Knives Out

Knives Out is a 2019 murder mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. Daniel Craig of James Bond fame stars as Benoit Blanc, while Christopher Plummer plays Harlan Thrombey. Other cast members include Jamie Lynn Curtis as Harlan's daughter Linda and Chris Evans as her son Ransom.

Mystery novelist Harlan Thrombey died of a slit throat on his birthday, shortly after fighting with most of his relatives. The police have ruled it a suicide, but someone anonymously sent the Great Detective Benoit Blanc a wad of cash, with a news article about Harlan's passing. Benoit suspects that Harlan's surviving children and grandchildren may know something about his death; he employs the man's nurse, Marta Cabrera, as his temporary assistant.

Just one problem: Marta knows more than she lets on initially to the police. She can't lie without throwing up, but she made a promise to keep the full circumstances of Harlan's death a secret. Someone knows, though, and is willing to endanger her mother.

A sequel came out on Netflix in 2022 titled Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Daniel Craig and Noah Segan are the only actors who return for the sequel, with the new cast including Edward Norton, Leslie Odom Jr., and Janelle Monae.

Tropes used in Knives Out include:

Accidental Murder: Ends up subverted. While Marta thinks that she did this by overdosing Harlan with morphine and unable to find the naxolone antidote, Benoit reveals and proves in the climax that Harlan received the right dose because Ransom switched the liquids in the medical vials and Marta's nurse instinct led her to picking up the right one by touch.
Affectionate Nickname: Lieutenant Elliot calls Benoit "Benny".
Asshole Victim: Zigzagged with Harlan; he was a Cool Old Guy to his staff, including Fran and Marta, while maintaining a close relationship with his daughter Linda. He freely admits, however, that he turned his children and grandchildren into a Spoiled Brat group of descendants; his ways of correcting this turns them all against Marta since Harlan left all his wealth, assets, and the house to her. Walt and Joni may have deserved it, but Linda as far as we know didn't. Benoit realizes that his death, while preventable, was a suicide because Marta never overdosed Harlan. He also says that Harlan didn't deserve to be overdosed, which would have happened if Marta hadn't picked up the switched vial.
At Least I Admit It:
- Played straight with Jacob. He is definitely an evil alt-right troll that swats people for fun and mimics his parents' racist views, but he visibly becomes annoyed with how his family scapegoats him. They're all assholes, but he's the only one willing to admit it.
- Deconstructed with Ransom. He is the Black Sheep of the family, who had a fight with Harlan on his birthday, and shows no respect for anyone, which is why he convinces Marta after extorting the truth about Harlan's death from her that if she buys him off, he'll help her. Turns out he was actually the worst of the lot of them, planning for Marta to accidentally kill Harlan so that she wouldn't inherit his fortune as Harlan planned.
Bunny Ears Lawyer: While Benoit appears to be eccentric and quirky, with a heavy Southern accent, he's every bit the detective as fitting his reputation. He immediately deduces that Richard is cheating on Linda, and that Walt had a fight with Harlan the night of the party. What's more, he realizes that everyone forgot Nana, Harlan's mother, and talks with her about what she saw. While it turns out Ransom hired him to snag Marta as the killer, Ransom completely underestimated that Benoit would realize that Ransom actually had the most motivation to want Harlan dead and to frame Marta for it. Turns out he knew the whole time that Marta was involved with Harlan's death, but instinct told him that Marta wasn't a killer.
Chekhov's Gun: Quite a few, that you can spot around the movie:
- Harlan's chair of knives. After his birthday party, Harlan stabs a real knife into a table when talking with Marta about how he knows how alike he and Ransom are, but Ransom can't tell a real blade from a prop. Harlan later uses that knife to slit his throat just as Marta tries to convince him to change his mind and not cover up her accidental overdose. In the climax, when realizing that he confessed to Fran's murder in front of a police officer that recorded it, Ransom grabs a knife from the chair and tackles Marta, preparing to fatally stab her so she can't inherit. Fortunately, as Harlan correctly surmised, his grandson couldn't tell a real knife from a prop. As Ransom realizes, he grabbed a prop knife. "Shit" indeed.
- Lemons in a fruit bowl on Harlan's desk. Linda tells the cops that she and Harlan had a special way of communicating, and finds the blank letter that Harlan used to threaten her husband. It was invisible ink, and one can make it from lemons. Linda activates the ink with her cigarette lighter, and finds the message from Harlan revealing Richard's infidelity.
- Fran's stash of marijuana. She shared freely with Marta and Meg, when the former was not working. While Fran was dumb to confront Ransom alone in an abandoned laundromat, she did have the sense to make a backup copy of the toxicology report that she thought proved his guilt and put it in the stash. She managed to communicate this to Marta while dying from morphine that Ransom injected her with, allowing Marta to deliver it to Benoit who proves her innocence.
