History Film / GlassOnion

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:When Helen (and the audience) learns that her twin sister Andi has apparently committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, she [[IdentifyingTheBody goes to see Andi's body at the morgue]], and said body looks basically as if Andi is just sleeping]].

* ComplexityAddiction: A running theme throughout the movie, as Miles and the Disruptors delight in grand theatrical displays and puzzles to solve as a means of 'proving' their intelligence, and Blanc is shown in the beginning to be going a little stir-crazy when the COVID pandemic forces him to stay indoors without a case to stimulate his mind. [[spoiler:Conversely, main protagonist Helen has little patience for these 'games' and prefers [[CuttingTheKnot the inelegant, but effective]] method of solving her problems]]. Ironically, both Blanc [[spoiler:and Helen run into problems with the case because of this, as both of them assume the motive and reasoning behind Andi's murder is much more complicated than an outside perspective makes it look, when in actuality her killer is just ''really'' dumb and opportunistic]].
* ConvectionSchmonvection: [[spoiler:When Helen ignites the Klear powering the Glass Onion and the titular dome ''explodes,'' none of the characters in the building are seriously burned either by the initial explosion or the subsequent flames.]]
* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: [[spoiler:Helen and Andi have no living family beside one another, meaning that Helen is the only person who's been notified of Andi's death. That buys Helen and Blanc a little time for Helen to impersonate Andi and try to solve her murder, with Blanc pulling strings to delay the public release of her death so none of the guests will find out.]]

* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: It turns out Birdie mistook the meaning of "sweatshop" for "place where sweat pants are put together". The fact her designer sweatpants are made in horrible conditions overseas is now coming to light, and Miles is using that misunderstanding against her to have her [[FallGuy take the fall for it]] and soak up the bad PR.

* {{Fanservice}}: Madelyn Cline and Kate Hudson both play characters who make use of sex appeal for their careers (an influencer and a model respectively) and spend a significant amount of screen time in bikinis. On the male side, Dave Bautista is shirtless or wearing unbuttoned shirts [[WalkingShirtlessScene in many scenes]], exposing his impressive professional wrestler's physique.

* ThatLiarLies: In a flashback to the Alpha trial, Claire claims that [[spoiler:Alpha was entirely Miles' idea]]. Andi stands up and dramatically calls her a liar.

*** Lionel notes that [[spoiler:despite all the effort Miles went through to get Andi's letter containing the proof she was the original mind behind Alpha, and despite the risk it posed to him, he not only kept it, he displayed it openly in his Glass Onion room as well. He's incredulous that it seemingly never occurred to Miles to just burn the napkin in the first place]].

* ForgottenPhlebotinum: [[spoiler:Helen]] is shown to have a recording device that she, at one point, slips into Birdie's purse, recording an incriminating conversation between her and Peg about Birdie's dirty laundry that [[spoiler:Helen and Blanc]] listen to later. This seems to be potentially setting up the opportunity to have an EngineeredPublicConfession in the climax, where the murderer is CaughtOnTape gloating about their crime. Instead, the recorder is never used again and plays no more role in the movie.

* OpenSecret: Miles' affair with Whiskey is common knowledge. Certainly, they do very little to hide it; Miles greets her with flirty chit-chat and a ''very'' protracted embrace while she's dressed in a bikini, while Duke stands right next to him and tries to pretend that he isn't noticing, [[EveryoneHasStandards which even the other Disruptors find extremely distasteful]], and they later get hot and heavy in a ground-floor room with massive glass windows that open directly onto the gardens. In fact, the twist about [[spoiler:Duke seeing her and Miles getting hot and heavy isn't that he's finding out about it, it's that he asked her to seduce Miles into giving Duke the Alpha News position he wants, tying once again into his macho-man persona being completely fake as he willingly (albeit clearly reluctantly) pimps out his girlfriend and submits to being [[EmasculatedCuckold cuckolded]] by a man he could physically snap in half.]]

The film was given a one-week theatrical engagement by Creator/{{Netflix}} from November 22-29, 2022, and was released on the service on December 23. It also screened at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: A confrontation taking place after the pool scene features a piercing question that not only shuts up the questioned on moral grounds, but lets the asker escape a conversation they're not fully on top of. [[spoiler:In the second half of the film, Helen (as Andi) calls out Claire and Duke about the events after Andi threatened them with the email, angrily demanding to know why they didn't respond to it. Claire and Duke catch Helen completely off-guard with information she didn't know by telling her they ''did'', attempting to email and call Andi and even trying to visit her house to speak to her, only to get no response (because Andi had been killed). Helen saves face and regains her footing in the ruse by feigning that Andi didn't answer any of it because she didn't trust the Disruptors, and going with this, Helen successfully stuns Claire and Duke by asking if they were coming to check on Andi's welfare, or if they were just coming to prevent her from making good on her threat to Miles' empire. They can't answer.]]

* ArtisticLicenseChemistry: Klear is described as a "solid hydrogen fuel" which Miles plans to implement, powerful and dangerous enough to [[spoiler:blow up the entire Glass Onion complex]]. There are [[https://www.hydrogenfwd.org/spoilers-glass-onions-klear-hydrogen-fuel-is-clearly-the-stuff-of-hollywood-fiction/ a large number of scientific and logistical issues with this plot point.]]

