- "Do you know what the scariest thing is? To not know your place in this world, to not know why you're here. That's... that's just an awful feeling. I almost gave up hope. There were so many times I questioned myself. But I found you. So many sacrifices... just to find you. Now that we know who you are... I know who I am. I'm not a mistake. It all makes sense. In a comic, you know how you can tell who the arch-villain's going to be? He's the exact opposite of the hero, and most times, they're friends, like you and me. I should've known way back when. You know why, David? Because of the kids. They called me Mr. Glass."
- —Mr. Glass to David Dunn in Unbreakable
Elijah Price, also known as Mr. Glass, is the overall main antagonist of the Eastrail 177 film trilogy, serving as the main antagonist of the 2000 film Unbreakable, the unseen overarching antagonist of the 2017 film Split and the titular villainous main protagonist of the 2019 film Glass.
He is portrayed by Samuel L. Jackson. At once David Dunn's mentor and archenemy, he is also the owner of Limited Edition comic book art museum and (as the finale reveals) a supervillain.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Dr. Mathison holding Elijah
Elijah Price was born with Type I Osteogenesis Imperfecta, a rare genetic disorder which left his bones extremely brittle: merely being born was enough to break baby Elijah's limbs, as the attending physician quickly discovered. Young Elijah was relentlessly mocked throughout his childhood by the other children in the neighborhood, who often called him "Mr Glass" for his frailty; for good measure, constant visits to the hospital ensured that he remained isolated throughout his childhood, forcing him to seek solace in his one major hobby - reading comic books. However, as deleted scenes reveal, he continued his attempts to try and fit in, often with disastrous consequences: at a visit to a fairground, he attempted to ride one of the rougher rides - only to end up breaking several bones after his improvised safety padding slipped out of the ride.
Reading Comic Books[]
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Elijah opening a present for his mom.
Eventually, the bullying and potential for further injury got too much for Elijah, and he resolved to never leave the house again. However, his mother came up with a solution: buying a large supply of comics as presents for her son, she would regularly put one of them on a park bench just outside their house, essentially forcing Elijah to go outside to retrieve the comic before it could be stolen by a passer-by. Though this gradually had the effect of boosting his confidence and encouraging him to go outside, he never achieved much of a social life, and Elijah spent much of his time alone.
Finding a Superhero[]
Elijah at an airport before a plane crash.
As he grew older, Elijah began to ponder the existence of a superhuman: drawing on his extensive knowledge of comic books, he came to believe that superheroes had once been a reality in history, that people with "real" superpowers had been lionized in history as mythical heroes and eventually exaggerated beyond reality by the modern entertainment industry. He even theorized that, if he represented the frailest a human being could be, perhaps there might be someone in the world who stood at the opposite end of the scale - someone who couldn't be injured like most humans. This was to form a lifelong obsession, beginning simply with him studying the newspapers for stories of people who'd survived catastrophic disasters without being harmed; however, this gradually grew to dangerous extremes.
Elijah at a bar talking with a worker of the train station.
As an adult, Elijah's devotion to comic books gradually inspired him to start his own comic book art gallery, Limited Edition; though regarded as a perfectly respectable business by the general public, it was also to become Elijah's workshop - his office becoming a planning center for continued attempts to locate his superhuman antithesis. Here, he would make bombs, plan future acts of sabotage, and chart the patterns of survival in catastrophes throughout the world - some of them planned by him, some entirely accidental.
Elijah walking away from the train after sabotaging the train.
Just prior to the events of the film, Elijah had begun his search for his opposite in earnest by bombing an airplane and burning a hotel to the ground, both incidents resulting in hundreds of casualties. Disappointed by the absence of survivors, he continued.
Meeting David Dunn[]
Elijah Price selling a picture in his art gallery.
The film begins with Elijah orchestrating a train crash, killing a hundred and thirty-one passengers and crew. However, this time there was a survivor: David Dunn, a humble security guard. Seeking him out, Elijah plants a business card on the front of David's car, inviting him to Limited Edition; however, after hearing the eccentric art dealer's theory, David isn't convinced and leaves under the impression that he's being scammed.
Injuring Himself[]
Prince talking to David Dunn about his past.
