Split (2016 American film)

Split is a 2016 American psychological thriller film written, directed and produced by M. Night Shyamalan, and starring James McAvoy, Anya Taylor-Joy, and Betty Buckley. It is the second installment in the Unbreakable trilogy and a "stealth sequel" to Unbreakable (2000). The film follows a man with dissociative identity disorder who kidnaps and imprisons three teenage girls in an isolated underground facility.

Principal photography began on November 11, 2015, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The film premiered at Fantastic Fest on September 26, 2016, and was released in the United States on January 20, 2017. It was the first film by Shyamalan to be distributed by Universal Pictures instead of Touchstone Pictures, which went defunct in 2016. It received generally positive reviews; critics highly praised McAvoy's performance, and welcomed Shyamalan's direction, although some mental health advocates criticized the film for its stigmatization of mental illness. Split was a commercial success, grossing $278 million worldwide on a budget of $9 million, becoming Blumhouse Productions' highest-grossing film until 2023 when Five Nights at Freddy's overtook it. The 2019 film Glass, which combined the casts and characters of both previous films, concluded the trilogy.