Headscratchers / Glass Onion

As a Moments subpage, all spoilers have been turned off. You Have Been Warned!

---

• Why didn't Duke have an Epipen if he was so fatally allergic to pineapples? Miles wouldn't have had a chance to steal it from him without Duke knowing.
  • It might not have fit with his Testosterone Poisoning persona. His entire platform is built on being aggressively masculine, and admitting to an allergy could be taken as a sign of weakness.
  • He might have had one in his luggage but felt safe not bringing it with him to the party as everyone there knew his allergy and he'd even been asked to list his allergies on the RSVP.
  • The attack was acute and abrupt. Everyone else assumed he was choking and didn't think to look for an epipen while Duke himself was likely unable to think straight (much less communicate any thoughts, with an obstructed airway). Even if he had an epipen, the panic, on top of the fact that only Miles knew what was even happening, meant it was forgotten/overlooked.
• Why did Miles send a box to Helen/Andi in the first place? Did he know Helen existed and would take Andi's place?
  • Likely his idea of a clever alibi. How could he have known she was dead, he sent her a puzzle box and everything.
    • This is probably right. Why wouldn't Miles send a box, since he's not supposed to know Andi is dead?
    • Because they've had a huge falling out and are not on speaking terms so absolutely nobody would be expecting him to invite her.
    • Then again, it could be interpreted as him pretending to extend an olive branch so he'll look like the bigger person for the other Disruptors.
    • Which is, of course, exactly why Miles' "clever idea" is, in fact, stupid
  • Miles sent the box before he killed Andi. Helen tells Blanc that she found it in the garage while going through Andi's things.
    • Actually, she says that a delivery man brought the box as she was going through Andi's things.
    • That does however bring up another question. The invitation in the puzzle box noted that travel details for the vacation will come later. While the puzzle box could have been sent before he killed Andi, why would he later send the travel details to her as well seeing as how he knew she was dead?
    • That's assuming he himself was personally going through the travel details, rather than leaving it up to any of his employees who would normally take care of the minutiae. For all intents and purposes, the Boxes were just meant to set the theme for the murder mystery party. He would just have to tell his assistants "send this box to the usual people, then a few days later send the travel details." (At least I do not recall anything about the boxes being needed to receive the invitation, just telling them to wait.)
    • The news of Andi's death didn't go public until the night of the party. The details were sent for the same reason the box was: To keep up the pretense that Miles didn't know Andi was dead.
    • Andi sent the email on May 11 and was murdered on May 12. The others received their boxes on May 13. There's no indication that Andi's box also arrived on the 13th, but if it did, that means Miles invited her before he planned to murder her and realized he needed to cover it up. Which makes no sense, considering that they had just had a nasty public falling-out.
  • Given that Miles says the guy who made the Boxes barely had time for the 5, he probably had the plan for the weekend set in advance. Meanwhile it appears the murder itself was something he only started planning the moment he was sent the Fax about the evidence. So he sent the box just as a normal invitation, then killed Andi for an unrelated reason. If not for Andi finding the Napkin, Miles' weekend murder mystery would have been just a fun getaway for his inner circle, with the only issue being his desire for Klear to be revealed faster than Lionel and Claire wanted.
    • Miles and Andi had just been through a very messy and very public falling-out. Why would he have invited her to an intimate and private vacation after that?
    • He might possibly have been initially wanting to reconcile (or at least demonstrate his largesse and being "the bigger man"); from his statement to Blanc about how Andi was the only person who was ever honest with him, he appears to have had some actual fondness for her at least.
  • Plus the actual trip was several days after the boxes were sent. The dates on the articles showing Andi's death are more than a week after the May 13, 2020 date the film starts at.
• How was Helen — and everyone else — able to walk and lie around in a room of broken glass without so much as getting one cut? Half of them were wearing sandals!
  • Chalk this one up to MST3K Mantra, really. But for a better answer, an explosion INSIDE the Onion could have theoretically blown most of the glass on the side panels outwards, meaning depending on where they were relative to any glass from inside the room, surviving cut-free wouldn't be astronomical odds, if still pretty improbable. Realistically, none of them having been burnt to a crisp while being in a room full of ignited hydrogen is a bigger question mark.
  • It's possible they did get cut, but were too jacked up on adrenaline to notice.
• How did NOBODY die, or even get injured, in the explosion of the Glass Onion? That was a really big explosion, and everyone was right in the center of it.
  • Based off the relatively low amount of damage on the ground floor (well, compared to the top of the Glass Onion anyway), as well as how the flames were sucked upwards before the explosion occured as opposed to the explosion happening immediately, the center of the explosion seems to have been within the ventilation system, higher up in the mansion. As everyone was on the ground floor, they weren't caught in the blast. This lines up with hydrogen gas, which is lighter than air so it would have built up at the ceiling and in the ventilation first.
• While Miles is clearly an idiot and a conman, Helen (his most caustic critic) points out that he was able to help get Duke's streams set up, help Claire get elected, and Lionel published. Andi, who was smart enough to help set up a billion dollar company, worked alongside him for years. Was he just conning others into helping his "friends?"
