Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery
Summary
When tech billionaire Miles Bron invites his inner circle of friends — the “Disruptors” — to his private Greek island for a weekend murder mystery game, the game turns fatally real. Detective Benoit Blanc arrives to find that the relationships between Miles and his so-called friends are as fragile and hollow as the Glass Onion itself.
As secrets unravel and motives surface, Blanc and Helen Brand, the twin sister of Miles’s betrayed partner, work to uncover the truth behind a real murder that happened before the weekend even began. What follows is a slow peeling back of layers of deception, revealing the simple, ugly truth at the core.
Key Characters
- Protagonists:
- Benoit Blanc — “the world’s most famous detective, according to Google,” who is the voice of reason amid the chaos of characters around him
- Helen Brand — the twin sister of the murdered Andi (Cassandra Brand), who poses as her sister to join the island weekend and uncover the truth behind her death
- Antagonist: Miles Bron — a self-styled genius billionaire whose empire rests on the theft of Andi’s idea and the loyalty he buys from those around him
- Supporting Roles: The “Disruptors” — Lionel, Claire, Birdie, and Duke. Each has tied their success to Miles and turned a blind eye to his crimes, trapped between greed and dependence on the man who feeds them
Structure
Act 1 - Setup
Hook
Eccentric billionaire Miles Bron sends elaborate puzzle boxes to his circle of “Disruptor” friends, inviting them to a private Greek island for a weekend of games, luxury, and a staged murder mystery.
Inciting Incident
Detective Benoit Blanc arrives uninvited, disrupting Miles’ carefully curated weekend. Beneath the group’s glossy camaraderie lies old resentment and mistrust — amplified by the shocking arrival of Andi Brand, Miles’s former business partner, who was betrayed and “social-networked” out of her own company, Alpha. The Disruptors are visibly uneasy with her arrival: each of them lied under oath to help Miles steal Andi’s work.
First Turning Point
Blanc quietly observes that each guest has motive to want Miles dead: he holds power, secrets, or blackmail material over them all. When Duke suddenly collapses after drinking from Miles’s glass, the playful game turns deadly. What began as a performance now becomes a real murder investigation.
Act 2 - Confrontation
Rising Action
Panic erupts at Duke’s death. The Disruptors turn on each other, their alliances dissolving as guilt and fear surface. The atmosphere of curated fun implodes into chaos. During a sudden blackout, a gunshot rings out — Andi appears to be shot and killed before Blanc’s eyes.
Second Turning Point
A flashback rewinds the story. Days earlier, the real Andi was murdered after emailing the group that she’d ”found it” — the original napkin proving Alpha was her original idea, not Miles’s. Blanc and Helen (Andi’s identical twin) devise a plan: Helen would impersonate Andi to lure out the killer while Blanc would accompany her to help solve the mystery.
Act 3 - Resolution
Climax
Blanc gathers guests and exposes the truth: the murderer was the most obvious suspect all along. Miles killed Andi to steal back her proof and poisoned Duke to silence the only witness who saw him leaving Andi’s home on the night of her death.
Helen confronts Miles with Andi’s recovered envelope — the last tangible proof of his theft — but Miles smirks and burns it, erasing the evidence in front of everyone.
Resolution
Miles mocks Helen, believing himself untouchable. In fury and grief, Helen begins smashing Miles’s glass palace, inciting the others to join her. Blanc quietly hands her the prototype of Klear, Miles’s unstable hydrogen fuel and Alpha’s next big product. Helen tosses it into the fire, triggering an explosion that engulfs the mansion — and the Mona Lisa that Miles arrogantly borrowed to display his ego.
As the inferno consumes his empire, the destruction becomes irrefutable proof that Klear is unsafe — the killing blow to his illusion of genius. The Disruptors turn on Miles, ready to testify. At dawn, Blanc departs while Helen sits amid the wreckage — victorious not through law, but through poetic justice.
Works Mentioned
- Rian Johnson (dir.), Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022)
- All images and clips from Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery (2022). © Netflix.
- Cover image source: TV Insider
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