Moviefone Editorial

Tag: unbreakable

  • Samuel L. Jackson Updates on ‘Unbreakable’ Sequel: ‘Let’s Get It On’

    It has been more than 16 years since M. Night Shyamalan released his superhero/supervillain epic “Unbreakable,” and Samuel L. Jackson is ready to return for a sequel. There’s been talk of an “Unbreakable 2” for years, but now not only are stars Jackson and Bruce Willis ready to go, Shyamalan is working on a script, and Disney and Universal are reportedly ready to partner on the film.

    Why now? Well, you probably can guess, but … in case you can’t …

    SPOILER ALERT!

    Spoilers ahead from Shyamalan’s latest movie “Split.” Stop reading now if you don’t want to know anything about that movie, as well as the first “Unbreakable” movie.

    “Split” stars James McAvoy as Kevin Wendle Crumb, a guy with multiple personalities whom police nickname The Horde. At the end of the movie, someone recalls another crazy guy nicknamed by police. Some guy in a wheelchair 15 years ago… Then the camera reveals Bruce Willis’s “Unbreakable” character, David Dunn, who says the man’s name was Mr. Glass. Yep, “Split” and “Unbreakable” are part of the same universe. And now that “Split” has made a crapload of money — more than $170M at this point, off a $9M budget — everyone is ready to combine the worlds for a combined “Split 2″/”Unbreakable 2” movie.

    Turns out, Sam Jackson found out about the twist the same way audiences did. He shared the story with Collider:

    “I got a call and [Shyamalan] said, ‘Call me I wanna talk to you about something.’ And I called him, because I always do when I get a message from him always hoping [it’s ‘Unbreakable 2’], and he said, ‘I just did this film called Split, I want you to see it,’ and I was like ‘OK, I’m down with that.’ I had no idea what Split was about or anything else, and he said, ‘We’ll talk after you see it.’ So I went to the arranged screening and I called him immediately and was like, ‘OK dude does this mean what I think it means?’ and he was like, ‘Well first we gotta see how the movie does’. And I think the movie’s done well enough now to merit the ‘OK, let’s put this together.’”

    Jackson told Collider he considers Kevin/The Horde “an adequate foe for what Bruce’s ‘Unbreakable’ character is in terms of him being sort of unbreakable too in that kind of way,” but now “It’s just a matter of breaking [Elijah’s] ass out of wherever that mental institution was they had me locked up and let’s get it on, let’s see what happens!”

    The Wall Street Journal reports that Universal Pictures and Disney hoping to combine forces on the sequel, since “Unbreakable” was a Disney movie, and Universal distributed “Split.” A source told WSJ, “Disney expects to work with Universal as a partner, and participant in the profits. The two studios have yet to hammer out a deal for a sequel, in which Mr. Willis’s character likely would feature much more prominently, because Mr. Shyamalan is still in the planning stages.”

    Shyamalan recently tweeted about the outline for his next movie, meaning his follow-up to “Split.”
    In January, Shyamalan had a Q&A with The Hollywood Reporter about the plans for a “final” movie to combine worlds:

    Did you always conceive of [‘Split’] as being part of the ‘Unbreakable’ universe?

    This was always part of the “Unbreakable” world. Kevin Wendle Crumb was a part of the original, original script for “Unbreakable.” I pulled him out because it just wasn’t balancing right. But a bunch of the scenes that are in this movie, I wrote 15 years ago. They were as is. Patricia opening the door. Hedwig’s first scene. Those were all written already. And it’s literally from the same moment that I created all the characters, all three of those characters. But I knew I wanted to do a movie about him because I just loved him so much, and I thought it’s a rich world for storytelling, so I was super, super excited to finally make it.

    You’ve teased an Unbreakable sequel for years. Was this it? Or are we going to see another one with Bruce Willis as the star?

    This is down the line, but my hope is to make one final movie that combines the two.

    It doesn’t sound like it’s too far down the line.

    By the way, back in 2015 comedian Patton Oswalt shared an idea for an “Unbreakable” trilogy, picking up from the reference at the end of the first movie about other “Unbreakables” in the world. He suggested a sequel called “Unbreakables” with David Dunn assembling other superpowered people while Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah/Mr. Glass forms his own master plan from the asylum. At the time, Shyamalan liked the idea. Who knows, maybe grains of it will still be included in this “Split”/”Unbreakable” sequel.

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  • ‘Split’ Spoilers: 5 Revealing Questions About That WTF Ending

    SPLIT Spoilers: 5 Questions About That WTF EndingM. Night Shyamalan‘s “Split” opens this weekend (please, get your tickets now) and, this being an M. Night Shyamalan film, it has a big old twist that will turn your mind into a lagoon of tapioca pudding.

