Unlike the metaphor of its title, "Glass Onion" has plenty of layers for viewers to pull back,
and it's definitely possible to get lost in all the twists and turns. If Benoit
Blanc's climactic explanation left you still scratching your head, we'll make it clear.
The trick in the early going of "Glass Onion" is making the viewer believe somebody is trying
to kill Miles Bron. Miles invites his old friends and business partners to his island for a vacation
getaway in which they will try to solve his pretend "murder" as part of an elaborate game.
Those invited include politician Claire Debella, chemist Lionel Toussaint, streamer Duke Cody,
"canceled" fashion designer Birdie Jay, and his estranged former business partner Cassandra
"Andi" Brand. Then there's detective Benoit Blanc, who got an invitation, but it wasn't from Miles.
The famous detective solves the murder mystery game before it even officially begins,
deducing from the numerous clues he's already noticed that it was Birdie. Miles is annoyed
that his elaborate game, which he has hired "Gone Girl" author Gillian Flynn to pen,
was ruined. But Benoit warns him that the game itself was a big risk, because it put
the idea of Miles' murder in the heads of seven people who all had reason to wish him harm.
"It's like putting a loaded gun on the table and turning off the lights!"
And Benoit is not wrong, even though he knows more than he's letting on. Andi had a serious
falling out with Miles long ago, Claire and Lionel fear his new solid hydrogen-based power
source Klear is too risky, Birdie is being set up to take all the blame for mistakes in
her business venture with Miles, and Miles has been sleeping with Duke's girlfriend,
Whiskey. Though Duke actually set that up himself to get what he wanted from Miles.
It seems like someone has indeed made an attempt on Miles' life when Duke collapses
and dies after drinking from Miles' glass. It also seems like Duke's murder will become
the central mystery of the film, but it's another that soon overtakes it as
the center of the story. Duke's death is merely one piece of a much bigger puzzle.
As it turns out, Miles wasn't the intended victim but was, in fact,
the killer. Everyone was too busy watching Birdie dance, as Miles has instructed them to do,
to note that Miles handed Duke his glass intentionally. It wasn't even
poison in the drink that killed Duke. It was pineapple juice, to which Duke's allergic.
"No pineapple in that, right? Duke don't dance with pineapple."
Duke was a useful pawn in Miles' attempt to get away with the other
murder he committed. Miles refuses to use any communication technology beyond fax machines,
but Duke is constantly getting news notifications on his phone. It's through Duke's constant Google
Alerts that Miles finds out that Andi's death has been reported in the news. To prevent anyone
else from finding out about that news, Miles kills Duke, taking both his phone and his gun.
While everyone is panicking about Duke's death, all the lights in the mansion suddenly go out.
Miles claims this is something that was planned as part of the original murder mystery game,
a bit of really unfortunate timing. Of course, that's not true. Miles has, in fact,
stolen the idea of putting a loaded gun on the table and turning off the lights from Benoit.
As Andi and Benoit regroup outside, Miles shoots her through a nearby window. When everyone else
arrives at the scene, it looks as if Andi is bleeding to death. But Andi isn't actually dead;
her journal was in her chest pocket and blocked the bullet. She and Benoit quickly
concoct a plan to fake her death using some of Jeremy Renner's hot sauce as fake blood.
We'll also soon learn that Andi isn't really Andi,
either. The real Andi is dead; this is her twin sister, Helen.
One of the many twists in "Glass Onion"is that Janelle Monáe actually plays two characters.
There's Andi, the businesswoman whose company was stolen by Miles, and then there's her identical
twin sister Helen, a schoolteacher who's been on the island posing as Andi the whole time.
The real Andi was responsible for introducing Miles to his future friends at their local bar,
the Glass Onion. It was on one of that bar's napkins that she sketched out the plan for
the tech empire that would make Miles famous. Miles wasn't particularly intelligent himself,
but he was rich, and could pay smarter, more talented people to do his work for
him. Eventually, Miles' self-mythologizing led him to cut Andi out of his business, after she
tells him Klear is too dangerous to use as an energy source. He wrote his own version of the
napkin in his own handwriting and had their mutual friends lie in court to give him all the credit.
Before she died, Andi sent out an email with a picture of herself holding a red envelope,
threatening to use its contents to destroy Miles' career. Miles doesn't use email,
but Lionel faxed him Andi's message. With that information, Miles paid Andi
a surprise personal visit, nearly crashing his car into Duke's motorcycle as he left.
"He almost got into an accident on his motorcycle. he was driving so fast!"
"Andi, I almost got pancaked."
Miles poisoned Andi's drink and stole the envelope.
After finding Andi's invitation to the party, Helen hires Benoit to investigate
Andi's suspicious death. Helen reasonably suspected foul play. Benoit has enough
connections in the media to keep the news of Andi's death temporarily under wraps,
so nobody at the party except for Helen, Benoit, and Andi's killer would know that she was dead. To
find out who that killer was, Benoit suggests that Helen impersonate her sister on Miles' island.