Undeterred, Elijah follows him to the football stadium where he works, gradually charming him into an extended conversation. However, while walking past a queue of people waiting to be allowed into the stadium, David reveals an instinctive power to sense criminal behavior or past wrongdoings by touch, intuiting that one of the men in line is carrying a gun. Though Elijah considers this further proof of superhuman powers, David is once again dismissive. However, Elijah decides to follow the man out of the stadium, but trips while descending a flight of stairs and shatters several bones - though he is vindicated when he discovers that his quarry is indeed armed.
Helping David Dunn[]
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Elijah after falling down the stairs at the football station.
Now wheelchair-bound for the next few weeks, Elijah is assigned to physiotherapy and, after likely reading the list of therapists, chooses one with Dunn as their last name, David's wife, Audrey. Over the course of their time together, he learns that David supposedly injured himself in a car accident, ending his football career; however, Elijah believes that David faked his injuries and abandoned his future in sports in favor of his marriage to Audrey - a theory eventually proved true. David continues to disbelieve Elijah's theories of superhuman resilience, citing an incident in which he almost drowned, and considers ending their discussions after his son almost shoots him in an attempt to prove his powers exist. However, Elijah eventually convinces him that this vulnerability to water is merely a superhuman Achilles Heel, and encourages him to use his powers to seek out wrongdoers.
The Handshake[]
After doing so - managing to rescue two children from a murderous home-invader in the process - David attends an exhibition at Limited Edition to celebrate: here, Elijah congratulates him on finally discovering his true purpose in life, and shakes his hand. However, David's power to sense wrongdoing reveals Elijah's crimes to him - including the train crash - and he can only stare in horror and disbelief as his mentor reveals himself, calmly but eagerly claiming that the deaths were all justified as a means to find a true superhero.
Price reveals that he caused the train crash.
Overwhelmed with emotion, Elijah explains that he finally knows his purpose in life - to be the arch-villain to David's hero, even going so far as to suggest that his childhood moniker, "Mr. Glass," should have alerted him to the fact that he was always a meant to be a villain. Unable to bear the truth, David leaves. The final captions reveal that David led police to Elijah, who was committed to an institution for the criminally insane.
Incarceration[]
Elijah was incarcerated in Raven Hill Memorial Psychiatric Hospital, Elijah would attempt to escape a few times but failed. Due to his many escape attempts the Doctors who attempt to heavily sedate Elijah, but would always swap out the prescribed quantity medication for aspirin in the same quantity. Elijah proved very capable at making the rest of the hospital staff thinking that he had gone into a catatonic state from the medication and other psychotropic drugs.
Meeting Patricia & the Horde[]
After escaping from his room, Elijah went to the security room and logged onto a computer. Elijah began to research online articles about the Overseers' vigilante activities and examined a file on Kevin Wendell Crumb. Elijah looked at a list of the numerous identities residing within Kevin and the nature of The Beast. Elijah then entered the Hordes room to find Patricia crying. Elijah told Patricia that he was a comic book expert and explained to Patricia his theory that comic books were as a continuation of documentation recounting the superhuman feats that humans are capable of but had been over-exaggerated.
Elijah asks Patricia what is upsetting her, she reveals that she is beginning to doubt the Beasts extraordinary abilities and beliefs he may simply be unwell like Elijah. Elijah reassures Patricia by stating that all things extraordinary can be explained even though they are true and yet there are those who cannot be killed with bullets and some who can still bend steel. Patricia tells Elijah that if he can get the Horde out of captivity then he may meet the Beast.
Meeting the Beast[]
Using hypnotic lights he manages to bring out Hedwig, who follows him into the surgery room. He turns around and watches Hedwig give the light to the Beast. The Beast asks Elijah if he truly believes in him, and reaffirms he does further stating that he has believed in the existence of superhumans like the Beast his whole life. Elijah tells the Beast that in comic books superhumans would clash at a place celebrating man's achievements but he will need to fight David in order to convince the world of their existence.
Escape from Raven Hill Memorial[]
Battle between the Overseer and the Beast[]
Death[]
During the battle between David Dunn and The Beast, Elijah reveals to The Beast David's weakness for water, after which Joseph reveals that Kevin's father died in the train wreck caused by Elijah Price nineteen years earlier. Despite thanking him for his creation, The Beast mortally wounds Elijah out of distrust for Kevin after which he succumbs to his injuries.