    In fact, the film, which stars James McAvoy as a man whose multiple personalities turn him into a psychotic killer (not sure the American Medical Association would agree, but hey), might feature Night’s biggest twist yet. So we thought we’d discuss it, in some detail, and include all of the questions that we had about this particular moment.

    Heavy spoilers follow. Only read the below if you have already seen the film.

    Seriously.

    You’re still here?

    OK then. Here’s every question we had about the ending of “Split”:SPOILER ALERT1. What happens, exactly?

    So, here’s where we can even argue about whether or not the twist is an actual twist.

    Because “Split” has already properly ended before this twist is even introduced. McAvoy’s psychotic madman, who can now physically manifest into something almost superhuman, has escaped police capture. The damaged girl who successfully stood up to him (the delightful Anya Taylor-Joy) is now in police custody. (Does she tell police about her abusive uncle? That’s another topic for discussion.)

    We cut to black. The end titles start. But they are accompanied by some familiar music: the somewhat dated, trip-hoppy score by James Newton Howard that’s actually from another Shyamalan film: “Unbreakable.”

    Only hardcore nerds like myself, who have probably never known the physical love of a woman, will recognize this music cue, but it’s an omen of things to come: we cut to a diner, where the events of the film are being recounted by a TV news anchor. The anchor talks about McAvoy’s physical transformation, about how villainous he has become.

    The camera glides down a row of diner patrons seated at the counter. One of them makes a connection to Samuel L. Jackson‘s character from “Unbreakable.” “What was his name?” the diner patron wonders. Finally, the camera moves to the end of the counter and — voila! — it’s Bruce Willis, in full “Unbreakable” garb (not his iconic rain poncho — can you believe he has an iconic rain poncho?), but his workman’s uniform, with “Dunn” embroidered on his pocket (he played David Dunn in “Unbreakable”).

    Willis pipes up: “They called him Mr. Glass.” Mic drop.

    2. So, wait, is “Split” an “Unbreakable” sequel?

    I guess? It’s hard to quantify because of the sneaky way that this larger concept is introduced, but it sure seems like it. The suggestion is that McAvoy’s character, whose monstrous form is referred to as The Horde, will have to be taken down by Willis’ character, possibly in conjunction with Taylor-Joy’s steely survivor.

    3. How did Shyamalan get the rights to use the “Unbreakable” characters?

    This is a huge question, because, logistically, a move like this must have been a nightmare. “Unbreakable” was a big Disney movie and Shyamalan’s heavily hyped follow-up to “The Sixth Sense,” the rare film that was both a critical and commercial smash and managed to capture the zeitgeist in a pretty profound (and spooky) way. “Unbreakable” had a huge budget and big movie stars, and while idle chatter about potentially expanding the storyline has been bandied about for years, nothing has ever been solidified.

    How Shyamalan was able to accomplish this, in secret, is pretty mind-blowing. How he secured the rights from the notoriously persnickety Disney is even more impressive.

    4. So, who would make the proper “Unbreakable” sequel?

    Considering “Split” is kind of a backdoor reintroduction of the character/situation and not an explicit follow-up, this leaves the question of who would make the actual sequel. Shyamalan’s last two films have been low-budget, down-and-dirty independent features bankrolled by Blumhouse Productions and distributed by Universal Pictures. Would “Unbreakable 2” be done in a similar fashion?

    Part of what made “Unbreakable” such an overwhelming experience was the care and attention Shyamalan provided, with long, elaborately-choreographed shots that gave the movie its singular mood (but also provided it with its positively funereal pacing). “Unbreakable” was an expensive, complicated movie, unlike the last two Shyamalan cheapies. If the filmmaker was somehow able to secure the rights to the characters, would Shyamalan make it in the style he’s been dabbling in recently or would he go back to something more grandiose?

    5. Does the ending of “Split” contextualize an entire M. Night Shyamalan shared universe?

    Throughout “Split” (the actual movie and not the 90 seconds I’m so obsessed with now), there are numerous references to McAvoy’s split personality disorder being the actual cause, historically, for tales of the supernatural or the otherworldly. This makes me think that there’s a possibility Shyamalan could be attempting something even more audacious; is he using this explanation to contextualize all of his films under a centralized shared universe?

    I’m not sure that he’d do something like this, especially since all of his other movies are so different and insane, but trying to get water fairies and alien invaders into the same overstuffed narrative yurt is something that fills me with endless delight.

    “Split” is in theaters now.