  • Miles' superpower seems to be his charisma and ability to trick people into thinking he's a genius, perhaps by using large, impressive-sounding words or terribly botching an explanation for some economic theory that would go over the average person's head. So a lot of people would just go along with whatever he's planning because he sounds like he knows what he's talking about. It's also possible that his overwhelming self-confidence is just very infectious, inspiring the people around him to go for their goals when they otherwise would back down. It's possible he never actually did anything but convince them that they should take their shot.
    • It's also possible that while Miles is dumb on nitty-gritty technical aspects of things, he still had connections. He most likely linked his friends to the right people to help them.
    • In addition to the other reasons stated here, Miles is an attractive, non-threatening (if quirky), white man. Don't underestimate how quickly someone like that can be perceived as the mastermind/ringleader of such a mixed group.
  • It could also simply be that he was born rich. Notice that he talks about going to Paris with his family as a 6 -year old. Now, that is not rock-solid evidence, but coupled with how he's disliked by everyone in the friend group from the start, and even Andi is more tolerating him than anything, it seems like strong evidence that he's simply the guy with the money. When Claire needed to get elected, he donated a healthy sum, when Duke needed equipment for his streams, Miles bought the best gear available, when Lionel needed to get published, Miles greased the gears. It also lines up with how everyone is "Sucking on his golden tits". He was never a genuine friend to any of the other characters, and as he got richer off of them, they got more desperate to hold on.
    • This also fits with his being largely a sendup on Elon Musk, also born very rich.
  • Miles is not the world-breaking genius people believe him to be, no, he has a poor grasp on vocabulary, yes, and he's impulsive and doesn't think things through, sure. But despite Blanc's insults, this doesn't automatically make him an utter mouth-breathing moron with no skills or abilities whatsoever. He's stupider than people assume, but when people were assuming he was an absolute off-the-charts genius, this still leaves room for at least some smarts, abilities and cunning in at least one field or two — enough to help set up a streaming channel, help run a successful business and help a politician get elected, at least.
• When Helen trashes the rooms, in the montage of stuff thrown, one room has condoms (seemingly branded with Duke's logo), joints and other similar items. Except Helen never gets to fully go through Duke's room, as Whiskey catches her midway. So whose stuff was that?
  • Perhaps Duke was planning on having Whiskey try to bribe Miles with sex even more?
    • This doesn't explain it either. Helen didn't search Miles' room and presumably, Duke and Whiskey were sharing a room.
  • Another interpretation is that Helen did finish searching the room, and encountered Whiskey on her way out.
  • Upon rewatch, it appears to be Claire's room. The first room Helen searches is Claire's (with the TED Talk bag visible), before going to the pink bedroom Birdie was in. She trashes Duke's room after that. The various drugs and sex stuff are all Claire's, which fits as a subversion of her public persona as an environmentalist and family woman (on CNN she describes her home as an office and kindergarten). Since she knows Duke, he could've given her some of his own-brand products as freebies, which happened to include condoms (which women are just as likely to travel with as men).
• Since Helen was largely responsible for the destruction of The Mona Lisa (if it was the real thing), when she removes the protective casing to expose it to the fire; isn't she just as legally liable for it as Miles (who was under contract to protect it) if not more so?
  • Legally, yes, but the only witnesses (aside from Miles) are already lying to implicate him, so they'll likely just say he did it.
  • In any case, the point of burning it wasn't for Miles to be held legally liable. It was to destroy his public reputation. And to make sure that no one is ever going to adopt his dangerous fuel that blows up houses. Maybe she considered it worth the risk.
• What was "dumb" about poisoning Duke with pineapple juice? Blanc clearly despises that it was not carefully planned, but if anything, coming up on the spot with something that's all of discreet, quick and can pass as accidental shows a lot of quick thinking.
  • Miles used the glass with his name on it. When this is spotted, Miles makes it seem that someone tried to poison him and Duke accidentally drunk from the poisoned glass. However, an autopsy would reveal that Duke died from his allergy to pineapple. Miles did not have a pineapple allergy, so no one would try to poison him that way. For it to be an accidental death, someone would have to accidentally put pineapple juice in Miles' drink and then Miles accidentally sat next to Duke just as Duke was reaching for his drink and accidentally grabbed the drink Miles just put down. That's too many coincidences and the alternate version where Miles poisons Duke makes more sense.
    • Once the autopsy comes out, Miles could simply claim it was an accident and in the heat of the moment before it was made clear to him and the others what killed him he mistook it for someone trying to poison him. If Miles hadn't planned it he would have no way of knowing what killed Duke at the time. He could even say he had pineapple in his drink at some point that night and forgot about it.
    • The problem with that is the drink Miles and Duke are having, which appears to be either a Bourbon on the Rocks or an Old Fashioned. Neither drink is conducive to pretending Miles happened to have pineapple in his drink: Bourbon on the Rock is by definition just straight bourbon, and Old Fashioneds are only meant to have some kind of whiskey, bitters, and sugar/syrup, plus the orange peel as a garnish. Adding pineapple juice (or really, anything that you would need to pour from a can) would be an extremely superfluous if not outright absurd addition. While Miles could probably get away with saying he had something with pineapple earlier, the amount of pineapple that he added to the drink would have contributed to the severity of Duke's reaction, all of which would be noticed on an autopsy. Now, Miles saying "I like pineapple juice in my old fashioneds" or "I like pineapple juice mixed with bourbon" might hold up in a court of law, but the whole thing would be utterly suspicious to the police - especially given that they're almost certainly already investigating him in relation to Andi's convenient death. It won't take them long to realize that Duke died within moments of Andi's death being made public. Duke having a convenient accident at that exact moment starts to go beyond the realm of reasonable doubt.
