Just a few years ago, the idea that so many people would be hotly anticipating a movie like Glass was unthinkable for two reasons. First off, longtime fans of Unbreakable, a movie with a cult following that came out in 2000, had no idea that film would receive a sequel all these years later. On top of that, it was with the release of Split, a movie that exists in the same movie universe as Unbreakable, that people began to have real faith in M. Night Shyamalan making good films again.
Even though the majority of film sequels that take a long time to come out fall short of expectations, Split proved Shyamalan had a vision of where to take the Unbreakable film series. Released over a span of 19 years, a lot of fascinating things went on behind the scenes during the making of Unbreakable, Glass, and Split. With that in mind, it is time to look at some crazy things that went on behind the scenes of this unexpected trilogy.
In order for a piece of information to be considered for possible inclusion in this list, it must, first and foremost, relate to the making of Unbreakable, Split, or Glass. On top of that, something about it needs to be astonishing enough to hold the interest of the series' fans. Of course, it should be noted that every person’s knowledge base is different, so huge fans may be aware of some things to come.
Here are 20 Wild Details Behind The Making Of the Unbreakable Movies.
Split's ending wasn't shown to test screenings
Always known for including massive twists in his films, M. Night Shyamalan returned to form with the final surprising moments of his 2016 movie Split. After the film had seemingly come to an end, the camera panned to Bruce Willis in a diner among a group of people that were discussing news coverage of the movie’s events.
Revealing through dialogue that Willis was reprising his character from the 2000 film Unbreakable, David Dunn only appeared onscreen for a matter of seconds but it was the most exciting thing Willis had done in years. Of course, this moment would have been a lot less effective if people knew about it ahead of time. Fortunately, Shyamalan was smart enough to exclude this moment from Split’s test screenings in order to keep it a secret.
Julianne Moore Was The First Choice To Play Audrey
The second major movie of M. Night Shyamalan career, Unbreakable fell short of expectations since it made far less money than his previous film, The Sixth Sense. Despite that, the movie went on to amass a loyal cult following that loved its restrained take on a classic superhero tale.
One of the people who helped make the movie what it is, Robin Wright’s Unbreakable performance perfectly matched the films’ serious tone. That is why it is so remarkable that Wright was a last-minute replacement for the original actor cast in the role, Julianne Moore. Considering both actors are among the best performers of their generation, replacing Moore, who left Unbreakable in order to star in Hannibal, with Wright was a stroke of genius.
Sarah Paulson and Bruce Willis Signed On To Glass With No Script
Though far from the toast of Hollywood before Split ’s release, M. Night Shyamalan had reclaimed some respect due to his previous effort The Visit. Prior to that, he’d helmed one panned film after another, including Lady in the Water, The Happening, The Last Airbender, and After Earth.
The perfect example of how Split’s success has changed Shyamalan’s fortunes, when he attempted to cast people in his follow-up film, two major stars were chomping at the bit to be involved. In fact, Bruce Willis and Sarah Paulson both signed on to star in Glass, his sequel to Split and Unbreakable, without even reading its script.
The Original Edit of Split Was Crazy Long
If you enjoy watching deleted scenes from movies then you know how important the editing process is. After all, editors can greatly reshape a film’s narrative and many fantastic films were made great because they cut several abysmal scenes from their runtime. On top of that, filmgoers are willing to sit through long films but if they can feel that filmmakers are unnecessarily dragging things out, they are going to lose their patience before too long.
For that reason, it is astonishing to know that Split’s original edit was 3 hours long. It makes you wonder if Split would have been the surprise hit it turned out to be if they hadn’t cut it down to its final 117-minute length.
Joaquin Phoenix was the first choice for Kevin
One of the most celebrated actors of all time, Joaquin Phoenix has won a Golden Globe and a Grammy, along with nominations at the SAG awards, the Oscars and the BAFTAs. More importantly than that, he has starred in many beloved films like Gladiator, Walk the Line, Signs, Her, and more. With all of that in mind, we are always happy to see his name announced in relation to a film project.
However, it turned out to be a good thing that Phoenix walked away from starring in Split, even though he likely would have been great in the film. After all, James McAvoy’s Split performance blew viewers away and we wouldn’t have been able to see it if Phoenix hadn’t given up the film’s lead role.
Sterling K. Brown's scenes were cut from Split
As we touched on in a previous entry, at one point Split was a staggering 3 hours long. It was eventually released with a much shorter runtime, but much of the footage cut from the final film featured a character played by one of the today’s rising stars, Sterling K. Brown.
Currently best known for starring in the hit shows The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story and This is Us, Brown also appeared in the movie Black Panther. Just because he has accomplished so much does not mean he doesn’t understand disappointment, however. It must feel awful to have a character you worked hard to create go mostly unseen.
James McAvoy knew early on that Split was a sequel to Unbreakable
Earlier on this list, we touched on the fact that M. Night Shyamalan kept Split’s connection to his previous film Unbreakable a closely guarded secret. However, he obviously needed to put his trust in at least one actor, Bruce Willis, since he used his Split cameo appearance to set up the fact that both movies exist in the same universe.
Opting to let another actor in on his big secret, Shyamalan told Entertainment Weekly that Split’s lead actor James McAvoy was told about the twist ending before starring in the film. “Oh yeah, he knew from the beginning. And he was pumped. He was like, ‘Oh, man, I might get to do another movie with Bruce? My God!’”
The Twist in the Beast's beliefs
One of the most unique aspects of Split’s plot is that the main villain, The Beast, has a set of beliefs that will come as a surprise to many moviegoers. As M. Night Shyamalan revealed to The Hollywood Reporter, this is the case because The Beast’s philosophy, that people become pure through pain, is a twist on a classic movie trope.
As any ionate horror film fan can tell you, many scary movie characters get dispatched after they are intimately involved with someone else. From a storytelling point of view, as Shyamalan put it that sends the message that now those people are “broken” and “not whole.” While The Beast’s way of thinking has nothing to do with physical relations, he does believe that trauma makes people stronger, which is a huge difference.
Elijah Price was written for Samuel L. Jackson
One of the Unbreakable franchise's greatest strengths is its many fantastic characters. As much as we love David Dunn, Kevin Crumb, and Casey Cooke, however, another character stands head and shoulders above the res. Samuel L. Jackson’s Elijah Price, otherwise known as Mr. Glass, was afflicted with an awful genetic disorder that made his bones easy to break. Due to his physical fragility, most Unbreakable viewers wanted Elijah to stay safe, cringed when he suffered a catastrophic injury, and were astonished when his true nature was revealed.
Perfectly cast in the role, Jackson’s wonderful performance as Mr. Glass turns out to be no coincidence since Shyamalan told Entertainment Weekly he wrote the character with hopes the actor would play him.
James McAvoy Broke His Hand While Shooting
As anyone who has seen Split can attest, James McAvoy did not hold anything back while portraying his character in the movie. However, while watching that film you’d never know that his ion for the role exacted a physical toll on the talented actor since he suffered an injury while in character.
Speaking about the incident, McAvoy said: “I was meant to punch a metal door but it had a little square bit in it which was soft, and I missed the soft bit and hit the hard bit. Night said he watched the take where I broke it, and he said you can see my face go white and I am like, ‘Zone it out, zone it out, man’, and I carried on with the take.”
