Knives Out Overview and Analysis

Overview

Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film by Rian Johnson, blending a classic whodunit with social satire about class, race, and power, and launching a continuing Benoit Blanc franchise.

Key Film Facts

Plot

• Harlan Thrombey, an 85-year-old wealthy crime novelist, celebrates his birthday at his mansion with his extended family.
• Next morning, housekeeper Fran finds Harlan dead with his throat slit; police deem it suicide.
• Private detective Benoit Blanc is anonymously hired to investigate; he discovers every family member has motives tied to money and resentment.
• Harlan’s nurse, Marta Cabrera, secretly believes she fatally overdosed him with morphine after mixing his medications.
• To protect Marta from prosecution, Harlan instructs her in a detailed alibi: appear to leave, sneak back, impersonate him, then he cuts his own throat.
• Marta cannot lie without vomiting, so she answers Blanc’s questions truthfully but omits incriminating details while hiding evidence.
• At the will reading, Harlan’s entire estate and fortune go to Marta, shocking and enraging the Thrombey family.
• Harlan’s grandson Hugh Ransom Drysdale helps Marta escape the chaos, gains her confidence, and offers help in exchange for a share of her inheritance.
• The Thrombeys try to pressure Marta into renouncing the inheritance, including threats involving her undocumented mother’s possible deportation.
• Marta receives a blackmail note with part of Harlan’s toxicology report; she and Ransom go to the medical examiner’s office, which they find burned down.
• After an email summons her to meet the blackmailer, Blanc and police catch up; Ransom is arrested while Marta goes to the meeting.
• Marta finds Fran dying from a drug overdose, gives CPR, and calls an ambulance. She later confesses to Blanc but learns Ransom has blamed her already.
• Believing she is morally obligated, Marta prepares to confess to the family, which would trigger the slayer rule and forfeit her inheritance.
• At the mansion, Marta discovers Fran’s full toxicology report: Harlan had only trace morphine, so he was not poisoned.
• Blanc explains his reconstruction of events to police, Marta, and Ransom:
  • Ransom learned of his disinheritance, switched Harlan’s medications to cause Marta to accidentally kill Harlan.
  • Marta, experienced as a nurse, correctly identified the medicine by feel and gave the right drug despite swapped labels.
  • Harlan died solely by suicide; Marta is legally innocent.
  • After the death was ruled suicide, Ransom anonymously hired Blanc to trap Marta and secure leverage.
  • Fran saw Ransom tampering with evidence; she blackmailed him, prompting his letter to Marta and the arson at the examiner’s office.
  • Ransom overdosed Fran intending Marta would be framed when Fran died.
• The hospital calls; Marta claims Fran survived and will implicate Ransom. He confesses, thinking an attempted murder charge will fail.
• Marta then vomits on him, revealing she lied; Fran is dead and his confession is recorded by police.
• Ransom attacks Marta with a knife from Harlan’s display, but it is a retractable stage knife; police arrest him.
• Blanc reveals he suspected Marta from early on because of a blood stain on her shoe, but believes her moral choices foiled Ransom.
• As Ransom is taken away, Marta stands on the mansion’s balcony, now legally hers, looking down on the dispossessed Thrombeys gathered outside.

Principal Characters and Casting

Additional casting / performance notes:

• Daniel Craig was cast for his non–James Bond work; he trained heavily on the Southern accent, modeling it on Tennessee Williams and Shelby Foote.
• The Blanc character evolved from a Poirot-like bundle of quirks into a pompous but warm figure shaped with Craig’s input.
• Casting prioritized an ensemble of recognizable stars who could do heightened but not caricatured comic performances.
• Character names were inspired by musicians Johnson likes (e.g., Joni Mitchell, Richard Thompson, Donald Fagen).
• Ana de Armas was chosen to give Marta an underdog quality; her expressive eyes and immigrant background aligned with the role.
• De Armas nearly declined due to a clichéd character description but accepted after reading the script’s focus on Marta’s resilience.
• Johnson cast Chris Evans after seeing him play a villain on Broadway, intending to subvert his Captain America image.

Development and Writing

• Johnson conceived Knives Out after finishing Brick (2005), inspired by Agatha Christie adaptations he loved as a child.
• He drew on Alfred Hitchcock’s advice to avoid purely formulaic whodunits centered on a final twist.
• He designed the story around tonal shifts and structural experimentation to keep tension and surprise.
• Planned to write it after Looper (2012), but paused when hired to direct Star Wars: The Last Jedi.
• Backlash and culture-war reactions to The Last Jedi later influenced Knives Out’s themes and online-troll elements.
• Johnson wrote the script in early 2018 over six to seven months, immediately after The Last Jedi press tour.
• Friends’ early reactions were skeptical, misunderstanding his motivations.
• Title was taken from Radiohead’s song “Knives Out,” chosen as a fitting murder-mystery name.