  • Also, just the simple fact that Miles is once again immediately and instinctively deciding to murder someone who he and he alone has motive to murder at that point in a way that can be directly linked to him. The man's a billionaire, he can just fob Duke off with a payout or agreeing to his terms and then hire a hitman to murder him if he's that desperate that Duke should die. But instead he kills him at a party he's throwing in a way which directly makes him one of the possible suspects? Does that really sound smart?
    • It does have the advantage that Duke didn't have time to set up a deadman's switch or anything of that nature. The moment he left the room - the moment he was out of Miles' sight, really - killing him would no longer be a safe option because Miles would have no way of knowing who he informed. Of course, whether Miles is smart enough to think this through is another question.
  • Also, we need to remember what Miles says versus what he does, and how he unknowingly implicates himself. He immediately claims that someone was trying to poison him and accidentally got Duke instead, but unless Miles was also allergic to pineapple, any analysis by even regular police would make this very clearly not the case. After all, not only could the pineapple be directly traced back to Miles, but the strange odds that Miles would happen to put pineapple juice in a glass of whiskey (when both Duke and Miles seem to prefer non-fruity drinks) and then accidentally mix up his drink with Duke, and then later tries to turn it around to make it seem that someone else was trying to poison him means that, when the police would show up, they would obviously realize that Miles' claims of almost being poisoned don't hold up to any scrutiny. His plan certainly was some quick thinking, but also would fall apart once actual authorities got involved.
  • Blanc was not impressed with Miles as a person and was trying to get the Disruptors to realize that he was an opportunistic asshole who was only pretending to be suave and intelligent. Saying "okay well parts of this scheme were clever, even if they don't pan out in the long run" does not fit the argument Blanc was making. So whatever he actually thought about Miles's last-minute plan, he needed to say that the whole thing was stupid. Plus then he gets to keep chipping away at Miles's massive ego.
  • We also have to remember that Blanc is, well, a little bit full of himself. He prides himself on being able to unpack complex riddles and mysteries, to the point where he has a bit of a blind spot for things that he considers to be "dumb", but which if more fairly approached are actually just straightforward and simple (he expresses similar contempt for games like Clue and Among Us, where it actually seems their only real fault is being more straightforward than Blanc is comfortable with making him not very good at them). Miles murdering someone by exploiting their pineapple allergy is simply not what Blanc would consider to be a particularly inspired or genius move, despite it being a more-or-less effective one for accomplishing the intended goal.
• Did Helen still have the envelope the napkin was in? Wouldn't that be evidence?
  • No, an empty envelope is not evidence that it ever contained a business plan. She also cannot prove that she found it in Miles's house and did not bring it with her onto the island after finding it in Andi's house.
    • It's not just an empty envelope though, it's THE envelope from the email. It might not prove Miles stole her business plan but wouldn't it be evidence of his involvement in her murder? Also wouldn't she have as much trouble proving she found the napkin itself on the island as she would have proving she found the envelope?
    • The envelope itself is unremarkable aside from being red. Miles could just say Helen bought another envelope, especially since she can't produce the contents.
  • An envelope is evidence only that someone has at some point sent or received mail. A red envelope is evidence only that someone has at some point received mail in a red envelope or likes using red envelopes to send their mail. The fact that it's in Andi's email just proves that at some point both Miles and Andi happened to have mail in a red envelope. Without the contents of that envelope, a cheap strip-mall lawyer would be able to demolish any case that was brought forward, much less the highly expensive lawyers Miles almost certainly has on retainer.
• Why didn't Miles burn the napkin and envelope as soon as he got it?
  • He's a vain idiot who probably thought that keeping it Hidden in Plain Sight was the height of cleverness.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation: He had his fake one framed; maybe he genuinely held respect for the core idea behind his company and wanted to frame it discreetly too.
  • Because he didn't think to until Lionel asked that very same question
• Why was Miles fine with Helen messing up his expensive and tastefully decorated living room?
  • Because he thought that was all she could do, so if he let her (in his eyes) play out her little temper tantrum, after that she'd simmer down and toe the line just like everyone else.
  • Also, simply put, he's a billionaire and has shown to have plenty of things on the island that he doesn't really need. He bought the freaking Mona Lisa just because he could. He could easily replace all of the glass statues Helen breaks if he really wanted to. Notice that the only points where he started to worry was when Helen was destroying stuff that he couldn't replace as easily, such as the painting and Liberace's piano.
• Did Helen consider that lighting the Glass Onion on fire could very well kill her?
  • She's already shown to not make the smartest choices when she's had a few drinks in her. Either she Didn't Think This Through or she figured it was worth it if it killed Miles or ruined his life.
  • Blanc basically tells her to do it, and she trusts him.
    • As smart as he is, Blanc is a detective, not an engineer. If she based her decision solely on that then it falls under Alcohol-Induced Idiocy again.
  • When Blanc suggests pretending to be Andi he says he cant guarantee her safety, but Helen is willing to risk her life to get her sister justice. Im guessing that same conviction applied to the finale.
