A Knives Out Mystery

''Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'' (titled onscreen as simply ''Glass Onion'') is a 2022 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson and produced by Johnson and Ram Bergman. It is a standalone sequel to the 2019 film '' Knives Out'', with Daniel Craig reprising his role as master detective Benoit Blanc as he takes on a new case revolving around tech billionaire Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton) and his closest friends. The ensemble cast also includes Janelle Monáe, Kathryn Hahn, Leslie Odom Jr., Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, Kate Hudson, and Dave Bautista.

Johnson had considered the idea of several films featuring the Benoit Blanc character prior to the first film's release. A sequel was greenlit by its original distributor Lionsgate in 2020, but in March 2021 Netflix bought the rights to two ''Knives Out'' sequels for $469 million. The cast signed on that May. Filming took place with a $40 million budget on the island of Spetses, Greece in June and July 2021, and continued in Belgrade until September.

Following its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022, ''Glass Onion'' began a one-week limited theatrical release on November 23, 2022, receiving the widest theatrical release ever for a Netflix film and grossing $15 million; Netflix began streaming it on December 23. Like its predecessor, ''Glass Onion'' received critical acclaim, with reviewers praising Johnson's screenplay and direction, the performances of the cast, and musical score. The National Board of Review named ''Glass Onion'' as one of the top ten films of 2022. It also received numerous other accolades.

Plot

During the COVID-19 pandemic in May 2020, Miles Bron, billionaire co-founder of technology company Alpha, hosts a murder mystery game at his Glass Onion mansion on his private island in Greece. He invites five friends: Alpha head scientist Lionel Toussaint, Connecticut governor Claire Debella, controversial fashion designer Birdie Jay, men's rights streamer Duke Cody, and ousted Alpha co-founder Cassandra "Andi" Brand. Famous detective Benoit Blanc, who is also invited, joins the group along with Birdie's assistant Peg and Duke's girlfriend, Whiskey.

Miles questions Blanc's presence but lets him stay, assuming another guest invited him as a joke. Blanc overhears Peg confront Miles over a PR statement he wants Birdie to release and sees Duke watch Whiskey in bed with Miles. Before dinner, Miles shows off the '' Mona Lisa'', which he borrowed from the Louvre, and reveals that the Glass Onion is powered by "Klear," a hydrogen-based alternative fuel that Alpha will launch imminently, despite Lionel's and Claire's safety concerns.

Blanc solves Miles' murder mystery game immediately, then privately warns a disgruntled Miles that he is giving his guests a genuine opportunity to ''actually'' kill him. Andi storms off after an argument while Miles and Blanc rejoin the guests. When Duke collapses and dies after drinking from Miles' glass, the panicking group suspects Andi. After the group discovers Duke's pistol is missing, the power goes out, and everyone splits up in the chaos. Blanc finds Andi, but an unseen assailant shoots her. Blanc gathers the rest of the group and announces that he has solved Andi's murder.

An extended flashback shows that Andi died, supposedly by suicide, a week before the trip, and her twin sister Helen hired Blanc to investigate her death. At Alpha, Andi halted Klear's development for being unsafe, so Miles had her removed as CEO; this maneuver was supported by their friends perjuring themselves in court by testifying that Miles single-handedly sketched out the plan for Alpha years ago on a napkin. Andi later rediscovered the original napkin, which was written by her, and emailed the group a photo of the evidence. With the napkin now missing, Helen suspects that someone in the group killed Andi and took the napkin to gain favor with Miles. With Andi's death yet to be publicized, Blanc had Helen pose as Andi at Miles' party, helping him investigate.

Helen helps Blanc discover motives for Miles' friends to protect Miles from Andi: Lionel and Claire have staked their reputations on Klear, Miles is financially rescuing Birdie from the fallout of employing child labor, and Duke is using Whiskey to seduce Miles in exchange for Duke joining Alpha News. Helen also discovers that Miles' friends visited Andi's home but returned after not getting any response the day she died. Duke had reached earlier at Andi's home, who was later joined by Lionel and Claire. Helen is told that Duke had nearly gotten into an accident on his bike with a car while rushing on the way over there. Helen disrupts the party so she can search the guest rooms but does not find the napkin. When Helen is shot, Andi's journal in her jacket pocket stops the bullet, but Blanc feigns her death so that she can secretly search Miles' office.

