Glass CinemaCon Trailer Reveals Unbreakable/Split Sequel Plot

[Nergal]

 

M. Night Shyamalan took the stage at CinemaCon with James McAvoy, Bruce Willis, Samuel L. Jackson, and Sarah Paulson to debut the first trailer for his new film, Glass.

Glass is the follow-up film to both 2000’s Unbreakable and 2016’s Split, which tell a different kind of superhero story. Unbreakable, arguably one of the better films in Shyamalan’s catalogue, follows Bruce Willis as David Dunn, a man who realizes he has special abilities after he emerges unscathed from a horrific train accident. Set years later, Split tells the story of three young women who are kidnapped by a man with 23 different personalities. What audiences thought was an exciting new thriller from Shyamalan turned out to be a sequel to Unbreakable, with a stinger featuring Willis as David Dunn. Glass follows these two films, focusing more on Samuel L. Jackson’s character Mr. Glass from Unbreakable. The footage revealed at CinemaCon has many of the attendees looking forward to Shyamalan’s new movie.

According to THR, Shyamalan’s Glass trailer shows Paulson interviewing Willis, Jackson, and McAvoy in prison. Paulson plays a psychiatrist who specializes in individuals who believe that they are superheroes. Based on these details, it sounds as if Shyamalan is taking a simpler, more grounded approach to Glass, rather than the full blow-outs that are typical superhero film fare.
 

Shyamalan described the film as the “first really grounded superhero film,” saying “Finally the thriller genre and the comic book genre have come together.” The rest of the trailer promised an exciting jail break, as well as the three leads “reclaiming their place in this world.” This film seems a lot smaller in scale than one might have guessed, but that could be a great change of pace with all of the world-ending superhero films that we usually get.

Hopefully, this turns out to be true. The overall premise of the film is really different from anything that’s been done before, but Shyamalan hasn’t always had a great track record. Unbreakable is easily one of the better films of his, but they haven’t all been great. Shymalan’s last two films with Blumhouse (The Visit and Split) were much more of a return to form, so hopefully that trend continues as Glass explores how the rivalry between David Dunn and Mr. Glass have evolved since Unbreakable. Where exactly McAvoy’s character fits into this remains to be seen, but it’s more than likely that his allegiance will lean more towards the villainous side of things.

KEY RELEASE DATES
Glass release date: Jan 18, 2019