When people talk about Bruce Willis (“The Last Boys Scout”) these days, there is immediately a lot of melancholy in the air. In March 2022, the action star gave up his career due to illness and has since retreated from the public eye. Willis had one of his last lead film roles in 2019 in M. Night Shyamalan’s ‘Glass’. Here the ‘Die Hard’ star was able to once again embody David Dunn of ‘Unbreakable’ fame.
Willis’ return to the role of the unbreakable was already prepared three years earlier – in the mysterious thriller ‘Split’. And here M. Night Shyamalan has once again proven how well he can surprise the audience. No one could have imagined that Willis would suddenly appear at the last minute as David Dunn, thus placing the film in the same universe as “Unbreakable”! Haven’t seen “Split” yet or would you like to watch it again? Then you can now easily do this on Amazon Prime Video, where it is now included in your Prime subscription.
That’s what ‘Split’ is about
Teenagers Claire (Haley Lu Richardson), Martha (Jessica Sula) and Casey (Anya Taylor-Joy) are kidnapped by an unknown man (James McAvoy) and locked in a basement. What does the man want from them? And where do these other voices come from? It soon becomes clear that Kevin suffers from a personality disorder and shares his body with several other identities.
Sometimes he appears as a child with a lisp, sometimes as a strict man and sometimes as Kevin, who is afraid of germs and forces the girls to clean the bathroom. The girls absolutely have to get out of here because the man has an internal time bomb inside him. “The Beast” is one of many different personalities that seems to reside in her captor’s body, and she is about to break out and take control…
Even apart from the big surprise, it’s really good!
If you don’t think “Split” has much to offer besides this Bruce Willis surprise, you’re wrong! Our official FILMSTARTS review gave it a solid 4 out of 5 possible stars. The performance of James McAvoy, who covers various personalities with ever-changing acting nuances with playful ease, is reason enough to definitely watch the film!
Moreover, our author Andreas Staben was very enthusiastic about how M. Night Shyamalan once again manages to combine reality with the fantastic: “With his usual sense of atmosphere and the presence of the invisible, Shyamalan not only creates a solid thriller, but also a very different film about being different.”