The revelation that Helen has been posing as Andi recontextualizes all her interactions with
everyone on the island, and we see flashbacks to what she's really been up to. She listens
in on the other partygoers' conversations to try to identify both specific motives and potential
opportunities for them to have committed Andi's murder. Much to Benoit's chagrin,
she thinks of it like a game of "Clue." It turns out everyone had paid a visit to Andi's
house the day of her death, and everyone had something to gain from killing her.
Of course, the solution is simpler than expected. Helen suspected Miles of being the killer from
the start, a theory Benoit dismissed because he thought Miles was too smart for that. Once
Benoit realizes Miles is not actually smart at all, however, everything comes into focus.
In Benoit's big monologue at the climax of the film, he explains how he's figured out that Miles
is guilty of both Andi and Duke's murders. He reveals that Miles is, in fact, not that smart…
"It's so dumb."
"So dumb it's brilliant!"
"No! It's just dumb!"
…as well as point out that Miles passed Duke the pineapple-spiked drink and was
in New York at the time of Andi's death. But what he's mostly doing is stalling
while Helen searches the Glass Onion for the piece of evidence she and Benoit need
to prove Miles is behind it all: The envelope with Andi's napkin inside.
Before she got shot during the blackout, Helen searched everyone's rooms to try and find the
envelope. Everyone but Miles', that is, and it's there that she finds the envelope in plain sight:
it was the red background of the picture frame that holds Miles'
forged napkin diagram. Behind the forgery is an obvious hiding place for the real thing,
so of course that's where it is. And to prove that the original napkin is
the real deal, there's even the logo of the now-closed Glass Onion bar at the bottom.
Benoit Blanc repeatedly makes it clear that…
"I am not Batman."
…he's a detective who works within the legal system and is not one to dish out any sort of
vigilante justice himself. He can find and present the truth of what happened, but he
lets the cops and the courts make the arrests and enact any punishments. Unfortunately, the single
piece of physical evidence holding this case together is one that's all too easy to destroy.
Before the police boats can even come close to the island, Miles burns Andi's original napkin,
effectively destroying the chances of this case holding up in court. Miles once again
tries to control the narrative through lies, and his friends still aren't brave enough to
truly stand up to him. Once that evidence is gone, there's nothing Benoit can do…
"Except, maybe, offer you some courage."
That courage comes in the form of another drink and a sample
of Klear to remind her just what her sister was trying to stop.
With the authorities unable to help, Helen takes matters into her own hands. The Glass
Onion is filled with tacky glass sculptures and furniture, so it's an easy act of protest
for Helen to just start wrecking the place after Benoit takes his leave. The other guests, feeling
guilty about betraying Andi and lying on Miles' behalf, eventually join in on the destruction.
Helen caps off her symphony of destruction by definitively disproving Miles' claims that
Klear is safe. Andi, and secretly, Claire and Lionel, knew putting the untested,
hydrogen-based power source on the market would lead to new equivalents of the Hindenburg
explosion. Helen puts the theory into practice by destroying the bar cart, lighting it on fire,
and then throwing the sample Klear crystal Benoit handed her into the flames. This,
of course, sets off an explosion that destroys the Glass Onion. All the people
inside miraculously avoid injury and manage to escape, but Miles' plans for Klear are cooked.
Miles' most ostentatious showcase of wealth was displaying the original Mona Lisa inside
a sound-activated security chamber. He loaned it out from the Louvre while the museum was closed
due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Ten years earlier, when Andi first introduced Miles to the rest of
her friends, Miles announced his goal was to "make something that would be talked about in the same
breath as the Mona Lisa" — a pretentious turn of phrase that confuses almost everyone who hears it.
"And…what does that mean?"
It basically means he wants some form of an immortal legacy. Now,
thanks to Helen, his wish is granted, but not for the reasons he was hoping for.
When Helen makes the Glass Onion go Hindenburg, all she has to do is hit the override button on
the glass case protecting the Mona Lisa for the masterpiece to burn to a crisp.
This grants Miles his wish in a truly ironic sense: his fuel will be mentioned alongside
the Mona Lisa as the cause of its destruction. It also shows that nothing is really immortal;
everything is impermanent. Miles was obsessed with legacy, and now his legacy is sure to
be a complete disaster even if he isn't punished for the murders he's committed.
"Glass Onion" is filled with "Chekov's guns" — details introduced early on in the movie that pay
off later. Benoit Blanc's wild genius is that he notices everything around him and is able to place
all those things as part of a broader narrative. But as much as "Glass Onion" is a satisfying
example of its genre, it's also a comedy poking light fun at it. One example of how it does so
is by introducing a character with absolutely no relevance to the mystery whatsoever: Derol.
Played by Noah Segan, who also played Trooper Wagner in the first "Knives Out" and has made
appearances in all of Rian Johnson's films, Derol is both a red herring and comic relief.
He's a stoner guest just hanging out at the Glass Onion, but he's not part of the party
and has no connection to the big mysteries. Whenever he crosses paths with the party guests,
there's a comedic awkwardness, particularly when Helen breaks into his room while searching for
the red envelope. At the end of the movie, he and Benoit share a lighter
while sitting outside and watching the fireworks of the Glass Onion exploding.