50 Fun Facts About Knives Out

Which Star Wars film did Rian Johnson write and direct just before Knives Out?

The Last Jedi. The online abuse it brought him went straight into Knives Out: the youngest Thrombey, a teenage internet troll, was inspired by the backlash.

Who plays the detective Benoit Blanc?

Daniel Craig was on the director's wish list but tied to the next Bond film; when its shoot slipped three months he said yes at once, and Knives Out was filming six weeks later.

Rian Johnson borrowed the surname Thrombey from a 1981 whodunit in which children's book series?

Choose Your Own Adventure. Johnson loved the books as a boy and lifted the name from Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?; Blanc's first name came from a Canadian tutor of his called Benoit.

Which veteran actor plays the dead novelist at the centre of Knives Out, in one of his final film roles?

Christopher Plummer said he loved the script's 'irreverent darkness' the moment he read it; Harlan proved one of his last roles before his death in February 2021.

Who plays Marta Cabrera, Harlan's nurse, in Knives Out?

Ana de Armas, who had promised herself not to take Latin-specific roles, at first wasn't interested; reading the full script and seeing Marta's resilience changed her mind.

In Knives Out, what physical reaction does Marta have whenever she tells a lie?

She vomits, so she tells the police only truths that leave things out; in the finale she holds one lie down just long enough to trick the killer into confessing.

Which Marvel star plays Harlan's spoiled grandson Ransom Drysdale?

Chris Evans was cast against his Captain America image, which the director called ammunition, not baggage: an audience that wants to like Ransom helps the character's arc.

Who plays Linda Drysdale, Harlan's daughter and the self-made matriarch of the family in Knives Out?

Jamie Lee Curtis, herself the daughter of someone famous, said she knew Linda's defensiveness about privilege at first hand; on set she took to cooking meals in the mansion's kitchen.

Who plays Joni Thrombey, the lifestyle-guru widow of Harlan's late son?

Toni Collette's Joni runs a Goop-like beauty brand called Flam while quietly stealing from Harlan; Collette and the director insist she is no direct parody of Gwyneth Paltrow.

Who plays Walt Thrombey, Harlan's youngest son and head of the family publishing house, in Knives Out?

Michael Shannon never auditioned for Walt: the director came to lunch in his old Brooklyn neighbourhood and, as Shannon tells it, he came away with a contract signed.

Which puppeteer and director plays Harlan's lawyer, Alan Stevens, in Knives Out?

Frank Oz, the voice of Yoda and Miss Piggy, reads out the will that stuns the family: everything, the publishing house included, goes to Marta.

How does Harlan actually die in Knives Out?

He slits his own throat to shield Marta, who believes she has given him a fatal overdose; in fact her nurse's hands had picked the right vial, so there was nothing to cover up.

In Knives Out, when Ransom finally lunges at Marta with a knife from Harlan's collection, what happens?

It's a retractable stage prop: tricked into confessing with the police listening, he snatches a knife from Harlan's collection and strikes, only for the blade to retract, and he is led away.

What is written on the mug Marta sips from in the final shot of Knives Out?

'My House, My Rules, My Coffee!!' sums up the ending: Marta sips from the mug on the balcony of what is now her mansion, while the Thrombeys are left gathered outside.

In Knives Out, what clue made Blanc suspect Marta from their first meeting?

A drop of blood on her shoe: asked when he knew, Blanc says ever since she first set foot in front of him, yet he let the case run and her own decent choices undid the frame-up.

Knives Out is named after a song by which band?

Radiohead. The 2001 song isn't in the film: the director, a fan, said the phrase had always stuck in his head as a great murder-mystery title, and joked that he couldn't afford the track.

Where was Knives Out mostly filmed?

Suburban Boston, Massachusetts: one mansion gave the exterior and the Ames Mansion most interiors, but neither could fit Harlan's study upstairs, so it was built on a soundstage.

Which item of Ransom Drysdale's wardrobe in Knives Out went viral after the film's release?

A cream knitted sweater. The Aran knit caused such a stir that the film's official Twitter account briefly renamed itself a sweater fan account, and one cinema held a sweaters-only screening.

In Knives Out, Ransom mocks Benoit Blanc's drawl by likening it to which cartoon character's?

Foghorn Leghorn. 'Shut up with that Kentucky-fried Foghorn Leghorn drawl!' is the line; the actor behind Blanc built the accent by studying the Civil War historian Shelby Foote.

Joni Thrombey and her late husband Neil are named after Joni Mitchell and which musician?

Neil Young. To keep the family straight, the director named the Thrombeys after 1970s musicians he likes, so Walt and Donna are Steely Dan's Walter Becker and Donald Fagen.

Who composed the orchestral score for Knives Out, recorded at Abbey Road?

Nathan Johnson, the director's cousin, scored their first film on wine glasses and filing cabinets for want of a budget; this time he had an orchestra and wrote on set while the film was being shot.

Knives Out's only Academy Award nomination came in which category?

Best Original Screenplay, for a script its self-described slow writer began in January 2018 and was filming by the end of October; the Golden Globes had given the film three nominations.

Which studio distributed Knives Out to US cinemas in November 2019?

Lionsgate came aboard after MRC agreed to finance the film; when the rights to two sequels were auctioned in 2021 it bid again, and lost them to a streaming service.

Which company paid more than $400 million in 2021 for the rights to two Knives Out sequels?

Netflix beat Amazon, Apple and the first film's own backers at auction; one losing bidder called it 'a mind-boggling deal' whose maths didn't work.

Who plays the tech billionaire Miles Bron in Glass Onion?

Edward Norton plays a self-styled genius whom Blanc finally unmasks as an idiot: he mangles words, mistakes the Aegean for the Ionian and did not even design his own puzzle boxes.

