M. Night Shyamalan Discusses the Ending of GLASS, Which He Had in Mind Since 2000's UNBREAKBALE

Before we jump into the discussion, this article deals with with the ending of M. Night Shyamanlan’s Glass, so if you haven’t seen the movie and you don’t want to know how it ends, then stop reading now.

A lot of critics did not like the way Glass ended. I personally thought it perfect way to end it for the world that the filmmaker built over the course of Unbreakable and Split. It felt like a natural progression of the story for me. Yeah, it was tragic with the three main characters being killed off by a secret organization whose mission is to stop super heroes and villains from rising up in the world. But that’s what had to happen! It was their sacrifice that gave the ending meaning and propelled the motivations of the other characters forward.

It turns out that even though some people hated it, this was the ending that Shyamalan had in mind for his trilogy from the very beginning with Unbreakable in 2000. When EW asked him about this, he explained:

“I did. I always thought it was a little bit of like an opera, even when I was starting on Unbreakable. I thought this was a very operatic end to it all [with] people screaming and all of these kinds of implications. It was about implications more than anything. I’m a big fan of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest as you can probably tell. The format of that movie just blew me away when I saw it. The idea that the journey of the main character gets fulfilled by another character is a very powerful idea.”

Yeah, that’s the way that I saw it. That’s why I liked it! While the ending of the film did leave the door open to build on this world, Shyamalan confirms that his is unlikely to return to tell any more stories:

“I have a lot of original stories I want to tell. I’m an original filmmaker and I want to keep on telling new stories and new characters. It’s fun for me to figure out a new language, and then learn it, and try to get an audience in two hours to learn, and accept it, and really find their way.”

I’m glad that Shyamalan got the opportunity to finish his trilogy. I’m 100% satisfied with it and I’m looking forward to see what he ends up doing next.

If you saw Glass, what were your thoughts on how the movie ended?