Blanc reveals that Miles committed the murders: Miles killed Andi after learning she had the napkin, but Duke saw Miles' car leaving her house. When news of Andi's death is finally released online during the party, Duke realizes that Miles was responsible and attempted to blackmail him to get on Alpha News. This prompts Miles to poison him, exploiting his allergy to pineapple, and to snatch Duke's pistol, with which he shot Helen. Helen locates Andi's original napkin in Miles' office and reveals herself to the group. However, Miles burns the napkin, eliminating the evidence against him. Helen begs Miles' friends to testify against him, but they refuse.

Blanc tells Helen that without evidence, he is powerless but secretly passes Klear to her. In cathartic anger, Helen destroys Miles' glass sculptures, with Miles' friends joining in. Helen lights a bonfire and throws Klear into it; the explosion destroys the Glass Onion. Finally, Helen exposes the ''Mona Lisa'' to the fire. Realizing the painting's destruction will reveal that Klear is dangerous, ruining Miles, the group decides to testify against him for his crimes. At the beach, Helen and Blanc watch the police boats arrive.

Cast

* Daniel Craig as Benoit Blanc, a private investigator.
* Edward Norton as Miles Bron, a New York billionaire and owner of a large technology company
* Janelle Monáe as Helen and Andi Brand, twin sisters, with the latter being Miles's ex-business partner
* Kathryn Hahn as Claire Debella, the governor of Connecticut, now running for the United States Senate
* Leslie Odom Jr. as Lionel Toussaint, the head scientist for Miles's company
* Kate Hudson as Birdie Jay, a hedonistic, politically incorrect former supermodel turned fashion designer in Manhattan
* Dave Bautista as Duke Cody, a video game streamer and men's rights activist on Twitch and YouTube
* Jessica Henwick as Peg, Birdie's assistant
* Madelyn Cline as Whiskey, Duke's girlfriend and Twitch channel assistant
* Noah Segan as Derol, a slacker who lives on Miles's island. Segan previously appeared in '' Knives Out'' (2019) as Trooper Wagner.
* Jackie Hoffman as Ma, Duke's mother
* Dallas Roberts as Devon Debella, Claire's husband

Additionally, Ethan Hawke appears briefly as Miles's assistant (credited as "Efficient Man"), Hugh Grant cameos as Phillip, Blanc's domestic partner, and Joseph Gordon-Levitt voices Miles's clock, the Hourly Dong; Gordon-Levitt had a vocal cameo in the previous film as Detective Hardrock. Several celebrities make cameo appearances as themselves, including Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Natasha Lyonne, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Yo-Yo Ma, Jake Tapper, and Serena Williams. Sondheim and Lansbury both died before ''Glass Onion'' was released, and the film is dedicated to both of them. Jared Leto and Jeremy Renner's likenesses appear on bottles of kombucha and hot sauce, respectively.

Production

Development

The 2019 film '' Knives Out'' was a commercially successful production from MRC and Lionsgate Films. It grossed over $311 million on a budget of $40 million, making it the third-highest-grossing original movie of the year that was not based on existing intellectual property. Before its release, writer and director Rian Johnson had teased the possibility of a sequel revolving around the lead character, Detective Benoit Blanc. The sequel was officially greenlit by Lionsgate in early 2020.

In March 2021, Netflix outbid Amazon and Apple at an auction to acquire the rights to the film and another sequel to ''Knives Out'' for $469 million, with Johnson returning as director, Daniel Craig set to reprise his role as Blanc, and a budget of at least $40 million for the first installment. Johnson, Craig, and the producer Ram Bergman reportedly earned more than $100 million for both productions. A losing bidder called it an inexplicable and "mind-boggling" deal.

Craig worked with a dialect coach to regain familiarity with Blanc's Southern accent. Johnson previously considered having Blanc speak with an inexplicably different accent in each film.

Writing

Johnson wrote ''Glass Onion'' in 2020 during COVID-19 lockdown with its setting of Greece coming from a desire to travel abroad when international travel had been shutdown at the time. His writing began from the premise that he wanted to write a whodunnit "vacation mystery" in the style of stories Johnson loves such as '' Evil Under the Sun'', '' Death on the Nile'' and '' The Last of Sheila''. Johnson made it clear that ''Glass Onion'' was not a continuation of its predecessor but a standalone film featuring a new story and cast, similar to the Hercule Poirot novel series by Agatha Christie.

