Knives Out (2019) on Netflix
PG-1320192h 10mComedyCrimeDramaMysteryThriller
Crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead in his study after his 85th birthday party. Detective Benoit Blanc is anonymously hired, and the nurse Marta Cabrera is questioned in the inquiry.
- Netflix3.8/5
- IMDb7.9/10891,277 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes97%
Trailer
Plot summary
Crime novelist Harlan Thrombey gathers his extended family at his estate for his 85th birthday and delivers disappointing news to several of them. The following morning the housekeeper, Fran, discovers him dead in his study with his throat cut. The police believe he took his own life, but someone has anonymously hired the private detective Benoit Blanc to look into the death. Blanc interviews the household, among them Harlan's son Walter, who was dismissed from the family publishing company, his daughter Linda and her husband Richard, and his widowed daughter-in-law Joni, whom Harlan had accused of taking money from him. Marta Cabrera, the nurse who attended Harlan, cannot lie without vomiting, which makes her a valuable source for the investigation.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Knives Out (2019)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Daniel Craig initially turned down playing Benoit Blanc because he was contractually committed as James Bond to No Time to Die, which was set to shoot around the same time; only when disputes pushed that Bond film's production back by three months did Craig become free to accept Rian Johnson's offer.
- Chris Evans planned to take a break from acting after finishing Avengers: Endgame, but agreed to play Ransom Drysdale after producers told him the shoot would take place near his home in Massachusetts.
- Director Rian Johnson at first thought Ana de Armas was too beautiful to convincingly play the humble nurse Marta Cabrera, and de Armas herself nearly turned the role down because she found the original character description clichéd, before the full script won her over.
- To create Benoit Blanc's flamboyant Southern accent, Daniel Craig trained with a dialect coach for two to three hours a day, studying interview footage of playwright Tennessee Williams and author Shelby Foote from C-SPAN and Ken Burns' The Civil War documentary series.
- Set decorator David Schlesinger wanted a collection of rare automata for Harlan's mansion, but the Morris Museum's Murtogh D. Guinness Collection, one of the world's largest automata holdings, refused to let any pieces leave its exhibitions, so the crew tracked down a private restorer and a separate local collector to supply and install the mechanical figures instead.
- Composer Nathan Johnson visited the Knives Out set while it was still filming to gather ideas for the score's melodic motifs, an unusual step since composers typically only join a project in post-production after shooting wraps.
- Netflix paid $469 million to acquire the rights to make two Knives Out sequels, an enormous sum for a pair of movie deals.
