Glass Theory: David Dunn's Powers Can Cure Split's Villain

In Glass, David Dunn (Bruce Willis) may turn out to be the key to curing Kevin Wendell Crumb (James McAvoy) and stopping the menace of the Horde. Director M. Night Shyamalan's highly-anticipated new film will unite his 2000 smash Unbreakable with his 2017 hit Split into one shared universe. Split's villain, Kevin Crumb, will be joined by Unbreakable's hero David Dunn and his arch-nemesis, Elijah Price (Samuel L. Jackson), a.k.a. the titular Mr. Glass. What happens when these three characters collide?

The newly-released trailer offers some answers: all three are institutionalized together. Shyamalan's superhero universe is not one that accepts the existence of those with powers beyond mortal men. For part of the film, David and Kevin are imprisoned alongside Mr. Glass. They are overseen by Dr. Ellie Staple (Sarah Paulson), a psychiatrist who specializes in treating individuals who believe themselves to be superheroes. Staple (and society) take the position that a person believing they have powers and who protect or attack other people is a delusion - but as she'll eventually find out, all three of her patients are indeed the real deal.

By unifying Unbreakable and Split, Shyamalan once more casts the blue-collar everyman David as the heroic center of the universe. True, Mr. Glass has top billing this time around, but here's how it could still be David - the man Elijah has always envied for being his opposite - who is the lynchpin, especially when it comes to the uniquely dangerous threat of the Horde.

This Page: David Is The Opposite Of The Horde

Page 2: David May Be the Key to Stopping The Horde, Which Mr, Glass Wants

The Horde Is The Opposite of David Dunn

In Unbreakable, Shyamalan crafted a very different kind of superhero universe about duality and opposites. David is a man who has never been physically injured. Though he rejected the idea that he was special well into his adulthood, David eventually accepted the truth after he was miraculously the lone survivor of a train crash in Philadelphia that killed 131 people. David embraced his invulnerability and discovered he also has superhuman strength. David was tutored in abilities but eventually found he was being played by Elijah, a criminally insane comic book aficionado who was revealed to be David's opposite number. Because Elijah's bones are so fragile, he has suffered over 90 breaks in his lifetime, hence his cruel nickname since childhood, "Mr. Glass." Glass styled himself as a supervillain and finally found the hero who was destined to be his arch nemesis.

Kevin Crumb, however, seems to unbalance the Unbreakable universe. Kevin suffers from Disassociative Identity Disorder; due to severe childhood trauma, he manifested 24 separate personalities, which earned him the nickname "The Horde." The most dangerous personalities in Kevin's mind are Dennis, a stern and cold deviant, and Patricia, a British mastermind who lords over all the other personalities. Dennis and Patricia serve the Beast, Kevin's monstrous and superpowered 24th persona, who is an amalgam of the fearsome animals in the zoo Kevin worked at. Dennis and Patricia kidnap teenage girls as food for the Beast to devour, including Casey Cooke (Anya Taylor-Joy) in Split.

Two supervillains and one superhero seem to fly in the face of the balance in Shyamalan's shared universe - unless David is also the opposite number to the Horde. After all, Elijah may be his opposite, but it's an unfair dichotomy because Mr. Glass can never fight David physically. But the Beast certainly is more than a match for David's strength; this is the villain David was always meant to fight. However, there's another ability that David has that could be instrumental in defeating the Horde.

Can David Communicate With Kevin's 24 Personalities?

In addition to his strength and immunity from injury, David also has an unexplained psychic ability: if he touches a person, he can sense their intent for evil. In Unbreakable, David used this power in a crowded train station until his touch revealed a janitor who turned out to be a murderous kidnapper. This extra power David has might turn out to have a greater significance than just his own kind of "Spider-Sense". It might be the true reason that David is meant to fight the Horde.

It's unclear how much David has explored his psychic gift in the 17 years since Unbreakable; truth be told, David is a methodical and practical man but not the genius intellect and forward-thinking strategist Elijah is. But can it really be a mere coincidence that the physically superior man also has a psychic ability and his new arch enemy's powers come from his extreme psychological malady? David's psychic power could be what ultimately silences the Horde.

Page 2: David May Be the Key to Stopping The Horde, Which Mr, Glass Wants

Theory: David Dunn Can Cure Kevin

Shyamalan is a master of symbolism and his creative choices always have significance. If David Dunn is both the opposite of Mr. Glass and the Horde, his psychic power could also potentially be the cure for Kevin's Dissociative Identity Disorder. By the end of Split, David already became aware of the Horde thanks to the news reports about his murders and escape. The Glass trailer shows David brushing past Kevin on the street and sensing the evil inside him. Yet, besides a psychic warning about Kevin's hidden nature(s), what if David's power can be pushed further and used to fight the Horde?

David versus the Horde is inevitable; this is the physical aspect of David's gifts brought to bear. But if the Unbreakable man can't overpower the Beast - because of Kevin's unique ability to rearrange his own body structure, it's possible the Beast could ultimately prove to be stronger than David - then his psychic power could be what saves him. Maybe David can push his mental abilities further to communicate with Kevin's other personalities, like the childlike and innocent Hedwig or the gentle and artistic Barry, and bring them to the forefront to render the Beast persona inert. David might even have the wider-reaching power to help Kevin control his split personalities and potentially even cure him outright. However, there may also be a darker side to David's psychic gift that he doesn't realize - but Mr. Glass does!

What About Mr. Glass?

While this unique superhero universe operates under the comic book-like rules of balance, there is another factor to consider: the M. Night Shyamalan twist. The director loves to drop a bombshell at the very end of his movies that fans don't see coming - just like how in Split he shocked everyone by revealing the film is in the same shared universe as Unbreakable. Since he's a master of sleight of hand, there's little doubt Shyamalan has another shocker up his sleeve, and this time the twist probably has to do with the film's namesake, Mr. Glass himself.

"The bad guys teaming up," is the malevolent scheme Mr. Glass boasts of in the trailer, but what if it actually goes much further than that? Elijah may not be David or the Horde's physical equal by any means, but he's so much smarter than his fellow superbeings. Mr. Glass could potentially be playing both sides, feigning forming an alliance with the Horde against David but for an insidious purpose. After all, Elijah has lived his entire life with a debilitating physical ailment; now, along come two superhumans gifted with the physical strength and durability his own body lacks. And it just so happens, one has a psychic power that could be used to possibly tame the other. All it would take is for a master manipulator to pull the strings.

To connect the dots of this theory: Mr. Glass might somehow try to use David's ability not to cure Kevin but to infect his mind and take over Kevin's body. Body-snatching might be Eliah's master plan all along; his mind could conceivably be stronger than all of Kevin's personalities, and the Horde is the perfect vessel to free him from his life bound to a wheelchair thanks to a body as brittle as glass. Of course, this sets up potential sequels to continue the saga.

Since he's the title character of Glass, Elijah is ultimately the one who bears the most watching. As the true villain, he'll be primed to take advantage of the conflict between David and the Horde - a fight where Mr. Glass himself might well come out as the winner.