Split Ending Explained

Split Is Actually Unbreakable 2

The Movie Sets Up A Third Film In Glass

For years, Shyamalan had teased a sequel to 2000’s Unbreakable, his dark superhero drama. It turned out he wasn’t lying — in a jaw-dropping rug pull, it’s revealed in Split‘s final scene the film is actually Unbreakable 2. The coda plays immediately after the end credits title card, showing a diner where a TV report about Kevin is playing and customers comment on its similarity to an event from 15 years ago involving a guy in a wheelchair.

The camera then tracks over to reveal Bruce Willis, reprising his role of David Dunn (evidenced by his nametag), who dryly confirms the old villain’s identity as Mr. Glass and walks out. It’s a plot twist that reveals the characters of Split and Unbreakable have been in the same world all along.

No matter Split‘s effectiveness as a thriller, it is an astounding twist. It’s completely unexpected and more audacious than any other movie before; Split is a surprise sequel and nobody had a clue until its release. Building to this shocker is likely why some parts of the film feel a bit scattered or off-base, but it does retroactively make the whole thing a lot more intriguing.

In fact, it pretty much reshapes the movie’s entire purpose; Split isn’t a hostage thriller, but a supervillain origin story. By the time he’s able to control the Beast, Kevin has essentially become the sort of monster that a traditional comic book hero would take on, and, as Glass later proved, that was Shyamalan’s real goal. As with Unbreakable, which revealed the twist that Samuel L. Jackson was the bad guy, Split explores the psychology of what would make someone become a maniacal villain.

What Happened After The Events Of Split

It All Finally Built To Shyamalan’s Dark Superhero Trilogy

The ending of Split set up a broad scope for the threequel ending to Shyamalan’s intense, low-budget superhero riff.Unbreakable told the origin story of Bruce Willis’ David Dunn, aka The Overseer; Split told the origin story of James McAvoy’s Kevin Wendell Crumb, aka The Beast; while Glass wrapped up the trilogy with the origin story of Samuel L. Jackson’s diabolical villain Elijah Price, aka Mr. Glass. The third movie brings them all together in a knock-down, drag-out fight between a noble hero, the beast he pursues, and the manipulative supervillain pulling the strings from the shadows.

After the events of Split, which occur three weeks before those of Glass, it’s revealed that David has been hunting Kevin since the news of his kidnapping and killing the girls got out. When the police arrive, Dunn agrees to turn himself in quietly and soon finds himself locked up in a psychiatric ward with Kevin and Elijah. The three break out and clash again after Price convinces Kevin to help him, and another returning Split character is revealed: during their fight, Split‘s Casey also shows up, seemingly no worse for wear, and tries to get through to Kevin.

Though he’s in Beast mode, Casey is hoping that the brief connection she shared with Kevin will be enough to once again tame the Beast. Of course, it’s an M. Night Shyamalan movie, so there isn’t just one twist in the third act, but two. It’s revealed Mr. Glass created both the superhero The Overseer and the supervillain The Beast with the Eastrail 177 train crash. Not only did David Dunn survive the crash, but Kevin’s father was killed in it, leaving Kevin to grow up with an abusive mother.

Then it’s revealed that the psych ward psychiatrist, Dr. Staple, is actually an agent of a secret society that monitors and eliminates threats from superpowered people. By the ending of Glass, all three — David, Kevin, and Elijah — are dead. Considering the terror of The Beast unleashed in the climax of Split, however, that may have been the most merciful ending for both Kevin and the world.

The Real Meaning Of The Split Ending

Casey & The Beast Share A Common Connection

The Split ending was a fascinating twist long before David Dunn appeared in the actual final twist of the movie. The David scene connecting Unbreakable to Split was fun for fans, but it had little to nothing to do with the actual story M. Night Shyamalan was telling in this film. The Beast is a monster who kills and has almost no empathy for anyone. However, the ending of the film shows this is not entirely true. There is one person that Kevin Wendell Crumb has empathy for — Casey Cooke.

This is important because it shows The Beast sees a kindred spirit in Casey. He sees that she has lived through years of abuse and has the scars to show for it. He recognizes something in her that he has in himself. Kevin built these personalities to protect him from the pain of his life, and he sees that Casey might not have that same protection, but she is as broken as he is. He chooses to let her live because she is someone who has suffered, and he won’t make her hurt anymore.

This ending plays out in Glass on the other side of things. Casey lived through a horrendous experience and is lucky she got out alive. However, instead of hating the monster who tortured her and almost killed her, she sees the monster as he saw her — a tortured soul who is fighting back and lashing out at an unfair world. Split ended with The Beast letting Casey live, and while she failed in trying to help save him in Glass, she allowed him to find a way to at least see acceptance before he died.

Split

3.5

M. Night Shyamalan’s Split follows Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy), a man with dissociative identity disorder, who kidnaps three teenage girls and imprisons them in an underground facility. When Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) realizes that she can play Crumb’s personalities against one another, she begins to form a plan for escape before she is sacrificed to a creature he refers to as “the Beast”. 

Release Date

September 26, 2016

Cast

Kim Director , Betty Buckley , Haley Lu Richardson , Brad William Henke , Anya Taylor-Joy , James McAvoy , Jessica Sula

Runtime

1h 57m