With Knives Out, Rian Johnson launched a gentleman detective who cracked circumstances with wild charisma — and meals metaphors — that left us craving for extra. Now, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Thriller takes us additional down the donut gap with Benoit Blanc, organising a whodunnit franchise with no indicators of slowing down. So what might Knives Out 3 be about — and did Johnson drop a clue in his now-on-Netflix sequel?
In a thriller splashed with homicide, cameos, celeb commentary, and rather more, it is simple to overlook a wierd sound right here, an oddball there, or a could-be trace about what we would see subsequent from Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig).
What can we learn about Benoit Blanc?
Credit score: Netflix
Let’s take a step again to 2019’s Knives Out, the place the grieving Thrombey household was perplexed by a non-public detective being of their midst. In spite of everything, their patriarch Harlan (Christopher Plummer) had died by obvious suicide. However earlier than Blanc was absolutely within the whirlwind of the household’s drama and a sophisticated body job, his status was hinted at by a pair of feedback from the interviewed next-of-kin.
“Mr. Blanc is a non-public investigator of nice renown,” Lieutenant Elliott (LaKeith Stanfield) explains coolly to flighty self-care maven Joni (Toni Collette). In response, she exclaims, “Wait a minute — I learn a tweet a few New Yorker article about you. The final of the gents sleuths? You solved that case with the tennis champ — you are well-known!”
Reduce to hard-nosed businesswoman Linda (Jamie Lee Curtis), who truly learn the profile and describes it as “pleasant” earlier than demanding to know why Benoit is right here. The pleasantries finish there.
So, Benoit is a well-known Gentleman Detective due to this New Yorker profile. Later, he mentions his father was a police detective who knew Harlan years in the past. However little else is revealed about this man of mysteries. That’s, till Glass Onion ushers us into his house. There, we not solely see him sulking within the bathtub between circumstances, but additionally, we get a way of his circle of well-known buddies, which incorporates fellow murder-mystery fanatics Stephen Sondheim, Angela Lansbury, Natasha Lyonne, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Additionally, he is received a associate in Philip, a baking fanatic performed by a jaunty Hugh Grant.
Nonetheless, it is as Benoit units forth for a peculiar get together on the personal island of billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) that one in all his fellow visitors drops an intriguing element a few well-known previous case.
Did Glass Onion arrange a possible prequel?
Credit score: Netflix
When the “disruptors” convene on a dock in Greece, they’re befuddled to see a stranger amongst them. However Governor Claire Debella (Kathryn Hahn) acknowledged the spiffily dressed gentleman, or at the least his identify.
“Oh my god, Benoit Blanc the detective?” Clare asks. “Did you remedy the homicide of — oh — ”
And right here you may suspect she’ll say “Harlan Thrombey” or “that homicide thriller novelist” or possibly even “that tennis champ.” All of those could be callbacks to Knives Out that may match neatly into the puzzle image of Benoit Blanc. As a substitute, Claire continues, “Did you remedy the homicide of — oh — whatshername — the ballet dancer factor, that is you?”
Such a imprecise phrase may imply nothing in another film. However among the many many glass baubles that adorn Miles’ den is a statue of three ballerinas. And with all of the clues and allusions hidden inside Glass Onion, that does not really feel like a coincidence. It seems like Johnson — who loves laying Easter eggs in his motion pictures — is teasing what might come subsequent.
So allow us to contemplate the chances with some wild hypothesis.
Knives Out 3 is a few ballerina homicide case.
Credit score: Netflix
Investigating Claire’s remark, we would assume {that a} ballerina was murdered mysteriously, and none aside from Benoit Blanc cracked the case. However wanting once more, Claire’s comment is wishy-washy — in the best way of politicians maybe — in that she units up homicide, fails to recollect the identify of the feminine sufferer, after which rambles “ballet dancer factor.”
Gender norms may urge us to imagine the ballet dancer is the whatshername. However males and nonbinary individuals ballet dance, too. So maybe this fractured thought is tumbling collectively the sufferer and the killer.
In both case, this might imply that Knives Out 3 is perhaps a prequel, wanting again at an intriguing investigation that occurred between the Thrombeys (and that New Yorker profile) and Benoit’s unusual Grecian getaway. Until…
Knives Out 3 was teased in Knives Out.
Claire is a governor, working from dwelling, and operating for re-election. So, it is secure to say she’s tapped into the information. This is the reason I belief that even her scrambled message is a clue value parsing. However maybe her fumbling of the small print is an indication that this ballerina information is definitely fairly outdated. Possibly it is even the story referenced within the years earlier than New Yorker profile.
Whereas I would belief stern, detail-oriented Linda to remember exactly the particulars of the case on the middle of that profile, Joni is a far much less dependable witness. She mentions a “tennis champ” but additionally notes she did not truly learn the article. She learn a tweet about it. Did she get it incorrect? Was it not a case a few tennis champ however truly one a few killer (or killed) ballerina?
Or is Johnson utilizing each these traces to arrange a prequel that would be the loopy case that places Benoit on the map (and out of his father’s shadow)? Maybe it is a crime involving a tennis champ and a ballet dancer. Maybe one killed the opposite, or vice versa, or one was accused and Benoit was their path to justice, simply as he was for an overwhelmed nurse and a grieving schoolteacher.
Really, the one one who is aware of for positive is Rian Johnson. Nonetheless, there is a thrill in enjoying Benoit ourselves as we wait for one more chapter of those addictive adventures in detection.