** The court case between Andi and Miles is implied to have hinged on proving which of them came up with the original idea for the company. [[spoiler:Andi originally wrote the idea on a napkin, which she threatened to use as evidence against Miles.]] Business ideas are generally not legally protected. Control of the company would be determined from contracts and ownership of company shares. It does not matter who came up with the business plan.

** Blanc arrives on the island seemingly truly out of his element and with a more theatrical, showy attitude than he showed in ''Film/KnivesOut''. It's chalked up to him going stir crazy in isolation. [[spoiler:He actually is acutely aware of why he's there, and told Helen that he would play up his "Southern hokum" as a way to distract the others from noticing she was posing as Andi.]]

* CentralTheme: Disruption and the system. The film discusses how current structures and the law are broken in the favor of the most wealthy and privileged, and will co-opt dirsuptive ideas of progress and revolution to deaden their power, and states that the only way to address these problems and make real change is to break the system ''open'' entirely, past the point that most people are comfortable with.

* ClosedCircle: The murder mystery takes place on an island which can only be accessed by a two-hour boat ride, and the impractical dock means boats can only arrive at low tide. This means that after chaos ensues when [[spoiler:Duke dies]], the cast is stuck there because nobody can reach or leave the island until the morning.

* ConvenientlyAnOrphan: [[spoiler:Helen and Andi have no living family besides one another, meaning that Helen is the only person who's been notified of Andi's death. That buys Helen and Blanc a little time for Helen to impersonate Andi and try to solve her murder, with Blanc pulling strings to delay the public release of her death so none of the guests will find out.]]

** The invitation to the island is an intricate puzzle box which Claire, Lionel, Birdie, and Duke delight in solving together. After this montage, we see Andi receive her box, and instead of solving all the individual puzzles, she takes a hammer to it. This turns out to have been meaningful: [[spoiler:Andi is dead by this time, and her sister Helen was the one who opened the box. She has no patience for the Disruptors, and opted to smash it instead of indulging in their games.]]

* DelayedReaction: This particularly applies to Birdie, who [[spoiler:starts talking about how Andi told Birdie about her twin sister Helen before realising that she is currently talking to ''Helen'', even though the group was just informed of Andi's death]].

*** [[spoiler:Miles killed Andi personally right after they had a drawn-out legal battle, which Blanc notes would have made him the ''first'' suspect once her death came to light which is [[WhoWouldBeStupidEnough why he initially dismissed him as a suspect]]. He also showed up to kill her in his custom-made iconic CoolCar, rather than in anything even remotely surreptitious, which allowed Duke to easily recognise his presence at the scene from them passing each other on the road]].
*** [[spoiler:He kills Duke through slipping him a tainted drink inside his own glass, and passing it off as a murder attempt on him that accidentally got Duke due to Duke accidentally taking Miles' glass, even convincing everybody to misremember events from his convincing telling of his own story. However, he actually killed Duke through an allergic reaction to pineapple juice, something that would have come out in an autopsy, meaning that ''only'' Duke would have been negatively affected by the drink. With Miles admitting the glass was his own, and knowing about Duke's allergy beforehand, he as good as admitted that he intentionally killed him. When he stole Duke's phone, he could have easily set it anywhere else during his timed blackout, especially since he was alone. If he did that, Blanc couldn't have casually just taken it out of his back pocket in front of everyone]].
*** He appears to avert this with [[spoiler:Helen's]] murder attempt, showing planning and preparation to [[spoiler:steal Duke's gun away from him even before he has to kill him, and then adapting his 'panic' during Duke's death into making himself a less convincing suspect when the lights go out on a timed switch, before using the ensuing cover of darkness to shoot Helen in the confusion]]. However, as Blanc is going through this, he [[ExplainExplainOhCrap realises]] that [[spoiler:Miles actually lifted the entire idea wholesale from ''himself'' during his offhand comment to Miles when outlining the danger he appeared to be under. If left to his own devices, Helen's attempted murder would have been similarly poorly-thought out]].

** Early in the movie, Miles gives a big speech about how most people will cheer on the disruption of the status quo early on, but when people begin to cause major disruptions and push things to the brink, most will back off, as they aren't comfortable with truly breaking everything. Thus, it takes a very particular person to truly break the status quo, which makes him and his friends special. [[spoiler:Despite the fact that he is by and large an idiot who coasts off the success of others, we see that this at least is true at the end. When Helen starts breaking Miles' glass sculptures, seemingly out of petty anger over losing the only evidence capable of putting Miles away for her sister's murder, the others there cheer her on and even start destroying some sculptures themselves as none of them particularly like Miles. But as Helen's rampage continues, they start getting more and more uncomfortable with the chaos, particularly when she starts a bonfire with all the alcohol, and none of them are onboard when they realize she plans to use some Klear to blow the building up. Despite calling themselves Disruptors, when push comes to shove, they're not actually willing to change the status quo.]]

** Duke is introduced explaining his reasoning for his Men's Rights misogyny, but is quickly cowed into silence by his mother, showing how much of his tough guy persona is an act and that he can be easily controlled by those who hold any sort of power over him.

* GreenwashedVillainy: [[spoiler:Claire Debella is the governor of Connecticut and is running for Senator on progressive, ecofriendly platform. Her campaign is endorsed by Miles Bron, a CEO who is pushing a new fuel source called Klear. Even after learning that Klear is incredibly dangerous and unstable, with the potential to destroy houses and that Miles has killed two people in part to keep this secret, Clair is still reluctant to turn against him until Miles's house and the Mona Lisa are destroyed due to a Klear explosion and it become impossible to hide the danger it presents.]]