Clean Pretty Reliable: Zigzagged. Marta, a trained nurse, performs actual chest compressions on Fran after finding the latter overdosed in the abandoned laundromat, and dialing 911. Fran makes it to the hospital, but she doesn't survive to the end of the movie.
Could Have Avoided This Plot: Marta is horrified to learn this in the climax: she never overdosed Harlan due to Ransom switching the vials. That means he was perfectly fine. Benoit says that if Harlan had listened to Marta, that is dial 911 and have the paramedics check him, he would still be alive. An investigation would also have revealed the tampered medical bag.
Didn't Think This Through: Someone hired Benoit Blanc anonymously to investigate Harlan's death and his family. Ransom assumed that Benoit would find the evidence that Marta killed Harlan by accident.
Drama Queen: Harlan's Fatal Flaw. He never knows how to do things by halves. In fact, the instigator for his death was he told Ransom about the changed will, for the sake of drama.
Exact Words: Ransom reveals at the will-reading that he was fighting with Harlan about being cut from the will, before Harlan's birthday party that same day. Benoit realizes something else: Ransom already knew the will was altered so that only Marta would inherit. Ransom didn't bother to elaborate to his relatives because he thought Benoit would eventually arrest Marta and activate the slayer statute.
Explain, Explain, Oh Crap: One that happens in the climax. Benoit proves that Marta didn't pick up the morphine but rather the right medicine that night, covering the vials in blank labels and she chooses the right one with her nurse instinct and training. He says they were switched. Marta says with dawning horror that if she gave Harlan the correct medicine, then he never overdosed. Benoit finishes the thought: his death was completely avoidable if Harlan had listened to Marta about calling 911.
Evil-Detecting Dog: Harlan's German Shepherds seem to have a good measure of character. They're fine with Linda, who was Harlan's closest relative, petting them, but bark at her son Ransom. Harlan mentions that they adore Marta, meaning they won't bark when she climbs into the trick window to create her alibi. That they did bark that night reveals someone they didn't trust was on the property: Ransom Drysdale.
Hero Antagonist: Subverted eventually with Benoit. It seems that he is this for Marta, uncovering evidence about what really happened the night Harlan died, but turns out he knew the whole time that she was involved because he spotted the bloodstains on her shoe. He was trusting that there was more to the story.
The Reveal: A few come out during the movie:
- No one in the family touched Harlan the night of the party. Marta believed that she accidentally overdosed him with morphine and her emergency kit didn't have the antidote, naxolone. When she tried to call 911, Harlan made her hang up the phone and tripped her when she ran to get help from his children, ordering her as a Last Request to fake an alibi per his instructions. They both know it was an accident but if she gets arrested, her mother will get deported. When Marta changed her mind and turned around to stop Harlan, he slit his throat in front of her.
- Benoit figures out and does The Summation: Ransom was the actual killer, who attempted to murder his grandfather and did kill Fran in cold blood. Harlan was a Drama Queen and told Ransom about the changed will, underestimating that Ransom would resort to murder to ensure his family inherited the wealth instead. Ransom used the trick window to enter Harlan's room and tamper with Marta's medical bag undetected; he had enough training as his grandfather's assistant to switch the morphine and his medicine, while stealing the naxolone. When he skipped the funeral to steal Marta's nurse pack, knowing that it would be the subject of a criminal investigation, Fran saw while folding laundry and became suspicious. She got a copy of the toxicology from a cousin who worked in the medical officer's employment, sent it to Ransom, and expected it would confirm his guilt. Ransom set up Marta to meet Fran at a later time the same day so that she would be found with Fran's overdosed body. He didn't expect that Benoit would take him in for questioning, or that Marta would do the decent thing and dial 911 for her coworker and friend.
Undying Loyalty: Harlan inspired this in his staff, Marta and Fran. Marta treated him as a Cool Old Guy to the point of following his final orders to the letter and Fran loved him, as shown by her anger on realizing that Ransom framed Marta for Harlan's death.
Your Cheating Heart: Harlan found out that Richard was cheating on Linda, and confronted him about it. He gave his son-in-law a day to come clean or Harlan would send a letter to his daughter with the news. Richard found the letter after Harlan's death, and it was blank. Or so he thought. Linda sees the letter on Harlan's desk, opens it, and runs her cigarette lighter under it. Invisible ink, implied to be from lemon juice, activates, revealing Harlan's final message and apology for breaking this bad news to her. The movie implies that Linda will be divorcing Richard, since he's sporting a black eye that wasn't there before.