The Ending Of Glass Explained

Glass, M. Night Shyamalan's long-awaited follow-up to Unbreakable and Split, has finally arrived in theaters, and we at long last have seen what happens when Mr. Glass (Samuel L. Jackson), the Horde (James McAvoy), and David Dunn, a.k.a. the Overseer (Bruce Willis), share the screen. Because Glass is a sequel, there was a certain sense that we might know what to expect, and indeed the early sequences of the film shape up very much like audiences who've seen the trailers might expect. This is an M. Night Shyamalan film, though, which means that by the time Glass reaches its climax, all bets are off and surprises are in store. The film has completely changed the game by the time it's over, and its ending leaves numerous implications for the greater universe in which the story takes place. There are plenty of loose ends, unanswered questions, and big ideas that could carry over into another film, or several. Here's the ending of Glass, explained. Spoilers ahead!

David refuses to be drawn into a super-rivalry with Elijah, but that doesn't mean he rejects the potential of his powers outright. As we see in the surprising twist Shyamalan buried in the closing moments of 2016's Split, our Mr. Dunn adopts the alter ego identity of the Overseer, dedicating himself to ferreting out and foiling evil — ultimately with the assistance of his son Joseph (Spencer Treat Clark), who becomes his partner in a security company. It'd be interesting to learn more about his exploits over the more than 15 years following Unbreakable, but audiences see him at a pivotal moment: learning about Kevin Wendell Crumb, a.k.a. the Horde, whose psychotic exploits become public in Split's final act.

As Glass opens, we see Dunn moving against Crumb, intent on foiling his latest kidnapping — and he does a pretty good job, tracking down Crumb's victims and facing off against his adversary in a fight that causes enough of a ruckus to get the attention of local law enforcement. Unfortunately, it doesn't end well for David: seeing him as just as much of a menace as Crumb, the authorities lock them both up in an institution. Surprise! It's also the institution where Elijah Price is incarcerated.

Glass ends on something of a hopeful note, as the world learns of what happened at the mental institution, and Elijah's plan to let the world know that people capable of extraordinary things are lying in wait begins to unfold. That said, to get to that point, the film has to go through the deaths of three such extraordinary individuals, all overseen by the mystery organization of clover-tattooed people who took over security measures during the final struggle. This organization couldn't oversee anything, but they did still seem to sweep everything except Mr. Glass's video under the rug, and that raises an interesting question: What happened to the bodies of David, Kevin, and Elijah? Both David and Elijah had next of kin present who could bury them, so were they able to have funerals? Did the clovers take the bodies for study before turning them over to the families? Were they put into some kind of secretive cold storage? Were they simply disposed of? The film doesn't tell us, so it's quite possible three super-bodies are still floating around somewhere in the world, waiting for weird fan encounters, top secret study, or both.

Though one of the late twists in Glass involves the introduction of what would seem to be an entire secret society with significant resources and a very clear mission, the film gives us very little real insight into what this organization is and what they can do, beyond the stated mission to keep "balance" and shut down what's happening to David, Elijah, and Kevin. We don't know how big this organization is, how many people work for them, how far their reach might be or what kind of government scrutiny they may or may not be able to evade. And now there's video footage of them murdering David and Kevin, both of whom are basically defenseless at the time they're killed. David's death is particularly brutal and merciless, and now it's on tape for the world to see. Will there be repercussions? Will internet mobs begin to form up, geared toward finding these people and where they hide? Will the United States government look into it? Will there be hearings? We don't know all the details of the organization, so we can't know exactly what they'll face, but there will have to be consequences.

No matter what happens to Dr. Staple, the organization dedicated to restoring balance will now be working overtime, with Elijah's video out in the world. The intent of the footage was to cause a kind mass activation for gifted people, to encourage them to realize their abilities, come into the light, and live openly as superbeings in a brighter world where their gifts might be celebrated rather than shielded. If that happens even a little bit, the clovers will have their hands full, and that means they'll have to use all of the tools at their disposal. Among those tools, according to Dr. Staple, is a machine that is able to lessen the stimulation in the frontal lobes of patients, thus in same way correcting the anomaly that's a marker for this supernatural abilities. She tries to use the procedure on Elijah, but he dupes her, and then later she assures her colleagues she will "use the machine" on anyone she is unable to convince they're delusional. It's not clear exactly how often this machine is used, but if the organization's resources are strong enough, we can expect a world in which they're delivering as many MRIs and using that machine as often as possible. If you have even a hint of weird brain activity in your future, you might be staring down its barrel.

Yet another twist in Glass reveals that the train derailment Elijah caused didn't just coax out David's own discovery of his unbreakable abilities. It also killed Kevin's father, who was his one chance to get treatment for his DID and, thus, prevent the emergence of the Beast and end his suffering. That means Kevin's mental illness could have been slowed and he could have been saved a lot of trouble, but that doesn't mean David would never have discovered his gifts. Unbreakable shows Elijah actively coaxing those abilities out, asking the right questions and getting David to test himself, but the abilities were already there. David didn't really have to grow them, just groom them. With that in mind, it's worth asking a question that so often comes up in the comics Elijah loves so much: Could David's condition be in any way genetic? Is there some kind of trauma out there that could activate similar abilities within Joseph? Could the death of his father push him to test his own limits and find that he's not as ordinary as he'd perhaps thought? In a world in which comic books are an indication of human potential, crazier things have happened.

As the footage of what happened at the institution makes it way out into the world, Mrs. Price — channeling her son's obsession with comics — declares it to be the "beginning of a universe," as presumably special people everywhere are realizing their potential. It's a nice moment, and it does of course beg for a sequel or yet another companion film in which we see others learning they have incredible abilities even as a secret society is out there trying to stop them. Before she found out about the footage, Dr. Staple even mentioned moving on to "the next city" to continue her work at curtailing the rise of people with abilities. So what is the next city? If this all happened in Philadelphia, what will happen when this footage hits New York? Or Mexico City? Or Beijing? What will happen if this really is universal, and these people begin emerging everywhere all at once? It's the beginning of a universe, but it could also be the beginning of an all-out war, and of a society in which every crowd could hold several individuals capable of reducing the people around them to dust. It's a potentially scary thought, but also a very exciting one.