* InherentInTheSystem: It's how all this came to happen in the first place. Any world with a functioning sense of justice would not have [[spoiler:allowed Miles to steal Andi's company from her]] let alone [[spoiler:let Miles seemingly get away with murder TWICE despite having no real plan, creativity or inteligence]]. Which is why in the end, [[spoiler:Helen, posing as Andi, has to go outside the system with her extra-judicial arson plan]].

* MadeOfExplodium: Klear is a room temperature solid-state hydrogen fuel which Miles is pushing hard as an alternative fuel source. Lionel is concerned that this will cause highly flammable hydrogen leaks, but Miles is determined to move forward and has powered the Glass Onion using only Klear. [[spoiler:Helen starts a fire in the Onion and then tosses in the small chunk of Klear which explodes violently, setting off a chain reaction that destroys the complex]].

* MurderIsTheBestSolution: The killer's response to people threatening them is to default to lethal measures of resolving the problem instantly in the short-term. It tends to work for them ''precisely'' because none of their victims consider them capable of instantly resorting to murder [[spoiler:because of how ''stupid'' a move it would be for them to resort to without trying alternative methods first. Blanc even notes that Miles would have been the ''first'' suspected in the event of foul play once Andi's death was made public, and the fact that Andi underestimated Miles' long-term planning capability is why she wasn't more cautious around him, leading to her death]].

** When Miles reveals to the group that he's running the entire Glass Onion complex on his new revolutionary fuel Klear as proof that it's a viable energy resource despite testing not being complete, Lionel and Claire become visibly unnerved upon realising they standing in a building running on a potentially unstable fuel source. [[spoiler:As Lionel reveals to Claire in a flashback, in a gaseous form, Klear is ''explosively'' volatile, and they realize that Miles turned the whole building into a potential bomb through his short-sightedness]].

** Occurs InUniverse towards the end of TheSummation, when [[spoiler:Blanc is willing to lend Miles ''some'' credibility for his plan to murder Andi (actually Helen) with Duke's gun during the timed darkening of the lights that was originally meant to occur during his murder party, only to then be [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe flabbergasted]] when he realises that Miles lifted the entire idea wholesale from ''himself'', when he was earlier warning him about how risky it was to invite a bunch of people with a grudge against him to an isolated island, using said hypothetical situation to underline the risk Miles appeared to be placing him under. It further proves Blanc's point about how unoriginal and ''stupid'' Miles actually is past all of his deceptions]].

** The high-tech security system on the Mona Lisa snaps shut at the slightest disturbance, even a phone getting a push notification. It seems like an easily-manipulatable [[OffWithHisHead guillotine]] could find use in a murder mystery, with the added bonus of MonumentalDamage in an artful spray of blood across the most famous painting in history. [[spoiler:Nothing remotely like this happens.]]

** On a second viewing, one can spot [[spoiler:both Duke's phone in Miles' back pocket when he hides behind Blanc and a brief shot of Miles holding Duke's gun when walking around the blacked out hallway.]]

* SherlockScan: When the time comes for the "murder game", [[spoiler:Blanc solves it before it's even started, pointing out a distinctive but out-of-character necklace Bron is wearing, recalling a magazine article seen earlier, and noticing a genuine crossbow positioned in just the right position, to realise that the solution of the game is that Birdie killed Miles for stealing her necklace]].

** Blanc's invitation [[spoiler:has a bent corner, indicating it was actually Andi/Helen's invitation that she bent smashing open the puzzle box to retrieve, which she then passed on to him]]. In the film ''Film/TheLastOfSheila'', which this film was inspired by, [[spoiler:one of the key elements of the mystery game in that film were secret clue cards that were shared among the party goers. In the final sequence, one of the clues that Creator/JamesMason (Philip) uses to reveal Creator/RichardBenjamin (Tom) is the killer of two people, is the fact that he started to crumple and bend his clue card to throw it away, then retyped a new clue card that he didn't bend in order to convince one character that the game they were playing was set up to reveal she killed "Sheila", when in actuality, the game was just a game]]. Both films [[spoiler:feature bent cards that later turn out to be a huge reveal to the solution of the mystery, and both are clearly telegraphed to observant audience members, but largely go unnoticed until a RewatchBonus]].
** When Helen meets with Blanc, she says that she googled "World's Greatest Detective" to find him. Blanc recognises the phrase, and specifically notes that he is ''not'' ComicBook/{{Batman}}.

* SplitScreenPhoneCall: The opening phone call between the Disruptors is framed through a frequently-changing split screen configuration, since they're all in different locations and characters join in on the conversation randomly.

* TheUntwist: InUniverse, much to Blanc's ''[[DisappointedByTheMotive profound]]'' disappointment. [[spoiler:Miles and Andi were having a drawn-out legal battle over the creator's rights to Alpha at the time of her death. Since Miles the multi-millionaire would be the first suspected of her death in the event of foul play, he's initially ruled out as a suspect, with Blanc and Helen believing one of the Disruptors who were being financed by Miles must have killed her instead to protect their investments. However, as Blanc realises at the end, Miles merely ''pretends'' to be an eccentric genius while leeching off of other peoples' more intelligent ideas, and is actually ''far'' stupider than he presents himself to be, meaning he really did kill Andi]].

