Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery *(SPOILERS)*

**SPOILERS**

Courtesy of The Economic Times

Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery was a huge success, making #1 on Netflix with over 44 million hours viewed. Many considered Glass Onion to be better than the original Knives Out which was released in 2019. Vladimir Boevers, a Senior here at APK felt, “It was much better than the first one; in the first one you could definitely tell who the killer was but in the second one it gives you a sense of danger and mystery.” Glass Onion was definitely a step up compared to Knives Out, as there were multiple deaths in Glass Onion instead of just one. Currently, Glass Onion has a 92% Rotten Tomatoes. Caley McClure a Junior here at APK shared, “I loved it. It had me constantly guessing as the story unraveled.” 

Courtesy of Zillow

Glass Onion certainly did keep you on your toes. The story starts introducing each of the characters that will later be attending the well-known Miles Brons party. Each of these characters are “friends” of Miles and are each introduced in their occupations in which they make an abundance of money off of Miles’s company, Alpha: A streamer named Duke, Connecticut Governor Claire, fashion designer Birdie, Alpha head scientist Lionel, and Alpha co-founder/Miles ex Andi. Each of Miles’s friends receives a box, inside are plenty of puzzles that then reveal an invitation to Miles’s party at the Glass Onion. The Glass Onion, placed on a private island, is a massive, modern-looking building designed by Miles. The Glass Onion is completely run on “Klear,” a hydrogen-based alternative fuel that Alpha plans to release. Benoit Blanc, the famous detective we know and love from the first Knives Out, is also invited to Miles’s party. However, we later find out that Miles did not invite Blanc, and Blanc was mysteriously invited.

Throughout his entire stay at the Glass Onion, Blanc has been taking mental notes on all of Miles’s friends, finding out that they each have a motive to want Miles dead. At this point, many would have expected Miles to be the one that was going to die, since there were so many signs pointing to one of his friends killing him. However, the movie takes a turn when suddenly Duke drops dead after drinking from Miles’s glass. Duke was known to carry a pistol with him everywhere, and they later find the pistol to be missing from Duke’s person. This obviously strikes chaos as everyone begins to lose trust in each other. Suddenly, lights go out in the Glass Onion and Andi has disappeared, only for her to run into Blanc. As Blanc tries to quickly explain Duke’s death to Andi, she is suddenly shot by someone from a distance behind Blanc.

We then get an extended flashback between Andi and Blanc, or should we say Helen and Blanc. In the flashback we see Andi is dead by presumed suicide, however, she had a twin sister named Helen that found the invitation to Miles’s party in her sister’s home unopened. Helen then goes to Blanc to invite him as well, as she believes one of her sister’s “friends” killed Andi weeks prior to the party, and she wants to see if Blanc can figure out who may have done it. Later, we find out Andi was threatening to expose Miles’s company and ruin his reputation, along with all of his friends. Coming out of the flashback, it turns out Helen is alive as the bullet hit a notebook that belonged to her sister. Helen and Blanc begin to dig deeper and discover the letter Andi planned to use to destroy Miles’s reputation in Miles’s office. Eventually, through a lot of teamwork and incredible detective work on Blancs part, it is discovered that Miles killed Andi. He had drugged her when coming by her home to “talk,” and then quickly fled after she died not telling anyone about her death. Helen exposed Miles in front of his friends and then burned his perfect Glass Onion to the ground using his prized possession, Klear.

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Courtesy of Bloomberg.com

When first watching the film, there are a lot of small things you miss, as there normally are when you watch a murder mystery film for the first time. Things such as Miles directly handing his glass to Duke or Duke mentioning seeing Miles’s car driving back from Andi’s place. This always makes the first watch unexpected and amazing, as you are so distracted with keeping up with the plot. But Glass Onion is a good movie to rewatch, as you can spend the time looking for hints and clues that you may have missed that can point you to the answer you struggled to find the first time. This film met a lot of expectations, “The writer deserves a huge reward for the plot just because of how well-written it was. Everything fell into place so well and the way the story kept on building on top of itself kept me focused for all 2hrs and 19mins,” says Junior, Deivarsi Demezier. When first watching the film there were a lot of questions that were left unanswered up until the end. Such as, why Helen was destroying the box the invitation came in at the beginning of the film. This resulted in many first watchers expecting Helen or “Andi” to be the killer just from her behavior around everyone and how a lot of her actions had no reason until you actually get to the flashback. “I couldn’t predict the ending at all. About halfway through the movie, when they started doing flashbacks, I was starting to get lost. So even if I did have some type of guess on what the ending would be, I probably would still be completely wrong,” shares Deivarsi. There was always something that would counteract your prediction when watching the movie. For example, thinking Helen took Duke’s gun because she bumped into him before he died and she ran away from the scene. Then immediately after, she was shot by who really had the gun, counteracting your prediction. That is what made this movie so good, it was hard to predict what was going to happen next. “It was easy to accuse characters because a lot of them were extremely unlikable,” pointed out Caley.

Courtesy of Towns & Country Magazine

One of the underlying messages of this film is how filthy rich people use each other to get wealthier. All of the characters in Glass Onion were wealthy because of Miles. All of them were shown in a flashback as your average person, eventually becoming selfish in themselves and only being friends with Miles because he gave them a platform to build off of. When you watch the movie a second time you see the broken friendship from simple arguments that occur between characters, up to Miles being seduced by Duke’s girlfriend because Duke wanted to be a part of Alpha News. Many were glad to see Miles Bron fall apart as Helen destroyed his work and the Glass Onion. “I feel like the way they delivered the message here is well done and it is an interesting thing to think about especially when watching this movie. I think the people who use their money strictly for personal benefit instead of actually helping their community deserve what Miles Bron got,” says Deivarsi. Funny enough, many feel the characters in Glass Onion may relate to real-life entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos. Although, in most cases that is how the rich get rich, “it is wrong to profit from someone else’s own gain they worked for. I feel like people deserve justice to where they don’t die, [just], like go to prison,” explained Vladimir. This movie had a really good reception and definitely deserved it, with all of the great cameos such as Ethan Hawke, Hugh Grant, and the popular game Among Us, it allowed the audience to make a lot of connections regardless of your age. The Blue and White recommends Glass Onion and definitely recommends watching it multiple times.

Courtesy of the North Coast Journal