The Unbreakable trilogy timeline is complicated by all the interconnected flashbacks and twist reveals in the stealth sequel Split and the crossover follow-up Glass. M. Night Shyamalan kickstarted his own shared superhero universe with Unbreakable, a grounded take on comic book lore in which a seemingly average man learns that he has superpowers after he survives a deadly train crash. Sixteen years later, Shyamalan expanded the Unbreakable universe with Split, a psychological thriller about a man with dissociative identity disorder, and then he brought the series — also known as the Eastrail 177 Trilogy — full circle with Glass, the big finale incorporating characters from the two prior movies.
With flashbacks to all the major characters’ backstories and a twist reveal about a secret society that’s been around for thousands of years, the timeline of the Unbreakable movies gets a little convoluted. Unbreakable and its spinoffs plant superhero tropes into the real world, imagining what would really happen if someone with superpowers used those abilities for good – or evil. The Split timeline and the Glass timeline have gotten jumbled up in Unbreakable’s own story timeline. Therefore, a guide is helpful to navigate the timeline of the whole Eastrail 177 Trilogy, comprising the events of Unbreakable, Split, and Glass, in chronological order.
The Clover Organization Hid The Existence Of Superhumans For 10,000 Years (Glass)
The formation of the Clover Organization is the earliest event in the Unbreakable trilogy timeline by several thousand years. The Clover Organization is a secret society that managed to hide the existence of superhumans for millennia. With unlimited resources at their disposal, the Clover Organization indoctrinated human society into believing that superhumans exist only in myths and comic books. Although the Clover Organization remained unseen throughout Unbreakable and Split, they played a major role in Glass. The Clover Organization subverts the secret society comic book trope as they target heroes and villains alike.
Elijah Price Was Born With Brittle Bones (Unbreakable)
Elijah Price, the main antagonist of the Unbreakable trilogy, was born with osteogenesis imperfecta, colloquially referred to as “brittle bone disease.” Elijah’s mother always took care of him and assured him that his bone disorder made him special. Elijah’s brittle bones earned him the childhood nickname “Mr. Glass” from the schoolyard bullies, which he would later self-apply as his supervillain moniker. At the beginning of Unbreakable, Elijah’s birth year is dated as 1961. Samuel L. Jackson was born in 1948, meaning his Unbreakable trilogy character is significantly younger than the actor. Casting an older actor may have been an intentional move by Shyamalan to highlight the character’s brittleness.
David Dunn Almost Drowned In A Pool (Unbreakable)
Unbreakable hero David Dunn nearly drowned in a pool as a child when other kids pushed him underwater. The original script mentions at the time David was slightly younger than his son, who is 10 on the page and around 12 or 13 in the movie. Bruce Willis, who plays David, turned 10 in 1965. While David thought this experience was proof that he was not superhuman, Elijah points out that every superhero has a weakness. Superman has Kryptonite, and David has water. David’s near-death experience ominously foreshadowed his real demise in Glass: being drowned in a flooded pothole.
Elijah Received His First Comic Book (Unbreakable)
Elijah was 13 years old when he received his first comic book, sparking a lifelong obsession with the tropes and conventions of superhero stories — and a psychotic bid to bring those tropes and conventions into real life. Elijah’s mother gifted him comics to encourage the boy to go outside. Since he was born in 1961, this would take place in 1974, a year that marked the first appearances of such iconic Marvel heroes as Wolverine, the Punisher, and Iron Fist. But Elijah wasn’t drawn to the heroes; he felt a personal connection to the villains, who took out their problems on the world with diabolical schemes and deadly attacks.
David Survived A Car Crash (Unbreakable)
When David was a promi-and-coming football star, he and his then-girlfriend Audrey got into a near-fatal car crash. While Audrey sustained wounds from the accident, David was unharmed. He even managed to rip the door off with his bare hands to save Audrey. He chalked this up to an act of adrenaline-fueled heroism, not evidence of superpowers. Although David was not hurt in the crash, he faked an injury to get out of football because Audrey wanted him to give up the violent sport. This is a subversion of the usual superhero movie origin stories because the superhero didn’t realize he was a superhero at the time.
Mr. Glass Caused A Plane Crash & A Hotel Fire (Unbreakable)
When Elijah became obsessed with comic book mythology and identified himself as a supervillain, he started orchestrating deadly disasters in an attempt to draw out his superhero arch-nemesis. While there are plenty of other high-profile disasters that are glimpsed in newspaper clippings — and it’s unclear which ones were caused by Elijah and which ones were just accidents — the two incidents seen in flashbacks that Elijah is definitely responsible for are a plane crash and a hotel fire. The fact that Elijah was willing to let hundreds of people die horrifically in the hope of discovering somebody with superpowers makes him one of Shyamalan’s most sinister and cold-hearted villains.
Mr. Glass Orchestrated The Eastrail 177 Crash (Unbreakable)
One of the incidents orchestrated by Mr. Glass was the deadly Eastrail 177 train crash. While every other enger was either killed or horribly injured, David emerged unscathed, proving Elijah’s suspicions about real-life superpowers. The first major plot twist in Glass revealed that Kevin Wendell Crumb’s father was among the casualties. This meant that no one was around to protect a young Kevin from his abusive mother, and his other personalities – including “The Beast” – took over his psyche. This twist seems to confirm that Crumb is much younger than actor James McAvoy, who was 21 years old, rather than a young child, at the time Unbreakable was released.
David Foiled Mr. Glass (Unbreakable)
Elijah wasn’t revealed to be Unbreakable’s villain until the very end. When the two men shook hands, David’s powers of seeing people’s crimes by touching them revealed that Mr. Glass caused the train crash and other accidents to find his superhero arch-nemesis. Elijah told David, “Now that we know who you are, I know who I am,” and gave himself the supervillain alias “Mr. Glass.” This ending subverted the usual superhero narrative with a more realistic outcome. The hero and villain didn’t face off in a thrilling final battle; the hero simply reported the villain’s crimes to the police and had him arrested.
Joseph Became David's Superhero Sidekick (Glass)
The beginning of Glass revealed that David’s son Joseph became his superhero sidekick. Joseph was one of the few people who knew about David’s double life as a superhero and helped him track down bad guys to bring to justice. A flashback sequence in Glass, reused from a deleted scene in Unbreakable, showed David coming home from a night of fighting crime and Joseph itting that he knew about his “secret identity.” Their last act as a superhero duo is seen in the opening scene of Glass when David and Joseph tracked down “The Horde” to an abandoned warehouse and David freed the four cheerleaders The Horde had taken hostage.
Casey Cooke Was Abused By Her Uncle (Split)
Among the earliest events of the Split timeline within the Unbreakable trilogy are the harrowing flashbacks to Casey Cooke’s childhood. These scenes revealed that Casey was abused by her uncle and legal guardian, John, both before and after her father’s death. She eventually picked up her uncle’s hunting rifle but couldn’t bring herself to pull the trigger. The majority of Split takes place during Casey’s teenage years, but these flashbacks provide key context. The horrific moments introduced childhood trauma as a major theme in the story. These scenes also established the commonality between the hero and the villain: they were both traumatized by abusive parental figures at a young age.