• Why did Helen feel the need to walk over and gloat to Miles that she found the evidence that could take him down right in front of him? Especially when just earlier Lionel just asked him why he didn't just burn it in the first place. Miles then proceeds to do just that and destroys the only thing that could ruin him (lawfully, anyway). What did she expect would happen?
  • He killed her sister, so It's Personal, and she wants to see him squirm when she gloats. She likely thinks that Miles would only be able to get at it if he attacked her in front of everyone and tried to wrestle it away from her, which she probably thinks he's too much of a coward to do. However, he manages to burn the napkin before she can react, which she doesn't expect.
    • That would be understandable. It's demonstrated multiple times over the movie that Helen is a bit hot-tempered and has it out for Miles especially. Still, at that point she knows Miles is more than capable of killing his friends to protect his interests: he killed Andi, Duke, and then shot her in the dark just earlier. Threatening a known sociopath that's willing to kill people to protect his secret by showing him the evidence that could expose his crimes to his face isn't a good idea at all, even if she believes that Miles doesn't have the guts to do it openly.
    • It's never presented as a good idea.
  • For the same reason Andi let him into her house: since she had a weapon that would beat his money and army of lawyers, she didn’t think what he personally could do.
• Without The Disrupters going to authorities and admitting that they'd perjured themselves (resulting in jail time for each of them), would Miles actually face any real consequences for the events at the Glass Onion? Nobody but them knew the home was powered by Klear, and the cause of the explosion would be relatively easy to cover up, especially for a man of his resources. It's not even clear that he'd go down for the destruction of the Mona Lisa; given their surprise at learning it was real, it's likely that nobody but the French government knows he even has it. I'd bet while it's on loan to him, there's probably even a fake hanging in the Louvre just in case. The French may ban him from the country, maybe force him to pay restitution, but they're not going to want anybody to know it was destroyed either. Imagine the public outrage if it's revealed that they loaned the most famous painting in the world to a rich idiot who let it burn up in a housefire. The President (who would be facing re-election in 2 years) would likely be forced out and would probably never hold public office again. There's no way they'd tell ANYONE that the Mona Lisa was loaned out and destroyed. The only way I could see them choosing to turn on Miles is, after Klear's danger is proven to them, they know it's only a matter of time before its hazardous nature is discovered. After all, Miles wants it powering every home within a year. The only way people would find out about Klear's danger is in the months after its release, when buildings that catch on fire start exploding. This would be pretty easily connected to Klear, and something that volatile would probably take him and his company down within the year, giving them no incentive to stand by him knowing it would ruin their reputations. But the incident at the island likely wouldn't be public unless they tell everyone.
  • The explosion was very large, and there were police boats approaching the island. They undoubtedly saw it.
  • The French government is not a singular person. Just because it would be bad for the President at the time, it doesn't mean that everyone in the French government who knew that the Mona Lisa was being loaned out wouldn't blab that it had been destroyed. Especially when, even if they do have a fake (or six) in the Louvre, experts and even employees would likely be able to tell that it's a fake, leading to a scandal either way. Them telling the truth would at least have Miles take most of the heat off them.
    • They could have just given Miles a fake. The most obvious evidence for this (as pointed out on the WMG page) is that the one Miles has is clearly a painting on canvas, as seen when it gets destroyed, whereas the original was painted on wood. Given that few people seem to be aware of this fact, the French government may have just given him a canvas fake on the assumption that he would not have known that they'd duped him.
  • Miles almost certainly has documentation proving the house is powered by Klear in case anyone questioned it at his planned reveal to the world. Also, the technical specs of setting that up would have to be somewhere since it's not like he put the whole thing together himself.
  • Truthfully, even if none of this had happened he probably would have been arrested for the murder of Andi anyway (and would almost certainly have been arrested for the murder of Duke after killing him, even if nobody on the island had solved it.) Both are extremely obvious, that was Benoit's point - as soon as the autopsy shows that Andi consumed sleeping pills mixed with something else, it will be clear it was murder and reasonably obvious who had a motive to do it. Duke's murder is even worse because the autopsy will make it clear he died of a massive amount of pineapple juice, not poison, which couldn't have really been served by accident and which only one person was in a position to give him.
  • The Mona Lisa is literally the most famous painting in the world. It's a priceless work of art and one of the world's cultural treasures. If it gets destroyed because the French government loaned it out to some richer-in-money-than-sense idiot who promptly allowed it to get set on fire, that's going to come out. If only because, even if they do try and keep it secret, heads are still going to roll over something like that happening (the President might want to keep it quiet to protect his or her job, but he or she isn't going to want the curator dumb enough to make that deal to keep their job as if nothing happened), people are going to do their best to make sure it isn't their head that gets chopped, and at some point someone who finds themselves on the chopping block will almost certainly decide to go to the press to try and make sure that they aren't the only one finding themselves there.
• Could Miles be arrested on attempting to murder Helen? Although he wore a glove when firing, there's a few shots where he's shown handling the gun barehanded. Or would Duke's fingerprints already on the gun disrupt Miles'?
  • Even if they were able to get Miles' fingerprints, it'd be pretty easy to claim that Duke just let him hold his gun at some point because they're friends.
