# Unbreakable (film series)
**Unbreakable** is an American film series of three superhero thrillers written and directed by [M. Night Shyamalan](https://www.edgepedia.org/m-night-shyamalan): *Unbreakable* (2000), *Split* (2016), and *[Glass](https://www.edgepedia.org/glass-2019-film)* (2019). All three are set in one continuity, in which comic-book archetypes are treated as real, and release order matches story order. The series is also known as the **Eastrail 177 Trilogy**, a name taken from the train derailment with which the first film opens.[1](https://sagalist.com/unbreakable) • [2](https://www.scifiscene.de/filmreihen/unbreakable-trilogie)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Films | *Unbreakable* (2000), *Split* (2016), *Glass* (2019)[3](https://www.thereadingorder.com/unbreakable-movies-in-order/) |
| Creator | M. Night Shyamalan, writer and director of all three films[1](https://sagalist.com/unbreakable) |
| Alternate name | Eastrail 177 Trilogy, after the train crash that opens *Unbreakable*[2](https://www.scifiscene.de/filmreihen/unbreakable-trilogie) |
| Hidden sequel | *Split* revealed in its final minute that it shares the world of *Unbreakable*; Shyamalan said in 2019 that *Split*'s plot was already in the 2000 film's initial outline[4](https://time.com/5503796/glass-unbreakable-split-reference/) • [5](https://note.com/atoyomi_note/n/n4c451e07e2b8?hl=en) |
| Worldwide grosses | *Unbreakable* $248,099,143; *Split* $278,754,594; *Glass* $246,999,039[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Unbreakable) |
| Studios | *Unbreakable* at Touchstone (Disney); *Split* and *Glass* at Universal[1](https://sagalist.com/unbreakable) |
| Viewing order | Release order, *Unbreakable* → *Split* → *Glass*, is also the story order and the recommended viewing order[5](https://note.com/atoyomi_note/n/n4c451e07e2b8?hl=en) |
## The three films
***[Unbreakable](https://www.edgepedia.org/unbreakable-film)* (2000).** David Dunn ([Bruce Willis](https://www.edgepedia.org/bruce-willis)) is the sole survivor of a devastating train wreck, emerging without a scratch. Elijah Price ([Samuel L. Jackson](https://www.edgepedia.org/samuel-l-jackson)), a comic-book dealer with a disease that leaves his bones fragile, offers David a bizarre explanation for his survival, one that reshapes David's family life and sense of himself.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unbreakable) The film works as a realistic, restrained variation on the superhero origin story: it contains only a small amount of actual crime fighting, builds David's invulnerability through the comic-book idea of a hero with a fatal weakness, and asks him to accept the role of a protector. Elijah, meanwhile, has spent his life in pain and believes that if someone as fragile as he exists, the universe must have created an opposite, unbreakable figure; his mother's encouragement of comic books is what leads him to that conviction and, ultimately, to David.[8](https://www.usna.edu/Ethics/programs/InnovationLab/RadioStockdale/STOCKDALE_MINUTE/Philosophy_and_The_Movies/podcasts/042_Unbreakable.php) • [9](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/unbreakable/timeline)
***Split* (2016).** A kidnapper with 24 personalities, Kevin Wendell Crumb ([James McAvoy](https://www.edgepedia.org/james-mcavoy)), holds teenage girls captive as a twenty-fifth identity, the Beast, begins to emerge. For almost its whole run the film plays as a standalone psychological horror thriller. Only in the closing moments, with the surprise appearance of Bruce Willis, is it revealed to be a stealth sequel to *Unbreakable*.[4](https://time.com/5503796/glass-unbreakable-split-reference/) • [10](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/glass-review-unbreakable-split-sequel-shyamlan-twist-samuel-l-jackson-bruce-willis-a8720396.html)
***Glass* (2019).** Set 19 years after *Unbreakable*, it brings David Dunn, now a white-haired vigilante, together with Kevin and with Elijah, who has spent nearly two decades in an institution for the criminally insane. A psychologist, Dr. Ellie Staple ([Sarah Paulson](https://www.edgepedia.org/sarah-paulson)), holds all three and insists their abilities are not real.[11](https://time.com/5503232/glass-review/) In the finale Elijah records the confrontation to prove that comic books are a historical record of real superhumans; after his death, Kevin's former captive Casey Cooke ([Anya Taylor-Joy](https://www.edgepedia.org/anya-taylor-joy)), David's son Joseph, and Elijah's mother release the footage to the world so that other people will discover their own powers.[12](https://time.com/5504533/glass-ending-explained/)
## Production history and the hidden sequel
The trilogy's most unusual feature is how it came to exist. *Split* was not conceived as a sequel in 2016: as Shyamalan revealed in 2019, the plot of *Split* was already part of the initial outline for the 2000 film *Unbreakable*, cut away at the time rather than invented later.[5](https://note.com/atoyomi_note/n/n4c451e07e2b8?hl=en) The connective reveal in *Split*'s last minute, showing Bruce Willis as David Dunn, retroactively recast the horror film as the second chapter of a trilogy.[4](https://time.com/5503796/glass-unbreakable-split-reference/)
