Knives Out
Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. Daniel Craig leads an eleven-actor ensemble cast as Benoit Blanc, famed private detective summoned to investigate the death of bestselling author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Although police rule Harlan's case a suicide, Blanc suspects foul play and examines a host of clues and deceptive red herrings to ascertain his true manner of death. Rian produced Knives Out with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman. Lionsgate managed the film's commercial distribution, and funding was sourced through MRC and a multimillion-dollar tax subsidy from the Massachusetts state government.
For other uses, see Knives Out (disambiguation).Knives Out
Rian Johnson
- Ram Bergman
- Rian Johnson
- September 7, 2019 (TIFF)
- November 27, 2019 (US)
130 minutes[1]
United States
English
$40 million[2]
$311.9 million[3]
Rian conceived Knives Out in the mid-2000s. Seeking to modernize the whodunit films of the mid-twentieth century, the director's concept was influenced by his interest in big-screen movie adaptations of Agatha Christie's stories. Rian eventually pivoted to creation of his 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, halting further progress on Knives Out. Development resumed the following year when Rian wrote the screenplay in six or seven months. He devised a framework of tonal shifts to escalate tension between the characters, and informed elements of the story with his experience coping with intense culture war backlash to The Last Jedi. Principal photography began in October 2018 on a $40 million budget and wrapped that December. Shooting took place on location in suburban Boston. Nathan Johnson composed the film's classical score, which drew on an eclectic array of his and Rian's favorite symphonic movie scores. Knives Out has been read as work that investigates class warfare, wealth inequality, immigration, and race in contemporary American society.
Knives Out premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was distributed to American theaters on November 27 to major critical and commercial success. It was chosen as one of the year's top films by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and finished the theatrical run grossing $311.9 million at the global box office. Critics distinguished the film's plot and actors for praise, though some aspects of the writing and performance drew occasional criticism. Knives Out was nominated for multiple awards, among them three Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. The success of Knives Out spawned a standalone sequel, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, released in 2022 on Netflix, and a third film that is in development as of 2024.
Plot[edit]
The family of Harlan Thrombey, a wealthy mystery novelist, attends his 85th birthday party at his Massachusetts mansion. The next morning, Harlan's housekeeper, Fran, discovers him dead with a slit throat. Police detectives Lieutenant Elliot and Trooper Wagner believe Harlan committed suicide, but private detective Benoit Blanc is anonymously hired to investigate. Blanc learns that Harlan had strained relationships with his family members, giving several of them possible motives for murder.
Unknown to Blanc, Harlan's nurse, Marta Cabrera, believes she injected Harlan with a lethal dose of morphine after mixing up his medications the night after the party. Harlan instructed her to create a false alibi and then slit his own throat. Marta cannot lie without vomiting, so she gives accurate but incomplete answers when questioned. She agrees to assist Blanc's investigation and conceals evidence incriminating her. At the reading of Harlan's will, Marta is bequeathed his entire fortune, stunning the Thrombeys. Harlan's grandson Ransom helps Marta escape the family, but coerces her into confessing to him. He offers help in exchange for a portion of Marta's inheritance. Meanwhile, the remaining Thrombeys try to persuade or threaten Marta into renouncing the inheritance, to no avail.
Marta receives a blackmail note containing a partial photocopy of Harlan's toxicology report. She and Ransom drive to the medical examiner's office to find it burned down. Marta receives an email proposing a rendezvous with the blackmailer. Blanc and the police spot them, and after a brief car chase, Ransom is arrested. At the rendezvous, Marta finds Fran drugged. She performs CPR and calls an ambulance. She confesses to Blanc but discovers that she's already been implicated by Ransom. Out of moral obligation, Marta believes she must confess to the Thrombeys, which would invalidate the bequest under the slayer rule.
Back at the mansion, Marta finds Fran's copy of the full toxicology report, which shows Harlan had only trace amounts of morphine in his blood. Blanc reveals his deductions to the police, Marta, and Ransom: that Harlan had told Ransom about his will, and that Ransom had then swapped Harlan's medicines to ensure that Marta would accidentally kill him and thus be ineligible to claim the inheritance. However, Marta actually gave Harlan the correct medication, recognizing it without reading the label due to her experience as a nurse, she was able to differentiate between the medications based on their viscosity; she only thought she had poisoned him after reading the label. When the death was reported as a suicide, Ransom anonymously hired Blanc to expose Marta. Fran saw Ransom tampering with the crime scene and sent him the blackmail note. After Ransom realized Marta was not responsible for Harlan's death, but Marta still thought she was, he forwarded the blackmail letter to Marta and burned down the medical examiner's office to destroy evidence of her innocence. He then overdosed Fran with morphine, intending for Marta to get caught with Fran's corpse.