Narrative Structure

• Starts as a classic whodunit with interviews and multiple suspects in a country-house setting.
• First major shift: the film reveals Marta’s apparent role in Harlan’s death, transforming the story into a thriller.
  • Focus moves to her guilt, fear of discovery, and attempts to evade Blanc, who appears as an antagonist.
• Second shift: revelation that Marta gave the correct medicine and is innocent; restores Blanc as the hero.
• Johnson’s key challenge: keep Marta sympathetic and morally justified even while apparently covering up a crime.
• Story explores how far an innocent person might go under threat of imprisonment.

Themes and Social Commentary

Class, Wealth, and Capitalism

• Widely interpreted as examining class warfare, wealth inequality, and class consciousness in modern America.
• Grouped with other 2019 films on class conflict: Ready or Not, Parasite, Hustlers, Joker.
• Harlan’s death is framed as a conflict of good vs evil:
  • Marta’s humanity, decency, and distress set against the Thrombeys’ greed and entitlement.
• The Thrombey family:
  • Fractured by competition for Harlan’s fortune, blind to his death’s emotional impact.
  • Depicted as ruthless, self-justifying, and willing to use any leverage, including immigration status.
• Marta:
  • Working-class immigrant caregiver; hero because of moral choices and empathy.
  • Uses wit and integrity to resist family coercion, despite economic vulnerability.
• Critical readings see the film as an allegory critiquing capitalism and entrenched class power.
• Alternating points of view on Marta’s ordeal highlight class divisions and power imbalances.

Race, Immigration, and White Liberalism

• The film satirizes white supremacy and liberal paternalism.
• Thrombeys display condescending affection towards Marta, plus repeated running gags about her supposed country of origin.
• These jokes emphasize their ignorance and selective “inclusion.”
• Academic critique (Michael Blouin):
  • Argues the film ultimately reinforces liberal universalist ideals and depoliticizes deeper racial crises.
  • Suggests antagonism is neutralized by leaning on abstract justice and reason.

Production: Financing and Logistics

Financing and Partnerships

• Conflicting accounts of financing:
  • One report: MRC acquired the script via an auction at the 2018 Toronto International Film Festival.
  • Producer Ram Bergman disputes this, saying no auction occurred and MRC was always the intended backer.
• MRC fully financed the $40 million budget and back-end deals for Johnson, Bergman, and Daniel Craig.
• MRC partnered with Lionsgate for distribution; Lionsgate was seeking a hit after a weak box office year.
• The production qualified for a $10 million transferable tax credit from Massachusetts.

Locations and Sets

• Johnson wanted a house reflecting Harlan’s sensibility, citing Sleuth (1972) as a visual reference.
• Main mansion work anchored around two Boston-area houses:
  • Exterior: privately owned 19th-century Gothic Revival manor.
  • Interior: Ames Mansion, a 20-room historic estate in Borderland State Park, Easton.
• Ames Mansion hosted most interior scenes, including family confrontations and Blanc’s interviews.
• Limitations in real mansions’ upper floors led to building Harlan’s office and hallway on soundstages.
• Production designer David Crank coordinated set geography with Johnson to ensure consistent movement across real and constructed spaces.

Additional Filming Locations

• Principal photography: Oct 30 – Dec 20, 2018 (about 38 days), working title Morning Bell.
• Locations in Greater Boston:
  • Maynard (including a converted laundromat set).
  • Areas around an MBTA station in Natick Center.
  • Private mid-century modern estate in Lincoln.
  • Canton, Wellesley, Waltham, Medfield.
  • Round-shaped state-owned facility in Marlborough used as burned medical examiner’s office.
• Marlborough shoot involved pyrotechnics and local firefighters as background extras.

Cinematography and Visual Style

• Steve Yedlin’s fifth collaboration with Johnson; they storyboarded broad visual ideas before shooting.
• Used a dual-camera setup with two operators to foster an experimental, flexible environment.
• Format and equipment:
  • Alexa Mini cameras, Zeiss Master Prime lenses, 1.85:1 aspect ratio.
  • Wide-angle lenses favored to show characters embedded in detailed environments.
  • Additional Panavision zoom lenses (PCZ Primo 1990, PZW 1540) to support Johnson’s stylistic zooms.
• Influences included Robert Altman’s style:
  • Whip pans, zooms, and dolly moves to build kinetic ensemble scenes.

