M. Night Shyamalan Kept ‘Split’s Twist Ending a Secret From Studio Execs

M. Night Shyamalan is a polarizing filmmaker. Some love and swear by his earliest pictures, from The Sixth Sense to The Village, while others can’t shake his adaptation of The Last Airbender. When Shyamalan returned to the horror genre in 2015 with The Visit, all things seemed possible, but it wasn’t until his 2016 thriller Split that we knew exactly what that meant. While the film itself is known for James McAvoy‘s electric performance as Kevin Wendell Crumb (and all his other personalities), it’s perhaps more notable because of that twist ending that connects the plot of Split to Shyamalan’s take on the superhero origin story in Unbreakable. But how did this ending occur? Well, that’s a story worth revisiting.

Split

Three girls are kidnapped by a man with a diagnosed 23 distinct personalities. They must try to escape before the apparent emergence of a frightful new 24th.

Release Date

January 20, 2017

Director

M. Night Shyamalan

Cast

James McAvoy , Sebastian Arcelus , Ameerah Briggs , Betty Buckley , Izzie Coffey , Nakia Dillard

Runtime

117 minutes

Writers

M. Night Shyamalan

Studio

Universal Pictures

Tagline

Kevin has 23 distinct personalities. The 24th is about to be unleashed.

How Does M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Split’ End Again?

After Kevin Wendell Crumb kidnaps three teenage girls (including Anya Taylor-Joy‘s Casey Cooke) he slowly terrorizes and eventually devours two of them before setting his sights on Casey. Kevin’s body is the host to 24 different personalities, called « alters, » which fight for control. One of the more notable personalities, « Patricia, » believes in an entity known as « The Beast, » a new alter who hopes to cleanse the world of all who haven’t suffered (hence why he kills his psychiatrist and the two girls). But when « The Beast » is unleashed, Casey blasts the wall-crawling demon with a shotgun, only to realize that this personality has super strength, an ability the others didn’t.

Eventually, « The Beast » recognizes that Casey, too, has been a victim of sexual abuse and self-harm, and as a result, he spares her before escaping into the night. But where Split actually ends is at the Silk City Diner, where a man listens carefully to the news reports of Kevin’s crimes, naming him « The Horde » due to his two-dozen personalities. As the other patrons debate these events, recalling another incident that occurred over a decade earlier involving another named « super-criminal, » the man reveals himself to be none other than David Dunn (Bruce Willis) from Unbreakable, who recalls the name of the other offender: « Mr. Glass. »

Officially connecting Unbreakable and Split, this ending retroactively made Shyamalan’s 2016 thriller a supervillain origin story. The possibilities then seemed endless, knowing that others like David Dunn were out there gave audiences hope that a true Unbreakable sequel would be possible––and that David and « The Horde » might one day meet in combat. But how did Shyamalan pull this twist ending off? Well, it was a bit more complicated than you’d think.

M. Night Shyamalan Went Behind the Studio’s Back With Bruce Willis

When M. Night Shyamalan first came up with Split, he always intended it to connect in some way to Unbreakable. The director never felt that Unbreakable was the end to David Dunn’s story, but rather the beginning of a new era for the character. Of course, the problem was that Unbreakable was produced through Touchstone Pictures, a company owned ultimately by the Walt Disney Company.

While on the ReelBlend Podcast, Shyamalan noted that when he originally wrote Split, he didn’t put the ending scene in the film, handing it to Universal Pictures without the involvement of Bruce Willis’ character. But after the film had been completed and tested without the Unbreakable coda, the director went back, reunited with Bruce Willis, and inserted it in before showing it to the studio.

I go to the Universal Studios chairman, (the) marketing team, everyone’s in the theater. We pull down the lights and we play them Split. They don’t know the ending that they’re watching.
They didn’t even know I shot it
, because I didn’t even send them the dallies of that (scene). The lights go down. They watch the whole movie of Split. Then this scene comes on, and they’re completely flummoxed. They look at me, and they’re like, ‘What are you saying? That’s a Disney movie!’

But Shyamalan, behind Universal’s back, made a deal with Disney to allow David Dunn to return for Split. « It’s all good. We have the permission to do it, » the filmmaker explained to the Universal executives. As a result, the 2019 Split follow-up (which doubled as a direct sequel to Unbreakable), Glass, was distributed by Disney internationally while Universal still held domestic distribution rights. For both Universal and Disney, it was a « no-brainer, » and for Shyamalan, who had been thinking about this crossover for nearly two decades, it was a dream come true. In the end, fans and critics alike were thrilled, and the prospect of a sequel to both films was riveting.

