So, just how big is the final twist of M. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split“? Well, a member in the audience that I saw the film with screamed. Twice. And the second time, it was a sustained, very excited howl which included fist pumps. So yes, it’s pretty damn big, and obviously, don’t read further if you don’t want to know. But in case anybody is just skimming over this…
**MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD, SERIOUSLY**
**I’M NOT KIDDING, BIG SPOILERS LAY AHEAD**
Okay, with that out of the way, here’s what happens: After kidnapping three girls, and killing two of them, James McAvoy‘s Kevin remains on the run. We’ve learned that his 23 split personalities are able to combine into The Beast, one superpowered monster who sees himself as the natural evolution of humanity. As new reports are broadcast about the killings, with the press nicknaming Kevin and his personalities as The Horde, a woman asks, “Hey, wasn’t there some other bad guy 15 years ago who also had a funny name?”
“Mr. Glass” answers a man nearby.
That man is Bruce Willis. In case you’re still adding things up: “Split” exists in the “Unbreakable” universe.
Mind blown?
READ MORE: The 50 Best Movie Plot Twists Of All Time
While not quite the sequel to “Unbreakable” that has been tossed around for years, Shyamalan reveals that the character of Kevin was actually conceived for that film, but he had to scrap it. But he found the vehicle for the character in “Split.”
“I had about 15-20 pages written [focusing on Kevin] and those scenes are all in [‘Split’],” he shared with io9.
“I said, ‘Can we make a sequel that they don’t realize is a sequel? Can we make an origin story without telling them it’s an origin story until the last moment of the movie? So it plays as a thriller and becomes an origin story?’” he added. “So that was the idea from go.”
As for whether not this will lead to a proper “Unbreakable” sequel, the director says Samuel L. Jackson has been brought up to speed, and he’s had “conversations,” but it doesn’t seem certain. So “Split” might be the closest we get for a while, but it’s a helluva trick from a director who seems to have found his mojo again.
I thought the whole movie was kind of silly. But as a person who loved that track from Unbreakable, when I heard it start to play over McAvoy’s final scene I was like wth??! Then it grows, and then the Willis reveal, man that was pretty awesome