* WardrobeFlawOfCharacterization: A variation when the Disruptors and Blanc first convene at port -- the film takes place in the early stages of the COVID pandemic, so masking up is crucial, and how the characters handle mask etiquette suggests their responsibility and competence. Duke and Whiskey don't wear any at all, Birdie has a sheer mesh that looks fashionable and does absolutely nothing, and Claire has a beige one that slips down her nose; Peg, Blanc, and Lionel, on the other hand, all have secure and well-fitting ones (Blanc color-coordinates his, and Lionel even has a scientific and stylish-looking black P95 mask). [[spoiler:Helen as Andi doesn't have a mask, either, but is introduced as arriving separately by car and keeping her distance, signifying not only that she's removed from the others, but also that she's inexperienced in her deception, though not unintelligent.]]

** Peg's horrified reaction when she discovers that Birdie, on being warned that her Bangladesh factory was a notorious sweatshop, misinterpreted what that last word meant and gave the go ahead with a "dabbing Memoji".

* YourFavorite: Miles serves his friends their favorite cocktails after the dinner. [[spoiler:This plays into Duke's murder, because Birdie's drink of choice has pineapple juice as the main ingredient.]]

* DoubleEntendre: Miles repeatedly tells the Disruptors that [[spoiler:their weekend getaway will be devoted to solving his murder. While this is meant to refer to the fake performed murder of Miles, which is swiftly solved by Blanc, the getaway eventually does reveal itself to revolve around "Miles' murder" -- the murder ''he'' committed of Andi, and later Duke.]]

** When Miles talks to Andi at the Disruptors' arrival, he nervously and slowly puts his hand on her shoulder [[spoiler:because he is shocked to find out she's alive. At the end, "Andi," now revealed to be Helen, slowly puts her hand on his chin.]]

** Halfway through,[[note]]''exactly'' at the halfway point regarding the 140-minute runtime[[/note]] [[spoiler:it ''looks'' like Andi is killed off, as she's shot by an unknown assailant, and we see her bleeding body on the ground. However, after an extended flashback during which we learn that this character is actually her twin sister Helen, it turns out that Helen survived the gunshot because her sister's journal, which she was keeping in her coat pocket, stopped the bullet.]]

*** [[spoiler:When Miles "tries to protect himself" from the others, Duke's phone is briefly visible in his back pocket. A little earlier, you can see him put Duke's gun into the ice bucket.]]
** At his home, Miles has the painting "Number 207" by Mark Rothko hanging upside down, another sign of his superficial appreciation for art.

** One can easily notice Duke actually mentioning that [[spoiler:he saw Miles' car driving away from Andi's home before Miles turned it around by mentioning Anderson Cooper.]]
** On a second viewing, one can spot [[spoiler:both Duke's phone in Miles' back pocket when he hides behind Blanc and a brief shot of Miles holding Duke's gun when walking around the blacked out hallway.]]

* AffectionateParody: As with ''Knives Out'', the film is a wryly indulgent and subversive take on the mystery genre. Notably, it features the twist of [[spoiler:a character being revealed to have an identical twin]], a classic mystery turn often considered cliche, but done here with sincerity for [[spoiler:the reveal and complete characterization of the film's true protagonist]], and the resolution of the mystery is a big subversion of the genre and the previous film-- [[spoiler:The culprit is the most obvious, immediate, and uncomplicated answer, but nobody would have expected it because the killer would have to be extremely reckless and stupid for that to be true...which they absolutely are.]] The film also parodies the RedHerring--[[spoiler:Derol is a conspicuous character, but he's described as "not part of the experience" and tells the other characters to ignore him...and ultimately, he ''isn't'' part of things and ''can'' be ignored because he truly has no relevance to the mystery]].

* ArtisticLicenseEngineering: The danger of Miles' plot to implement Klear and "turn people's home into the Hindenburg" has [[https://www.hydrogenfwd.org/spoilers-glass-onions-klear-hydrogen-fuel-is-clearly-the-stuff-of-hollywood-fiction/ a number of issues with regards to leakage, regulations, and the aforementioned comparison with the Hindenburg itself.]]

* ArtisticLicenseGunSafety: When Duke gets out of the pool, he immediately pulls out his handgun-which is holstered to his swimsuit-and fires a shot in the air. In RealLife, he'd have been lucky to not have the gun explode in his hand and blow a few fingers off. Guns are not designed to be immersed in water. If they have been, there is a clearing procedure that one ''must'' perform before attempting to fire it. The reason is the water cannot be compressed, so any droplets of water in the barrel would basically act as a solid object when the fired round impacted them, possibly rupturing the barrel. In ''Film/NoCountryForOldMen'', Moss performs the clearing procedure correctly after he emerges from a river with his gun.

** In the first film, Blanc was anonymously hired to investigate a crime that didn't actually look like a crime from the outset, so when he's mysteriously invited to Miles' party without Miles' knowledge, it looks like there's once again someone on the inside who wants him there because they know a crime is about to go down. [[spoiler:It turns out someone did want Blanc there, but unlike the anonymous invitation in the first film, Blanc was in on the plan from the start.]]

** Being a wealthy man on a remote island who invited a group of people who each has a valid reason to want him dead, it looks like Miles is going to be the murder victim. [[spoiler:Not only does he survive, but he is responsible for the ''actual'' murder that is at the center of the mystery.]]

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: [[spoiler:When Helen (and the audience) learns that her twin sister Andi has apparently committed suicide via carbon monoxide poisoning, she goes to see Andi's body at the morgue, and said body looks basically as if Andi is just sleeping]].

