed yet David emerged from without a scratch, is the same train crash referenced in Split. That crash, which claimed the life of Kevin’s father, set off the chain of events in his life that included being abused by his mother as a child. As we learn in Unbreakable, Mr. Glass engineered that Eastrail crash himself in an attempt to find his superhero counterpart, the person who would be as strong as he was weak. If this train crash is the inciting event that connects all three men (and considering this trilogy of films has its own Wikipedia page called the “Eastrail 177 trilogy” it’s highly likely), it would prove to be an explosive twist that could affect how the end of their story will play out.

2. Casey Might Have Powers That Will Manifest In ‘Glass’

James McAvoy and Anya Taylor-Joy in ‘Glass’ (Credit: Universal)

Oh, did you think we’d just gloss right over Casey Cooke, who we first met in Split and who will be returning in Glass? No, we need to focus on Casey for a moment because she could be a major key to how the events of Glass play out.

At the end of Split, there is a moment when Casey is attempting to kill The Beast per Kevin’s orders (if you recall, there is a moment when Kevin’s original personality surfaces and he begs Casey to kill him before The Beast emerges). As The Beast pries apart the bars to the cage where Casey finds safety, he tells her that Casey is “different from the others,” the implication being that Casey’s own past trauma has made her pure. But what if it has somehow bred something superpowered within her that she can tap into? It’s a fleeting moment, but interesting nonetheless in the possibilities it presents for Glass.

What if Casey — whose name, as The Hollywood Reporter notes, is comic book alliterative like David Dunn’s and could imply she, like him, is destined to be a hero — ends up manifesting powers that could help her defeat The Beast and take down Mr. Glass? If Casey is truly different from the others, with powers to manifest and an ability to connect with at least one of the Glass villains in Kevin, then she could be the key to defeating The Beast while David takes on his own antagonist, Mr. Glass, in Glass.

3. Is This Just A Story In A Comic Book?

This is my own theory, but I couldn’t resist throwing it into the mix.

It would be a neat little twist (and thus, perfectly in line with Shyamalan’s past history with third act twists) if it was revealed that Glass is just another installment in a comic book series that is being written by someone else. With all three films referencing, in some way, the nature of comics, the construction of comic book archetypes, the color palette of Glass feeling heightened and even the fact that in the Glass trailer we hear, “This won’t be like a comic book,” (which would be a perfect, Shyamalan-esque misdirect) there’s room here to believe that there’s a reveal that some omniscient force is actually writing these as comics. It would, undoubtedly, be the most meta of twists for the film to take but it would act as an interesting ending to a series of films Shyamalan has created to comment on our cultural obsession with comics and the ways in which comics infiltrate our lives and perception of the world around us.

4. Water Is A Weakness For David, Kevin And Elijah

Okay, now this is very interesting, so stick with me. In Unbreakable, Elijah makes mention during his time spent getting to know David that his lone weakness which undermines both his strength and ability to see visions of others’ crimes is likely water. This would be because of the time when David almost drowned as a child, implying that the experience with water affected him in a deeper, more personal way.

Capitalizing on this idea, and the fact that Kevin is seen surrendering in the rain in Glass, Reddit user Sigapel theorizes that water might be a weakness for all of the characters in this film trilogy. While their theory goes on to present a more unified idea around water as a weakness for those with superhuman or paranormal abilities by connecting the characters in Glass to the aliens in Signs — who also didn’t fare well when interacting with water — that still feels a little far-fetched. What matters with this theory is keeping your eyes open any time any of the central characters are near water because it could spell trouble for any of those affected.

5. David Can Use His Powers To Free Kevin Of His Multiple Personalities

James McAvoy and Bruce Willis as Kevin Wendell Crumb and David Dunn in ‘Glass’ (Credit: Universal)

As proposed by Screen Rant, there’s a chance that one of the big twists in Glass could be that David can free Kevin from being The Beast and possibly all of his other personalities. How could he do this?

This theory relies heavily on the notion that in the years since Unbreakable, David has spent his time honing his psychic abilities so that he can do more than just brush by people and sense their inner thoughts and past actions. By banking on David’s honed psychic abilities, there could be a way in which channeling that power and connecting with Kevin, while under the influence of the Beast persona, could subdue and possibly even defeat him. How David would do this is a bit wild since it implies that David would need to get close enough to The Beast without being killed but it also implies that David will need to have honed his psychic abilities to the point that he could subdue a very powerful 24th personality and possibly have to work to psychically subdue Kevin’s 23 other personalities in the process (to prevent any psychological traces of Kevin dissociative identity disorder fostering growth of those same insidious personalities).

What do you think? Do any of these seem plausible?

Glass arrives in theaters Friday, Jan. 18. Purchase your tickets here.