    • On the other hand, since Duke was already dead when the murder attempt happened, Miles' fingerprints would be conclusive. Even if it's not enough for a conviction on its own, the chance of a conviction after a traditional police investigation is high.
  • Who's to say Miles didn't wipe down the gun before he actually shot Helen?
• Why did the court case between Miles and Andi come down to the napkin? Regardless of who drew up the initial idea, shouldn't the legal argument have revolved around what percentage of voting shares each of them held in Alpha (and that of any other large stakeholders they managed to win to their sides)?
  • It's mentioned by Helen that Miles' lawyers had 'worked the contract' to cut Andi out the company completely, making her threat to take half the company fail, so presumably in terms of voting shares she was supposed to have at least half. The legal case would probably be based around an argument that the way Miles' lawyers had manipulated the contracts wasn't legal if she was the one who had the idea, but if he was the one who had the idea then it would be.
  • Writing down a business idea on a napkin does not given you any legal rights. Ideas by themselves are not Intellectual Property. Only the actual implementations of the ideas can be legally protected. In a dispute for the control of a company, it should not matter who came up with the idea for the business. What would matter is who owns the voting stock and who owns any associated Intellectual Property a internet company like Alpha would be dependent on. The trial about who wrote the napkin does not makes sense from a legal perspective. Whatever legal shenanigans Miles engaged in, it would have to do with the ownership of the shares and the rights they gave to the holder (eg voting vs non-voting shares). Andi would have to have been given extremely stupid legal advice if she signed a contract that stripped her of all her power in the company. Even if Miles was able to seize control of the company, Andi should have still been a major stockholder with a seat on the Board. That would have given her a position to be vocal about her opposition to Klear and easily torpedoed Miles's plans.
• What was with the shots where, every time the glass shield shut, a bit of the paint on the Mona Lisa flaked off? You'd think that whoever installed the thing would say "hey, maybe damaging the incredibly old, famous, and expensive painting we have on loan from France would be a bad idea". Even if it was actually a fake, which would explain the flaking and it being on canvas instead of wood, the flaking looked pretty obvious and would have clued in Miles' guests pretty quickly.
  • Miles was tasked with protecting the Mona Lisa and did so using an arrangement of glass panels that frayed and damaged the Mona Lisa as they opened and closed. If it happened once or twice, while there might be damage it'd be more negligible. But because he built the case in a way to open the glass whenever he wanted, and because he tends to use tech without testing how safe it is, the damage from repeated wear and tear became inevitable. Even if his mansion hadn't burnt, he'd still be on the hook paying for that damage. If the painting was fake, it's not like he'd know; he's a "buffoon", but given the detective in the room didn't see fit to deflate Miles' ego by pointing out how obviously the Mona Lisa in his living room is a fake, in-universe it's probably the real thing.
• While the glass shield was sensitive enough to respond to phone pings, why did it keep shutting? That is, why did the shield keep opening so it could shut again? It's not like anyone was hitting the override.
  • Incompetence. Miles built a way to bypass the Mona Lisa's protection so he could show her off directly. Right off the bat, his only job was to keep the Mona Lisa entirely secure and he failed. It's also a clue his tech is unreliable and foreshadows the last act's Hindenburg moment.
• Why doesn't Duke film in a studio or another house rather than a place where his mom can shout at him while he's livestreaming?
  • Duke's a mama's boy. He's big, he's buff, he's powerful, but beneath that persona he's quickly reduced to weak murmuring after one slap from his mom. That the slap happens after he scripts a video whining about the breastification of men is demonstrative that, deep down, he's nowhere near the 'Alpha' he makes himself out to be.
  • Because he can't afford it? Streamers often have very short careers and Duke is long past his heyday to the point that he's pushing Alt-Right talk points and pimping his girlfriend in a desperate attempt to stay relevant. He probably doesn't have the money to spare on a recording studio or even his own apartment.
• Not wanting to repeat the first film's climax aside, why didn't Blanc think of secretly recording when he outs Miles as the culprit of all the crimes he committed and Miles confessed as such, including supporting statements by Helen and everyone else? That's how he and Marta got Ransom in the first movie, after all. Even if Miles burned the napkin, a recording of his confession would've been another big piece of evidence that got him arrested, and it's not like there isn't a single phone there. Birdie isn't allowed to touch one and at one point Blanc mentioned that he left his phone in his room (and a long time has passed since that scene. He could've carried his phone with him right now), but there are other phones around that could record the entire climax that could be the evidence Blanc and Helen need to put Miles behind bars without resorting to the violent solution in the end, and as the first movie demonstrated with Ransom, it doesn't matter how good Miles' lawyers are if it's his own words that are used against him.
  • That might be why Blanc insulted Miles' intelligence, trying to get a rise out of the murderer. But while Miles is stupid, he's also a psychopathic liar; he never brags about killing Duke or Andi, he knows there are recording devices and cameras all over the place and his privacy isn't certain. When he burns the napkin, he asks everyone in the room if there ever was a napkin in the first place and nobody's willing to swear by it. Even knowing full well Miles has killed two of their so-called closest friends, the shithead club was still willing to perjure themselves and lie to keep him safe. All that would have been caught on the recording was Miles lying that there was no napkin, that nothing was burned, and that Blanc's accusations had no evidence. His own words weren't incriminating enough that a recording could have taken him down, even with the word of the greatest detective in the world against his. If anything, the recording including the majority of people in the room backing his lies might have exonerated Miles.