Color and Lighting

• Extensive custom color grading based on Yedlin’s research into photochemistry and LUT design.
• Collaborated with FotoKem to simulate and control halation, gate weave, and film grain qualities.
• Interior lighting:
  • Overhead Arri SkyPanels and custom RGBWW LED strips mounted in foam for diffuse, adjustable lighting.
• Yedlin used software and a spectrometer to measure sunlight chromaticity and match nuanced color textures for continuity.

Production Design and Props

• The script left mansion design open; visuals emerged from discussions among Johnson, Crank, and set decorator David Schlesinger.
• Ames Mansion’s preserved architectural details gave sets a lived-in, aged feel.
• Props were sourced from shops, collectors, and residents around Boston and New York.

Key Visual Elements

• Automata:
  • Collection of antique mechanical figures central to the decor.
  • Difficult to source due to rarity, fragility, and transport constraints.
  • Museum restrictions led the team to private restorers and collectors for rentals and installation.
• Other prominent props:
  • Large dollhouses and crime-scene dioramas.
  • Harlan’s extensive book library.
  • Stash clock and various eccentric curios representing Harlan’s fictional writing career.

“Wheel of Knives” Prop

• Signature set piece: a throne-like chair backed by a circular fan of knives.
• Initially conceived as a library chair; the story justification evolved over time.
• Early concepts were abandoned before settling on an armature-and-chain design to support the knife ring.
• Became a central visual icon for interrogation and confrontation scenes.

Music and Score

• Rian Johnson pitched the musical approach as early as 2009, years before production.
• Composer was involved during principal photography:
  • Visited the set to design themes and motifs tailored to scenes, unusual for film scoring workflows.
• Musical inspirations:
  • Classic symphonic scores like Death on the Nile, Lawrence of Arabia.
  • Works of Bernard Herrmann.
• Unlike Johnson’s earlier films that used unconventional, low-cost instrumentation, Knives Out uses a full orchestra.
• It was Nathan Johnson’s first large-scale orchestral score, transitioning from smaller ensembles.

Marketing and Release

Festival Run and Theatrical Rollout

• Festival premieres:
  • Global: Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF), Sept 7, 2019.
  • North American festivals: closing film at Fantastic Fest; centerpiece at Chicago International Film Festival.
  • European: BFI London Film Festival gala screening, October 2019.
• Theatrical releases:
  • North America and UK: Nov 27, 2019 (Thanksgiving frame in the US).
  • Second-week expansion to China, France, Australia, Russia, and many other territories.
  • Final release: Japan, Jan 31, 2020.

Marketing Strategy

• Lionsgate led promotion, starting with:
  • CinemaCon preview and teaser trailer (April 2019).
  • CineEurope showcase (June 2019).
• Heavy use of social media:
  • Emphasis on campy humor and “feel-good” messaging.
  • In-character promotional content featuring Thrombey family businesses (Shannon, Collette, Curtis).
  • Created mock websites and ad-style clips.
• Post-release viral moment:
  • Chris Evans’ off-white Aran sweater became an online phenomenon.
  • Official Twitter account briefly rebranded as a Chris Evans sweater fan account and ran merch giveaways.
• Advertising attracted strong interest from men and women across age groups.
• Licensed artwork included colorful character posters with the tagline, “Nothing brings a family together like murder.”
• Johnson recorded an interactive theatrical audio commentary to encourage repeat viewings.

Home and Digital Media

• Digital release: Feb 7, 2020.
• Physical media (DVD, Blu-ray, 4K): Feb 25, 2020.
• Bonus materials:
  • Deleted scenes, behind-the-scenes featurette.
  • Audio commentary (Johnson, Yedlin, Noah Segan).
  • Eight-part documentary, ads, and press interviews.
• Home-media performance:
  • Second-best-selling DVD/Blu-ray in its first US week (248,286 copies; $4.6 million).
  • By Jan 2023, about 1.47 million units sold.
• Streaming:
  • Available to Amazon Prime Video subscribers.

Box Office Performance

Domestic Performance

• Opened wide in 3,391 theaters after $2 million from advance screenings.
• Benefited from a five-day Thanksgiving frame; first five days totaled about $41.7 million.
• Exceeded pre-release estimates of $22–25 million by nearly double.
• Audience profile (CinemaScore week one):
  • Grade: A.
  • Mostly male; ~73% over 25, 46% over 35, 63% white.
• Week-by-week:
  • Second weekend: $14.2 million from 3,461 theaters, still #2 behind Frozen II.
  • Then about a 35% slip, followed by continued top-10 presence through Christmas.
  • Christmas week bump: approximate 50% increase versus prior week.
  • Remained top-10 for ten weeks; theater count stayed above 2,000 by year’s end.
• By Feb 2020, domestic total exceeded $159 million.