* {{Blackface}}: Alluded to when Birdie Jay insists that the Halloween costume that landed her in hot water was supposed to be a tribute to Music/{{Beyonce}}, though we never see what exactly her costume looked like.

* BlazingInfernoHellfireSauce: Jeremy Renner's short-batch hot sauce. [[spoiler:Blanc dabs some into his eyes so he can pretend to cry. Helen also uses it as fake blood after she gets "shot" and almost ruins the charade when some drips into her nostril.]]
* ABloodyMess: All the bright red blood on [[spoiler:Helen after she is shot is actually hot sauce, which Blanc had splashed on her to make her look dead and shock everyone else into going along with the investigation]].

* ChekhovsSkill: Or rather, ''lack'' of skill. [[spoiler:Miles is shown time and time again to be not nearly as smart as he appears. He frequently misuses or makes up clever-sounding words, his intricate mystery box is just a collection of simple children's puzzles, and even his planned murder mystery game is immediately solved by Blanc. And it turns out this extends to him as the killer: Blanc finally pins him as the guilty party once he realizes that, yes, Miles ''is'' stupid enough to murder a high-profile businesswoman he'd just had a bitter public legal dispute with.]]

** [[spoiler:The first death is seemingly a suicide, like in the first movie. Like in the original, it's suspected the suicide was in fact hiding a murder. Unlike the first movie, this is actually the case]].

* DramaticIrony: We spend the entirety of the second act knowing that [[spoiler:Andi, actually Helen, will be murdered on Miles's island, with multiple scenes having her and Blanc discussing the dangers of her going to an island with her sister's murderer a couple of times to play up the drama. However, this is ultimately subverted, as when the flashback comes full circle, we see that [[PocketProtector her sister's journal]] managed to stop the bullet, and she and Blanc quickly fake her death by pouring the hot sauce he took earlier all over her chest to look like blood.]]
* DramaticallyMissingThePoint: It turns out Birdie mistook the meaning of "sweatshop" for "place where sweat pants are put together". The fact her designer sweatpants are made in horrible conditions overseas is now coming to light, and Miles is using that misunderstanding against her to have her take the fall for it and soak up the bad PR.

* {{Fanservice}}: Madelyn Cline and Kate Hudson both play characters who make use of sex appeal for their careers (an influencer and a model respectively) and spend a significant amount of screen time in bikinis. On the male side, Dave Bautista is shirtless or wearing unbuttoned shirts in many scenes, exposing his impressive professional wrestler's physique.

* ImagineSpot: When Benoit Blanc is speculating over how [[spoiler:the real Cassandra Brand was killed and her death framed as a suicide]], to avoid spoiling the culprit's identity in advance, all four "primary suspects" are shown in the culprit's place in different parts of the murder: [[spoiler:Duke comes to Andi's door offering to apologize, Lionel puts sleeping pills in Andi's drink, Claire converses with Andi long enough for the sleeping pills to knock her out, and Birdie puts Andi in the garage and turns the car on so the fumes will kill her. Funnily enough, ''none'' of those four turn out to be the murderer.]]

* JusticeByOtherLegalMeans: The culprit [[spoiler:destroys the damning evidence against him]], to Blanc's utter sorrow. But he does give [[spoiler:Helen the idea to destroy Bron's estate, including ''the Mona Lisa'', showing the failure of his much-hyped product Klear.]] If the culprit doesn't face charges for that destruction, their reputation will be in the pits anyway.

* NeverOneMurder: Played straight, but with zig-zagging details as a result of the HalfwayPlotSwitch context change flipping the audience's understanding of some incidents. At first it seems like the murders are [[spoiler:Duke by accident, from a tampered drink going to the wrong person]] and [[spoiler:Andi, from a targeted gunshot]], but the murders turn out to be [[spoiler:Andi, ''then'' Duke. Andi was actually killed ''prior'' to the film's events, with the woman shot being her undercover sister Helen, and Helen survives and plays dead at Blanc's advice. Duke, meanwhile was killed ''deliberately'' under the ruse of being the wrong recipient of the tampered drink, with a method (exploiting a pineapple allergy) only he was vulnerable to.]]

* NoJustNoReaction: When [[spoiler:Blanc announces that Miles killed Duke opportunistically by slipping him pineapple juice, which he is fatally allergic to,]] he decries it all as dumb. Birdie gasps that it's so dumb, it's brilliant, and Blanc irritatedly insists that, no, it's just ''dumb''.

* OpenSecret: Miles' affair with Whiskey is common knowledge. Certainly, they do very little to hide it; Miles greets her with flirty chit-chat and a ''very'' protracted embrace while she's dressed in a bikini, while Duke stands right next to him and tries to pretend that he isn't noticing, [[EveryoneHasStandards which even the other Disruptors find extremely distasteful]], and they later get hot and heavy in a ground-floor room with massive glass windows that open directly onto the gardens. In fact, the twist about [[spoiler:Duke seeing her and Miles getting hot and heavy isn't that he's finding out about it, it's that he asked her to seduce Miles into giving Duke the Alpha News position he wants, tying once again into his macho-man persona being completely fake as he willingly (albeit clearly reluctantly) pimps out his girlfriend and submits to being cuckolded by a man he could physically snap in half.]]

** There is one specific shot shortly before [[spoiler:Duke's death (and the reveal that his gun that he always wears on his front waist is missing)]] where Claire noticeably bumps into Duke that doesn't seem to contribute anything, but after the spoiler [[spoiler:may make you think she took the gun before he died. In reality, she really did just bump into him, and Miles was the one who took the gun.]]

