M
mikekle
Guest
Wow, I didnt see that ending coming.
- Status
A
anon98328916
Guest
Haven’t seen it yet.
W
Wampa
Guest
Agreed! M. Night is finally back to the top of his game.
There’s almost nothing that can be said about Split without ruining the experience. All I will say is that fans of the style of his first four major films (Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, Signs, and The Village) will be quite pleased with Split. And don’t read articles before you see it. Sometimes even the headlines of articles spoil it.
L
louisak
Guest
I enjoyed The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable very much. Signs and The Village had some good elements although I felt they were flawed. But, I saw the preview for Split and I would never go to see the movie. It seems much more intense and disturbing than his earlier films.
Personally, I think it’s unfortunate that the huge success of Sixth Sense resulted in him being locked into making thrillers. I enjoyed his early film Wide Awake which came out before Sixth Sense - it’s no masterpiece but it has some very good qualities, and shows that he could have gone in different directions.
W
Wampa
Guest
louisak, based on what you said, I think you’d really enjoy it. It is more intense and disturbing no doubt, but it also has unpredictable things (not in the trailer) you will love. I can’t say more. Let’s put it this way, later in his career (when he has more movies out), you’re probably going to wish you’d seen this without it being spoiled for you (and it will be too late then).
It’s difficult to effectively encourage people to see it without spoiling it.
It’s difficult to effectively encourage people to see it without spoiling it.
R
randomuser
Guest
Even WITH the ending, it’s still a very disturbing movie when you consider that those are teenage girls being terrorized. Granted, the main character is way smarter than the others, but still…the ending doesn’t change the ick factor.
M
mikekle
Guest
Yeah its disturbing, but not anything like I thought it was going to be, usually when a guy kidnaps teenage girls and locks them up, its for one particular reason…in this movie, that had nothing to do with it, and really I still do not get why such a highly evolved human (the beast) would need regular human females for food?
Imo, this should have been called ‘Unbreakable 2’ and ultimately the ending suggests an ‘Unbreakable 3’
M
mikekle
Guest
That is true, I did not see that ending coming at all, but really if the person did not see ‘Unbreakable’ the ending will make no sense to them.
W
Wampa
Guest
You should have put “spolier” in the title if you were intending to spoil the movie for others. I was following your seemingly-discreet lead from the first post and trying hard to preserve the magic of the experience for people 
The person I was replying to already said they enjoyed Unbreakable very much. I’m trying to encourage people who have the right background to go, without ruining it for them.
You might have actually missed the brilliance of the movie if you think that’s how he should have titled it. This was not just a twist ending.
E
exnihilo
Guest
I just watched it last night. I really liked it. I thought James McAvoy did a wonderful job. It is good to see M. Night can still make a really good movie. I hope his next one is as good.
M
Mike_from_NJ
Guest
I am putting my thoughts on the movie in almost the same color as the background so as not to spoil anything. Highlight the area below to read it.
I enjoyed the movie. It combined two standard tropes, multiple personality disorder and mind over matter, in an interesting way. The antagonist could easily have been silly to watch, but James McAvoy does a good job grounding it as best as possible. I wouldn’t call the ending with Bruce Willis’s character a twist ending. It’s more like the post-credits scenes in the Marvel movies to link things together.
I enjoyed the movie. It combined two standard tropes, multiple personality disorder and mind over matter, in an interesting way. The antagonist could easily have been silly to watch, but James McAvoy does a good job grounding it as best as possible. I wouldn’t call the ending with Bruce Willis’s character a twist ending. It’s more like the post-credits scenes in the Marvel movies to link things together.
W
Wampa
Guest
Mike, I like your idea. I’ve never done that, but I’ll try it now. Massive spoilers below…
The reason this movie it so brilliant IMO is that he moved beyond the normal twist ending. A typical twist ending is what I would call a “factual twist”: you thought Bruce Willis was alive, but he’s actually the dead one; the village only seemed 1600s, it’s actually modern day.
Here, what he’s done is a twist genre. You spent the entire movie thinking you were watching a standard psychological thriller. When the Unbreakable connection is revealed, you learn that you were actually watching a comic book superhero/villain origin story, which is a completely different kind of movie with different tropes, expectations, etc. That changes everything you just watched.