Legacy[]
"There are unknown forces that don't want us to realise to what we are truly capable of, they don't want us to know the things we suspect that are extraordinary about ourselves are real. I believe that if everyone sees what just a few people become when they wholly embrace their gifts others will awaken. Belief in oneself is contagious, we give each other permission to be superheroes, we will never awaken otherwise. Whoever these people are who don't want us to know the truth, today they lose."
Despite his death, as well as the unfortunate demises of Kevin Wendell Crumb and the Overseer, it was Price who got the last laugh. As he knew that there were those who didn't want people to know of superhuman or their potentials, he was able to fool Dr. Staple into believing that he was planning to expose superhumans and the recently built Osaka Tower in Philadelphia. In reality, he initiated a suicide mission at Raven Hill to expose the truth. Prior to his death, he leaked the footage of the event to a private site where it could be broadcasted across the Internet and numerous news stations across the globe, resulting in the existence of superhuman revealed to the world, and making the Black Clover Organization's attempts to cover-up an ultimately futile one, undoing 10,000 years of covering up the superhuman's existence and their suppression/genocide. It is also likely that the his mission brought the organization's conspiracy and actions to light.
Personality[]
Elijah is a remarkably complicated man, in no small part due to the double life he leads as a terrorist and budding supervillain. For much of the film, he appears to be a perfectly respectable member of society; intelligent, immensely knowledgeable in his chosen field of study, and anxious to see the world improved by the presence of a superhero, he even serves as a mentor of sorts to David in encouraging him to achieve his true potential.
However, long before the final revelation, Elijah demonstrates a pronounced obsessive streak - both in regards to comics and in regards to proving David a superhero: in the case of the former, he's prepared to get into an argument with a high-paying customer over the proper use of comic book art, while in the case of the latter, he's willing to go so far as to stalk David at work in an attempt to persuade him. In a further show of obsessive dedication, he risks death or serious injury while pursuing a criminal down a flight of stairs (an incident that ends with Elijah tripping over and shattering several bones) in an attempt to see if the man was actually carrying a gun, as David had suspected.
He also demonstrates a remarkable gift for charisma and manipulation, proving himself able to enthrall his audience with lectures and unexpected topics of conversation: even during a fairly mundane talk with his physiotherapist, he is able to steer the course of the conversation away from his physical therapy and towards his therapist's marriage - to the point that the therapist herself puts aside all talk of work in favor of an extended discussion of her husband. On a much grander scale, Elijah is able to gradually convince both David and his son of the reality of a superhuman, until even the immensely skeptical David finds himself enthralled by the idea.
The finale of the film ultimately reveals that Elijah's obsessions are far more dangerous and violent than first appearances suggest: suffering an intense inferiority complex as a result of his disability, he is driven to find his heroic antithesis by any means necessary, believing it to be the only means of justifying his existence. To this end, he has gone so far as to engineer the deaths of hundreds if not thousands of people in airport bombings, hotel fires, and (most recently) train crashes. Though lacking a criminal organization or henchmen of any kind, Elijah was able to accomplish these acts simply by applying his impressive intelligence to manufacturing explosives and planning unimaginable acts of sabotage - not to mention his noted gift for manipulation: not only was he able to beguile a hotel employee into discussing the structural weaknesses of the building he was planning to incinerate, but he was able to make himself effectively beneath suspicion simply by seeming too helpless to pose a threat; at one point in David's flashback, Elijah is seen limping out of the driver's compartment on the train he sabotaged, but the driver quickly dismisses the sighting without another thought.
In the end, Elijah makes no apologies for his actions, nor does he ever believe that his crimes are anything but justified. However, rather than letting his activities go undiscovered, he decides to reveal himself by shaking David's hand, allowing him to witness the full extent of his efforts to find his opposite; though he is arrested soon after, Elijah is last seen smiling through his tears, overjoyed at his success in validating his own existence.
During the events of Glass, Price believes it to be his responsibility to expose The Clover Organisation's actions of hiding superhumans from the rest of the world. It would seem Price considers himself the spokesperson for superhumans.
Powers and Abilities[]
Powers []
Elijah considers himself the opposite of David, some of his abilities are reflected to him. His bones break easily unlike David who is Unbreakable. A superhuman Intelligence in all areas is there to compensante David's superhurman strenght. And the fact that David can see events from the past, more precisely crimes and sins committed. Elijah, seeing himself as his opposite, possesses a sort of precognition in the form of advanced intuition. indirectly and without physical contact.
