Filmmaker M. Night Shyamalan is known for the twist endings to his movies such as The Sixth Sense, Unbreakable, and The Visit, among others. His newest film, Split, in which James McAvoy plays a kiddnapper who has 23 different personalities, continues the trend–but this one was different.
Major spoilers for Split follow below the image.
At the end of the movie, McAvoy’s character, Kevin, escapes, according to SlashFilm. A 24th personality, a bloodthirsty and superhuman identity, emerges. The idea is that he lives on to terrorize more people in new ways, which itself is pretty shocking and scary. But the movie doesn’t end there.
In an epilogue scene that takes place in a bar, a news broadcast on TV retells the events of the film, saying that authorities gave the kidnapper a name, The Horde. A person at the bar points out that police gave a nickname to a man in a wheelchair who stirred up trouble 15 years ago. Then Bruce Willis’ Unbreakable character, David Dunn, jumps in to remind the man that this was Mr. Glass, the character played by Samuel L. Jackson in that movie.
This confirms that Split and Unbreakable exist in the same universe.
In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Shyamalan revealed that Split‘s Kevin was in the original script for Unbreakable before being cut. He added that he hopes to make a movie someday that combines Unbreakable and Split.
Basically no one found out that Willis was in Split–and Shyamalan went to great lengths to ensure this would be the case. When the director screened the movie for test audiences, the scene with Willis was removed.
Split‘s connection to Unbreakable is pretty cool, but the story should work on its own without that final sequence, Shyamalan said, as it’s more a nod to fans until the eventual Split/Unbreakable movie comes out. “At least half the audience hasn’t seen my other [work]. They were too young to see it and they’ll get educated after it,” he said.
Split made $40.2 million in the US for its opening weekend, making it the No. 1 movie by far, outperforming the new xXx movie and all others.
What did you think of Split‘s ending? Let us know in the comments below!