Writer/director Rian Johnson explains why he was initially against the big Andi twist in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery. Following a limited theatrical release, the sequel to 2019’s Knives Out premiered on Netflix in December and has garnered praise from critics and audiences alike. It tracks Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) as he finds himself wrapped up in an investigation surrounding tech billionaire Miles Bron (Edward Norton) and his friends on a remote island in Greece. After what was supposed to be a weekend-long murder mystery game is unraveled by a shocking death, one of the film’s biggest secrets gets revealed: Miles’ ex-business partner, Cassandra “Andi” Brand (Janelle Monáe), who everyone was surprised to see in attendance, is actually her identical twin sister, Helen.
Glass Onion‘s Andi-Helen twist proved essential to the larger mystery of the film, but in a recent interview with The Wrap, Johnson explains why he originally did not want to incorporate it. The director talks about the placement of that big reveal and says “it can’t just be seeing it from a different angle.” When he got to the idea of twins, he says it felt like a “trope,” but adds that where the reveal is positioned in the movie changes the story. Read Johnson’s comments about Glass Onion‘s Andi twist below:
“I mean, that’s a challenge. I feel like the first question, OK, how do you pull this off? And I guess the primary thing was, it can’t just be seeing it from a different angle. It has to be enough of a basic perspective shift that there’s a new tension that’s introduced in the repeat of all the different scenes. This is what led to the idea of twins. By the process, I was dragged kicking and screaming to identical twins. I didn’t want to do it, it seemed like a horrible trope, and just, ‘Will the audience ever forgive me for this?’ [laughs]. But I think we get away with it because it’s not like a reveal at the end of ‘Aha! It was a twin!’ It’s a complication in the middle that leads to a deepening of the stakes and the story. So I think that’s why we get away with it.“
All The Twists In Glass Onion Explained
As it relates to the story, Glass Onion‘s Andi twist revealed a lot and answered the early question of Benoit Blanc’s invite. It is unclear why Miles asked Andi to come to his island, but the invitation she got was then given to Blanc by Helen, who hired him solve the murder of her sister. Helen told the detective that Andi was found in a running car with the garage door shut and there was evidence of sleeping pills in her system, which she believed to be a staged suicide. Prior to her death, Andi had informed her friends she found what she needed to prove they had all lied to protect Miles in court, meaning everyone on the island had a motive to kill Andi. After a chain of events resulting in Helen getting shot, the culprit was identified.
Andi’s killer was revealed to be Miles, who was also responsible for the death of Duke Cody (Dave Bautista) during the getaway. As Blanc pointed out, Duke did not accidentally take Miles’ glass, but was handed a drink containing pineapple juice, causing a deadly allergic reaction. Duke received notification of Andi’s passing and, after showing Miles, he was killed so that he could not alert anyone else. Audiences also learned that Miles was the one who stole Duke’s gun and shot Helen, and while he was not shown heading to prison, the ending implied that his friends would expose his crimes.
Between the first Knives Out and its sequel, Johnson has entertained audiences with creative murder mysteries, so it may come as a surprise to find that he was initially against one of Glass Onion‘s biggest twists. With a Knives Out 3 on the way, it will be interesting to see what the writer/director comes up with next, and whether it will get a longer theatrical release than this installment did. Audiences who enjoyed Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery can be sure to keep an eye out for any more news concerning the franchise as they look forward to the next film.
Source: The Wrap