In 2021, it's crazy to remember how M. Night Shyamalan's now highly successful and well-regarded superhero thriller trilogy, Unbreakable, was met with an initial backlash and caused the director to feel discouragement from making the remaining two films of the planned series. But that's exactly what happened. Unbreakable was the first movie in the trilogy, made all the way back in November of the year 2000. Because of the initial backlash, it took Night 16 years to finally gain the courage, determination, and confidence to make the incredibly well-acted sequel entitled Split in January of 2017.
There aren't enough positive things to say to express how captivating and nuanced James McAvoy's performance was for Split and Glass. McAvoy plays a man with dissociative identity disorder, which causes him to interchange between 24 very different personalities at random. Although he had help from Night's script and was well directed, McAvoy was able to produce very distinct personalities for each of the characters he played so the audience could tell them apart. That is not an easy task. In the trilogy, Samuel L. Jackson—as always—produced another stand-out performance, and so did the action movie star Bruce Willis. The lovely Anya Taylor-Joy (to the surprise of no one) is great in her role, and M. Night Shyamalan is the best extra in movie history.
Unbreakable is the only film in the trilogy that Night didn't pay for. Its budget of $75 million produced $248 million. Splitwas made on a budget of $9 million, all at the expense of M. Night Shyamalan himself (who self-funded both Split and Glass), and the movie made about $279 million—which was 31 times its budget. Night gave the third film Glass a slightly bigger budget of $20 million, and it also received enough money at the box office to justify spending that amount ($247 million). Many of M. Night Shyamalan's movies have been picked apart ruthlessly, but the Unbreakable trilogy is some of his most universally liked work. And even when his movies are divisive among viewers, they still turn a large profit.
In an interview with Wired, M. Night Shyamalan, the creator, writer, and producer of the trilogy discussed in his own words exactly what held him up from making the remaining two sequels for so long as well as his reasoning for wanting to tell the story in three parts as opposed to one film like his usual work. He said, “when I thought of the story of Unbreakable, it was really complicated and very long." Night realized he wouldn't be able to tell his story in just one movie. Making sequels is something the director said he doesn't do, so this was like a one-off thing for him. So he thought to himself, "maybe I can put it into multiple pieces."
Night implied that he had written all three scripts at once (or at least a few drafts) before making the first film starring Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson, which was Unbreakable. The director said he had hoped he would get to make the other two films, because at the time, he was not funding his own films. But when the film was released, it was met with criticism and lack of interest. Night said, "to be honest, I was kind of down about the reaction to Unbreakable when it came out." It is hard for a creator to put their work out into the world because people are so judgmental.
Something consumers might not understand is that a creator's work is a part of the creators themselves. When audiences criticize a person's work, they are criticizing that person as an individual and on a very personal level. Night brushed off the criticism and said, "I'll go make other movies." He went on to make the films Signs and The Village, which are two of his most popular films. Both were shot beautifully with great performances from every cast member. Many, many years later, Night said to himself, "hey, you know what? I think I should come back and make that second movie of the trilogy." M. Night Shyamalan said that he "was super lucky to get to finish the trilogy in this kind of weird and interesting way.”
It's a good thing M. Night Shyamalan has a thick skin, and viewers are just as lucky as Night feels to have gotten to see the conclusion of the Unbreakable trilogy. Oftentimes, people say to creators that they have to have thick skin if they are going to put themselves and their work into the world. And that is sadly true, because people can be so uncaring and unforgiving. It shouldn't be that way, but it is. The old saying of "if you won't have them at their worst, you don't deserve them at their best" seems to be the lesson here. But M. Night Shyamalan luckily knows his worth, and so do his fans.