Knives Out Movie Analysis

Knives Out is a 2 hour 10 minute film about characters trying to solve and cover up a murder. This film generated over $300 million in the box office. In this movie a famous author Harlan Thrombey randomly dies. Blanc is the main detective that was hired to find out who killed Harlan. Blanc questions mainly Ransom and Marta as the murder suspects but both of them know the truth. The characters in Knives Out are highly intelligent. Intelligence is present when Blanc solves the case, when Marta hides evidence against her, and Ransom tries to trace his steps and destroy evidence against him.

Blanc used his intelligence to solve the case and figure how Harlan actually died. While interviewing others Blanc finds out that Ransom left the party early and Greatnana who is Harlan's mom saw Ransom sneak back into the house during the party. Blanc put the evidence together that Ransom tried to kill Harlan and overdose him on his medicine by switching his medicine vials causing him to overdose and Marta would be blamed for the murder. While interviewing everyone Blanc figures out that Ransom’s motive to kill Harlan was that he was cut out of the will and everything was written to Marta. Blanc additionally spots a small patch of blood on Martas shoes and figures out that Marta was in the room when Harlan died.

Marta’s intelligence leads her to have great ideas to hide evidence that would make her seem guilty. When Marta realized she gave Harlan the wrong doses of medicine she tells him and he comes up with a plan. He tells Marta to leave the house and to clear her name from the murder and drive away but park behind the road cameras to be able to seek in. But Marta forgets Harlan’s directions and pulls into the view of the camera. So when Marta was in the camera room she noticed she was on the tape so she grabbed it and rubbed a magnet on it so the tape be destroyed. After she parked her car she would sneak in but it was muddy and her footsteps were traceable in the mud. While Marta was helping Blanc investigate the scene she walked over her foot steps from later so Blanc would not realize she snuck into the house. Approaching the house Marta sees Greatnana and she says “Ransom are you back again”(Johnson). Marta freaks out and tries to sneak into the house quickly then she accidentally stepped on the trellis and broke a piece off. In the morning when she was outside with Blanc she pick up the piece of the trellis and threw it into the bushes without Blanc noticing or seeing the piece of the trellis. This was an intelligent way how Marta hid evidence.

Ransom destroys all evidence against him and evidence that shows that Marta is innocent. Later Ransom realizes that Harlan’s blood was tested in a lab to see how he died and that it will show that he did not overdose. Ransoms figured this out when Marta told him everything and he realizes that Marta dropped the bottles and got the medicine correct. So Ransom was scared that Marta’s name will be cleared when the blood test comes out so he burns down the lab. Then Ransom has an idea where he will switch Harlan's medicine so he overdoses because he was cut out of the will. But when he goes back to the crime scene to switch back the vials Fran notices what he is doing. And Ransom finds out that Fran saw him so he drugged her and put her in a random building. He gave the address of the building and a time to Marta and when she gets there Fran says her last words “Hugh did this” (Johnson). 

The 300 million dollars made in the box office for knives out was earned because of the intelligence of characters such as Blanc, Marta, and Ransom. These 3 characters kept the movie entertaining and interesting and that is why it had 3 Golden Globe Award nominations. Act now and add to the millions that have watched Knives Out.