In addition to Christie novels, he took inspiration from "tropical getaway murder mysteries" like the film adaptation of Christie's '' Evil Under the Sun'' and especially '' The Last of Sheila'', saying: "It's structured around a group of friends, or frenemies, who all have a power dynamic with one of their successful friends. It begins with him sending an invitation for them to come and play this murder mystery game at this exotic locale. In ''The Last of Sheila'', it's on his yacht, and everything ends up going horribly wrong. That is essentially how ''Glass Onion'' begins." Johnson wanted the film's title to refer to something hidden in plain sight. He chose "glass" because it is clear, and searched his phone for songs with the word. He chose " Glass Onion" by The Beatles. The song is featured in the end credits.

The character of Benoit Blanc was revealed as gay in the film. Johnson said this "did not feel like a big decision" and "felt very natural" when depicting Blanc's home life.

Casting

Johnson described casting the film as "throwing a dinner party". Dave Bautista said Johnson encouraged him to audition during an unprompted call, and Kathryn Hahn secured her role over several Zoom calls with Johnson.

Filming

Returning ''Knives Out'' crew members included cinematographer Steve Yedlin, editor Bob Ducsay, and composer Nathan Johnson. Filming began in Spetses, an island in Greece, on June 28, 2021. Johnson discovered the Amanzoe's Villa 20 in Porto Heli and decided to use it as a major filming location. It also housed the cast and their families for the majority of the shoot, which Johnson described as "a summer vacation where we also made a movie". The shoot moved out of Greece on July 30 to continue shooting interior and New York scenes in Belgrade, and wrapped officially on September 13, 2021.

Music

Rian's cousin and frequent collaborator, Nathan Johnson, returned to score ''Glass Onion''; it marks their fifth collaboration after ''Brick'' (2005), '' The Brothers Bloom'' (2009), '' Looper'' (2012), and the predecessor, ''Knives Out'' (2019). The album was released by Netflix Music on November 25, 2022.

Other songs featured in the film include " Under the Bridge" by Red Hot Chili Peppers, "Star", " To Love Somebody" by the Bee Gees and "Starman" by David Bowie, " Take Me Home, Country Roads" by Toots and The Maytals and " Mona Lisa" by Nat King Cole, while Edward Norton plays " Blackbird" by The Beatles on guitar. " Glass Onion" by The Beatles plays during the credits.

Release

Marketing

A ''Glass Onion'' teaser trailer was released on September 8, 2022, followed by a full trailer on November 7, 2022.

Johnson said he was "pissed" that ''A Knives Out Mystery'' was added as the subtitle, originally intending the film to simply be titled ''Glass Onion'' and act as a standalone story. While he said he understood the need for audiences to understand that ''Glass Onion'' was part of a series, he believes that "the whole appeal to me is it’s a new novel off the shelf every time" and that there is an industry trend with "the gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling".

Theatrical and streaming

''Glass Onion'' premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 10, 2022. It also screened at the Philadelphia Film Festival in October 2022, closed the BFI London Film Festival on October 16 and Film Fest 919 on October 30, 2022, and screened at the Miami International Film Festival as its opening night film on November 3, 2022. It was released on Netflix on December 23, 2022.

Netflix was reportedly considering a new release model for films like ''Glass Onion'', which would give the film a 45-day window in theaters before being released on the streaming service. On October 6, 2022, Netflix announced that after signing deals with the three largest theater chains in the United States ( AMC Theaters, Regal Cinemas, and Cinemark, the latter of whom Netflix had a pre-existing deal with), the film would see a very limited one-week theatrical release (billed as a "sneak preview" release) from November 23 to 29, 2022, in roughly 600 theaters in the largest markets across the United States as well in other international markets, marking the first time a Netflix-distributed film would be shown in all three major theater chains in the United States. After the release was over, Netflix would then pull the film from distribution until the Netflix release on December 23, at which point Netflix would allow theaters to show the film again. '' Deadline'' later reported that Netflix agreed to take a lower amount of the rental revenue than usual from theaters (40% vs. 60–70%), as well as to kick in four times the average amount of money for exhibitor marketing. ''Deadline'' also reported that some smaller exhibitors that were interested in playing the film were shut out from the one-week limited release, as Netflix preferred more popular theaters for ''Glass Onion''.

