Netflix’s latest original escapade takes a look at the murder mystery genre. Glass Onion: A Knives Out mystery follows Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) in his latest case to crack after he is invited to the mysterious luxury island owned by billionaire Miles Bron. Although Glass Onion had the entertainment factor going for it, nothing about the movie screamed memorable. Here is our official review (with spoilers) of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery:
What Was the Plot?
Glass Onion starts us out with four characters who suddenly receive strange boxes from eccentric Billionaire, Miles Bron. The characters are obviously very wealthy and seem to have a lot going for them. Claire is the governor of Connecticut, Birdie is a famous singer that finds herself entrenched in controversies all the time, Duke is a men’s rights YouTuber, Lionel is the lead scientist at Miles’ company, and Andi is a former business partner and co-founder of Miles’ company, Alpha. We also meet Duke’s girlfriend, Whiskey, who joins the party as well. Additionally, we meet Peg, who is Birdie’s assistant, I guess.
The boxes appear to have a puzzle to them and invites the characters to Miles’ private island for a murder mystery getaway. The movie took place during the COVID-19 pandemic, which kinda played a bit of a plot point at the beginning, but was pretty much forgotten later on.
It seems like every other character aside from Andi are friends, but more on that later.
Benoit Blanc also appears to get a box that invites him to the party. However, this is not after we watched him play and lose at Among Us with a bunch of old people as well. It suddenly reminded me that Among Us was actually huge during the pandemic and wasn’t just a meme.
Welcome to the Island
When they reach the boat to travel to the island, nobody seems enthusiastic about having Andi there. We later learn that Andi and Miles were the co-founders of Alpha and that Miles basically cut Andi out of the company. What a rude thing to do.
From there, we get to the murder mystery game, which Benoit manages to solve within mere minutes. This obviously upsets Miles, but Benoit explains that he solved the mystery because every person on the island technically had a reason to want to kill Miles.
We learn that Miles basically funds their entire empires and without them, they wouldn’t have anything. However, Miles is working on a very dangerous source of energy that could basically turn houses into bombs. Not a good look. He wants a power plant that Claire signed off on, but because of how dangerous his alternative fuel source is, it could ruin Claire’s reputation.
The Murders Begin
This wouldn’t be a murder mystery if there wasn’t any murder. So, Duke begins to choke on something suddenly and he dies almost instantly. Either he was poisoned or something else. Benoit immediately assumes that it wasn’t an accident and asks for Miles to phone the police and an ambulance. Miles is in far too much shock, so Lionel goes. However, the emergency services can’t arrive because of the tides and the fact that Miles has a terrible dock set in place.
Miles, being the uber-eccentric fella he is, has set the lights to go out at 10 PM to add more flair to his original murder mystery game. Since the game never happened, Miles forgot to turn that feature off. So, the lights go out and the characters are obviously panicked.
Then, Benoit and Andi are talking and suddenly, Andi is shot.
Or…was she?
The Real Story
We go back in time to find out that Andi wasn’t really Andi all along. Andi had a twin sister–a third grade teacher named Helen.
Andi had actually been dead for some time due to a suspected suicide. However, Helen believes that this isn’t true and she suspects that Miles and his friends had something to do with her death.
Benoit agrees to help her and has Helen dress like Andi and pretend to be her in order to infiltrate the island. It turns out that Helen had gotten the invitation, which was meant for Andi, and she opened it with a hammer. She went to Benoit, showed him the invitation, and the two decided to go.
Miles had assumed that someone wanted to murder him and invited Benoit to add more flair to the murder. Turns out, it was just Helen and Benoit working to solve the mystery together.
Benoit and Helen’s Plans
Helen poses as Andi and tries to learn more about the other characters to see what she can figure out about Andi’s murder.
Andi had apparently been murdered just a bit after she sent an email threatening to destroy the empire Miles had built. In the email she was holding a red envelope that contained the original napkin of the idea for Alpha. This napkin would’ve given Andi rights to the company and the ability to sue Miles successfully.
Helen continues to search for clues. She finds out that Duke, Claire, Birdie, and Lionel had tried to find Andi and even went to Andi’s house. They had called her a bunch as well. Duke mentions that on his way there, he was almost run over by Miles’ special Porsche.
The shot that was meant to kill Helen, who was still posing as Andi, didn’t go through. It hit a journal instead. However, Benoit and Helen made a plan to have the killer think Helen was dead so that Benoit could distract the others and have Helen find the red envelope.
They determine that the envelop was hidden in the Glass Onion on the top of the resort. Benoit goes to distract the other characters to buy Helen a few minutes. Benoit then determines that Duke died of anaphylactic shock after Miles purposely put pineapple juice in his drink. He also determines that Miles had gone to Andi’s home to kill her and staged it to look like a suicide.
Miles killed Duke because Duke had seen on the internet that Andi had died of suicide. The news broke out later since Benoit tried to delay it in order for the plan with Helen to work.
Helen finds the red envelope and exposes Miles. However, something goes wrong.
The Resolution
Miles burns the original napkin and the other characters basically refuse to admit they saw it because all of them fear not having Miles’ money and funding.
Benoit admits that he can’t really do anything without evidence, but he gives Helen a drink. Turns out, Helen takes a lot of charge when she drinks.
So, Helen starts smashing all of the glass pieces in Miles’ dining/seating area. The other characters join in, but eventually, Helen takes it a bit too far and burns the bar down.
She then uses the alternative fuel source Miles made to cause a massive explosion in the luxury home before she burns the original Mona Lisa that Miles had in his home.
That was pretty much it, though.
Thoughts About Glass Onion
I think that the movie was overall relatively decent to watch. It was nothing insanely exciting and it certainly wasn’t the best detective/murder mystery movie I’d ever watched either. There were a lot of things in the movie that felt exaggerated or a bit silly, at best.
Sure, the movie did have some very famous actors like Daniel Craig, Idina Menzel, David Bautista, and even Ethan Hawke at one point. There were funny jokes made here and there as well.
Still, the movie fell short at its ending. It was clever throughout the film, but the ending was flat compared to the rest of the story. Helen destroys the house, and then what? How did she really destroy Miles? His fortune was still there. Her sister didn’t get justice. Nobody else is going to know about what happened truly on that island. There’s still Duke’s dead body inside.
It seemed like none of it was cohesive near the end.
Still, I won’t say that the movie was downright terrible. It still entertained me for its run-time and it was relatively clever. It had some symbolism with the Mona Lisa as well.
There was also an Easter Egg of Fight Club at one point, since Miles is played by Edward Norton (The Narrator from Fight Club). I thought that was pretty clever honestly.
Overall Rating
I would say Glass Onion is a solid 6/10. Not insane, terrible, or awful. Just a little above average. It made me laugh, had some great actors, included a pretty neat twist, and gave you a bit of a relatively funny story.
It definitely could have been stronger, but it is what it is. I think it’s just one of those movies you watch once and move on from though.
And that concludes the review of Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Let us know in the comments below what your thoughts on this movie were.
Check out our other movie and TV reviews for more!
Leave a comment below and follow The DZSH Group on Instagram and Twitter
Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