For example, the explanation of how he gets his superpowers is weak pseudoscience at best. In a standard psychological thriller, it’s pretty implausible and I found myself having to not focus on it at the time because it almost took me out of the believeability of the movie. But for a comic book origin story? That’s perfectly plausible (e.g. radioactive spider). You don’t need more plausibility than that. Suddenly that piece of the plot makes perfect sense.
I can’t wait to go back and watch the movie a second time and see all other things I missed because I had the genre wrong.
This is why I said calling it Unbreakable 2 would make no sense. He intentionally wrote it to be a twist genre at the end (I’m taking this from interviews he’s done) and that would ruin it.
The original screenplay for Unbreakable was David Dunn vs. Mr. Glass and the Beast, but it was too much for one movie and he had to cut the Beast out. When he decided to make this into a trilogy, he wanted the second movie to be the Beast’s origin story and the third movie would (presumably) be Dunn vs. the Beast.
The fact that he kept this idea under wraps for 17 years and it never leaked out is amazing. In fact, in screenings he did with test audiences, he removed the David Dunn ending because he didn’t want word to slip out before the movie hit theaters. It’s a stunning achievement to pull off that he had us sit through an entire movie and not realize it’s an Unbreakable sequel in today’s day when everything leaks and is posted on social media immediately.
I say M. Night’s back and he’s taken it to another level!
The reason this movie it so brilliant IMO is that he moved beyond the normal twist ending. A typical twist ending is what I would call a “factual twist”: you thought Bruce Willis was alive, but he’s actually the dead one; the village only seemed 1600s, it’s actually modern day.
Here, what he’s done is a twist genre. You spent the entire movie thinking you were watching a standard psychological thriller. When the Unbreakable connection is revealed, you learn that you were actually watching a comic book superhero/villain origin story, which is a completely different kind of movie with different tropes, expectations, etc. That changes everything you just watched.
For example, the explanation of how he gets his superpowers is weak pseudoscience at best. In a standard psychological thriller, it’s pretty implausible and I found myself having to not focus on it at the time because it almost took me out of the believeability of the movie. But for a comic book origin story? That’s perfectly plausible (e.g. radioactive spider). You don’t need more plausibility than that. Suddenly that piece of the plot makes perfect sense.
I can’t wait to go back and watch the movie a second time and see all other things I missed because I had the genre wrong.
This is why I said calling it Unbreakable 2 would make no sense. He intentionally wrote it to be a twist genre at the end (I’m taking this from interviews he’s done) and that would ruin it.
The original screenplay for Unbreakable was David Dunn vs. Mr. Glass and the Beast, but it was too much for one movie and he had to cut the Beast out. When he decided to make this into a trilogy, he wanted the second movie to be the Beast’s origin story and the third movie would (presumably) be Dunn vs. the Beast.
The fact that he kept this idea under wraps for 17 years and it never leaked out is amazing. In fact, in screenings he did with test audiences, he removed the David Dunn ending because he didn’t want word to slip out before the movie hit theaters. It’s a stunning achievement to pull off that he had us sit through an entire movie and not realize it’s an Unbreakable sequel in today’s day when everything leaks and is posted on social media immediately.
I say M. Night’s back and he’s taken it to another level!
M
Mike_from_NJ
Guest
Wampa, that’s a neat way of thinking of it and I would definitely agree. Thanks! By the way, I enjoyed the movie he made prior to this one, The Visit. I haven’t been crazy about his mid-career movies like The Village, The Happening, and The Last Airbender.
M
mikekle
Guest
Did you get the impression from Bruce willis scene at the end, that he sort of sighed, anticipating he will have to deal with this new threat at some point, implying there will be a sequel, that may be more similar to the first unbreakable,willis trying to stop Mcavoy?
M
Mike_from_NJ
Guest
I would say so. Whether M.N.S. has any plans on making such a movie, I don’t know. I would suspect he put the scene in there to leave the door open in case there was interest in the future, but doesn’t have anything like a budget or filming schedule in place.
W
Wampa
Guest
Relevant notes from an M. Night interview that answer several questions posed in this thread:
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you strike upon the idea to set Split in the same story universe as David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) and Unbreakable?
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: Oh, it was always there. Always. This character, Kevin from Split, was in the original script of Unbreakable. The original draft of Unbreakable focused on David Dunn and Elijah as his mentor. Elijah tells him, “You’re a comic book character, go try it.” And instead of bumping into the Orange Suit Man, David bumps into one of Kevin’s personalities and goes to save the girls. So you’d have been watching the girls side of it the whole time. That was the outline.
