Everything You Need to Know About "Knives Out" Before Watching "Glass Onion"
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Major spoilers for Knives Out below! (There is also mention of suicide, so reader discretion is advised.)
Look out, Sherlock Holmes, there's a new detective (back) in town.
In 2019, fans fell in love with Daniel Craig's peculiar private eye, Benoit Blanc, in the smash hit whodunnit, Knives Out. The detective was clever, meticulous, and hilariously described by Chris Evans's Knives Out character as having a "Kentucky Fried Foghorn Leghorn Drawl."
Now, Benoit is at it again — but this time he's taking on a whole new case, completely unrelated to the drama that befell the Thrombey family in Massachusetts. His new venture takes him to Greece, surrounded by an eclectic group of friends who have joined together for their annual reunion, hosted by a billionaire. Naturally, someone winds up dead, and it's up to Benoit Blanc to solve the mystery.
Like Knives Out, Glass Onion has an all-star cast, including Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe, Leslie Odom Jr., and Outer Banks star Madelyn Cline. A quick glance at the movie's IMDb page tells us to expect a surprisingly long list of celebrity cameos during the nearly two-and-a-half-hour movie.
Actor Noah Segan, who played the adorkable police detective/Harlan Thrombey fanboy in Knives Out is also part of the cast, but unlike Daniel Craig, he is a different character this time around. The rest of the Knives Out cast does not seem to be part of Glass Onion whatsoever. Writer-director Rian Johnson considers Glass Onion, per People, more of "a standalone [film] than a sequel."
However, it's still good to have a refresher on the first movie, just in case anything is referenced in the new film. A LOT happened in Knives Out, so strap in for this in-depth summary.
In Knives Out, the wealthy Thrombey family finds their world turned upside down when their patriarch, mystery writer Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer), is found dead in his home the day after his 85th birthday party. He appears to have died by suicide, but famous detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) is hired by an anonymous person to investigate Harlan's death.
While the rest of the family anxiously anticipates the reading of Harlan's will, Harlan's nurse, Marta Cabrera (Ana de Armas), grieves her employer who had become her good friend. She also harbors a terrible secret: She accidentally overdosed Harlan on morphine after his medication vials get mixed up and was unable to find the antidote.
In order to keep her from going to prison and bringing unwanted scrutiny on her undocumented mother, Harlan cleverly concocts a plan that will keep Marta and her family out of trouble... or so he hopes. With the plan laid out, creating a fake alibi for Marta during the time of death, Harlan slits his own throat to make his death look like a suicide.
The plan works at first, seemingly fooling Benoit Blanc, the two police detectives, and Harlan's entire family. In fact, the Thrombeys tell Marta they want to help take care of her when they receive their inheritance from the will.
All those warm fuzzies go out the window, however, when everyone learns Harlan left literally everything — his fortune, his house, and his publishing business — to Marta. Naturally, Harlan's surviving family members are confused, livid, and determined to contest the will.
Harlan's oldest grandson, Ransom (Chris Evans), who had learned his grandfather kicked him out of the will before Harlan died, is the only family member who doesn't jump down Marta's throat. He encourages her to hitch a ride with him after the will reading, and they escape the family drama.
At the restaurant, Ransom manipulates Marta into spilling the beans on what actually happened to Harlan. Reluctantly, she tells him the truth, since she can't lie without becoming physically ill.
When Marta finishes her story, Ransom tells her he will help keep what happened a secret, but she has to give him some of the inheritance in exchange for his silence.
Later, Marta receives a blackmail note with part of a photocopy of Harlan's toxicology report, which would show her medication error. Frantically, Marta and Ransom drive to the medical examiner's office but learn it recently burned down, destroying evidence. Now, it looks like the mysterious blackmailer is the only person with a copy of the toxicology report in full.
Checking her email, Marta receives a message from the blackmailer about where to meet. Soon after, Benoit spots Marta and Ransom, and "the dumbest car chase of all time" ensues, ending with the police arresting Ransom. He is apprehended based on the testimony of Harlan's mother, Great Nana Wanetta (K Callan), who claims she saw her great-grandson leaving Harlan's room the night he died.
With the police taking Ransom away, Marta and Benoit are left alone. Still wanting to meet the blackmailer at the desired location, Marta cleverly takes Benoit to the spot, leaving him in the car while she runs a fake errand.
When Marta arrives at the rendezvous, she finds Thrombey's housekeeper, Fran (Edi Patterson), drugged and near death. Not wanting to abandon her, Marta calls 911 and performs CPR on Fran until help arrives.
After all the commotion happens, Marta confesses to Benoit she is responsible for Harlan's death. Unbeknownst to her, Ransom has already told the police what she's done. Because Marta caused Harlan's demise, his will becomes invalidated under the slayer rule, which means a person who kills someone cannot inherit the deceased person's property.
Everyone returns to the mansion and Marta discovers a copy of Harlan's full toxicology report hidden away in Fran's marijuana stash. (Fran has a cousin who works in the medical examiner's office, which is how she is able to get a copy of the privileged document. Convenient!)
Marta gives the report to Benoit without reading it, assuming it will prove she is guilty of Harlan's death. However, Benoit learns that Harlan did not die from a morphine overdose and stops Marta from confessing to a crime she didn't commit.
In a classic whodunnit moment, Benoit reveals his theory about what really went down to everyone in the room: the police detectives, Marta, and Ransom. The detective believes Ransom sabotaged Marta's medical bag after he learned Harlan wrote him out of the will and was leaving everything to Marta. If Ransom could get Marta to accidentally kill Harlan by switching the medication vials in her bag and stealing the antidote for a morphine overdose, then he could ultimately get the will thrown out under the slayer rule. This is why Ransom secretly hired Benoit to investigate Harlan's death after it was ruled a suicide.
However, Ransom underestimated just how good of a nurse Marta is because she did give Harlan the correct medication, despite the labels being switched. She could tell which drug to use based on the bottle's viscosity. Benoit then proved this by removing the labels from two vials and asking Marta to hand him the correct one. She chose the correct one without even having to think about it. This means Harlan was not dying from a morphine overdose at the time he took his own life.
How does Fran fit into the equation? She had previously seen Ransom tampering with Marta's medical bag before Harlan died and eventually put two and two together. The blackmail note was originally sent to Ransom. He panicked and decided to trick Marta into still thinking she had killed her patient. Ransom burned down the medical examiner's office and attacked Fran, ultimately killing her from a morphine overdose... or so he thinks.
Marta then gets a call from the hospital and reveals Fran survived her attack and will soon name her assailant. Fed up, Ransom angrily confesses to sabotaging Harlan's medications and attempting to murder Fran after she discovered what he had done. Then, Marta throws up all over Ransom. She had lied; Fran didn't survive the overdose. With Ransom's entire confession recorded on tape by one of the police officers, he quickly realizes the jig is up and is going away for murder.
Ransom then tries to murder Marta by stabbing her with a knife from his grandfather's collection, only to learn it was a fake, retractable weapon, completely harmless. He's then carted away by police.
Not long after, Benoit reveals he knew Marta had something to do with what happened to Harlan the moment he met her, pointing out a tiny spot of blood on her shoe.
The movie ends with Marta drinking from Harlan's mug on the balcony of her new mansion, staring down at the Thrombey family.
Glass Onion is available to stream on Netflix beginning December 23, and Knives Out is available to watch now on Prime Video.
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