KNIVES OUT 2019 Breakdown! Hidden Easter Eggs & Visual Analysis!

welcome back to new rockstars I'm Eric Voss and knives out was one of the most intricately crafted films of 2019 a master class at whodunit storytelling with endless visual details that make rewatch is a game of foots in their own right people loved it so much they announced a freaking sequel is in the works now while we typically analyze the nerdier stuff here knives out does have Captain America Tony Stark's daughter Zod Yoda the kid from it and was made by Star Wars director so you know it's kind of like new rockstars pulled a MARTA on a clue board knives out topped our poll of requested films for me to breakdown so let's go back through this film scene by scene for all the Easter eggs and details that you might have overlooked spoiler warnings I haven't seen it yet let's get started knives out opens on the home of mystery writer Harlan at thrombi now his name is possibly an homage to the popular 80's choose your own adventure book called who killed Harlow Dorothy the first image shows Harlan's dogs rushing out to greet us as we'll see throughout the film the dogs reaction are a key clue pointing to the murderer this Chotu character the dog this is a reference to the Sherlock Holmes short story the silver blaze and which Holmes deduce is that the dog silence means the culprit was a party they knew several shots show the mansion interior which the production designer based on mystery films like death trap and sleuth actually noticed that sailor statue this is a nod to jolly Jack Tarr in the mystery writers home and sleuth also notice how the house is covered in art and window designs featuring the motif of skeletons and skulls this is an art style called memento mori translating to remember you are mortal some Victorian homes would be decorated this way as a reminder that death comes for all people rich or poor and here they show how the thrombi czar know better than murder the opening shots also give us a direct look at the trick window wall up in the attic it's got an x marks the spot of a painting of a child entering through the frame the housekeeper Fran is framed with her reflection in Harlan's mirror later when ransom has shown sneaking into this room to meddle with Harlan's medication he's framed in the same mirror the same way reflecting how Fran will later witness ransoms treachery and be the one murder in this film that finally gets the villain arrested Fran finds Harlan dead and she smells a coffee mug reading my house my trolls my coffee arta will later sip from this mug in the final shot suggesting this house and its comforts are intended for her and next we meet Marta Harlan's nurse her sister watches a mystery show with a familiar voice we have the nanny cam this is a vocal cameo by Joseph gordon-levitt a long time Ryan Johnson collaborator who starred in Johnson's breakout mystery film brick and we see how Marta's phone screen is broken the small detail that contrasts Marta with the rest of the thrombi family were often on their pristine smartphones and it may have broken as a result of Harlan's propensity to overturn their go game board whenever he loses Marta is greeted by Harlan's granddaughter mag and Harlan's daughter Linda and her husband Richard and Linda mentions Harlan's funeral the members of the family will actually tell Marta the same thing I thought you should have been so despite their falseness clearly none of them wanted her there they also consistently mistake what country or families from families from Ecuador families from Paraguay your family is from Uruguay your Brazilian nurse yeah notice how they all mentioned South American countries which are all probably wrong considering Marta's undocumented family members were likely from Mexico or Central American country so each family member is questioned and our main detective Benoit Blanc observes occasionally tapping a piano key this is his nonverbal cue to Elliott to get back on track and ask what time they arrived right did you say that all three of you showed up around the same time so you're in the area right you guys probably arrived around the same time right you two showed up to the party around the same time so Blanc is the Sherlock Holmes Hercule Poirot of this story Daniel Craig plays them with this so the drawl inspired by southern historian Shelby Foote he's the first established writer from Grand Blanc says um here the behest of a client notice that Blanc is flanked by a skeleton possibly foreshadowing how the mystery client he's referring to is the villain they gotta watch out for we need Walt Harlan's son who runs the family publishing company his wife Donna and his alright son Jacob and then Joanie Widow of Harlan's son Neal and Meg's mother and we get a sense of the rivalry between the families here and the telling of Harlan's birthday when Richard tells it he and Linda are at Harlan sides when he blows out the candles but when Walt tells it his family is that Harlan size richard quotes hip-hop musical Hamilton immigrants we get the job done Hey mammal tonight the public he's bragging about having seen Hamilton at its off-broadway premiere before moving to Broadway it's actually very similar to the kind of white elitist virtue signaling that that dad and get out does and the opening act and mask his true racism I would have voted for Obama for a third term if I could best president in my lifetime during these interviews notice the reflection on Linda's glasses shows the outside windows Johnson's lighting team actually had to rig up fake windows to create a glare to block her lenses from accidentally reflecting the film's crew also in the library there's a sprained a picture of Linda Richard in ransom and an elephant figurine perhaps is