Knives Out

Knives Out is a 2019 American mystery film written and directed by Rian Johnson. Daniel Craig leads an eleven-actor ensemble cast as Benoit Blanc, famed private detective summoned to investigate the death of bestselling author Harlan Thrombey (Christopher Plummer). Although police rule Harlan's case a suicide, Blanc suspects foul play and examines a host of clues and deceptive red herrings to ascertain his true manner of death. Johnson produced Knives Out with longtime collaborator Ram Bergman. Lionsgate managed the film's commercial distribution, and funding was sourced through MRC and a multimillion-dollar tax subsidy from the Massachusetts state government. Johnson conceived Knives Out in the mid-2000s. Seeking to modernize the whodunit films of the mid-twentieth century, the director was inspired by his interest in big-screen movie adaptations of Agatha Christie's stories. Johnson then shifted his attention to creation of his 2017 film Star Wars: The Last Jedi, halting further progress on Knives Out. Development resumed the following year when Johnson wrote the screenplay in six or seven months. He devised a framework of tonal shifts to escalate tension between the characters, and informed elements of the story with his experience coping with intense culture war backlash to The Last Jedi. Principal photography began in October 2018 on a $40 million budget and wrapped that December. Shooting took place on location in suburban Boston. Nathan Johnson composed the film's classical score, which drew on an eclectic array of his and Rian's favorite symphonic movie scores. Knives Out has been read as work that investigates class warfare, wealth inequality, immigration, and race in contemporary American society. Knives Out premiered at the 44th Toronto International Film Festival on September 7, 2019, and was distributed to American theaters on November 27 to major critical and commercial success. It was chosen as one of the year's top films by the National Board of Review and the American Film Institute, and finished the theatrical run grossing $312.9 million at the global box office. Critics distinguished the film's plot and actors for praise, though some aspects of the writing and performance drew criticism. Knives Out was nominated for multiple awards, among them three Golden Globes, a BAFTA, and an Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay. Knives Out is the first entry of a franchise that includes two more films—Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022) and Wake Up Dead Man, set for release in 2025.

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And Wanetta. Great nana. Harlan's mom. - Hi, Nana. - His mom? - Nana? - Wow. How old is she? We have no idea. Okay, um, and your son, Ransom, did he attend as well? Yes, but he left early.

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Ransom, are you leaving?

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Right, um... Would you say that all three of you showed up around the same time?

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No.

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Richard came early to help the caterers set up. Okay. And you and your husband, Richard, work at a real estate firm in Boston? No. It's... It's my company. Right. Right. Sorry. I built my business from the ground up. Oh, just like your father. You two were very close. We... We had our own secret way of communicating. I mean, you had to find that with Dad. You had to find a game to play with him, and if you did that, and you played by his rules...

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Everyone idolizes their dad, right? I don't know. Do they?

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Very much not. Don't know why I said that. But my wife, Linda, does. Harlan started out with a rusty Smith Corona and built himself into one of the best-selling mystery writers of all time. Wow, seems like all his kids are self-made overachievers.

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Sure. For the record, I'm speaking with Walt Thrombey, Harlan Thrombey's youngest son. So, you run your father's publishing company? Yeah. It's my... It's our... Uh, it's the family's publishing company. Dad trusts me to run it.

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Thirty languages. Over 80 million copies sold. A real legacy. Mmm-hmm. - You guys fans? I mean, I don't do much fiction reading myself, but... Big fan. I'm a big fan. I mean, his plots are just like... Like, I won't spoil it for you but... Okay, like Thousand Knives? The Cow and the Shotgun? Like, where do you come up with that? Well, Dad said the plots just popped into his head, fully formed. It was the easy part for him.

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Um, so you're in the area, right? Uh, you guys probably arrived around the same time. Uh... We all got here around 8:00. My wife, Donna, she's my rock.

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Jesus, Donna! Are you all right? My son, Jacob, he's 16. Very politically active. The boy is literally a Nazi. He's an alt-right troll dipshit. Kids today with the Internet, it's amazing. So the night went well?

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I mean, we're all gutted, but, uh, I was happy to have that night with him. To be by his side. To think about our books and what we've accomplished with them. It's like I can still feel his hand on my shoulder.

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Passing the torch. So, we're here with Joni Thrombey, Harlan Thrombey's daughter-in-law? Mmm-hmm. Yeah, I married his son, Neil. We had one daughter, Meg. And then Neil passed on 15 years ago. But you remained close to the Thrombeys? Oh! They're my family.

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I feel simultaneously freed by and supported by them.

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It's that balance of opposites that's the nugget of Flam.

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Sorry, the nugget of... Flam. Oh. Yeah, Flam, your skincare company. Sorry. I forgive you.

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Yeah, it's skincare, but it promotes a total lifestyle. Self-sufficiency with an acknowledgement of human need. That's Flam. But it's also Harlan. He got me and Meg through some tough times. Grandad gives my mom a yearly allowance and he's never missed wiring a tuition payment to my schools.

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He's a genuinely selfless man. But you left the party early? Have fun. To see some friends at Smith. You know Dad pays for her crypto-Marxist-post- deconstructural- feminist-poetry-theory- whatever major? She could have stuck around for the cake. I think Linda was upset.

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Hmm.

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But Harlan understood.

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