What actually happens
A ride home that goes somewhere else
Three teenage girls are waiting for a ride home from a birthday party, in the car of Claire's father near Philadelphia. Claire, Marcia and their classmate Casey are taken by a man and locked in an underground lair. The man has dissociative identity disorder, rooted in abuse and abandonment when he was a child, and he lives with twenty-three distinct personalities. He sees a therapist, Dr. Karen Fletcher, who is happy that he holds down a good job. One personality, Barry, decides which of the others gets to use the body. Lately Barry has not let Dennis and Patricia have a turn. Dennis likes harassing young women. Patricia believes in a twenty-fourth personality called The Beast, who is going to rid the world of the impure, meaning anyone who hasn't suffered.
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Meet the personalities, attempt several escapes
In the lair the girls meet Patricia, who keeps Dennis away from them so they can be saved for The Beast. They also meet Hedwig, a nine-year-old boy whom Patricia and Dennis manipulate into shutting out the other personalities. Flashbacks show that Casey herself survived childhood sexual abuse. She tries to manipulate the personalities to create openings to escape. The girls try an air vent, a chair as a weapon and a walkie-talkie to call for help. Each attempt fails, and the man punishes them by locking them in separate rooms. Most of this stretch is conversation, and the threat depends on which personality is at the door.
The Beast takes the train
In a session, Dr. Fletcher realizes Dennis has been pretending to be Barry. She goes to the lair to speak with him, learns he has met The Beast, and spots Claire. Dennis locks her up, then goes to a train station and boards an empty car, where The Beast takes over. That is the scene to prepare for. The Beast is stronger than the others and moves like an animal, and when he returns to the lair he thanks Fletcher for her help and crushes her. He then feeds on and kills Claire and Marcia before coming for Casey. Casey finds a note Fletcher left behind. It says that saying the man's full name, Kevin Wendell Crumb, will bring back his original personality. Kevin is horrified to learn that someone else has been running his body for two years, and he begs Casey to shoot him with a shotgun he has hidden.
The tunnel and the cage
All twenty-four personalities fight for control after Kevin's plea, and Patricia wins. She tells Casey that Kevin has been put to sleep far away and won't wake, even if his name is called. Patricia hands the body back to The Beast, and Casey grabs the shotgun with a box of shells and runs into a tunnel, where he hunts her. She shuts herself in an iron cage, fires at him twice and then has nothing left to shoot. He is wounded but not stopped, and he bends the bars. Then he sees the scars on Casey's stomach and chest from self-harm, caused by her uncle John abusing her both before and after her father's death. Because she has suffered, The Beast decides she is pure and spares her.
The ending, explained
The Beast leaves Casey alone and a worker finds her the next day. It turns out the lair is beneath the zoo in Philadelphia. A police officer then says her uncle has arrived to take her home, and Casey hesitates. Claire, Marcia and Dr. Fletcher are dead, and Casey is the only captive who gets out. In the final scene, Dennis, Patricia and Hedwig talk about The Beast's power and their plans for the world. At the Silk City Diner, patrons watch a news report about The Beast, now nicknamed The Horde. A waitress remembers a criminal in a wheelchair who was locked up fifteen years earlier and was also given a nickname. David Dunn, sitting next to her, supplies it: Mr. Glass.
The post-credits ruling
Yes, there is a scene after the credits, so stay in your seat.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Split scary?
Yes, Split is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. Most of it is tension in an underground lair with a man whose personality keeps changing, and it gets louder when The Beast arrives.
How does Split end?
The Beast kills Dr. Fletcher, Claire and Marcia, then spares Casey because she has suffered. She is found the next day, and she hesitates when her uncle arrives to collect her.
Does the dog die in Split?
No dog dies in Split. A deer is shot in a flashback.
Is there a post-credits scene in Split?
Yes. Split has a scene after the credits, so stay in your seat.
Who is The Beast in Split?
The Beast is the twenty-fourth personality of Kevin Wendell Crumb, the man who holds the girls captive in Split. He is far stronger than the others and believes that people who have not suffered are impure.
