When Glass Onion was initially announced as “a Knives Out mystery” by Netflix, I must confess that I mistook it for something else entirely. Perhaps it was due to the premise of the original Knives Out movie, as well as the streaming giant’s track record experimenting with the genre. Or maybe I hadn’t had enough sleep the night before. In any case, I got my lines crossed and thought it was an interactive movie. You know the sort, in which the audience is able to influence the outcome of the story by inputting choices at certain moments. That turned out not to be the case, of course, but it’s since got me thinking it might actually be a very good idea after all. Netflix, if you’re accepting pitches, here’s one you should listen to.
Let’s start with the obvious; the franchise obviously revolves around the whodunit murder mystery genre pioneered by movies such as the 1985 film adaptation of Clue, itself an adaptation of a board game. But Knives Out feels suitably fresh for its fun script that reminds me of a Marvel movie, and character dynamics better found in a Wes Anderson movie – it’s a dynamite formula.
The personalities throughout both movies are really at the core of the franchise’s success, and I can see them driving interest in an interactive spin-off. The main cast led by Daniel Craig takes center stage, but even glorified cameos in the films so far have served the greater plot at hand even if it’s not necessarily clear right away. For instance, take the recently released Glass Onion, where Hugh Grant pops up as the life partner of Benoit Blanc. There is some shock value there, almost as if to say, “oh, it’s you!” Of course, in the end, his purpose is to reveal to the audience that Benoit never received one of the mysterious black boxes essential to the initial plot (a cut-and-dried Clue homage). It essentially flips the narrative upside-down.
Think of Clue for a second, specifically the board game itself. Often early in the game, a player may think they have everything figured out to a science, and 7/10 times they are wrong. Now, imagine there were consequences for that such as certain scenarios with less-than-desirable outcomes. In our Knives Out interactive film, that might begin a chain of events that winds up with the death of every character, including Benoit Blanc.
Mind you that there are a few Netflix interactive movies that use very specific parameters to unlock secrets or certain endings, such as in Black Mirror Bandersnatch when your decisions can potentially cause the programmer Colin (played by Will Poulter) or even your stepfather to commit suicide. As such, there could be an array of guest stars only accessible by a certain path of choices. One false move and maybe you get cornered by an actor whom nobody has any interest in seeing…. Maybe, I don’t know, Angelina from Jersey Shore? Go another route and you encounter Bruce Willis’ character from Looper (another Rian Johnson movie), which could potentially act as an Easter Egg.
Additionally, maybe viewers get paired up with Blanc, it would be up to the viewers to piece together the mystery itself. Gathering clues – perhaps some vital, some red herrings. And just as a good chunk of the success of these movies is carried on the shoulders of Daniel Craig as an actor, so would the plot of this special. If we look at Knives Out or Glass Onion, the strongest chemistry and connection we see between characters is undoubtedly between the lead female role and the detective. They act as partners, and it’s easily the best aspect of either film since they both are moral compasses put in the middle of some truly awful situations.
Regardless, it should not be understated that the entire franchise thus far has been riding quite a bit on Daniel Craig’s shoulders. Director Rian Johnson has said that he never in a million years had the James Bond alum in mind when he thought of the role of the Louisiana detective. But now. there’s no one else he could picture Benoit being.
Regarding Clue, there is a certain campiness in that that I think would aid this concept. In the movie adaptation specifically, half of the fun occurs after the discovery of Mr. Body’s corpse. Aided by a jovial score courtesy of Mr. John Morris (who scored many Mel Brooks films such as the Producers mentioned above), there is a goofy kind of charm when butler Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry) is running around the mansion like a madman trying to solve the various murders that have taken place that night. This, of course, all comes to a head when the end of the movie brings multiple endings, half of which are absurd.
A similar thing could be said of the little tangents that Glass Onion especially breaks into – one specific example being Blanc’s ironic realization of the sheer stupidity of “genius” Miles Bron (played by Edward Norton). This feels cut from the same cloth and makes it feel a bit less imposing.
But aside from that, Knives Out and Glass Onion also share another characteristic that can be traced back to the board game adaptation. Every one of the players in all these films has secrets they are trying to hide, as well as characteristics rooted in human nature – for better or worse. Each person displays their level of misguided self-preservation, out of fear of their would-be skeletons being revealed. One such example of this is near the end of Knives Out when Chris Evans’ character Ransom tries to manipulate Marta (played by Ana De Armas). To this end, almost all characters are overtly willing to double cross and backstab whomever they so deem necessary to achieve their ends.
With such a depth of story and characters, I can see an interactive film offering endless replayability and a whole barrel of laughs. Here’s hoping Netflix agrees! Rian Johnson has made it abundantly clear that he is not lacking in any kind of ideas surrounding the Knives Out universe; after all, Glass Onion itself is a spin-off and therefore isn’t a direct sequel. It’s not too much of a stretch, then, to see the success of said spin-off give way to even more spin-offs: another film, an interactive movie, and, hell, even a board game to be played at Christmas time with family!
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