Home media

On December 23, 2022, in an interview with ''TheWrap'', Johnson and Bergman confirmed that discussions between Netflix and the creatives about a possible Blu-ray release of the film had taken place, with Bergman saying, "There have been conversations but no results yet. I really hope we can do it. We've got plenty of good stuff to fill out a disc if anyone's interested." Johnson—a longtime advocate of physical media—also was hopeful, saying that even if it does not come to fruition, he will strive to make an audio commentary available in some form.

Reception

Box office

In the United States and Canada, ''Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'' was released alongside '' Strange World'', '' Devotion'', and the wide expansions of '' Bones and All'' and '' The Fabelmans'', and was initially projected to gross around $6–8 million from 698 theaters over its five-day opening weekend. As with their other theatrical releases, Netflix did not release any box office numbers for the film. '' Deadline Hollywood'' reported that the film made an estimated $2–2.5 million on its first day, which led to estimates being raised to as much as $12.3 million. '' The Hollywood Reporter'' later reported that the film went on to debut with an estimated $13.1 million over the five-day weekend, which would be the best-performing theatrical release for Netflix, and third for the weekend had Netflix officially released box office numbers, behind '' Black Panther: Wakanda Forever'' and ''Strange World''.

Critical response

'' Variety''s Owen Gleiberman praised the film as "a bigger, showier, even more elaborately multi-faceted shell-game mystery" than the first film. Christy Lemire of ''RogerEbert.com'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, writing: "The clever details, amusing name-drops, and precisely pointed digs at vapid celebrity culture keep Johnson's movie zippy when it threatens to drag." Writing for '' The Guardian'', Peter Bradshaw gave the film 4 out of 5 stars and said: "''Glass Onion'' is never anything less than entertaining, with its succession of A-lister and A-plus-lister cameos popping up all over the place. And Johnson uncorks an absolute showstopper of a flashback a half-hour or so into the action, which then unspools back up to the present day, giving us all manner of cheeky POV-shift reveals."

The film's characters and plot have been likened to current business magnates. Calder McHugh of '' Politico'' described the film as "an allegory for all of us living with the omnipresent Elon Musk, Donald Trump, and Jeff Bezos", while James Downie of MSNBC claimed Norton's character Miles Bron's "mixture of bluster, hubris, and half-baked ideas will likely bring to mind Twitter owner and part-time car enthusiast Elon Musk." Of the film's relevance to Elon Musk's recent takeover of Twitter, Rian Johnson commented, "A friend of mine said, 'Man, that feels like it was written this afternoon.' And that's just sort of a horrible, horrible accident, you know?" Shirley Li of '' The Atlantic'' praised the film for "observing the absurd privileges of wealth and skewering the ignorance of the 1 percent" such as in the "overflowing smarm" of Edward Norton's performance as Miles Bron. Clay Cockrell, a therapist for rich people, writing in ''The Guardian'' said that the film illustrated how the very rich could not trust either their pre-wealth friends, or new friends, as he had seen in real life.

Accolades

''Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery'' was nominated for six Critics' Choice Movie Awards and two Golden Globe Awards. It was named one of the ten best films of 2022 by the National Board of Review.

Sequel

Netflix holds the film rights to at least one more film in the series. In September 2022, Johnson confirmed his intention to make more. Later that month Craig and Johnson separately said that they would continue making further films in the series, so long as they were both involved together. In November 2022, Johnson said that he was preparing to work on writing the third film.

References

External links

Screenplay
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, title = Awards for ''Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery''
, list =
{{Satellite Award for Best Cast – Motion Picture
{{Washington D.C. Area Film Critics Association Award for Best Ensemble

Knives Out
2020s American films
2020s comedy mystery films
2020s comedy thriller films
2020s crime comedy films
2020s English-language films
2020s mystery thriller films
2022 black comedy films
2022 crime thriller films
American black comedy films
American comedy mystery films
American comedy thriller films
American crime comedy films
American crime thriller films
American detective films
American mystery thriller films
American nonlinear narrative films
American sequel films
Films about the COVID-19 pandemic
Films about twin sisters
Films about writers
Films directed by Rian Johnson
Films produced by Ram Bergman
Films scored by Nathan Johnson (musician)
Films set in 2020
Films set in Connecticut
Films set in Greece
Films set in Manhattan
Films set on fictional islands
Films shot in Belgrade
Films shot in Greece
Films with screenplays by Rian Johnson
Murder mystery films
Mona Lisa