International Performance

• Opening overseas week: about $28.3 million, second to Frozen II.

• Initial major territories and first-week grosses:

  • China: $13.5 million.
  • UK: $3.8 million.
  • Russia: $2 million.
  • Australia: $1.9 million.
  • France: $1.5 million.

• Sustained hold:

  • Strong second weekend in China and UK, modest revenue drop in UK (~20%).
  • After four weeks: $27.9 million in China, $13.7 million in UK.

• Further openings:

  • South Korea, Italy, Mexico in mid-December; solid top-5 debuts.
  • Brazil: opened #1 with $1.1 million.
  • Germany and Austria also saw healthy debuts.

• Holiday period:

  • Ticket sales boosted in France, Australia, UK.
  • Russia saw a 152% week-over-week rise during New Year holidays.

• International total exceeded $100 million within a month.

• Overall, Knives Out stood out as an adult-oriented success in a season dominated by family franchises like Frozen 2.

Critical Reception

Writing and Direction

Positive notes:

• Reviewers highlighted the inventive plot structure, serpentine narrative, and playful subversion of whodunit conventions.
• The film’s sardonic humor and meta commentary on mystery tropes were widely praised.
• Many critics enjoyed the blend of comedy with a socially aware storyline addressing class and race.
• Several called it one of the best whodunits in years and lauded Johnson’s meticulous construction and pacing.
• Squabbling among greedy, untrustworthy characters was cited as especially entertaining.

Criticisms:

• Some felt the political commentary was shallow or too light to carry real weight.
• A few reviews deemed the film overcomplicated, self-indulgent, or overly reliant on dialogue-heavy exposition.
• Certain outlets questioned whether the thematic ambitions truly matched the story’s execution.

Performances

Positive impressions:

• Ensemble described as “outstanding,” “wildly charismatic,” with strong chemistry and shared investment in the material.
• Daniel Craig:
  • Praised for his eccentric, enjoyable sleuth persona and visible onscreen enjoyment.
• Ana de Armas:
  • Widely regarded as a breakout; performance labeled “superb” and “wonderful.”
  • Critics admired her emotional range and the depth she brought to Marta.
• Supporting cast:
  • Jamie Lee Curtis, Toni Collette, Chris Evans, Don Johnson, Michael Shannon, Christopher Plummer, and Noah Segan received individual praise.
  • Craig–de Armas interactions were singled out for particularly engaging chemistry.

Criticisms:

• Some reviewers disliked Craig’s Southern accent, finding it overdone or distracting.
• Uproxx suggested de Armas’ ability exceeded the material’s depth for her character.
• A few actors were seen as underused due to the large ensemble; some performances were described as bordering on overacting “white noise.”

Awards and Nominations (Selected)

• Considered a major awards-season contender in 2019–2020; appeared on many critics’ top-ten lists.
• Notable recognition:
  • Academy Awards: nominated for Best Original Screenplay.
  • Golden Globes: three nominations, including Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.
  • BAFTA: nominated (Best Original Screenplay).
  • Various critics’ groups and guilds:
    • Honors or nominations from AFI, National Board of Review, costume designers, casting society, editors, and several regional critics organizations.
• Won the Costume Designers Guild Award for contemporary costume design (shared slate with other films).
• Contributed to broad awards presence across writing, acting, design, and ensemble categories.

Franchise and Sequels

• Johnson was already considering a sequel while Knives Out was still in theaters.
• Lionsgate initially planned a sequel (announced Feb 2020).
• In March 2021, Netflix acquired rights to two sequels in a deal valued around $450–469 million.
• Despite Lionsgate’s distribution leverage, Johnson and Bergman owned the underlying IP, enabling a new deal, especially after COVID-19 hurt theatrical returns.
• Glass Onion received strong critical notices, continuing the blend of mystery and social commentary.
• Wake Up Dead Man entered development in 2023; production was briefly delayed during the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike.

Action Items

• None specified in the source material.

Decisions

• MRC chosen as primary financier with significant back-end deals for key creatives and star.
• Lionsgate selected as theatrical distribution partner.
• Franchise direction:
  • Decision by Johnson and Bergman to maintain IP ownership.
  • Strategic move from Lionsgate distribution to Netflix-backed sequels following market changes.