  • Blanc also was not the one that recorded the conversation in the first movie. It was Trooper Wagner.
• Why did Andi email her buddies rather than just going straight to the courts with the napkin?
  • Two ideas. A), She was basically giving them one final chance to do the right thing and back her, since she finally had proof she started the company. Or B), she was letting them know that with that proof, she can also show how the Disruptors perjured themselves and let them know that they are screwed.
• Why did Andi let Miles in her house? He wasn't one of the people she emailed. What would they have to talk about that she would be interested in?
  • The same reason that Blanc ruled Miles out as a suspect, she didn't think anyone could be stupid enough to murder someone they just had a very public court case with. Miles is very charismatic, so maybe he managed to convince her that he had a change of heart and wanted to settle things amicably.
  • She simply didn't guess he would resort to murder. She now knows he's a liar and a cheat but they also used to be friends. Blanc even says that Andi didn't spot the danger until it was too late.
• Why didn't Claire and Lionel check on their phones and learn about Andi's death? Birdie's phone was confiscated by Meg and likely shut off, but what are the other two's excuses?
  • I remember there was an earlier scene where Claire's husband tried to call her, but she declined the call. As for Lionel, maybe he didn't have notifications about Andi because he felt a degree of guilt and didn't want to think about her.
  • Because unlike Duke, they didn't set up their phone to automatically notify them for recent search results involving Andi. Remember that the reason Duke found out is because he has his phone notify him of recent results involving all the Disruptors (and the word "movie"). So the only way they'd know Andi's dead is if they actively decide to google her, which they'd have no real reason to do.
• Why did Birdie and Peg record their conversation about Miles' sweatshop on a voice recorder?
  • They didn't. Helen planted the recording device in Birdie's bag without them realizing it, and then retrieved it when they left the bag alone.
• Is Klear and therefore Miles' fortune really doomed? Yes it has disastrous initial PR when the world finds out about the explosion and the destruction of the Mona Lisa, but it's still an incredibly dense, easy to transport fuel which can apparently be easily made from renewable energy. There may be some work to do on the hydrogen formation and maybe it'll never fuel people's homes, but if it can end up replacing even 1% of the world's fuel usage that will still make Miles an absurd amount of money.
  • Lionel made it clear that a minimum of two years of development was necessary to confirm if Klear was even viable as a fuel source. The scandal of the destruction of the Mona Lisa, coupled with Miles's arrest if the Disruptors go ahead with their testimony against him, will destroy Alpha as a company, and in the short term nobody will touch Klear with a 10 foot pole. Even if another company later takes up the development of Klear, any potential applications will hit the market too late to do Miles' fortune or reputation any good.
• How is Derol able to smoke in his room without setting any smoke alarms off? Benoit Blanc couldn't even get away with lighting up in the garden.
  • Perhaps Derol's room isn't located in an area with any alarm? Knowing Miles' negligence of safety standards when it comes to the Mona Lisa and how he even lets a known stoner like Derol wandering around the island freely in the first place, he probably doesn't worry about the dangers of Klear as much as he should. The alarms in the gardens are, for all we know, the only ones he had installed on the island.
  • Remember how Miles bragged he built an off switch for the Mona Lisa's security features? He did that to show off to his 'closest' friends, doing that for his buddy so Derol can indulge in his habits without being interrupted by alarms isn't just in character for him — it's foreshadowing that Miles doesn't take security inside his home seriously. He put smoke alarms in his gardens, on the outside of his house and, meanwhile, he turned them off indoors. What an idiot!
• Why would Miles be the first person to be suspected of Andi's death? Her death appeared to be a suicide, there was no evidence anyone else was even in her house, the one person that could put Miles at the scene of the crime told no one and for all intents and purposes, he had won the case. If the e-mail came to light, Miles could just deny ever seeing it.
  • He wasn't. Blanc initially views Miles as the least likely suspect among the Disruptors, and Helen spends the majority of her time on the Island investigating everyone except Miles. The only reason Duke realized Miles was the killer was because he saw him leave Andi's house the day of her death. Even if he wasn't seen leaving Andi's house, since the email was faxed to him as a paper, any signs of his fingerprints on any copy of the paper would be proof that he saw it, so denying it wouldn't really work.
  • Couldn't deny seeing it since he kept his fax lying around that Lionel sent him the email. The police underthinks it that she committed suicide since it makes sense while Blanc is overthinking that someone else would kill for Miles since it would be the smart thing to do. Under a more thorough investigation it wouldn't be hard to find it odd that Andi drugged herself in the kitchen before locking herself in the garage and Miles was in the area for Whiskey's birthday. Then they just find the letter and the fax in his house.
• Assuming the Mona Lisa picture that Miles has is a fake because the Louvre wouldn't trust him with the real thing, would Miles be able to sue the Louvre for it? He mentioned that he lent the Louvre a large sum of money they needed during the pandemic in exchange for having the Mona Lisa at his vacation home to show off to the world leaders in his upcoming Klear project pitch. If what he has is indeed a fake, then the Louvre has two options: either continue to pretend that Miles did indeed have the real thing and let the world believes it was destroyed forever, or reveal that Miles had a fake all along and admit that they conned him from the start in exchange for his money, something that Miles would be able to sue them over and would result in a major scandal for everyone involved.