‘Unbreakable’ Was Supposed to Feature The Horde

While promoting Glass, Shyamalan revealed that « The Horde » was originally meant to appear in Unbreakable way back in 2000. « Originally Unbreakable and Split were together, » the director told Vulture. « David and the Horde bump into each other at the train station, and David follows him. » When asked why he axed that original idea, Shyamalan explained that it didn’t fit within the film’s distinct narrative structure. « Once you introduce girls being abducted, there’s a ticking clock that doesn’t allow for the breadth of character development that I wanted to do in Unbreakable with David, his wife, and his kid. »

Related

Clint Eastwood & Paul Newman Turned Down Starring in This M. Night Shyamalan Film

This thriller would have been a very different film had casting choices worked out the first time.

According to Shyamalan, Split was always meant to be a follow-up to Unbreakable. When David Dunn’s story ended in 2000, we didn’t think we’d ever see the character again. More than that, nobody would have guessed that we would return to that world at all. But Shyamalan knew. « That was always the idea, » he continued. « To make a sequel that you didn’t tell anybody was a sequel. That was the audacity of it. Take the most commercial aspect of the movie and never tell anybody about it. » Instead of branding Split as an Unbreakable sequel, he wisely kept that fact a secret so that, when faithful audiences who looked back fondly on the Bruce Willis feature got to the end, they were floored by the connection.

Frankly, aside from casting James McAvoy in the leading role, this was the best decision Shyamalan made when it came to making this film. For starters, had Split been branded as an Unbreakable sequel, or even as taking place in that same world, folks would’ve waited (and been disappointed) the entire picture for David Dunn’s return. But by making it part of the surprise, the filmmaker was able to excite longtime fans and retroactively reveal his true intentions behind the film: to show both sides of the superpower coin. When it comes down to it, Split works best as a standalone film. You don’t have to watch Unbreakable to understand the movie, and neither do you have to watch Split to get the full David Dunn story either. In fact, you could only watch one or the other and still (mostly) understand the entirety of Glass. In some ways, this was Shyamalan’s anti-Marvel trilogy.

How Does M. Night Shyamalan’s Trilogy End?

While it’s often called the Unbreakable trilogy, M. Night Shyamalan himself refers to these films as the Eastrail 177 trilogy, in reference to the train accident that occurs in Unbreakable. According to Split, a young Kevin Wendell Crumb was involved in this train accident as well, but not as a passenger. His father was killed in the same train accident caused by Samuel L. Jackson‘s Elijah Price aka « Mr. Glass, » which meant he was raised by his mother who also suffered from Dissociative Identity Disorder (DID), leading him down the path of becoming a supervillain. So, when M. Night Shyamalan brought the trio together for Glass, the final installment of the trilogy, fans couldn’t wait to see what became of these unique and grounded characters.

Bruce Willis always hoped to return as David Dunn. For years, rumors and talks of a traditional Unbreakable sequel could be found online. « I talked to [Shyamalan] over the holidays, and he is still thinking about doing the fight movie between me and Sam that we were going to do, » Willis told fans back in 2010 (via MTV). Though it took almost twenty years, it finally happened in 2019, all while adding the mythology of Split to the mix for good measure. As for how Glass ended, well, let’s just say that fans weren’t nearly as excited about David Dunn and Kevin Wendell Crumb’s final hours as they were their opening acts. Glass‘ ending didn’t quite live up to Split‘s, and that was a shame.

With a trademark Shyamalan-sized twist, Glass concludes with the unceremonious deaths of David Dunn, Kevin Wendell Crumb, and Elijah Price, executed by a shadow organization hoping to hide the existence of superhuman beings from the world. Unfortunately for this organization, David’s son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), Price’s mother (Charlayne Woodard), and Casey Cooke team up to publically reveal the truth. While this feels very much in step with Shyamalan’s view of comic book stories (and his general distaste for sequels), Glass received a mixed response from audiences and critics alike. After two powerful entries in what has been considered « the first auteur shared superhero universe, » M. Night Shyamalan failed to stick the landing, which is a bit strange considering he’s been a master of them in the past.

Split is available to watch on Netflix in the U.S.

Watch on Netflix