another clue of ransoms involvement with all this since he knew to drive behind the elephant statue when return to the mansion Harlan confronted Richard about his affair while climbing a baseball notice that the camera tilts up to Harlan with these weird eyes behind him it's as if the shot is telling us keep your eyes on the ball because yes the ball is extremely important and when Harlan cuts off Jodi's allowance the camera glides past this statue of apparent spanking their child just like Harlan is doing to his daughter-in-law here now the moment Blanc meets Martin watch him very closely I've been doing a little pokin you're hard on a part-time basis as a registered nurse yes Blanc notices Marta's feet as she walks outside and then even looks down again to double-check what he's doing here is spotting the blood on her shoe that is revealed to us later from this moment onward he's figuring it all out and throughout the film Blanca hint this to Marta by quoting Sherlock Holmes something is afoot with this whole affair I don't know one believe you know it too the game is afoot hey Watson yeah he's literally seen ah but your butt tells me everything I need to know and knowing that Marta pukes when she lies forces her to tell the story the night of the death she and Harlan played go why can't I beat you at this game because I'm not playing to beat you I'm playing to build a beautiful pattern mortis skills at go come up later in the context of her worthiness of Harlan's estate think about it all of her kids are playing to beat him at his own game but Marta like her go strategy is playing her own game attempting to break this chain it's also worth noting that her pattern is made with non-white pieces interrupting the chain of white pieces reflecting the whole racial dynamic of Marta's role and overturning the white dominance of this estate Harlan Ayers as regrets that have been kinda to Linda and ransom Jesus ransom playing life like a game without consequence some fun details here as he mentions ransoms name the knife goes across his throat a little clue for how ransoms meddling with all this led to Harlan's suicide and I'll get to the second detail at the end of this video so it's interesting how knives out is revealing the circumstances of his death early in the film at the end of Act one you gave me a hundred milligrams of the good stuff excuse me but what is the good stuffs dosage supposed to be that's not right now okay so after the medication bottles tumbled to the floor Marta thought she mixed him up and under the assumption of Harlan's coming death Harlan spared her from her legal trouble by killing himself and covering up her involvement ironically Harlan refers to the morphine as the good stuff when in reality it actually is the good correct medication mislabeled fran speculates that Harlan didn't kill himself it was this whole movie surprise with Danica McKellar deadly by surprise is an actual hallmark movie with Danica McKellar and Fran's cousin at the medical examiner yes an important set up for later back on the night of Harlan's birthday richard beckons Marta to their political discussion as a spandy an example of its immigration point but then he hands her his cake plate Marta is Harlan's nurse not the housemaid but uses her as the help the same way he's objectifying her to make his stupid point Fran's stash box and the clock also comes back later notice it's decorated with cherubs ashiness Blanca mentions to Marta gravity's rainbow a 1973 novel by Thomas Pynchon many considered to be unreadable blog says he never read the book but he likes his title which he compares to the arc of a murder mystery back home Marta's mother watches an episode of Murder She Wrote dubbed in Spanish reflecting how this whole movie is kind of a classic whodunit retold through immigrant eyes the groundskeepers play by M and Walsh but originally the part was going to be played by magician and actor Ricky J but he passed away before filming may include a photo of him in the groundskeepers shed Marta covers her track he's in the magnet to scramble the tape walking back over her muddy footprints tossing a broken trellis piece but then later when the dog fetches it back for block the shot frames Marta beside this circular hole hinting that Marta is the donut hole that the Blanc has been seeking next arrives America's [ __ ] Chris Evans as Hugh ransom Drysdale Harlan's grandson and our villain the movie doesn't really hide this we get plenty of clues the barking dogs saying only to help call some Hugh but also yeah he's just a smug prick who clearly knows something [ __ ] [ __ ] a lawyer is played by Frank Oz the voice and puppeteer of Yoda who had just worked with Rian Johnson in the last Jedi Blanca discovers the trick window and dried mud on the window sill but when you think about it when Marta went through that window her muddy shoe did not touch the edge which tells us that someone else must have gone through this window of course we find out later it was ransom whose foot if you look closely does scrape that sill to leave the mud during the will reading ransom can be seen stacking chess pieces the white King on the white throne reflecting how despite Parlin cutting them out of the will ransom thinks the outsmarted the old man and now he is going to be king of this castle it's also why when Marta is revealed as the sole beneficiary paying some smiles and lasts while everyone else is freaking out this is all according to his plan outside ransom beckons sue Marta to help her and out of there making these same gesture that Richard made to her the night before just how that was a manipulation ransom is manipulating her as well in the diner Marta tells ransom the truth ransom is realizing that his initial plan failed Marta