  • The Mona Lisa is the least of Miles' worries now; the rest of the Disruptors are about to testify that he murdered two people and his Klear fuel blew up in his face. His money is better spent bribing or discrediting Lionel, Claire and Birdie or faking his death.
  • While that is true, it raises another point: The main reason the Disruptors turn against Miles is that his Klear power is responsible for the explosion that destroyed what they believe to be the real Mona Lisa. His Klear power is dangerous, yes, but it's the fact that the Mona Lisa was destroyed because of it that will completely ruin Miles's reputation, something that wouldn't really have the same impact if the painting Miles had turned out to be a fake. Would the Disruptors still turn against Miles if his reputation wasn't completely shattered because it turned out he never had the real Mona Lisa in the first place and therefore wouldn't be recognized as the person who destroyed the world's most prized painting?
  • It wouldn't matter whether the Mona Lisa was real or not; he put his name and his company's reputation at risk in written legal documentation that he'd protect the painting given to him from the Louvre. His failure to protect the Mona Lisa or 'Mona Lisa' is irrelevant; his only legal obligation was to keep it safe and by violating the letter and spirit of the agreement he failed.
  • Even with the assumption that it is fake, Duke is still dead, the house exploded and the police is coming to ask what happened. This is too much for the Disruptors, two of them already having to backtrack the Klear energy plant and shuttle project while the other has to torpedo her career by taking the blame for the sweatshop.
  • Another thing to consider is that if the Mona Lisa was intended to be fake in-universe, Blanc would have known - most people wouldn't know that it's painted on wood and not canvas, but he's the greatest detective in the world (in a genre where being a good detective is partially about knowing obscure trivia.) Whether this means it's more or less likely to be a fake depends on whether you think Blanc would be willing to suggest burning the real thing, vs. whether he thought the plan he implied to Helen depended on it being real.
• Since the Mediterranean is a non-tidal sea, why is it stated that the ridiculously elaborate dock doesn't work at low tide?
  • The island isn't in the Mediterranean sea, it's in the Aegean Sea, which appears to have a tide difference of about half a foot.
  • That's still only about 15 centimetres, which shouldn't impede someone being able to land at a dock if they were willing to get their feet wet.
  • Artistic License – Geography
• Considering that the woman he murdered is creepily walking around alive, why doesn't Miles send Blanc home with an apology and an iPad? Even if he didn't put two and two together and realise that Andi and Blanc are in cahoots, having the world's greatest detective at his place isn't very wise when he had just attempted/committed a murder.
  • "Isn't very wise" sums up most of Miles' character, with the rest being narcissism. Maybe he thought Blanc (who is also deliberately playing up his folksy Southernisms) couldn't possibly pose a threat to him and that Blanc's presence might deter Andi from attempting anything, or that he might be able to make Blanc work for him. After all, he does later offer to pay Blanc to protect him.
  • Alternatively, Miles was worried his murder failed and Andi somehow survived. When he distributed drinks to his friends and their compatriots, he didn't consider what Birdie's assistant would like and passed her a red solo cup. But Birdie is never seen without her assistant on-screen; someone that important to one of his Disruptors didn't register as important to Miles, so would Miles know that Andi had a twin sister at all? He doesn't know what sea his island is in, or what several of the fancy words he uses actually mean. If he was smart, he'd have known Andi had family who'd investigate her death, but Blanc puts it best: He's a buffoon.
• Are there not security cameras in Miles' house? It could help prove Miles' guilt in one murder and another attempted one, but it would also prove Helen's guilt in destroying the house and the Mona Lisa.
  • Either there weren't, which I wouldn't put past him and seems likely since no one ever even suggests that idea, or there were and they got destroyed in the explosion.
  • Why would there be security cameras? It's a private island that only a few people gets to go there to begin with not a museum or a lab.
• Is Miles exceptionally stupid or is his response just how any amoral person of average intelligence or anyone untrained with murder would have committed murder?
  • It's kind of irrelevant — he's just blatantly not the genius he's built himself up as in everyone's minds, including his own. In comparison to that image, he's stupid. Also, going down the long list of mistakes, ideas he stole and things he overlooked... I think your average person could have done better even untrained in murder.
  • Even if you dismiss the murder, he is communicating buzzwords through fax as work and go all in with a product everyone but a bar side conversation with a conman says is faulty. He is stupid all around.
• Duke sees the news of Andi's death on his phone and decides to blackmail Miles because he saw Miles drive to her house on the day it says that she died. Cool and all, but... how has he suddenly forgotten that he's been seeing what appears to be Andi alive and well this entire vacation and just spoke to her very shortly before?
  • Like Birdie later on, he had probably heard Andi mention her twin sister at some point but just forgotten about it. The news of Andi's death simply jogged his memory.
  • It's not necessarily that he remembered that Andi had a sister: it's the realization that, if Andi's dead, then the person on the island who is acting as her simply isn't her.
  • The article mentions that Andi has a twin sister, so he could’ve read that to realize this was Helen.
  • Alternatively, he might just not have cared. The important thing to him is that Miles is implicated in Andi's death; who, exactly, is pretending to be Andi is important to Miles but not really that important to Duke. Probably if he'd had more time he would have followed up on it, but it wasn't his first priority.