Q: And how much of that screenplay had you written?
A: A lot. Some of the Kevin Wendell Crumb [James McAvoy’s character in Split] scenes were already completely written, all the way back then. One of the “Patricia” scenes, the Hedwig introduction scene, those were written over 15 years ago. I have them written by hand in my notebooks.
Q: So now hypothetically this seems like a perfect segue into a third film. That elusive Unbreakable sequel.
A: Yeah. I agree with that.
Q: Will it be?
A; I hope so. The answer is yes. I’m just such a wimp sometimes. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go off in my room, a week after this film opens, to write the script. But I’m going to start writing.
Q: Do you have an outline?
A: Yeah, definitely. A really robust outline, which is pretty intricate. But now the standards for my outlines are higher. I need to know I’ve won already. I’m almost there but I’m not quite there.
Q: Have you been worried about the news of the ending spilling out?
A: Yeah. Actually, in fact, I didn’t put the ending on when we first test screened the movie. I wouldn’t do it, somewhat out of fear that it would get out. But on top of that, I wanted it to win as its own movie. You like Split as its own movie? Well, guess what? You weren’t even watching what you thought you were.
Q: You must be smiling a bit. This is a redefinition of the twist ending. This is something you’ve never done before.
A: No, that’s correct. But basically it’s similar to Unbreakable. Can you make an origins story that the audience doesn’t know is an origins story until the last image of the movie. In Split, you really thought you were watching a psychological thriller. And you were. But it’s actually a comic book movie. And when the moment comes, when you’re watching it with an audience, the place just goes insane. It’s pandemonium. It feels great.
ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: When did you strike upon the idea to set Split in the same story universe as David Dunn (Bruce Willis) and Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson) and Unbreakable?
M. NIGHT SHYAMALAN: Oh, it was always there. Always. This character, Kevin from Split, was in the original script of Unbreakable. The original draft of Unbreakable focused on David Dunn and Elijah as his mentor. Elijah tells him, “You’re a comic book character, go try it.” And instead of bumping into the Orange Suit Man, David bumps into one of Kevin’s personalities and goes to save the girls. So you’d have been watching the girls side of it the whole time. That was the outline.
Q: And how much of that screenplay had you written?
A: A lot. Some of the Kevin Wendell Crumb [James McAvoy’s character in Split] scenes were already completely written, all the way back then. One of the “Patricia” scenes, the Hedwig introduction scene, those were written over 15 years ago. I have them written by hand in my notebooks.
Q: So now hypothetically this seems like a perfect segue into a third film. That elusive Unbreakable sequel.
A: Yeah. I agree with that.
Q: Will it be?
A; I hope so. The answer is yes. I’m just such a wimp sometimes. I don’t know what’s going to happen when I go off in my room, a week after this film opens, to write the script. But I’m going to start writing.
Q: Do you have an outline?
A: Yeah, definitely. A really robust outline, which is pretty intricate. But now the standards for my outlines are higher. I need to know I’ve won already. I’m almost there but I’m not quite there.
Q: Have you been worried about the news of the ending spilling out?
A: Yeah. Actually, in fact, I didn’t put the ending on when we first test screened the movie. I wouldn’t do it, somewhat out of fear that it would get out. But on top of that, I wanted it to win as its own movie. You like Split as its own movie? Well, guess what? You weren’t even watching what you thought you were.
Q: You must be smiling a bit. This is a redefinition of the twist ending. This is something you’ve never done before.
A: No, that’s correct. But basically it’s similar to Unbreakable. Can you make an origins story that the audience doesn’t know is an origins story until the last image of the movie. In Split, you really thought you were watching a psychological thriller. And you were. But it’s actually a comic book movie. And when the moment comes, when you’re watching it with an audience, the place just goes insane. It’s pandemonium. It feels great.
M
mikekle
Guest
I wish more movies were like this, I love being surprised by an ending, far too many movies today are so predictable and others leave so many questions with their endings.
R
randomuser
Guest
There will be a sequel to both Unbreakable - AND - Split. It was just announced:
io9.gizmodo.com/glass-the-sequel-both-to-split-and-unbreakable-will-b-1794669298
io9.gizmodo.com/glass-the-sequel-both-to-split-and-unbreakable-will-b-1794669298
- Status