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| Glass (film) | |
|---|---|
| Name | Glass |
| Director | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Producer | Jason Blum, M. Night Shyamalan |
| Writer | M. Night Shyamalan |
| Starring | James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, Anya Taylor-Joy |
| Music | West Dylan Thordson |
| Cinematography | Mike Gioulakis |
| Editing | Noemi Katharina Preiswerk |
| Studio | Blinding Edge Pictures, Blumhouse Productions |
| Distributor | Universal Pictures |
| Released | January 18, 2019 |
| Runtime | 129 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $20 million |
| Gross | $247.8 million |
Glass (film) is a 2019 American superhero psychological thriller written, produced, and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. The film serves as a crossover and sequel to both Unbreakable and Split (film), continuing storylines involving supernatural resilience, dissociative identity disorder, and the concept of real-world superheroes within a grounded setting. Featuring ensemble performances from James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Anya Taylor-Joy, the film culminates Shyamalan's thematic trilogy exploring myth, villainy, and belief.
Dr. Ellie Staple, a psychiatrist at Asheboro State Hospital, evaluates three individuals claiming extraordinary abilities: David Dunn, a security guard with superhuman endurance connected to an investigative incident tied to the Philadelphia Eagles-proximate stadium; Kevin Wendell Crumb, a man with 23 personalities and a dominant predator identity; and Elijah Price, an art dealer with brittle bone disease who orchestrates events to prove comic-book archetypes exist. Overlapping flashbacks reference David's earlier vigilante acts inspired by an urban flight incident and Kevin's abduction of teenagers in a suburban mall, while Elijah manipulates hospital staff and public perception through recorded confessions and clandestine meetings with the media. The narrative escalates as confrontation among the three leads to a public revelation, law enforcement engagement, and a climactic exchange that reframes the protagonists within the cultural mythos of heroes and villains tied to contemporary media, legal institutions, and scientific skepticism.
- James McAvoy as Kevin Wendell Crumb / The Horde, reprising his role from Split (film), noted for portraying multiple identities including a dominant predatory persona. - Bruce Willis as David Dunn, the resilient security guard introduced in Unbreakable (film), who operates with a moral code and quasi-detective vigilance. - Samuel L. Jackson as Elijah Price / Mr. Glass, the mastermind and collector of comic art introduced in Unbreakable (film), whose fragile bones belie immense intellect. - Anya Taylor-Joy as Casey Cooke, a survivor from Kevin's past connected to a pivotal incident that informs the trilogy's moral center. - Sarah Paulson as Dr. Ellie Staple, a psychiatrist whose methods intersect with institutional protocols at Asheboro State Hospital. - Additional supporting appearances include actors associated with medical staff, law enforcement, and media figures who bridge the film to wider cultural touchstones such as The New York Times, NBC, and the legal consequences traced through Middlesex County-adjacent jurisdictions.
Shyamalan conceived the film as the capstone to a thematic trilogy that began with Unbreakable (film) (2000) and continued with Split (film) (2016). Development involved negotiations between Blinding Edge Pictures and Blumhouse Productions, with financing and distribution coordinated by Universal Pictures. Principal photography was led by cinematographer Mike Gioulakis, employing a controlled palette and long takes to evoke the clinical setting of Asheboro State Hospital and urban backdrops familiar from Philadelphia-set sequences. Costume and production design referenced comic-book iconography curated from Shyamalan's own collection and public archives, while West Dylan Thordson composed a score informed by prior leitmotifs from the earlier films. The production navigated scheduling constraints tied to Willis's availability, Jackson's commitments to franchise productions, and McAvoy's engagement with stage and screen projects.
Universal Pictures handled domestic and international distribution, premiering the film during January release windows commonly used for high-concept genre films following the holiday season. Marketing showcased the convergence of characters through trailers that intercut archival footage from Unbreakable (film) and Split (film), viral campaigns that emphasized comic-book parallels, and press junkets featuring the principal cast at festivals and late-night programs tied to networks like NBC and ABC. Tie-in materials included posters referencing comic-book covers, interviews in outlets such as Variety and The Hollywood Reporter, and strategic social media placements leveraging accounts with strong followings from the leading actors and filmmakers.
Box office performance exceeded its modest budget, grossing over $200 million worldwide and outperforming several contemporaneous genre releases in the January release window. Critical response was mixed to polarized: reviewers praised McAvoy's multifaceted performance and Jackson's intellectual menace while critiquing narrative consolidation and pacing. Major outlets including The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and The Guardian produced reviews that debated the film's resolution of trilogy arcs, thematic ambitions, and structural choices. The film sparked discourse across fan communities on platforms associated with Reddit and film criticism blogs, prompting re-evaluations of Shyamalan's auteurist trajectory since The Sixth Sense.
Glass interrogates concepts such as the manifestation of myth in modern media, the public construction of heroism via mass outlets like CNN and Entertainment Weekly, and the interplay between physical difference and narrative identity as explored in earlier works by Shyamalan. The film juxtaposes Elijah Price's comic-book scholarship with institutional psychiatry to question who authorizes narratives of exceptionality, engaging with jurisprudence antecedents in cases of diminished capacity and public safety. Performances embody archetypal tensions—vigilantism, predation, and strategizing intellect—while mise-en-scène evokes graphic-novel panels, invoking intertextual links to creators and works within the superhero tradition.
Released on digital platforms and physical media including Blu-ray and DVD, the film's home release featured behind-the-scenes featurettes, deleted scenes, and commentary tracks that connected production choices to franchise continuity. In the years following release, the trilogy has been subject to scholarly articles and podcast analyses that situate Shyamalan's project within debates about auteurism, genre hybridity, and Hollywood's reinvention of comic-book narratives during the 21st century. The film's financial success reinforced Blumhouse's low-budget model and informed subsequent studio strategies for mid-budget genre films.
Category:2019 films Category:Films directed by M. Night Shyamalan Category:Blumhouse Productions films