• What the hell was that stuff everyone had to be sprayed with?
  • It was likely meant to be a disinfectant or orally administered COVID vaccine so the Disruptors could party with Miles for the weekend without needing their masks.
  • Watsonian explanation right there. Doylist: they didn't want their expensive and talented actors wearing masks for the whole movie, so they inserted a Hand Wave reason why they wouldn't.
• The whole problem with Klear is that the hydrogen gas would leak out of the pipes in an average home. Why would it be in the pipes to begin with? Wouldn't it logically be used within a sealed, self-contained generator that would be independently providing electricity to the household? Even houses heated with natural gas furnaces don't pipe that gas throughout the house, and we ought to presume that a house converted to run on some exotic new fuel as an energy source wouldn't simply be burning it in the furnace for heat.
  • We don't really know how Klear is used as fuel, like it's solid hydrogen when hydrogen generator already exist so it must do something different and for that it needs to be inside the house instead of a generator next to it.
• While it makes sense for the Disruptors and Peg to be hesitant to testify against Miles, as they're all under his thumb, why was Whiskey initially unwilling? The only connection she had with Miles was hooking up with him and Miles surprising her on her birthday. Miles has no real influence on her reputation or financial situation. Even if one wanted to argue that it's because Duke, who Whiskey was using to promote herself, was under Miles' thumb, Duke was already dead. So Whiskey has nothing to lose. Was she just that worried about being charged for perjury?
  • Maybe she's scared that, since Miles just murdered her boyfriend, he might kill her too if she openly turns against him, or that he'll slut shame her; he could very easily blow up how Duke was pimping her out and the scandal wouldn't really touch him but would stick to Whiskey for years and poison all her political aspirations. Noticeably she doesn't really start retaliating until she sees Helen smashing things first and thus feels more protected in a group.
  • Whiskey was not part of the circle of friends back in the day and so can't testify to the biggest secret, that it was Andi who drew that idea on the napkin and not Miles. Also, while Miles doesn't have leverage over her the way he does over the others, she would still be a mere YouTube bikini girl going up against one of the richest men on Earth.
  • Because it's perjury. She saw him burn a napkin, but Miles pointed out that none of them could verify if it was the napkin with the evidence of his theft of intellectual property and evidence forgery. She'd have to claim to have seen more than she actually had to verify Miles had actually destroyed evidence. It's the same reason the others weren't willing to testify that he'd killed Duke or that they'd seen him driving away from the murder or the like. Any lawyer worth their salt would ask if they were certain they knew he'd done all of the things they'd witnessed and they would have to lie, meaning that not only could they go to prison if caught but Miles would still get off scott free.
• No one knew that Andi had a twin sister? None of her old friends? Miles, her business partner for years?
  • It's never said that they don't know Andi had a twin sister. Birdie even explicitly says that Andi told her about having one. They just had no reason to think the twin sister was on the island, let alone impersonating Andi (who, other than Miles, nobody knew was dead at this point).
  • In fairness, Blanc does say during their initial meeting that the killer would be the one person aware of the ruse. Miles didn't talk to her too much, and his initial interaction - about how happy he is that she came - makes more sense if he knows or suspects it's not really Andi: he'd be pretending not to know of Andi's death.
  • It's also possible Miles simply assumed Andi had survived his murder attempt. It's unlikely, but still possible that someone found her before she died in her garage and got her to a hospital. In all likelihood, he probably assumed it was a ruse but as said above, the only way to call it out would be to admit to the murder since there's no reason for anyone to suspect anything otherwise. Blanc had the press hold off on reporting her death for the plan after all.
• How did Miles have the Wren Diamond in his possession when Blanc revealed the solution to the murder mystery game? He had the amulet around his neck the whole time from the moment they arrived, Birdie looked pretty shocked that he had it, and Blanc specifically stated it was a family heirloom.
  • Considering that he managed to snatch Duke's gun and phone quietly, it's possible he pickpocketed it off her.
• While he's right to assume it, realistically, what reason did Blanc have for pinning the investigation's solution on finding who had the envelope? Why would he assume any of the the guests would bring it to the island after Andi was dead? To deliver it to Miles? But what if they had done so earlier or it changed hands so the one who had it wasn't the murderer, or it was planted on someone else? It doesn't seem like finding the envelope anywhere but where it actually was would have truly been sufficient evidence to identify the murderer. It only works as evidence when it's Miles who killed Andi and hid it where he did.
  • Blanc mentions to Helen that whichever one of the disrupters killed Andi and stole the napkin would want to show it to Miles in person rather that destroying it immediately in order to make sure he understood what they'd done for him. Presumably none of the disrupters have had in person contact with Miles between Andi's death and the holiday on the island due to lockdown so the murder mystery game would be the killer's first chance to bring Miles the napkin. Throughout their investigation Blanc and Helen seem to be operating under the assumption that whichever one of the disrupters is guilty acted alone without any of the other's knowledge as they establish that each of them independently had the motive to protect Miles and the opportunity to Kill Helen. Going by these assertions they would be expecting the killer to bring the envelope to the island secretly and show it to Miles the first time they had a chance to be alone with him. Finding it in one of their rooms might not be hard evidence that could be used to convict them in court but it would give Blanc and Helen a pretty good idea that they killed Andi.

---