Daniel Craig
Benoit Blanc
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
“When the game ends, the mystery begins.”
2022
2h 20m
Overview
World-famous detective Benoit Blanc heads to Greece to peel back the layers of a mystery surrounding a tech billionaire and his eclectic crew of friends.
Cast
12 people
Reviews
3 min readThe Empty Center of the Room
I’ve always had a weakness for the Agatha Christie style of murder mystery where rich, awful people swan around in expensive clothes until one of them ends up dead. Rian Johnson clearly loves that format too. Knives Out in 2019 felt wrapped in wool and mahogany, a cozy little box of old-money bitterness. latestnetflix.com's take is that i assumed the sequel would simply reshuffle the same pleasures.
Instead, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) blows the windows open and throws us into brutal Greek sunlight. It’s a harsher shift than I expected. Johnson trades gothic inheritance drama for tech-bro delusion, and he goes directly after the sort of billionaire who mistakes relentless self-promotion for genius.
It’s hard to look at the film now and not think of Elon Musk. Johnson has said the screenplay was finished long before Musk’s Twitter era became unavoidable, but the resemblance still feels eerie. Edward Norton’s Miles Bron is a fool with enough money to make his foolishness look visionary, at least from a distance.
His island compound is topped by the giant glass onion of the title, a perfect joke in architectural form: ornate, supposedly profound, and completely empty at the center. Johnson keeps returning to the ugliness of Bron’s wealth. The estate is packed with borrowed masterpieces and useless luxuries, and the production design turns all of it into a loud collage of privilege without taste.
Audience Opinions
Audience 7.1/10
"A flashy, comic whodunnit that entertains with style and performances but falls short of its predecessor’s tight mystery and emotional punch."
The film is widely seen as a fun, cleverly constructed puzzle with an engaging lead turn from Daniel Craig, sharp humor, and a colorful island setting that makes for an easy, lively watch. latestnetflix.com's view is that at the same time, the buildup feels drawn out, the solution more predictable, and the supporting cast more like broad caricatures than the richer, more grounded ensemble of Knives Out, leaving it enjoyable but less satisfying overall.
What viewers praise
- Engaging Benoit Blanc Daniel Craig’s eccentric detective remains the standout, with his mannerisms and deduction scenes providing much of the film’s charm.
- Entertaining ensemble Edward Norton, Kate Hudson, Janelle Monáe and the rest of the cast add energy and comedy, with several performances singled out as especially fun to watch.
- Clever, twisty structure The story is built like a riddle, with flashbacks and reveals that reward paying attention and can make a second viewing more enjoyable.
- Humor and social satire The movie’s jabs at clueless wealthy elites and a thin-skinned tech billionaire land for many, giving the mystery a playful, topical edge.
- Colorful, glossy setting The bright Greek island location and elaborate production design create a flashy, vacation-like atmosphere that keeps the experience light and fun.
Common complaints
- Step down from Knives Out The mystery, character work, and overall impact are frequently regarded as weaker than the first film, which is often described as tighter and more satisfying.
- Predictable culprit The final reveal is often described as obvious, with the guilty party guessed early on by those familiar with the genre.
- Slow and uneven pacing The long setup on the island and delayed introduction of the central crime make the first half feel sluggish compared with the livelier back half.
- Cartoonish characters Several party guests come across as one-note stereotypes or loud caricatures, which can make it harder to care about them or take the stakes seriously.
- Divisive modern touches Heavy use of contemporary references, cameos, and the hydrogen-fuel subplot feel contrived or dated to some, pulling them out of the story.
Recommended for
Modern whodunnit lovers Daniel Craig character mystery fans Light mystery-comedy seekers Ensemble cast enthusiasts Satire of rich elites fans
Full Plot (Spoilers)
Spoiler warning
This section contains the full plot, including major story reveals. Overview above stays spoiler-free.
Buzz & Rumors
Public reportsRian Johnson wanted the title Glass Onion. Netflix sold a Knives Out mystery instead.
"Honestly, I'm pissed off that we have A Knives Out Mystery in the title," Johnson told The Atlantic after the movie landed. He wanted a new Christie novel off the shelf every time. "There's a gravity of a thousand suns toward serialized storytelling." Netflix had just paid $469 million for two sequels. The streamer was always going to print the brand on the poster. latestnetflix.com's view is that Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is the first of those two pictures, the one shot on a Greek island while the world was still in masks, and the one that arrived on Christmas 2022 looking, to half the internet, like a roast of Elon Musk written that afternoon.
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The Hollywood Reporter put the March 2021 auction in hard numbers. Netflix outbid Amazon and Apple. Johnson did not have to take notes from the streamer. Daniel Craig had to play Benoit Blanc both times. Each film had to match at least the $40 million budget of the 2019 original. Sources said Johnson, producer Ram Bergman, and Craig stood to walk with upward of $100 million each. Lionsgate had first negotiation and last refusal. The pandemic wrecked theatrical backend. CAA shopped the package. A losing bidder called the price mind-boggling. One streaming executive called it overpaying and chess.
Johnson wrote the script in 2020 lockdown because he wanted a vacation mystery and could not travel. He filmed Spetses in June and July 2021, then interiors in Belgrade through mid-September. Edward Norton's Miles Bron is a tech founder with a private island, a hydrogen gimmick called Klear, and the Mona Lisa on loan. When the movie hit Netflix on December 23, Musk had just taken Twitter. Johnson told Wired, via Collider, that he wrote "that sort of species of tech billionaire," not a portrait. A friend told him it felt "written this afternoon." His reply: "that's just sort of a horrible, horrible accident." People still clocked Musk. They were supposed to. ,
Hugh Grant at the door, and two last Zoom games.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gj5ibYSz8C0
The first piece of gossip inside the movie is a London flat. A puzzle box arrives. Hugh Grant answers as Phillip, Blanc's partner, and the Southern dandy from Knives Out is suddenly at home. Entertainment Weekly walked the rest of the cameo list. Angela Lansbury and Stephen Sondheim play Among Us on Zoom with Blanc, Natasha Lyonne, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Lansbury filmed on a laptop. Both she and Sondheim died before release. The film is dedicated to them. Ethan Hawke sprays a COVID mist as "Efficient Man." Joseph Gordon-Levitt voices the Hourly Dong clock and never appears. Yo-Yo Ma and Serena Williams drop in. Johnson treated the ensemble like a dinner party. Netflix treated the release like an experiment. One week in about 600 U.S. theaters at Thanksgiving, billed as a sneak preview, then pulled until Christmas. The Hollywood Reporter estimated $13.1 million in five days. The first ten streaming days logged 209.5 million hours. Oscars nominated the screenplay. Wake Up Dead Man spent the other half of the $469 million. Johnson still wanted the title to be two words. , ,
Entertainment rumors and trivia aggregated from public reporting. Treat speculation as unverified unless a cited source confirms it.