* TooDumbToLive: Duke gets this twice over. [[spoiler:Not only does he blackmail someone he knows to be a murderer, he travels around without an Epipen despite having a deadly food allergy.]]

* BerserkButton: Played for laughs. Blanc only gets genuinely angry when [[spoiler:he realizes that there's nothing clever behind the mystery and the whole thing revolves around Miles being an idiot who can only take good ideas from other people. He's especially furious when he realizes that Miles actually stole Blanc's own idea about how someone would try to kill him and used ''that'' to try to kill Helen-as-Andi instead.]]

* ContrastingSequelAntagonist: [[spoiler:Hugh "Ransom" Drysdale spends most of ''Film/KnivesOut'' improvising a considerably intelligent plan to murder his grandfather via poisoning to collect his inheritance, and is able to adjust to almost every new obstacle save for his inability to think past Marta's kindness and competence. Compared to the idea-deficient Miles Bron, who hasn't a drop of real inspiration in his body, Ransom is practically Einstein]].

* CreativeSterility: This is revealed [[spoiler:to be Miles's true nature. He's incapable of ''any'' remotely creative ideas that he doesn't just steal from other people. Andi was clearly the brains of Alpha, and even his attempted murder of Helen was based on something Blanc stated, which the latter calls him out on.]]

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: While definitely not evil, the Disruptors are still a bunch of unscrupulous people who were willing [[spoiler:to testify against Andi in order to protect themselves]], and do some heinous individual acts of their own, but even though [[spoiler:their friendship is mostly nominal and held together by the hold that Miles has on them]], Claire and Lionel seem to have a genuine bond, and it's implied that Claire was close to Andi prior to the trial.

* HeelRealization: [[spoiler:The Disruptors, even when it's revealed that Miles killed Andi and Duke, fail to support Helen's cause when Miles destroys the only physical evidence of his crimes. They have too much dependency on Miles to turn on him. It's only after Helen destroys Miles' mansion -- and the ''Mona Lisa'', which will be blamed on Miles because he ignored safety protocols for displaying it -- that the surviving Disruptors realize that Miles is no longer worth protecting.]]

* {{Hypocrite}}: A minor case: Miles' emphasis on Klear's sustainability makes him seem environmentally conscious… and clashes with him casually handing Peg a drink in a disposable Solo cup.

* IceQueen: Andi certainly seems that way on the island. Who can blame her, considering she's in the company of the people who betrayed her and also [[spoiler:dead? Her sister is instructed by Blanc to act haughty and not engage in too much conversation, lest her cover be blown.]]

* InformedAttribute: [[spoiler:The real]] Cassandra 'Andi' Brand is touted as incredibly smart by the film's narrative, yet is depicted making several ''glaringly stupid'' errors in judgement throughout the film, the last of which [[spoiler:results ''directly in her death'' at Miles' hands.]] Conversely, her main claim to brilliance as presented by the film is [[spoiler:her writing the initial ([[ObliquelyObfuscatedOccupation and unspecified]]) idea for Alpha on a napkin, a napkin which allegedly proves her to be a genius and Miles a fraud.]]

* {{Malaproper}}: Blanc mentions that "something" has been picking at his brain since almost the beginning, and it's only at the end that he finally realizes; [[spoiler:Miles]] keeps misquoting common phrases and expressions. Why is this important? Because it finally leads Blanc to understand [[spoiler:that Miles is far from being as clever as he presents himself to be]].

* OnlyInItForTheMoney: Miles claims that each of the Disruptors gets to be in his inner circle because they're all movers and shakers who are changing the world with their actions. An unimpressed Andi then snaps that the ''real'' reason they're all hanging around him is because he's bankrolled their various enterprises -- without him, none of them would be successful. Their literal and figurative fortunes depend on him, and they put up with all of his whims in the name of money.

* TestosteronePoisoning: Fittingly for an MRA, Duke often prides himself on doing manly things such as showing off his muscles and bringing a pistol to the island which he occasionally fires into the air. Also fittingly for an MRA, this really just makes him look like a pathetic chump. Most tellingly, the twist about [[spoiler:Duke seeing Whiskey and Miles getting hot and heavy isn't that he's finding out about the blatant affair and giving him a motive to MurderTheHypotenuse, it's that he asked her to seduce Miles into giving Duke the Alpha News position he wants, tying once again into his macho-man persona being completely fake as he willingly (albeit clearly reluctantly) pimps out his girlfriend and submits to being cuckolded by a man he could probably rip into confetti if he really wanted to.]]

* PerfectlyCromulentWord:
** Per Miles, "inbreathiate" (meaning to inhale). As Blanc plainly states, [[spoiler:this isn't a real word, but only sounds like it could be. He finds it strange that a supposed genius like Miles would say something so dumb]].
** At the end of the film, [[spoiler:Miles says they have only "circumspective" evidence that he burned the napkin, clearly meaning "circumstantial." Blanc visibly grimaces at this]].

* RevealingCoverUp: [[spoiler:Miles murdered Cassandra to keep anyone from finding out that she really did come up with Alpha's business model. But this just raised Helen's suspicions, convincing her to go to Blanc so the two of them can investigate the matter further ...]]

* NoSell: While most of the guests gag on the COVID mouth spray, Blanc merely opens his mouth, takes the shot, then re-masks up.