**Rights shaped the timeline.** *Unbreakable* was made at Touchstone, part of Disney, while *Split* and *Glass* were made at Universal. The resulting split explains the long gap between the first film and its sequels, and *Glass* was co-distributed, with Universal handling it in North America and Disney internationally.[1](https://sagalist.com/unbreakable)
## Themes and style
The series grounds the superhero genre in an ordinary world, in deliberate contrast with mainstream comic-book films. *Unbreakable* places a hero's powers inside family life, grief, and self-doubt, and applies the genre's notion of a fatal weakness to David's vulnerability to water; a train-station sequence in which David intuits the crimes of the people around him forces a triage before he acts, a down-to-earth version of heroism.[8](https://www.usna.edu/Ethics/programs/InnovationLab/RadioStockdale/STOCKDALE_MINUTE/Philosophy_and_The_Movies/podcasts/042_Unbreakable.php) Across the films Shyamalan's premise is that comic books preserve deep historical truths about real superhumans, and that trauma can produce superior beings: David survived a near-drowning as a child, Kevin developed his identities through childhood abuse, and Elijah built his intellect against the fragility of his bones.[12](https://time.com/5504533/glass-ending-explained/) Commentators have read this as a dramatization of Nietzsche's "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger," with *Glass* invoking the *Übermensch* as the precursor of the comic-book superhero.[12](https://time.com/5504533/glass-ending-explained/)
*Glass as a rebuke of the blockbuster era.* Time's analysis of the ending reads the finale, in which ordinary people rather than gods are vindicated, as a response to the Marvel and DC films that have dominated pop culture since *Unbreakable*'s release, arguing that the trilogy insists on the potential for power in ordinary people.[12](https://time.com/5504533/glass-ending-explained/)
## Reception and box office
*Unbreakable* opened on November 22, 2000 and earned $30,330,771 domestically on its opening, $94,999,143 in total domestic receipts, and $248,099,143 worldwide. *Split*, opening January 18, 2017 on a $9,000,000 budget, became the series' highest-grossing entry at $278,754,594 worldwide. *Glass*, opening January 17, 2019 with a $20,000,000 budget, took $111,048,468 domestically and $246,999,039 worldwide.[6](https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Unbreakable)
Critical reception declined across the series. *Unbreakable* holds 71% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 173 reviews, with a critics' consensus calling it a quietly suspenseful film weaker than *The Sixth Sense* but intriguing and engaging, and it scored 62 (generally favorable) on Metacritic.[7](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unbreakable) • [13](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/unbreakable/critic-reviews/) *Split* scored 63 on Metacritic, with reviews calling it chilling and bold.[14](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/split/critic-reviews/) *Glass*, by contrast, was widely received as a disappointing conclusion: Rotten Tomatoes' first-reviews roundup described it as a letdown even while praising Jackson and McAvoy, Variety's Owen Gleiberman called it a sequel that feels more dutiful than necessary, and reviewers commonly found it tonally confused and below the level of its predecessors.[15](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/glass-first-reviews-jackson-and-mcavoy-shine-in-what-critics-are-calling-a-disappointing-trilogy-conclusion/) • [16](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/glass/critic-reviews/)
## Franchise status
The trilogy is complete and Shyamalan has repeatedly described it as a closed, three-part story rather than an ongoing franchise; there is no officially greenlit sequel or spinoff in development. *Glass* assumes knowledge of both David Dunn's backstory and *Split*'s twist ending, so the three films are best watched in release order.[3](https://www.thereadingorder.com/unbreakable-movies-in-order/)
## References
1. [Unbreakable: The Eastrail 177 Trilogy, SagaList](https://sagalist.com/unbreakable)
2. [Unbreakable-Trilogie: Reihenfolge, Zusammenhang und ob Split 2 kommt, SciFiScene](https://www.scifiscene.de/filmreihen/unbreakable-trilogie)
3. [Unbreakable Movies in Order: Complete Watch Guide (2026), The Reading Order](https://www.thereadingorder.com/unbreakable-movies-in-order/)
4. [All of the Hidden Unbreakable and Split References in Glass, Time](https://time.com/5503796/glass-unbreakable-split-reference/)
5. [Unbreakable Analysis: 'Split' was originally in the script for this film, あとよみ君](https://note.com/atoyomi_note/n/n4c451e07e2b8?hl=en)
6. [Unbreakable Franchise Box Office History, The Numbers](https://www.the-numbers.com/movies/franchise/Unbreakable)
7. [Unbreakable (2000), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/unbreakable)
8. [Unbreakable, episode #042, Philosophy and The Movies, Stockdale Center for Ethical Leadership, USNA](https://www.usna.edu/Ethics/programs/InnovationLab/RadioStockdale/STOCKDALE_MINUTE/Philosophy_and_The_Movies/podcasts/042_Unbreakable.php)
9. [Unbreakable (2000) Timeline – Scene-by-Scene Guide, Plot Explained](https://www.plotexplained.com/movie/unbreakable/timeline)
10. [Glass reviews round-up: What the critics are saying about the Unbreakable and Split sequel, The Independent](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/glass-review-unbreakable-split-sequel-shyamlan-twist-samuel-l-jackson-bruce-willis-a8720396.html)
11. [M. Night Shyamalan Thinks Glass Is Deep. It's Not, Time](https://time.com/5503232/glass-review/)
12. [Let's Talk About the Ending of Glass, Time](https://time.com/5504533/glass-ending-explained/)
13. [Unbreakable critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/unbreakable/critic-reviews/)
14. [Split critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/split/critic-reviews/)
15. [Glass First Reviews: Jackson and McAvoy Shine in What Critics Are Calling a Disappointing Trilogy Conclusion, Rotten Tomatoes](https://editorial.rottentomatoes.com/article/glass-first-reviews-jackson-and-mcavoy-shine-in-what-critics-are-calling-a-disappointing-trilogy-conclusion/)
16. [Glass critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/glass/critic-reviews/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Franchise and series entries as standalone works › Superhero and comic-franchise film entries*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license