The hospital calls; Marta relays that Fran survived and will implicate Ransom. He scoffs that since his attempt to kill Fran failed, his lawyers will help him escape arson and attempted murder charges. Marta then vomits on him, revealing that she lied: Fran is dead. Realizing he has confessed to the murder, with the conversation being recorded, Ransom attacks Marta with a knife from Harlan's collection, which turns out to be a retractable stage knife. The police promptly arrest him.
Blanc tells Marta he suspected early on that she played a part in Harlan's death, noting a drop of blood on her shoe. He tells her that her innocence prevailed because she made ethical choices all along that frustrated Ransom's attempts to incriminate her. As Ransom is taken into custody, Marta watches from the balcony of what is now her mansion, with the Thrombeys gathered outside.
Reception[edit]
Box office[edit]
Knives Out endured at the box office as a film targeting adults, in a theatrical season saturated with family blockbusters such as Frozen II.[15][97] It earned $165.4 million in the United States and Canada (52.8% of its earnings) and $147.5 million overseas (47.2%), for a worldwide total of $312.9 million, making it the 29th-highest-grossing film of 2019.[98] Of this figure, $82 million was estimated to have been yielded by the MRC–Lionsgate partnership in net profit, factoring in marketing, equipment, royalties, interest, and miscellaneous costs.[97] China was the most lucrative overseas market, and positive press buoyed the film's performance in that country.[15] The United Kingdom, Germany, Australia, and France represented some of the film's largest takings.[99]
In North America, after securing $2 million from advanced screenings, Knives Out received a wide release across 3,391 theaters.[87][100] The film benefitted from a five-day tracking period thanks to the Thanksgiving holiday Thursday. This enhanced the first week sum to $41.7 million, ahead of the three-week old Ford v Ferrari and second to Frozen II, which was in its second weekend.[85] Knives Out's opening gross nearly doubled the prognosticators' pre-release estimates of $22–25 million.[87] CinemaScore conducted during opening night revealed the average grade moviegoers gave the film was A− on an A+ to F scale. Screenings attracted mostly men, and approximately 73% were over 25 years of age, 46% over 35, and 63% white.[85] The second weekend saw Knives Out take another $14.2 million from 3,461 theaters, remaining the number two film, and earnings dropped by about 35% the following week.[101][102] In the fourth weekend, the film slipped to the number five position with a gross of $6.5 million, its theater count narrowing to slightly above 2,500, though box office figures improved by 50% for the Christmas holiday week (seventh, with $9.7 million).[103][104] Knives Out remained one of the top ten highest-grossing films for ten weeks, and the theater count stayed above 2,000 at the end of the year.[15][99] By February 2020, the film's domestic gross topped $159 million.[105]
Overseas, Knives Out's overall November 27 week rank was second to Frozen II at $28.3 million.[91] China comprised the largest portion of the earnings with $13.5 million, followed by the United Kingdom ($3.8 million from 632 theaters), Russia ($2 million from 1,451 theaters), Australia ($1.9 million from 282 theaters), and France (third, with $1.5 million from 437 theaters).[91] Knives Out sustained the box office momentum in China and the UK into the second weekend, resulting in a 20% drop in revenue in the latter.[106] After four weeks it had earned $27.9 million in China and $13.7 million in Britain.[107] The film's overseas expansion continued into mid-December, marked by key releases in South Korea (fourth, $1.7 million from 686 cinemas), Italy (third, $1.2 million from 362 cinemas), and Mexico (second, $1.1 million from 871 cinemas).[106] Christmas period saw reinvigorated ticket sales in France, Australia, and Britain, and in Russia, the New Year holiday bolstered the film's box office by 152% over the prior week.[92][107] Knives Out debuted as the top-grossing movie in Brazil when it premiered the weekend of December 12, earning $1.1 million.[108] On its inaugural weekend elsewhere, the film took $2.7 million in Germany and $665,000 in Austria.[92] Within a month, Knives Out's international gross exceeded $100 million.[107]