After a memorial service for the dead passengers, he receives a strange note on his windshield. "How many days of your life have you been sick?" the note asks, leading David to think about his injury-free and healthy life. He tracks down the writer of the note, and meets Elijah Pierson (Samuel L. Jackson), a brooding man who has a degenerative bone disease that has caused a lifetime of broken bones. Elijah, called Mr. Glass by his classmates in school, owns a store that sells comic book art. He is convinced that David is a modern-day superhero. David is convinced he is nuts. However, after a meeting at the stadium where David works, Elijah convinces him to look deeper into his unusual life and seeming ability to see images of past or future actions just by touching people. David thinks they're just hunches, but Elijah is sure they're evidence to confirm his beliefs.

Like in The Sixth Sense, this film has a twist ending. In the former movie, however, there were ample hints along the way to alert you to the ending, so that an observant viewer, chuckling to him/herself, could remember all the times during the film where they should have guessed. The twist ending in this film comes off as rather arbitrary, and doesn't work as well because there were no hints.

The rest of the film, however, works well. Writer/director M. Night Shyamalan wrote the film to resemble the comic books that play such a huge role in the film. The protagonist's name, David Dunn, recalls such superhero alter egos as Peter Parker or Clark Kent. You have an ordinary enough guy who, during an extraordinary situation, learns that he is somehow blessed with super powers. He must receive guidance from a sage, in this case the mysterious Elijah. Small experiments reveal the limits of his power, including knowledge of his one weakness. And every superhero needs a supervillain.