FILM · 2019 · USA
Knives Out
- Directed by
- Rian Johnson
- Runtime
- 131 min
- Studio
- MRC, T-Street
159 archived facts 8 topics 1 source Last reviewed Sep 2026
When renowned crime novelist Harlan Thrombey is found dead at his estate just after his 85th birthday, the inquisitive and debonair Detective Benoit Blanc is mysteriously enlisted to investigate. From Harlan's dysfunctional family to his devoted staff, Blanc sifts through a web of red herrings and self-serving lies to uncover the truth behind Harlan's untimely death.
Summary: TMDB
14 Easter Eggs and References in Knives Out
- #003
Contains a major spoiler — show
When Marta first enters Ransom's house, four or five brown glass pitchers can be seen lined up in the background. But where another pitcher could be in the row, there is an empty space. At the film's climax, in a flashback, we see Ransom use the pitcher to burn down the medical examiner's office.
- #008
Contains a major spoiler — show
The steelbook of the film's Blu-ray has a transparent slipcover. Behind this cover is a series of knives arranged in a circle, each pointing in a certain direction like an arrow. The steelbook itself is printed with the film's poster showing all the characters. Like a hidden reference, when the cover is opened and placed back over the steelbook, the knives point at the culprit.
- #014
Several characters reference the fictional Hallmark film "Deadly by Surprise," starring Danica McKellar. McKellar was not asked whether her name could be used, but she was very pleased by the inclusion and shared her love of the film on Instagram. She later sent director Rian Johnson a knife with "Deadly by Surprise" written on it.
- #016
Contains a major spoiler — show
Harlan dies on his 85th birthday. This is a nod to Agatha Christie, who died at the age of 85. The film is a tribute to Christie's writing style and stories.
- #040
Contains a major spoiler — show
As Ransom reads the blackmail letter sent to Marta, a few indistinct issues of The New Yorker are visible on the coffee table. Early in the film, Linda and Joni refer to a New Yorker article about Blanc's career (Joni is actually referring to a tweet containing the article), and it is also implied that Ransom is the one who hired Blanc to investigate the death.
- #060
Contains a major spoiler — show
After the film opened, Patton Oswalt contacted Rian Johnson to ask whether the needle drop of Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" at 1:21:47 was a deliberate reference. The song is apparently (probably) about a bandmate of Lightfoot's named Cathy Evelyn Smith, who is known for giving John Belushi the fatal heroin and cocaine injection in 1982. "And Patton, who is perfect in his 3D-chess thinking, said: 'Was that a crazy nod to Marta?'".
- #076
At one point Benoit Blanc references Thomas Pynchon's sprawling 1973 novel 'Gravity's Rainbow,' which won the National Book Award and was nominated for the Pulitzer but upset the Pulitzer Advisory Board because some members found it "unreadable," "turgid," "overwritten" and even "obscene," so no Pulitzer was awarded that year. Because Pynchon refused to attend the National Book Award ceremony in person, Viking Press sent a comedian in his place to accept the award, and a stand-up performer took the stage in the middle of the ceremony. Benoit adds that nobody has read the book but that he likes the title, a reference to the German V-2 rockets of World War II, and the detective compares it to the arc of a murder mystery. Benoit also mentions the Arc later in the story.
- #089
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the restaurant scene, Gordon Lightfoot's "Sundown" plays softly in the background. Its chorus goes, "Sundown, ya better take care, if I find you creepin' 'round my back stairs," referring to the two people in that scene who use the trellis outside the house to reach the hidden door leading to the study.
- #092
Jacob Thrombey (Jaeden Martell), the tiki grandson who is always on his phone in the film, was a character inspired by those who aired their criticisms online over writer/director Rian Johnson's previous film Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017), whom Johnson has continued to describe as "trolls" and "manbabies".
- #100
Contains a major spoiler — show
In the bar scene, after Marta tells Ransom the story from her point of view, three beer bottles with green labels can be seen on Ransom's side of the table, and one with a red label on Marta's side, a nod to the atari position in the game of Go, a recurring theme in the film. In Go, atari is a situation in which a player's stones are surrounded by the opponent's so that only one escape is possible, effectively putting them in an advantageous position for the next move. Had Ransom turned Marta over to the authorities, the rest of the family would have received all the fortune left to her in the will and Ransom would have gotten nothing. By acting as her savior in the predicament she is in (in exchange for a cut of the fortune he otherwise would not see a penny of), he deliberately rescues her from an atari position, which is a suspicious move coming from an "expert" Go player and a harbinger of his ill intent. Moreover, leaving an atari position is rarely a bad move, and in the end it proves that Marta is, as Harlan claimed, actually a "better Go player than Ransom".
- #115
Marta walks past a car with a "Keep calm and Bergeron" bumper sticker, a reference to longtime Boston Bruin hockey player Patrice Bergeron.
- #125
Contains a major spoiler — show
Knives Out contains at least two Sherlock Holmes references: the use of the phrase "the game is afoot" and Marta being referred to as a Watson. Christopher Plummer played Sherlock Holmes in Murder by Decree (1979) and also spoke the line "The game's afoot" as Klingon General Chang in Star Trek VI: The Undiscovered Country (1991). (Arthur Conan Doyle himself was quoting Shakespeare's Henry V when he had the king encourage his men to continue attacking Harfleur.) There are at least two more: when Plummer's character tells Marta that the dogs will do nothing (not bark) when she returns because they know her, this hints at the famous exchange between Holmes and the inspector in Silver Blaze (the key clue that reveals the true culprit): "There is also the curious incident of the dog in the night time" / "But the dog did nothing in the night time" / "That is the curious incident." The footprints in the mud may also be a reference to the legendary footprint analysis seen in many Holmes stories.
- #130
At one point Chris Evans's character refers to Daniel Craig's character as "CSI: KFC." Similarly, in Craig's film Logan Lucky (2017), a news anchor refers to the group of thieves as "Ocean's 7-11."
- #142
Contains a major spoiler — show
Katherine Langford shot a scene as an older version of Morgan Stark for Chris Evans's previous film Avengers: Endgame (2019). The scene was cut and released only through the Disney+ streaming service.
Sources & editorial notes
Reference databases
Sources for the entries on this page
- IMDb IMDb
Information from external sources is independently selected, consolidated and edited by Arka Evren. Sources are listed for verification and further reading. Encyclopedia text is used under its licence (CC BY-SA). How we work