** Four of the murder mystery's invitees open their box by working together to solve a series of complicated puzzles. The fifth invitee opens her box with a pair of safety goggles and a hammer.

* MundaneSolution: The invitation to the island is an intricate puzzle box which Claire, Lionel, Birdie, and Duke delight in solving together. After this montage, we see Andi receive her box, and instead of solving all the individual puzzles, she takes a hammer to it. This turns out to have been meaningful: [[spoiler:Andi is dead by this time, and her sister Helen was the one who opened the box. She has no patience for the Disruptors, and opted to smash it instead of indulging in their games.]]

* {{Homage}}: Although [[spoiler:Helen destroyed the ''Mona Lisa'', in the end she pretty much '''becomes''' the ''Mona Lisa''.]] Her final shot parallels the painting.

* EarnYourHappyEnding: [[spoiler:Although Miles manages to destroy the only hard evidence that could convict him, Helen manages to destroy his entire house and the ''Mona Lisa'' along with it, leaving his reputation in tatters and opening him up to immense civil liability for the destruction of an artistic masterpiece. His supposedly ingenious idea of hydrogen fuel is literally blown up as well due to being the instrument of this destruction. Even his Disruptors get a measure of retribution against him by deciding as one to testify that they saw him murder Cassandra and Duke and burn the napkin, demonstrating they're finally willing to stand up to Miles and allowing them to, if not avoid going down, at least break out of his parasitic hold on them. And once the (albeit slightly falsified) testimony about Andi's napkin diagram gets out, Helen will likely inherit Andi's share of Alpha (whatever's left of it) as her sister's only next of kin.]]

* DisappointedByTheMotive: Blanc is deeply disappointed when he works out that [[spoiler:Andi and Duke didn't die due to some complicated scheme by a Disruptor protecting their self-interest. Instead, they died because Miles is an idiot who can't manage a complicated murder]].

* DarkerAndEdgier: In certain aspects. While the film is mostly LighterAndSofter (as stated below), [[spoiler:the general unpleasantness of the Disruptors is more prominent, and made more apparent at a much earlier point than the Thrombey family in ''Film/KnivesOut'', and the murders of Cassandra Brand and Duke Cody are resolved much less cleanly than the case of Harlan Thrombey's suicide and Fran's murder, with the protagonists having to commit illegal actions ''just'' for the chance that justice will be served.]]

* CallBack:
** Blanc, upon finding out he's been invited to the Glass Onion without Bron's knowledge, asserts that [[Film/KnivesOut anonymous invitations are nothing to be trifled with.]]
** When he sees a knife rack with one knife missing, Blanc responds in exasperation. He may well be having flashbacks to the [[Film/KnivesOut last time we saw him]].
** In Serena Williams' cameo, she is reading ''Literature/GravitysRainbow'' - disproving Blanc's assertion that [[Film/KnivesOut no one reads it]].

** ''Art/TheMonaLisa'', which is on loan to Miles as the Louvre is closed and France needed the money. [[spoiler:It is ultimately destroyed as part of the destruction of Miles' reputation]].

* RefugeInAudacity: Miles believes Disruption Theory relies on breaking a rule openly and brazenly and succeeding, then continuing to push and break more and more rules until you reach a point where nobody is able to stop you. It's [[spoiler:why he was able to get away with killing Andi and racing off in his [[MetallicarSyndrome extremely noticeable car]] (well, this and PoliceAreUseless). Benoit Blanc is both surprised and appalled that Miles, the extremely obvious suspect of said murder, was [[StupidCrooks so damned]] StupidEvil that it actually made him BeneathSuspicion.]]

* BeneathSuspicion: Blanc realizes he had a blind spot on identifying the culprit because he assumed [[spoiler:Miles was ''above'' suspicion. An intelligent man would not have murdered a woman who he'd just had a very public legal battle with, as it's an obvious motive making him the first suspect. Except Miles is actually an idiot and so would indeed kill Andi, and brazenly so]].

* BeneathNotice: Despite being friends with her for years, none of the Disruptors [[spoiler:aside from Birdie]] remember that [[spoiler:Andi had an ''identical twin sister''. And even then, Birdie [[FailedASpotCheck still assumes Helen is Andi until halfway through her sentence]]]].

** Creator/AngelaLansbury starred as AmateurSleuth Jessica Fletcher on ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' and [[Literature/TheMirrorCrackdFromSideToSide once played]] another Christie detective, Literature/MissMarple. She also played a suspect and victim in [[Film/DeathOnTheNile1971 an adaptation of a noted Christie vacation mystery]]. Like Sondheim, her work had also briefly appeared in the previous film (Marta's mother is seen watching a Spanish-dubbed ''Murder, She Wrote''). She has appeared in many of Sondheim's musicals, including the original casts of ''Anyone Can Whistle'' and ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. Sondheim even helped Johnson secure her appearance after learning he was interested.

** As far as false disruption, Miles calls himself and his friends "Disruptors" who are fighting the system to change the world, but none of this is real change. Miles is just another tycoon trying to get wealth and fame from innovation, Claire is a politician dishonestly using progressivism and greenlighting dangerous plans to get herself elected, Lionel is spineless against Miles and doesn't fight for his principles early enough, and Birdie and Duke are only "disruptors" against the status quo in the sense that they spout regressive and bigoted opinions in a world they feel is too "woke" and are thus standing for an ''older'' status quo.

* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During her big confrontation, after Duke and the others tell her that they visited the house after the email with the napkin [[spoiler:demonstrating that she and not Miles came up with the business plan for Alpha]], Andi [[spoiler:(really Helen)]] asks whether they were going to show their support, or try to persuade her not to make it public. None of them have anything to say.

** Creator/AngelaLansbury starred as AmateurSleuth Jessica Fletcher on ''Series/MurderSheWrote'' and [[Literature/TheMirrorCrackdFromSideToSide once played]] another Christie detective, Literature/MissMarple. Like Sondheim, her work had also briefly appeared in the previous film (Marta's mother is seen watching a Spanish-dubbed ''Murder, She Wrote''). She has appeared in many of Sondheim's musicals, including the original casts of ''Anyone Can Whistle'' and ''Theatre/SweeneyToddTheDemonBarberOfFleetStreet''. Sondheim even helped Johnson secure her appearance after learning he was interested.

* CentralTheme: Disruption, both real and faked. The film discusses how the system and the law are broken in the favor of the most wealthy and privileged, and will co-opt ideas of progress and revolution to deaden their power, and states that the only way to address these problems and make real change is to break the system ''open'' entirely, past the point that most people are comfortable with.
** Miles calls himself and his friends "Disruptors" who are fighting the system to change the world, but none of this is real change. Miles is just another tycoon trying to get wealth and fame from innovation, Claire is a politician dishonestly using progressivism to boost herself, Lionel is spineless against Miles and doesn't fight for his principles, and Birdie and Duke are only "disruptors" against the status quo in the sense that they spout regressive and bigoted opinions in a world they feel is too "woke" and are thus standing for an ''older'' status quo.
** Andi was legally screwed over by Miles and his legal team-- by trying to maintain ethical control over her company and halt a reckless plan, she was taken away from her seat of power and with no way to stop it.
** Birdie and Duke are the kind of "cancelled" celebrities who are stupid and morally abhorrent enough to never be able to weather controversy and recover their careers without other famous friends and money to revive them again and again--but they have those.
** Claire and Lionel are smart people who don't have enough moral fiber to stand up to bad ideas as long as they benefit from being a part of them.
** [[spoiler: Helen]] cannot achieve justice in a truly ethical legal manner since the evidence that would save them has been destroyed and there are witnesses who will perjure against them. They ultimately have to achieve vindication in a dubious but genuinely disruptive manner through [[spoiler:cutting through the bullshit empire of the private island and going further than anyone else is willing to by blowing up the Glass Onion with the dangerous Klear fuel, while sacrificing a priceless piece of cultural heritage, all to frame the killer as the dangerous idiot he genuinely is. After taking these steps, Helen secures the perjury of the witnesses in ''her'' favor, allowing her to achieve justice in an unorthodox but effective manner outside the rules.]]

** The tiny chunk of [[AppliedPhlebotinum hydrogen-based fuel]] Miles shows off at the beginning of the party and then loses track of as the situation gets further out of hand. [[spoiler:Helen uses it to destroy the Glass Onion, proving how dangerous it is in a way that the media can't overlook.]]
** Early on, it's mentioned that Helen is wearing flats, [[spoiler:which allows her to beat Miles to the Mona Lisa's override switch.]]
* ChekhovsSkill: Or rather, ''lack'' of skill. [[spoiler:Miles is shown time and time again to be not nearly as smart as he appears. He frequently misuses or makes up clever-sounding words, his intricate mystery box is just a collection of simple children's puzzles, and even his planned murder mystery game is immediately solved by Blanc. And it turns out this extends to him as the killer: Blanc finally pins him as the guilty party once he realizes that, yes, Miles ''is'' stupid enough to murder a high-profile businesswoman he'd just had a bitter legal dispute with.]]
* ClosedCircle: The murder mystery takes place on an island which can only be accessed by a two-hour boat ride, and the impractical dock means boats can only arrive at low tide. This means nobody can reach or leave the island until the morning once [[spoiler:Duke dies]].

** Claire's mask covers her mouth but regularly falls off her nose, showing that she's only interested in ''appearing'' socially and morally conscious. She's only wearing her mask properly when the public can see her.

** One of the glass sculptures in Miles' mansion closely resembles the now-iconic knife chair in Harlan Thrombey's office.

* CoolShades: Benoit Blanc and all the other characters all sport sunglasses on their spring retreat to a Mediterranean island.

** Andi has a mug in her house with the Janus Films logo, famous for their collaborations with Creator/TheCriterionCollection. [[spoiler:Fitting, since she's poisoned by someone she thought was her friend, or a two-faced liar. Also, as she's a twin, there are two people with Andi's
own face.]]

** Andi has a mug in her house with the Janus Films logo, famous for their collaborations with Creator/TheCriterionCollection.
[[spoiler:Fitting, since she's poisoned by someone she thought was her friend, or a two-faced liar. Also, as she's a twin, there are two people with Andi's

** Andi has a mug in her house with the Janus Films logo, famous for their collaborations with Creator/TheCriterionCollection. [[spoiler:Fitting, since she's poisoned by someone she thought was her friend, or a two-faced liar. Also, as she's a twin, there are two people with Andi's
face]].

** Andi has a mug in her house with the Janus Films logo, famous for their collaborations with Creator/TheCriterionCollection. [[spoiler:Fitting, since she's poisoned by someone she thought was her friend, or a two-faced liar. Also, as she's a twin, there are two people with ''her''