Warning: This article contains spoilers for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Story. If you’re reading this story about who’s the killer in Glass Onion, one of these things is true: either you caught the Knives Out sequel in the very small window—a mere week—it was in cinemas in late November 2022 and need a refresher, or you’re a masochist who wants to spoil the ending to this delightful and ingenious murder-mystery without seeing it. The latter would be a mistake, of course, because critics have lauded this follow-up as better than its 2019 predecessor. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is set after the events of Knives Out, in which Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) solves the puzzling death of Harlan Thrombey, a wealthy Boston novelist who is found dead, throat slit, in his office the morning after his 85th birthday. Several years later, Blanc and his sultry Southern accent are back. Contemplating life during COVID lockdowns, a surprising case catches his attention. Instead of a mansion in Massachusetts, we’re on a lavish private island in the middle of the Aegean Sea where the unbearable, billionaire tech bro Miles Bron (Edward Norton) is hosting a murder-mystery party for his closest celebrity friends. When not one but two people are killed, everyone is a suspect. What you’ll see though is that Det. Blanc actually gives the Glass Onion killer an idea of how to do it very early on in the film.
Who is the killer in Glass Onion?
Who is the killer in Glass Onion? You might or might not be surprised to know it’s Miles Bron himself, despite being painted as a potential victim in the beginning. When the guests arrive at Miles’ luxurious property, we quickly discover there’s animosity between them. We learn that Miles, the co-founder of a tech company called Alpha with Cassandra “Andi” Brand, had pushed Andi out of the company and took credit for all her work. Secretly, though, Andi had written all her ideas for the company on a napkin but believed she’d lost it. When Andi dies in mysterious circumstances, her sister Helen believes it to be foul play and invites Benoit to a gathering of friends in Greece. Helen poses as Andi to aid the Southern detective in his investigation and the missing napkin ends up being the chief piece of evidence against Miles, who kills Andi and stages her death as suicide.
Courtesy of Netflix
Early into his arrival on the island, Benoit observes there’s tension within the group while chatting with the billionaire host. He even mentions that the isolated nature of the island, coupled with the setting of a murder-mystery party, would be the perfect setting for someone to try to kill Miles “in the dark”. It’s this line that gives Miles himself the inspiration for murder; indeed, a party such as this is the perfect opportunity for him to eliminate his opponents.
We find out that Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) is a liability for Miles getting away with murder. The YouTuber recalls a moment when Miles nearly “pancaked” him driving by Andi’s house. Miles interrupts, suggesting the incident happened outside Anderson Cooper’s house when they were heading to a party. But Duke is actually referring to the moment he catches Miles fleeing Andi’s murder and their cars almost collide. This makes Duke a potential witness to Miles’s crime and he, therefore, needs to be taken care of. In fact, Duke himself reveals how best to do it. Early on, the YouTuber suggests he “doesn’t mess with pineapple” because he’s deathly allergic to it. Later during a party, Duke gets drunk and chokes to death on seemingly nothing. How easy it would be to lace his cocktail with pineapple juice and have no one be the wiser.
While Helen searches for the final and crucial piece of the puzzle—Andi’s napkin—Benoit distracts the party guests by concluding Miles was the murderer all along, of both Andi and Duke. Andi had found the napkin and Miles decided to poison her to hide the truth of his fraud. During the blackout on the island, Miles hunts Helen (who as you’ll remember is pretending to be Andi) and she appears when Benoit reveals the napkin on which all of her sister’s ideas were written.
Contrary to the ending in Knives Out where the murderer is arrested, there’s justice for Miles in another way. Everything he values is destroyed in a fire Helen lights, including his pride and joy, a painting he claims to be the “real” Mona Lisa by Leonardo DaVinci. After all, Miles is rich enough to probably get away with murder, with the cash and resources to hire the best lawyers in the world. So to see his most treasured possessions, as well as his reputation, be incinerated is truly justice served.
Even though you know the ending to the film now (or did before), star Daniel Craig believes there’s great value in re-watching Glass Onion because you may gain clues that you missed in your first viewing. “What’s great about the movie—many things that are good about the movie, but one that gives me endless joy is that there are lots of things to discover in the film and if you decide to concentrate on those things, you’ll be rewarded,” Craig told Slash Film. “If you don’t, you just want to have the joy of it, you’ll be rewarded. But if you watch it again, all of those things pay off. They’re like little presents you get as the movie goes on.”
Image: Courtesy of Netflix.
In a similar vein, Craig told Netflix’s Tudum that the director Rian Johnson’s game of “3D chess” is worthy of a second, third and even fourth watching. “You kind of need to watch it a second time, I think, to see what’s going on,” Craig said. “[Rian’s] playing 3D chess constantly, and not in a condescending way, in a really inclusive and generous way. There are payoffs, constant payoffs, and if you’re watching and enjoying it and concentrating, you’ll get every single one.”
He goes on to explain how one of the inspirations for the Knives Out franchise, famed murder mystery author Agatha Christie, would’ve adapted to the modern day. “What Rian’s movies do best is they subvert the genre so that you think you’re watching an old-fashioned sort of Agatha Christie–type mystery,” he said. “But then you’re not watching that, you’re watching something else.” He continued: “If [Christie had] been writing today, she would’ve written about dot-com billionaires. She would’ve written about social media stars.”
Netflix paid a reported $465 million in March 2021 for the rights to Glass Onion and a third yet-to-be-released Benoit Blanc mystery. In somewhat of a theatrical experiment, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was released in cinemas for a week before heading to the streamer, at a time when at-home services and theaters are seemingly at odds. “I’m very grateful to Netflix and the theater chains—this was a big deal for them and they really stepped up in terms of reaching across the aisle,” director Rian Johnson told the New York Times. “My hope is that we do great when it comes on the service, so that we really demonstrate that these two things can complement each other.”
Image: Courtesy of Netflix
He continued to explain that, despite some critics accusing him of “not caring” about the future of theatrical distribution having sold the rights to a streamer, he still very much does. “I believe in theatrical releases, and I hope everyone knows I’m working as hard as I can to push, push, push it,” he said. “I also believe that a successful theatrical run will only make its presence more valuable when it hits the streamer. It absolutely makes noise, it makes a cultural moment, it spreads word of mouth. That’s what we’re setting out to prove here.”
Johnson said that while he’s excited about a third untiled murder mystery in the Knives Out universe, he’s trying to avoid a thematic string that links them all together beyond the beloved Detective Benoit Blanc. “I honestly don’t want there to be [a thematic throughline]. If there’s any kind of thing that seems indispensable, it’s engagement with the moment, in terms of culture,” he said. “And structurally, the detective is never the protagonist, so that means these movies are always going to need somebody different at the heart of the story that the audience cares about.”
He continued: “I had it in my head that it would be healthy to do something totally different next, and I have a couple ideas I’m still excited about. But I found myself straying back to the notion of what the third mystery movie could be. Finally, I was just like, “You know what? The siren song is calling me back.” What I’m most interested in is figuring out how the third movie could define the wingspan of what this series can be going forward. That’s very exciting to me.”
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is available to stream on Netflix.
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Source: Stylecaster.com
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