- Superhuman Intelligence: Elijah Price has demonstrated himself a supergenius at deduction, tactics, strategies, manipulation, and overall information retention, which has allowed him to achieve most, if not any end goal he desires, despite his physical frailty. This is most obviously displayed in Elijah's encyclopedic knowledge of comic book history and lore, as well as his ability to draw upon ancient myths and legends to produce elaborate and surprisingly accurate theories and hypotheses about superhumans. This superhuman intelligence also allowed Elijah to quickly learn how to utilize new technologies and exploit their weaknesses, as demonstrated when he was capable of hacking into a computer even after he was sedated for a lengthy period. Indeed, with that final hack, Elijah was able to irreversibly expose the existence of superhumans to the world at large, and permanently thwart the Clover Organization, despite that group having murdered himself, Dunn, and Crumb.
- Unbreakable Mind: Elijah's will never falters and his plans never fail because of his strong belief. His mind is so powerful that he can indirectly influence others to do what he wants and make them reveal things. But his mind also grants him something similar to precognition, or the ability to influence reality simply by believing. This explains how the whole comic book prophecy about finding the Unbreakable Man could even makes sense, it only worked beacause Elijah believed in it, manifesting things into reality, as evidenced by the makes all his plans and desires always come true.
- Perfect Memory: Elijah showed that he had an excellent memory. he can see things for a brief second and have perfect recall because he managed to remember the name of Kevin's father who was on the list of people who died on board Eastrail 177. A list he probably hasn't read in years, given his imprisonment.
- Master Manipulator: Despite his off-putting demeanor and reclusive nature, Elijah possesses a level of charisma that has allowed him to gain the trust of individuals such as David Dunn and Kevin Wendell Crumb, (specifically his personalities, including even the cannibalistic sociopath, "The Beast"), only losing David's friendship due to Elijah revealing his murderous nature to him, and The Horde's trust due to Joseph telling The Beast the truth behind Elijah's role in the death of Clarence Wendell Crumb.
Weaknesses[]
- Frailty: Elijah's most debilitating weakness is his Type I Osteogenesis Imperfecta, that has rendered his bones extremely brittle. This has resulted in his arms and legs being broken by merely being born and breaking multiple bones throughout his body by falling down a flight of stairs. Elijah has had a total of 94 breaks in his 56 year lifespan. This ultimately led to his death, as Elijah was easily brutalized by the superhuman strength of the Beast - having his shoulder and collarbone crushed, and ribcage destroyed with one punch, with those broken bones lacerating Elijah's internal organs.
Relationships[]
Family[]
- Mrs. Price - Mother
- Father
Allies[]
- Dr. Mathison - Doctor
- Kevin Wendell Crumb/The Horde † - Ally turned Killer
Enemies[]
- David Dunn/The Overseer † - Former Friend turned Arch Enemy
- Audrey Dunn †
- Joseph Dunn
- Dr. Ellie Staple
Trivia[]
- Fan theory further speculates that the father of Kevin Wendell Crumb, aka The Horde, could've been killed in the same train derailment that David Dunn was the only survivor of. If this proves true, then Price not only created a superhero, David, but a super villain as well, Kevin, as he was raised by his abusive mother due to his father's death and as a result developed 24 personalities to hold the pain of the abuse inflicted by his mother. In the end of Glass, this is proved to be true.
References[]
- Glass: M Night Shyamalan Confirms Unbreakable & Split Sequel
- M Night Shyamalan prepares 'Split' and 'Unbreakable' sequel 'Glass'
- M Night Shyamalan Unveils ‘Glass’: ‘Unbreakable’ & ‘Split’ Sequel To Star Bruce Willis, Samuel L Jackson, James McAvoy
- 'Split' Sequel Starring Samuel L. Jackson as Mr. Glass Coming
- Bruce Willis & Samuel L. Jackson Confirmed For UNBREAKABLE/SPLIT Sequel GLASS; Release Date Announced
- Samuel L. Jackson, Bruce Willis to again work with Shyamalan
- Samuel L. Jackson Will Star In The 'Split' Sequel, 'Glass'
External Links[]
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