was supposed to give Harlan 100 milligrams of morphine that was marked as a normal medication instead Marta gave Harlan 100 milligrams of the stuff marked as morphine the correct medication and freaked out when she saw the label which led to ransoms plan backfiring and Harlan committing suicide not having overdosed which would allow Marta to get him to be the sole beneficiary if you're listening to the music here it's sundown by Gordon Lightfoot the chorus is sundown ya better take care if I find you creepin round my back stairs it's a nod to how both of these characters crept up in the back entrance after sundown also Lightfoot did write the song about Kathy Smith who we administered a fatal dosage of heroin to John Belushi and ended up going to prison for that overdose as Marta worries will happen to her Marta gets warned by the media and demands by the family to renounce the inheritance and receives this blackmail letter when she takes it to ransom you could see issues of The New Yorker on his table Blanc had a recent profile in The New Yorker which is how ransom knew to hire him Marta and ransom believe the same the burnt medical examiner's office leading to this chasin in the alley Marta drives past aggravating a symbol the same symbol used on the clue to mark the tunnel in Bryan Johnson's brick Marta finds Fran odine but of course she is saying you did this identifying ransom by the name the household staff uses for him Blanc and Marta return to the house and find the stash tox reports Blanc reads it chews everyone out and rushes to the library a doughnut hole in a doughnut hole but we must look a little closer and when we do we see the doughnut hole has a hole in its center throughout the film we have been teased shot of this insane iron throne style night display but its center has always been framed to the side of the characters but finally here Blanc sits framed with his head in the direct center in the doughnut hole within the doughnut hole followed by Marta shifting over to the doughnut hole because her unique goodness is the hole within a hole under Blanc's nose this whole time it also makes her the target for the backstabbing family surrounding her notice how when blanc demonstrates the label switching mix-up harder rubs her eyes showing how she would not be seen blanc in this moment changed the labels for the demo and it proves that she knows the correct medication by just picking it up Branson's plot is revealed when Etta telling Marta dramatically follows her telling ransom earlier brand witnessed him covering his tracks blackmailed him with the tox report from her cousin ransom burned the medical examiner's office and killed Fran in order to frame Marta and mortal eyes the same Fran was alive and ready to confirm the truth but notice she does not say another word until after ransom confesses to trying to kill Fran and then yep she lied Fran is actually dead making ransom a murderer ransom responds by trying to stab Marta but if they retractable knife Holly back that second amazing detail about Harlan's line earlier about ransom to a different stage prop and a real knife the film's epilogue brings the baseball to home plate kept your eye on it the baseball tracks the mystery subplot of Richard's affair after finding Harlan's letter to Linda apparently blank Richard victoriously throws his baseball outside shortly after Blanc picks up the baseball and later exchanges it with a dog to fetch for the trellis piece later Linda retrieves the baseball from the dog and now she returns it back to Harlan's office and here she finds a blank letter Richard opened and recognizes one of her dad's old games that she's been talking about allmovie we had our own secret way of communicating you had to find that with dad he had to find a game to play with him I was just thinking about dads games and Linda plays this game using heat to reveal the hidden message so really had Richard not broken into the desk open the letter and thrown the baseball outside Linda probably would have never found this letter Marta looks up at Harlan's painting look closely it has changed ever so slightly from when we saw it in previous close-ups - now give Harlan an approving smile goosed mazing and the final shot of families scowling up at Marta you can see how Richard now has a black eye probably from Linda hitman Florida sips from Harlan's my house my rules mug as the victorious owner of the house she earned by living life not by playing the game of the treacherous thrombi clan but by her own rules knives out success is a huge accomplishment by Rian Johnson especially considering the film was not a franchise or based on any source material or a historical event audiences just loved an original intricate whodunit and the sequel will apparently follow Benoit Blanc as the Holmes Perot detective onto an entirely new mystery which to me is the perfect way to go I'm super excited comment down below with your favorite detail from knives out and what off-topic movie you'd like to see new rock stars analyze next follow me Eddie gave us followed new rockstars of social media and subscribe for breakdowns of everything you love thank you for watching and now onto my they're thinking the good stuff [Music]

Channel: New Rockstars

Views: 775,161

Rating: 4.9334135 out of 5

Keywords: new rockstars, new rockstars youtube, youtube new rockstars, knives out, knives out trailer, knives out movie, knives out full movie, knives out scene, knives out 2019, knives out breakdown, knives out review, knives out ending, rian johnson, chris evans, daniel craig, knives out chris evans, knives out explained, knives out analysis, knives out easter egg

Id: O5TDifgs7Wg

Length: 15min 48sec (948 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 16 2020