At the start of Glass Onion, which online game is a bored Benoit Blanc playing in the bath?

Among Us. Stuck at home in lockdown, the great detective is caught as the imposter almost at once, and one famous friend tells him he expected him to be better at it.

Who plays twin sisters Andi and Helen Brand in Glass Onion?

Janelle Monáe plays both: Helen, an Alabama schoolteacher, spends the party posing as her dead sister Andi so that Blanc can investigate, and survives a gunshot thanks to Andi's journal in her pocket.

In Glass Onion, what is Miles Bron's supposedly revolutionary, and actually dangerous, hydrogen fuel called?

Klear powers Miles's whole mansion, which is why a single piece of it thrown on a fire is enough to blow the place apart in the finale.

Which priceless artwork does Miles Bron have on loan in Glass Onion, and lose when his mansion explodes?

The Mona Lisa, on loan from the Louvre, burns with the mansion; with his reputation ruined by its loss, his friends at last agree to testify against him.

How does Miles kill Duke Cody in Glass Onion?

Pineapple juice in his drink: Duke is deathly allergic, and Miles slips it to him after Duke tries to blackmail him over Andi's death. Blanc's verdict on the method: 'It's just dumb!'

Who plays Duke Cody, the men's-rights streamer, in Glass Onion?

Dave Bautista took his first call with the director for a friendly chat and spent it asking about the Breaking Bad episodes he had made, until he was asked to read for Duke.

Which British actor cameos as Phillip, Benoit Blanc's domestic partner, in Glass Onion?

Hugh Grant's Phillip is glimpsed only briefly, at home with Blanc during lockdown; the director said that showing the detective is gay 'did not feel like a big decision'.

Glass Onion is dedicated to which two cameo stars, who both died before its release?

Stephen Sondheim and Angela Lansbury play themselves on a video call with Blanc, hers her final film appearance; neither lived to see the film released.

Glass Onion is named after a song by which band?

The Beatles. Wanting a title that meant something hidden in plain sight, the director searched his phone's music library for the word 'glass', and their 1968 song came up first.

Miles Bron's friend group in Glass Onion call themselves what?

The Disruptors owe Miles too much to cross him: when his ousted partner sued, they lied in court that he alone had sketched the company's founding idea on a napkin.

Wake Up Dead Man is set against the death of a priest at a parish in which US state?

New York. After a Greek island, the director says he 'grounded' the third film in a small upstate parish so that audiences would not expect a glamorous destination every time.

Who plays Father Jud Duplenticy, the boxer-turned-priest who becomes Blanc's ally in Wake Up Dead Man?

Josh O'Connor plays a priest who took holy orders after killing a man in the boxing ring; reassigned for punching a deacon, he becomes the prime suspect when his new monsignor is stabbed.

Who plays the firebrand Monsignor Jefferson Wicks in Wake Up Dead Man?

Josh Brolin plays the monsignor whose furious sermons have driven away all but a loyal core; he collapses in a closet beside the altar during a Good Friday service and is found with a knife in his back.

Who plays Martha Delacroix, the devout church secretary in Wake Up Dead Man?

Glenn Close had filmed for only two days in London when Covid and RSV struck her at the same time; she called it a crazy way to start a movie.

In Wake Up Dead Man, the knife in Monsignor Wicks's back is made from a lamp ornament shaped like what?

A devil's head. Father Jud had drunkenly broken an identical ornament off a lamp in a bar the night before, which is why the police make him their first suspect.

In Wake Up Dead Man, a priest swallows his whole fortune as which gem?

A diamond. Reverend Prentice Wicks sank everything into the stone he called Eve's Apple to keep it from his daughter, then swallowed it; by the end it lies hidden inside the church's new crucifix.

Wake Up Dead Man shares its title with a 1997 song by which rock band?

U2 closed their 1997 album Pop with a song of that name, but the director first met the phrase in an old American work song, in which a labourer begs the sun to go down.

Which Rian Johnson regular has a voice cameo in all three Knives Out films?

Joseph Gordon-Levitt voices Detective Hardrock on a television, then an island's hourly 'dong', then a baseball announcer; on screen, Noah Segan matches him with a different small role each time.

Which whodunit about a rich host's murder game did Rian Johnson single out as Glass Onion's inspiration?

The Last of Sheila, written by a Broadway composer and the star of Psycho, opens as Glass Onion does: a rich man invites his frenemies to play a murder game somewhere exotic, and it goes horribly wrong.

Where did Wake Up Dead Man have its world premiere in September 2025?

Toronto International Film Festival, now the launch pad for all three Blanc mysteries: Knives Out premiered there in 2019 and Glass Onion in 2022, each weeks before reaching cinemas.

Which detective-fiction author's film adaptations did Rian Johnson credit as his childhood inspiration for Knives Out?

Agatha Christie. He copied the all-star casting of the Peter Ustinov Poirot films, and asks audiences to treat each sequel like a new Poirot novel: a new place and a whole new cast.

In Knives Out, Benoit Blanc compares the case to which food with a hole?

A donut. His summing-up stretches the image until the missing piece is 'a donut hole in the donut's hole', and then a smaller donut with a hole of its own.

In Knives Out, which legal principle would strip Marta of her inheritance if she confessed to killing Harlan?

The slayer rule bars a killer from inheriting from the victim; because Marta turns out not to have caused Harlan's death, it never applies and the whole estate stays hers.

In Knives Out, Joni recognises Benoit Blanc as the subject of a profile in which magazine?

The New Yorker. The joke is that Joni, a lifestyle guru, has not read the famous detective's profile, only a tweet about it.

In Glass Onion, which actor's hard kombucha do the guests drink?

Jared Leto. A companion gag, Jeremy Renner's own brand of hot sauce, ends up as the fake blood when Blanc stages Helen's death.