20 facts you might not know about Knives Out

Johnson, the writer and director of Knives Out, broke through with his twist on a noir in Brick. After that, he came up with the general idea for Knives Out and planned on working on it after he finished Looper. Then, there was a bit of a roadblock in that plan. That roadblock? A little film called The Last Jedi. After Johnson finished his (weirdly) divisive Star Wars movie, he finally got to work seriously on Knives Out.

For his own take on a whodunit, Johnson cited many inspirations. He referenced films like Death on the Nile, Gosford Park, and Sleuth. In particular, Johnson kept mentioning the lesser-known movie The Last of Sheila, so if you enjoyed Knives Out, you might want to check that out.

Johnson got the title for the movie from a Radiohead song of the same name. However, he made it clear that the song had nothing to do with the movie. Johnson said the phrase had always just stuck in his head and that he felt it would be a great title for a murder mystery. He was right on that.

Harlan Thrombey, the famed writer played by Christopher Plummer, has a distinct name. It was not entirely a work of Johnson’s fabrication. He took the name from a Choose Your Own Adventure book, Who Killed Harlowe Thrombey?

Trooper Wagner, the police officer in the film, is played by Noah Segan. Segan has had a role in every single one of Johnson’s movies. Additionally, Joseph Gordon-Levitt provides the voice-over on the phone of Detective Hardrock. After starring in Brick, Gordon-Levitt has cameoed in every one of Johnson’s films.

The security guard on the grounds of the Thrombey estate was originally going to be played by Ricky Jay. Unfortunately, the actor and magician died during the production. He was then replaced in the movie by M. Emmet Walsh.

Knives Out has a score done by Nathan Johnson. Johnson also did the scores for Brick, The Brothers Bloom, and Looper. Those are all Rian Johnson films. Rian and Nathan are cousins, by the way. That said, Nathan has done scores for other films, including Guillermo Del Toro’s Nightmare Alley.

Knives Out was shot across Boston and its surrounding areas. The exteriors of the Thrombey mansion were a mansion in Natick, Massachusetts. Meanwhile, many interior shots were done at the Ames Mansion in Borderland State Park, also in Massachusetts.

"Great Nana" Thrombey is quite old, given that she is the mother of Harlan, whose 85th birthday is being celebrated in the movie. However, in real life, K Callan could not be Plummer’s mother under any scientifically understood circumstances. Callan is six years younger than the man who played her son.

When everybody in the family is yelling after Harlan’s will is revealed to have left everything to Marta, Jaeden Martell improvised a line where his character Jacob insults Marta and calls her an “anchor baby.” This was an adlib. In the first pass, it was lost in the noise. However, Michael Shannon heard Martell deliver it and went over to Johnson to tell him the line. Johnson liked it, so he made sure to capture it in the next take.

The film mentions a fictional Hallmark movie called “Deadly by Surprise,” which in the film's universe stars the erstwhile Winnie Cooper, Danica McKellar. Nobody had told McKellar she was name-dropped in the movie, but fortunately, she didn’t mind. She said on Instagram she was a big fan of Knives Out and sent Johnson a knife engraved with “Deadly by Surprise” as a gift.

Perhaps the movie's most popular bit of dialogue is Daniel Craig’s Benoit Blanc comparing the mystery to a donut. However, Johnson was not sure it would work and planned on cutting it. Craig convinced Johnson to let him give it a shot, and after seeing Craig do the speech, Johnson agreed he should keep it in.

The costuming in Knives Out is impeccable. Ransom’s wardrobe won the internet, as they say. His sweaters, particularly the white knitted sweater he wears with Marta, became popular on social media. People started buying similar sweaters to rock the Ransom look.

Craig has had some vocal misgivings about the duration of his time playing James Bond, so he was probably happy to pivot and play Benoit Blanc (and doing that Southern accent was probably fun, too). He was also meeting a future coworker. Craig and de Armas have leading roles in Knives Out, but it wouldn’t be their last time working together. De Armas has a small part in Craig’s final Bond movie, No Time to Die.

The Thrombey mansion is filled with artwork and decoration, including many “memento mori” pieces that are fitting for a film like this. One piece of art wasn’t really there, though. The painting of Harlan himself was not finished when production began. As such, it had to be digitally added to the movie after it was shot.

When you are writing and directing a whodunit, it pays off to pay attention to detail. Otherwise, people are going to start picking your film apart. One way Johnson did that is with time. Every clock, watch, and phone in the film is set to an accurate time within the story's world.

In the movie, we see Marta watching an episode of Murder, She Wrote dubbed in Spanish. The episode in question is “Who Threw the Barbitals in Mrs. Fletcher’s Chowder?” It’s about a dinner party where somebody is murdered, making it an amusing thematic choice by Johnson.

In an era where original films can often struggle to find an audience, Knives Out did just fine. It only reached second at the American box office — fittingly losing out to Frozen II, speaking of unoriginal ideas — but it was a huge success. The movie made $165.4 million in the United States and Canada and $311.4 million worldwide. From a budget of $40 million, that’s a real coup.

The film was a box-office success and a critical darling, but would it do anything at the Oscars? Ultimately, Knives Out missed out on a Best Picture nomination, but it did get one nomination for an Academy Award. Johnson was nominated for Best Original Screenplay but did not win.

Since no successful movie can go untouched, we have not seen the last of the Knives Out universe. To be fair, Johnson said he wanted to make a sequel featuring Benoit Blanc investigating another mystery. A sequel was greenlit, and then Netflix jumped in. The streaming giant bought the right to two Knives Out sequels for a price of over $400 million. Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery is due in December 2022.